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American Dan Whitman Denies Any Involvement in Haiti Coup Attempt

Sandra Lemaire

   Dan Whitman, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer and State Department
   employee, says he had no involvement in the foiled Haiti coup plot on
   Sunday.

   "I don't know who is spreading this narrative, or why. I've never met
   or heard of any of the individuals mentioned -- and don't know why my
   name would be used in this regard," Whitman told VOA in a phone
   interview Monday.

   The American, currently a professor at American University's School of
   International Service, is depicted in a video distributed by Haiti's
   Intelligence Service to members of the Haitian press on Sunday. A photo
   of Whitman is captioned as a "former member of the State Department"
   who, the video alleges, masterminded the plot to overthrow President
   Jovenel Moise with the help of national police officers.

   Whitman worked at the State Department from 1985 to 2009 and has
   written a book on Haiti, "A Haiti Chronicle: The Undoing of a Latent
   Democracy," published in 2004. The professor is fluent in French and
   spoke a few words of Creole to VOA during the interview.

   Asked why he had been included in the Haitian video, Whitman told VOA,
   "I haven't seen the video, I've heard about it."

   As for whether he was in Haiti on Sunday (February 7), or recently, he
   said, "I left that country 20 years ago and I've never been back."

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