Published on April 21, 2015
PETIT PORT A PIMENT, Haiti -- A Dutch couple aboard an Australian flagged boat en route from Cuba to Ile a Vache, Haiti, was anchored at Petit Port a Pimient, Haiti, when it was boarded overnight by six armed men last week, Caribbean Safety and Security Net (CSSN) reported.
The couple cooperated with the pirates and offered everything, but they were nevertheless violently attacked. The captain was tied to the rail on deck and beaten badly, resulting in broken bones and machete wounds. His wife sustained machete injuries also, both were hospitalized.
Stolen items included cash, solar panels, computers, navigation electronics, etc.
Embassy officials have become involved and are providing assistance.
While confirming details of the incident of piracy/assault last week, CSSN said it became aware of another such incident in Haiti earlier this year.
On January 20, a French couple and their children had anchored overnight between Corail and Pestel, Haiti. At 3 am they were boarded by 12 men armed with machine guns and machetes. The leader of the group was in uniform. The boat was “inspected” for 2-1/2 hours, rummaging through drawers, lockers, etc. The roller furling and main sheet were deliberately damaged.
The men were aggressive, with much yelling and arm waving, but the crew cooperated. They forced the boat to go two miles back to Corial at first light after taking all the cash on board ($1,000), laptops, diving equipment and some other gear from the captain. The official then “allowed” the boat to depart to go onward to Pestel, Haiti, the next planned stop.
It is unlikely a police report was made, CSSN said.
Haitian marine biologist wins environmental activism prize
(Reuters) - A Haitian marine biologist who successfully fought to create a national park to protect a large swath of Haiti's north coast has won a prominent U.S. environmental activism prize.
Jean Wiener was awarded a Goldman Environmental Foundation prize for his efforts to establish the Caribbean nation's first Marine Protected Areas while working with local communities to promote sustainable fishing practices and preserve mangrove forests.
In awarding the $175,000 prize, the Goldman foundation highlighted Wiener's efforts in overcoming extreme poverty and political instability in Haiti, a country with few full-time environmentalists and almost no government programs to protect natural resources.
Wiener, 50, is being honored along with five other prize winners at a ceremony in Washington on Wednesday for a campaign he led to create the Three Bays National Park, covering 30,000 square miles (75,000 sq km) stretching from the city of Cap Haitien to the border with the Dominican Republican.
The park, created in 2014, protects the vulnerable eco-system of over-fished waters in the bays of Limonade, Caracol and Fort Liberté.
The area includes Haiti's second-largest mangrove area, as well as one of its longest barrier reefs and important seagrass beds. That trifecta of coastal eco-sytems "makes it probably Haiti's most productive coastal system in terms of marine life and fish nurseries," Wiener said in a phone interview.
The Fort Liberté bay had been targeted for port development by a U.S. government-backed project which was scrapped last year over environmental concerns and lack of investor interest.
A schoolteacher in Port-au-Prince, Wiener studied biology at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is the founder of the Marine Biodiversity Protection Foundation (FoProBiM), Haiti's only nongovernmental environmental organization focusing on coastal and marine areas.
Funded by the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development, FoProBiM works with community groups to preserve natural resources, including fishing waters, endangered coral and mangroves which are cut down for charcoal.
"It's been over-fished to a point where the fishermen are catching almost nothing except juveniles," Wiener said.
Despite tough regulations, "there's no throwing anything back," he said. "The rules need to be updated and more importantly enforced. There's barely a Coast Guard."
The other Goldman prize winners for 2015 are from Myanmar, Canada, Scotland, Honduras and Kenya.
The prize, created in 1990 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman to encourage environmental protection, has been awarded to activists in more than 80 countries.
Justice Minister appeals Sonson Lafamila ruling
Written by Staff Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - Minister of Justice Pierre Richard Casimir submitted an appeal to the Haitian Supreme Court for a reconsideration of the ruling on the case of Woodly Etheart alias Sonson Lafamilia and Renel Nelfort alias Renel Le Recif.
The appeal was submitted before the Tuesday deadline and if the court of appeals chooses to accept it, the two previously indicted, murderer-kidnappers, close to President Michel Martelly, may be returned to prison.
Minister Casimir's appeal comes after the Obama administration expressed "concern" of the speed at which the case of Sonson Lafamilia was thrown out by the embattled Judge Lamarre Belizaire.
Tuesday tweets from the Ministry of Justice account said the government was not okay with decision on Sonson Lafamilia and an earlier tweet said it would exercise the power of appeal.
Over the weekend, Casimir dismissed the Government Commissioner of Port-au-Prince Kerson Darius Charles for his performance in prosecuting the case.
U.S. ‘concerned’ about ruling in Haiti kidnapping case
By Reuters
PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 20 (Reuters) – The Obama administration said it was “concerned” about the speed of a court ruling in Haiti that saw charges suddenly dropped in the indictment of an accused kidnapper with close ties to the family of President Michel Martelly.
On Friday, the judge freed Woodly Ethéart and Renel Nelfort, two leaders of the so-called Galil Gang, who had been indicted a month earlier for masterminding a host of violent crimes, including murder, money laundering and more than a dozen kidnappings.
Two days later, the Minister of Justice sacked the prosecutor, saying his deputies asked the judge to free the men, arguing they could not win a conviction.
“We are concerned about the ruling, including the speed in which it was made,” a State Department spokesman said in an email on Monday in response to a request for comment.
“This is an ongoing case in the Haitian courts, and we understand the ruling could be appealed.
Ethéart, who is a friend of Martelly’s brother-in-law, Charles Saint-Rémy, is known by the street name ‘Sonson Lafamilia,’ and is the former owner of one of Haiti’s fanciest restaurants, La Souvenance.
“The prosecutor in Port au Prince was removed because the government was not satisfied with the performance at the trial,” Peguy Jean, spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said on Monday. “At the end of the trial, the prosecutors asked the charges to be dropped.”
The release of Ethéart immediately raised questions about the handling of the case, with some Haitians suggesting he was let off because of the close relationship with the president’s family.
“The move (to free them) absolutely came from the top,” argued Pierre Esperance, the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network. He accused the judge, Lamarre Bélizaire, of corruption, saying he frequently rules in favor of the Martelly government.
The Galil Gang made nearly $2 million dollars from kidnapping ransoms in a two year period, said lawyer Newton Louis Saint-Juste, who testified in the case.
“Of course I’m scared. This exposes all the victims and all the witnesses to the Galil Gang,” said Saint-Juste, an outspoken critic of the Martelly government.
Martelly’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The Ministry of Justice has until Tuesday to appeal the tossed indictment. If no appeal is filed, government critics say it will be a sign the Ministry of Justice is doing favors for the president. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington. Editing by David Adams and Christian Plumb).
The Focus On Haiti Initiative is proud to publish our Voices of Haiti’s Voiceless: Post-Earthquake Aspirations & Achievements symposium
The Focus On Haiti Initiative and the U.S. Department of State will host Voices of Haiti’s Voiceless in Washington, D.C. on Friday, May 1, 2015. The symposium will discuss Haiti’s fundamental development challenges and progress toward meeting them in the post-quake period, focusing on the aspirations of the country’s under-represented population as presented at the March 31, 2010 post-earthquake UN-sponsored Donors’ Conference in New York.