What is happening?
Le Credit Mutuel (a large French bank) is financing Bernard Martinod to build ‘The French Village”, a housing development in Haiti.
The land they are building on belongs to the Haitian Academy, a non-profit American school and clinic that has owned and occupied the land since 1988. The Haitian Academy has been attempting to use legal channels to have this stopped.
On August 7th, 2014 the Haitian Academy was attacked by armed men working for Bernard Martinod. Employees were physically assaulted, medical equipment and school property was stolen and destroyed. For almost 30 days Martinod’s men patrolled the property and continued to destroy the campus.
On September 3rd, school staff were returned to the campus by court order and police escort. Rebuilding began immediately – six days later classes for the academic year began.
A few weeks later Martinod tried again – on September 19th he sent a rogue Haitian SWAT team to the campus. They disarmed the school’s security team, and evicted students and employees from the property at gunpoint.
This time a judge and police force reinstated the school staff to the property the next day.
On October 16th, 2014 Martinod once more sent a team of rogue Haitian SWAT, CIMO, UDMO to the property. School staff were again ejected – Martinod’s men now patrol the grounds.
Help us return to our campus and fight this criminal occupation! Ask the Haitian government and the organizations that are funding Martinod for justice!