The El Rancho accord is signed at a hotel and dies of its own contradictions

After weeks of talks under the auspices of the Episcopal Conference, President Michel Martelly signed a political accord at the El Rancho hotel in Petion-Ville with Cardinal Chibly Langlois, Senate president Simon Dieuseul Desras and Chamber president Steevenson Thimoleon. Four parts, fourteen articles, one purpose: elections before the end of 2014 for a third of the Senate, the whole Chamber and every local council. Desras signed and then said he had not. Sectors that had sat at the table denounced the text as soon as it was published. No elections were held in 2014. In January 2015 Parliament lapsed and Martelly ruled by decree.