Minister Joan Raton denies rumors regarding the Triumph Movie Theater
In a note, Dithny Joan Raton, Minister of Culture, has denied that the Ministry signed a partnership agreement with "Haitian American Association of Filmmakers", or with any other entity regarding the use of the Triumph Movie Theater, as certain rumors are suggesting.
"The Ministry of Culture is aware of the importance of the Triumph Movie Theater for all those who dedicate their talents to this art form and who put a lot into this magnificent collective adventure that is the movies. In this respect, the Ministry reminds the Haitian cultural world, that it is in negotiations with the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), owner of the building, to establish together a rational and efficient method of managing this space dedicated to the promotion of the Haitian culture under all its forms.”
Sandra Honoré denies that the international Community is trying to Influence the situation in Haiti
Sandra Honoré, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General, denied that the International Community is trying to influence the electoral process in Haiti." I reject this idea that the International Community is trying to influence the electoral process... These negotiations are taking place between the various Haitian political actors. The United Nations does not participate in the negotiations. It reflects the will of the UN Security Council, which indicates that an agreement on an action plan must be defined and managed by Haitians. It is thus about a Haitian and Haitian process to reach a consensus which is acceptable by those who have most at stake as what is better for the Haitian people."
Editorial: CARICOM Must Help Haiti
Haiti is in danger of sliding into a new round of political and constitutional instability without, it seems, its partners in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) seriously exerting themselves to avert, or at least contain, this potentially long-term crisis. It is not in CARICOM's, and certainly not Jamaica's interest that this should happen.
The current problem in Haiti is that President Michel Martelly's five-year term is hurtling to an end, but with no one to replace him when he leaves office on February 7. A new leader has not been elected.
There was, in fact, a first round of the presidential vote last October 25 when Juvenile Moise of Mr Martelly's Tet Kale party, was reported by the electoral authorities to be the leading candidate with just under 33 per cent of the votes. But no candidate got the 50 per cent to avoid a run-off. At the same time, the second-placed candidate, Jude Celestin, and others, claimed widespread fraud in favour of Mr Moise.
A CARICOM election observer mission agreed that there were "too many anomalies" in the voting process. They were, however, unable to conclude whether these were "accidental" or other causes, including poor training of electoral staff. There have been opposition demonstrations, and some violence, in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and other cities.
The run-off election has been postponed and with Mr Martelly soon to step down, there is a suggestion that an interim government should run the country until his successor is eventually elected. Another proposal is for Mr Martelly to remain in office until May, the date of his ceremonial inauguration, thus keeping his government in place and presiding over the run-off.
CARICOM appears to be little involved in these discussions , seemingly content to leave the role of influencing matters to the so-called Core Group - USA, Canada, Brazil, France, Spain - of countries that emerged to help guide Haiti's return to democracy after the 2004 coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
There is, perhaps, a view that these developments are merely Haiti's political process playing true to form. CARICOM, which ought to be an invested partner, might even claim Haiti-fatigue. That response would be unfortunate.
TWO OBSERVATIONS
We make, in this regard, two observations. First, the development of democracy, in which Haiti has not had much practice, can be a winding tortuous process. Second, the Anglophone Caribbean, the majority of whose citizens share a common ancestry with those of Haiti, owe much, to the Haitians for their psychological liberation.
Further, instability in Haiti, which worsens its already weak economy, won't be contained in that country. It will ultimately affect its neighbours, including their security. In the case of Jamaica, for instance, it could worsen the so-called drug-for-guns trade, in which narcotics from Jamaica are traded for small arms sourced in Haiti. There are also legitimate business interests at stake. Jamaican firms, including the poultry company, Jamaica Broilers, have invested in Haiti.
In 2004, in the lead up to Mr Aristide's ouster, CARICOM, led by Jamaica, asserted itself as a player, with a principled stance against the effort by the triumvirate of United States, Canada and France against the putsch. Jamaica insisted on the maintenance of constitutional processes. CARICOM, unfortunately, has not remained sufficiently invested. It needs to recapture that moment.
After canceling its presidential election, Haiti heads toward chaos
Washington Post – Before he went into politics, Haitian President Michel Martelly was a nationally renowned pop star whose stage antics included mooning his adoring fans. As president, Mr. Martelly, whose five years in office are drawing to a close, has treated his constituents, Haiti’s 10 million citizens, with no more dignity or respect.
Mr. Martelly is largely to blame for having led the country into electoral and political chaos, with no prospect of electing a successor to replace him by Feb. 7, as the Haitian constitution requires. Having governed as a virtual autocrat for much of his term, as a consequence of failing to hold timely elections to replace term-limited local officials and members of parliament, Mr. Martelly was instrumental in creating the conditions for a shambolic first round of presidential elections, in October.
That ballot’s polling-place shenanigans and eyebrow-raising outcome hardly inspired confidence. The first-place finisher, a heretofore obscure agricultural promoter named Jovenel Moise, known as the “Banana Man,” was Mr. Martelly’s hand-picked successor. The only question involved the extent of the fraud — whether it was massive and systemic or merely widespread.
Despite good-faith efforts by international diplomats to salvage a presidential runoff, originally scheduled forDec. 27, the damage was done. After having been postponed to Sunday, the runoff was undone by the toxicity that surrounds Mr. Martelly’s presidency and the distrust engendered by the Provisional Electoral Council. With street violence intensifying and the Banana Man’s chief rival, No. 2 finisher Jude Celestin, having withdrawn from the proceedings, leaving a one-man race, the electoral council announced Friday that the elections were canceled.
What happens next is a mystery. A transitional government might avert a power vacuum and anarchy, but the constitution, which limits Mr. Martelly to a single five-year term, contains no such provision. As throngs of street protesters demand that Mr. Martelly leave office as scheduled, elites from the private sector and civil society, along with U.S. and other diplomats, are trying to broker a solution.
Mr. Martelly is hardly the first terrible leader to afflict Haiti and leave ruination in his wake. Still, he may be chiefly remembered for having squandered more goodwill and opportunity than many of his corrupt, self-serving, pocket-lining predecessors.
He took office just a year after the cataclysmic 2010 earthquake shattered the nation, with billions of dollars of foreign aid pouring in. And he had the advantage of being the only democratically elected Haitian president to take power from a democratically elected predecessor. It’s fair to wonder now when that will next take place.
The United States, whose influence in Haitian politics is considerable, dumped more than $33 million into the presidential elections, to no good effect. Although some Haitians distrust Washington’s intentions, it’s likely that without a stronger U.S. diplomatic role, the country’s pandemonium will only deepen.
Haiti edges toward interim government after election collapse
‹By Frank Jack Daniel
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - President Michel Martelly is determined to leave office on the first day of Haiti's carnival in two weeks even though he has no replacement, the prime minister said on Monday, making it likely an interim government will guide the country to elections.
Haiti was due to choose Martelly's replacement last Sunday, but the two-man race was postponed indefinitely after opposition candidate Jude Celestin refused to participate over alleged fraud that sparked protests and violence.
"It is clear that we won't have elections before the departure of President Michel Martelly scheduled for Feb. 7," Prime Minister Evans Paul said.
The United States' Haiti Special Coordinator Kenneth Merten said Washington wanted to see new elections quickly and opposed a long transitional period, but acknowledged Martelly was unlikely to place the presidential sash on his successor.
"Realistically speaking," Merten told Reuters, "We may be looking at some sort of temporary solution until there is a handover to a new elected president. Our fear is that we go into a situation that is open ended.
"In our analysis that is a dangerous place to go," Merten said.
Opposition parties want Martelly to leave on Feb. 7, as mandated by the constitution, although some in his party would like him to remain in office to oversee the elections until his five-year term ends in May.
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"There are people who are for, and people who are against, but he is determined to leave," said Paul, a former opposition member who joined Martelly's government in 2014.
Martelly, a former pop-star known as Sweet Micky, had a dream to sing on a carnival float on the day he leaves office, Paul told Venezuelan TV station Telesur.
The government and opposition leaders are discussing what kind of interim administration will govern until a new president is elected. One option is that the prime minister take over.
Some in the opposition have called for an unelected transitional government to take Martelly's place for a longer period, harking back to a violent two-year period after a coup in 2004.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, has been unable to build a stable democracy since the overthrow of the 1957-1986 dictatorship of the Duvalier family and ensuing coups and election fraud.
HEALTH: the Zika virus is detected in all 10 Departments in Haiti
During a press conference last Wednesday, Dr. Florence Duperval Guillaume, Minister of Public Health, provided an overview of the evolution of the Zika virus in Haiti. According to Dr. Paul Adrien who heads the Epidemiology department of the research laboratory (DELR), 125 cases were detected throughout the country’s 10 departments. The West (35 %) and the North (32 %) have the highest number of cases. However, he also specified that these data do not necessarily reflect the inevitable reality, because generally subjects affected by the fever of Zika do not always go to a health center to be diagnosed and/or treated).
Regarding the risks of transmission of the Zika virus from mother to child during pregnancy with a threat of microcephaly to the fetus, Dr. Adrien indicated that none of the cases that have been brought were pregnant women. He recommended that pregnant women use collective and individual prevention measures, such as sleeping under mosquito nets and using anti-mosquitoes creams to avoid being bitten by an infected mosquito.
In addition to individual protection, the fight against the disease includes the prevention of the proliferation of mosquitoes, that is by the reduction of all the potential sources of larvae breeding grounds established by sitting waters, and eliminating any containers able to retain rainwater such as flowerpots, worn tires, badly maintained roof gutters, etc) and by the application of larvicides when the elimination of these containers is not possible.
On a positive note, the National Laboratory of Public Health (LNSP) is now endowed with necessary technical capacities to confirm the cases of fever of Zika in Haiti. Thus, specimens will no longer be sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to be diagnosed.
The Ministry continues to strengthen its infrastructures in order to definitively bring an end to the presence of this virus on the national territory.
More information about the Zika virus:
The Zika virus is transmitted to people by the sting of an infected mosquito. The clinical syndrome is known under the name of the Zika fever. The infection is symptomatic only in 18 % of the cases, and when it is, the diagnosis can be difficult to reach. The symptoms can be confused with other diseases, such as those of the dengue or the chikungunya. After an incubation period from 3 to 12 days, the presence of the virus in the blood is generally observed within 2 to 5 days. The Zika fever is spontaneously resolved, the symptoms lasting from 4 to 7 days. There is antiviral medicine against the Zika virus and the treatment rests solely on managing the symptoms.