Dominican, Haiti governments say they uncovered plot to overthrow Martelly

Santo Domingo.- Senior officials of the Haiti and Dominican governments denounced in Santo Domingo Thursday that the head of ex president Hipólito Mejía’s security detail Pedro Julio Goico (Pepe Goico) and a Haitian identified as Pierre Kanzki have hatched an alleged plot to overthrow Haiti president Michel Martelly.

“In this plot Pepe Goico instructs the citizen from the neighboring country, Pierre Kanzki to start a smear campaign against the figure of the Haitian president,” said the authorities in a statement handed out to the media in the Hotel Santo Domingo.

In the press conference which lasted less than five minutes officials from both governments handed out the statement and an audio CD which they affirm are the voices of Goico and Kanzki.

Dominican Foreign Relations minister Carlos Morales and Haiti Justice minister Michel Brunache headed the press conference, in which Dominican Justice minister Radhamés Jiménez; the Dominican ambassadors, Rubén Silié, in Port-au-Prince, and Haiti’s Fritz Cinéas and the Presidency’s Press director Rafael Núñez also participated.

Investigative journalist link

When TV producer Cesar Medina asked Goico by phone to respond to the allegation, the ex Army colonel said it was an attempt to discredit him and Mejia’s campaign, adding that the root of the scandal is the investigative journalist Nuria Piera’s reports on money allegedly give by ruling party senator Felix Bautista to Martelly in exchange for lucrative construction contracts in Haiti’s post-quake reconstruction.

“If they want to arrest me then they should also arrest Nuria Piera, I’m at home ready for anything, and Morales should explain how he tapped my phone without a court order,” Goico said.