THE FINANCING OF THE ELECTIONS IS A DONE DEAL
The temporary Haitian President Jocelerme Privert lifted any doubt about the financing of the elections, and stated that his government has already mobilized the 55 million dollars necessary for the task.
He made this announcement at a conference for the diplomatic project managers in Haiti, which was held last week in Port-au-Prince.
"It is not the money which will prevent the holding of these elections in the country. With the national financing, we were able to identify the necessary resources for that purpose", he declared.
For the Head of State, it is a question of getting back the national sovereignty.
The Head of State wanted to put an end to all the unfriendly remarks of his detractors, which speculated relentlessly on his incapacity to obtain the amount of money necessary to have the elections.
To solve the political crisis, which has been raging in the country for a few years in the country, Privert is pleading that there be credible, honest and democratic elections.
The announcement was welcomed by the temporary electoral Council.
TO CURB THE ACTIONS OF MOTORCYCLE RIDERS WHO MURDER CITIZENS AND FLEE WITHOUT LEAVING A TRACE
The Head of the Haitian National Police decided to set up a set of security measures, on the entire territory in order to better protect the population.
These measures will first come into effect at first in the metropolitan zone, and later spread over the whole country.
Michel-angel Gédéon, the Managing Director of the PNH, asks all motorcycle owners to stop by the Municipalities offices where they live, to declare any recently purchased motorcycles, and to register those already in circulation.
The Municipalities directly affected by these new measures are: Port-au-Prince, Pétion-ville, Delmas, Carrefour, Cité Soleil, Tabarre and Croix-des-Bouquets.
Punishing Strike by Resident Doctors Grinds on in Haiti
ASSOCIATED PRESSPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Jul 25, 2016
Empty halls buzz with flies. Rats scamper through the wards at night. The emergency room is empty except for four shackled prisoners, watched over by relatives and missionaries rather than medical personnel.
The Hospital of the State University of Haiti, the largest and most important public medical facility in this troubled country, is at the epicenter of the most punishing strike by Haitian medical workers in memory.
"We've been left to rot," said Alme Cesar, one of the shackled prisoners, who was brought to the hospital months ago for treatment that has yet to materialize. "I would have died here without my wife coming to care for me."
Young doctors and interns walked off the job in March to protest chronic shortages of basic medical supplies, dismal pay and working conditions so unsafe that relatives of patients routinely threaten them, even storming into operating rooms with handguns.
Nurses and support staff soon joined the walkout. Then waves of strikes spread to 12 other government-run hospitals across Haiti, crippling a severely under-resourced health system that struggles to cope during the best of times.
Health Ministry authorities say four state hospitals are closed and others hit by strikes are functioning at diminished capacity.
They claim hospitals are gradually reopening.
But Associated Press journalists visited one hospital identified as open in the capital's Delmas district and found it barely scraping along. While a couple of specialists did scheduled consultations, the hospital was nearly empty and support staff sitting at the entrance turned away people seeking treatment.
"I heard this hospital was open. But they just told us to go somewhere else," Macula Josephe said as she and her sister helped her grandfather into a pickup truck in the hospital's parking lot.
The government-run hospitals that cater to Haiti's poorest citizens frequently lack basic supplies like surgical gloves, gauze, antiseptics and sometimes even water. Power outages force night-shift doctors to use light from their cellphones to finish operations.
The director general of the Health Ministry, Dr. Gabriel Thimothe, said public hospitals have been badly underfinanced for many years. The Haitian government devotes 4.7 percent of its budget to health care and has called for increasing the share to nearly 10 percent next year under a proposed budget.
Thimothe said many of the striking resident doctors are "radicals" who trained in Cuba.
"We're open to negotiations. But we can't give everything they demand due to the economic situation of the country," he said.
Since 1996, resident doctors in Haiti have been paid $120 a month, a paltry salary that has been eroded further by the rising cost of living.
After initially demanding $500 a month, striking residents now say they will accept $360. They recently rejected a government offer of roughly $200 monthly to return to work.
Dr. Vanessa Mehu, a third-year anesthesiology resident, said the strike would not stop until all their demands were met. While salaries are a major sticking point, she said doctors need systemic changes to a public health system that has long been unable to give adequate care to many.
"People were dying for nothing. People were dying because they didn't have money to buy gloves. People were dying because they didn't have money to buy some serum, syringes," Mehu said.
Thimothe said at least three deaths, including a pregnant woman who died outside the State University hospital's gates, have been attributed to the strike.
Haiti's longest health walkout comes as a political impasse between feuding factions shows no sign of ending, leaving the poorest citizens suffering most amid Haiti's latest leadership drift.
Interim President Jocelerme Privert, whose term ended last month but remains in office as divided lawmakers delay a vote on his fate, has threatened to strip hospital residents of their medical licenses. The threat has inflamed tensions.
"He's just trying to intimidate the residents," said Dr. Joseph Herold, a third-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology.
Recently, specialist physicians tried to report to work at the State University hospital but they were driven away by striking residents.
A hospital strike is the last thing Haiti needs.
Life expectancy has long been the shortest in the Western Hemisphere. Mosquito-borne diseases, measles, meningitis and other scourges are common. Malnutrition and stunted growth are widespread. Cholera has killed at least 10,000 people since 2010, when it was introduced into the country, likely by U.N. peacekeeping troops.
Few patients can afford prescription medicines, and private care is out of reach for many. Those with means seek treatment in Miami or the neighboring Dominican Republic.
About 50 percent of total health care expenditure in Haiti is provided by NGOs, according to the World Bank. Clinics and hospitals run by foreign NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders have been swamped with patients amid the strike.
On a recent afternoon, dozens of poor people trying to get on waiting lists camped outside the Mirebalais public-private hospital created by Boston-based Partners in Health. The well-equipped hospital opened in 2013.
Asania Sineus was in her sixth day outside the teaching hospital's doors as she waited for her mother to get treated for injuries from a motorbike crash. She first took her mom to a public hospital in Gonaives but it was closed.
"Having to travel here is not good for us. But what else can we do?" the 20-year-old student said from her camp of piled blankets.
At Port-au-Prince's State University hospital, which was supposed to be rebuilt by now with $83 million from international donors, Penina Pierre sat alone in a dermatology ward. Visiting missionaries are keeping her fed since she has no family.
"Maybe someday the doctors will come back," said Pierre, the skin around her bandaged foot discolored and inflamed.
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New Road Being Built Between Furcy and Kenscoff
Last Friday, a delegation of the Dr. Louis G. Lamothe Foundation (FLGL), accompanied with executives from the Haitian firm GS Group, completed a second inspection of the construction of 2.6 km of an agricultural road between Furcy and Kenscoff, which started on July 6th.
This road which will facilitate the opening up of this community and the development of its infrastructures, is being built by GS Group and financed by the Digicel Foundation at request of the FLGL.
The visit to the construction site confirmed the need to install a water evacuation system to protect the road with the heavy rains which affect the region.
To the approval of the population, motorcyclists have already begun to use the first completed kilometer of the road.
Venezuela first lady’s nephews admitted drug smuggling
Washington (AFP) – Two nephews of Venezuela’s first lady admitted being part of a cocaine smuggling scheme in a US sting operation before their arrest last year, according to recently filed court documents.
Details of the alleged confessions by Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freita were recounted in documents US prosecutors filed Friday in the US federal court in Manhattan.
The two — sons of brothers of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores — were arrested in Haiti in November 2015 and flown to New York by US Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
The pair are accused of plotting to smuggle at least five kilos (11 pounds) of cocaine into the United States. They were also accused of taking part in meetings to plan a shipment of cocaine to the United States via Honduras.
The newly released court documents show how Campo and Flores and others worked together to try to send hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela to Honduras so that the drugs could be imported into the United States.
The drugs were purportedly to be bought by Mexican drug traffickers, who were in fact sources acting under instruction from the DEA.
During recorded meetings in Venezuela, Honduras, and Haiti, the defendants discussed transporting multiple loads of cocaine via private aircraft, the papers said.
The defendants understood that the narcotics would end up in the US in transactions “that they hoped would generate millions of dollars in proceeds.”
US officials believe much of the cocaine produced in Colombia passes through Venezuela before being transported to the United States and Europe.
During an October meeting with DEA sources, Campo described connections to the Venezuelan government and later stated, “we’re at war with the United States… with Colombia… with the opposition,” according to the documents.
The defendants, rather than the DEA, initiated the drug trafficking activities at issue in the case, prosecutors said.
The two men were arrested in Haiti at the request of the DEA, and taken into custody by the agency.
During the November 10 flight to the US, Campo and Flores waived their rights to remain silent “and confessed to participating in a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States,” the papers said.
The Spanish-speaking defendants have argued that their post-arrest statements were involuntary and the result of an impermissible interrogation because they did not fully understand their US rights.
Campo and Flores are scheduled to stand trial on the charges on November 7. If convicted they face up to life in prison. They have pleaded not guilty.
UnitedHealthcare and Jessie Trice Community Health Center Inc.
Promoted Community Health at Miami Family Event
Liberty City event offered access to annual checkups, mammograms, immunizations, dental screenings and other health services
MIAMI – UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida and the Jessie Trice Community Health Center, Inc., hosted a local health fair on July 23, 2016, providing medical and dental screenings for residents in the Liberty City community of Miami.
Florida State Rep. Cynthia A. Stafford, D-Miami, attended the event, joining the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan team members and Jessie Trice Community Health Center medical staff to promote community health.
Annual checkups, mammograms, immunizations, dental screenings and other services were available for people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare plans. UnitedHealthcare also provided the public with free repellent and educational materials to aid in the prevention of a variety of mosquito-borne illnesses, including the Zika virus, West Nile, various encephalitis viruses, and less common viruses including dengue and chikungunya.
“When people are proactive about getting health exams and tests on a regular basis, they can find out about medical issues early and often boost their chances of successful treatment,” said Michael Lawton, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida. “By providing resources and working closely with care providers, we believe we can make an impact on disease prevention and patient care, while helping people live healthier lives.”
The health fair, which took place at the Jesse Trice Community Health Center on Northwest 22nd Ave., provided the public with music, activities for children, a visit by UnitedHealthcare mascot Dr. Health E. Hound and a summer grill-out lunch.
“We are fortunate to have a partner in UnitedHealthcare and feel it’s important to get the word out to residents about getting the necessary health screenings. We are honored to serve as a partner in this crucial effort,” said Dr. Joycelyn Lawrence, chief medical officer of the Jessie Trice Community Health Center.
UnitedHealthcare serves more 330,000 Floridians though Medicaid plans statewide and employs more than 10,000 people throughout the state serving UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored, individual, Medicare, Medicaid and Military and Veterans plans.