The United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on former Haitian President Michel Martelly on August 20, 2024, designating him for alleged involvement in drug trafficking and for his role in sponsoring gangs involved in Haiti’s security crisis. The sanctions were among the most significant accountability measures taken by any government against a former Haitian head of state and sent a clear signal that international patience with those who had enabled gang governance was running out.
Martelly, who had served as Haiti’s president from 2011 to 2016 and whose PHTK party had dominated Haitian politics for over a decade, had long been the subject of allegations connecting his political networks to criminal gangs. Previous sanctions by Canada had named individuals from his political circle, but designating Martelly himself represented a new level of accountability for the political-criminal nexus that had characterized Haiti’s governance crisis.
Martelly denied the allegations and challenged the sanctions, arguing they were politically motivated and based on flawed or fabricated evidence. His legal team mounted challenges in US courts while his political allies in Haiti condemned the US action as inappropriate foreign interference in Haitian political affairs.
Haitian civil society organizations that had been demanding accountability for those who enabled gang violence for years welcomed the Martelly sanctions as overdue recognition of the connections between political elites and criminal networks. They called for additional designations targeting the broader network of business figures, politicians, and criminal intermediaries whose relationships with gang leaders had been documented by UN monitors and investigative journalists.