Haiti - Police Presence in front of Aristide Mansion causes Panic for NO Reason - Read this True Story...

Collage - Fire in front of Aristide Mansion in tabarre - President Aristide

I dropped my friend at Carrefour Clercine, down the road from Aristide's house, and I headed to Delmas, my second stop, with a plan to return to Carrefour Clercine to pick up my friend... Simple right?

While in my meeting in Delmas, someone walks in and said:

"Ou pa tande ki sa k-ap pase Tabarre devan kay Aristide la?" (Have you heard what is happening in front of Aristide's house in Tabarre?)

"Non... Sak pase?" (No... What's going on?)

"Mwen tande genyen yon group police ki ale devan kay Aristide pou yo arete misye, pep gentan mobilize devan lakay misye" (So I HEARD a group of policemen went to arrest Aristide and his supporters are mobilizing in front of the house)

What???

But I have to return to Carrefour Clercine to pick up my friend... What the ****???

The man replied: "A monchè, pito ou fe moun saa chache yon lot fason pou li abrike li epi rete Delmas tande paske Tabarre sho laa. mwen tande Cite Soley ap mobilize pou ale devan lakay Aristide"

(You should tell your friend at Carrefour Clercine to find another way home because it's red hot in Tabarre. I heard Cite Soley is mobilizing to heard towards Aristide's mansion)

I called my friend: "Do you see anything going on at Carrefour Clercine? I heard there are problems over there?"

"Nope," She replied, "Nothing except the busy afternoon traffic!"

So I passed on my panic attack to her, I told her what I heard, the same way it was passed on to me and now she was in a state of panic and so was everyone at the location where she was waiting for me...

Do you see how quickly bad news can spread? LOL...

So I left everything else I had to do that evening, and headed to Carrefour Clercine afraid that something terrible is going to happen to me, to my friend, to my car or worse ALL of the above!

With so many warnings NOT to go, I went anyway. I had to pickup my friend and take her back home safe.

I headed to Carrefour Clercine, drove pass the airport... Nothing... But the 2 MINUSTAH soldiers I saw earlier in the street corner were up to about 8...

When I got to Carrefour Clercine, there was lot of traffic in the crossroad and there were a patrol of police officers doing spot checks, other than that no one in the streets seemed to be aware of my bad news...

So I parked my car in the parking lot of the Delimart Clercine and continued on foot, just in case something bad was about to happen... Nothing bad happened... Just people going about their business...

I picked my my friend and started to head back through Tabarre, to Pernier promising myself to turn around at the first sign of trouble... Not a danm thing happened... Just traffic moving slowly but surely...

As I started to get closer to Aristide's mansion, I started to look of signs of cars turning around... praying to God I don't get a freaking flat tire at ground Zero... None of that...

When I arrived right in front of the gates of Aristide's mansion, I saw a group of people dancing around a bonfire, on the sidewalk and NOT in the streets... They lighted a controlled fired right in front of the gates, they were chanting and dancing, jumping over the fire... The policemen were still in the truck across the road, and there were more actually people standing by (bystanders) watching the event unfold then there were people involved in it...

It was such a NO BIG DEAL that I actually wanted to pull over to take some pictures... But my friend said "OH NO... Let's GO! LOL... Let's go home!"

There you have it folks... My eyewitness account of what happened Saturday in Tabarre in front of Aristide's mansion... Those who did not see it or live it are out there creating more panic than what happened. Let's not forget, Haitians are great storytellers, we are really good at "METE pase GENYEN"

I later discovered that the police were actually there to keep an eye on the former president... I promise you, by the end of the day, you're gonna hear all sorts of stories... It is nothing but FEAR. some people know that very well and they create stories to feed these fears that still exist in the heart of every Haitian men and women out there...

We Haitians are like Chicken Little, we always think the sky is falling!!!

What do you think about that?

Reply with your comments

Write a comment  (4)

You might also like

• FLASH: Haiti - Pont Croix des Missions an ap SOUKE...

Return to Articles List

All Comments (4)