How Michel Martelly, an erstwhile U.S. ally, found himself in Washington’s crosshairs.
Martelly’s Fall From Grace
On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had imposed sanctions on former Haitian President Michel Martelly, who led the country from 2011 to 2016. Martelly is accused of involvement in cocaine trafficking to the United States and allegedly sponsored multiple Haiti-based gangs, according to the Treasury statement.
Martelly had a role in “perpetuating the ongoing crisis in Haiti,” a Treasury official said, while a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that “it is unacceptable for Haitian political and economic elites to plunder Haiti’s future.”
Treasury did not provide many details about the allegations, and no new U.S. charges against Martelly have been publicized. But he has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking as far back as 2010, when he ran for president. Canada sanctioned Martelly for his ties to gangs in 2022; the United Nations named him in a 2023 report on potential sanctions targets.
Corruption charges against Martelly have also moved forward in both U.S. and Haitian courts. The U.S. charges were eventually dropped after several witnesses were afraid to testify; in Haiti, a judge issued an arrest warrant for Martelly in January that has not been carried out.
Despite the long-standing allegations against Martelly, the United States maintained a warm relationship with him for years.
Washington urged Haitian authorities to remove a rival candidate from the ballot in the 2010 vote that brought Martelly to power; partnered with him on hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of reconstruction projects after a 2010 earthquake; and backed his handpicked successor, Jovenel Moïse. Moïse was assassinated in 2021, which hastened Haiti’s descent into its current security crisis.
Martelly “was someone the United States invested tremendous political capital in after the earthquake and during the reconstruction,” said the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Jake Johnston, whose book Aid State looks at the opaque nature of U.S. funding earmarked for Haiti.
Ahead of Tuesday’s sanctions announcement, Martelly—who is also a singer who still performs under the stage name “Sweet Micky”—had been reportedly weighing a return to Haiti’s political scene. But now, with his U.S. transactions frozen, “I am not sure how he can be of significance anymore in the political game in Haiti,” political scientist Robert Fatton told the Miami Herald.
It is not clear why Washington decided to sanction Martelly now, but Johnston said that recent events in U.S.-Haiti relations offer some clues. The United States backs a transitional government in the country that was installed after the ouster of Moïse’s unelected successor, Ariel Henry, who served as acting prime minister. An ongoing international security mission aims to reduce gang violence in the country.
The United States is one of the main funders of that mission, which is being led on the ground by Kenya. So far, police officers have mostly stayed near their base at Haiti’s international airport while gangs have increased their hold on neighborhoods around the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, who leads the transitional government, has long had a difficult relationship with Martelly, dating back to a period when he worked under Martelly and sought to investigate international aid contracts between Haiti and Venezuela. As Martelly weighed a comeback, tensions between the two politicians appear to have resurfaced: Last month, Conille ordered an investigation into a firm run by Martelly allies.
The new sanctions, which prompted an emergency cabinet meeting in Port-au-Prince, underscore the United States’ continued influence on Haitian politics. “The impression is that Martelly has been a blocker or a spoiler for Conille,” Johnston said. “This could be a way for the U.S. to not only beat back that aspect … but also send a signal to others who might be opposed to Conille or contemplating action against him.”