Chile: 46,000 Haitian are in process of regulating their papers
At this time in Chile, more than 46,000 Haitian have already submitted their documents to regulate their status.
The police of the municipality of Bio Bio presented its new figures in a report in which Haitians earned high marks. Indeed, Haitian nationals practically do not commit crime, according to the regional manager of law and order, Claudio Etchevers.
Only 4 of them were arrested since the beginning of the year. Haitians became the second group of foreigners to settle recently in a process launched by the Chilean government.
In this area, made up of Concepción's provinces, Arauco and Bío Bío, there were 3,774 cases of arrests in 2018, according to the data from the Center of studies and Data Analysis of the Undersecretary's office for crime prevention.
Claudio Etchevers lived the major part of his childhood in the Caribbean and understands the desire of Haitian citizens to want a better future in Chile.
It is in the region, in the zone of Coeemu, that three Haitian citizens were killed for having accidentally inhaled carbon monoxide. The incident happened on June 19th of this year.
The USA: 32,000 Haitian threatened with repatriation
Currently, more than 32,000 Haitians living in the United States thanks to "Temporary Protected Status" (TPS), are threatened with deportation by Donald Trump's administration. The deadline of this temporary status will come to an end on July 22nd, 2019.
Florida: EAD extended for 4,650 Haitians
"Following our request, the American Department of Homeland security (DHS) has just announced that they extended the work authorization for all of the 4,650 Haitians of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) whose demands were still unsettled as of July 20th,” announced Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. It should be recalled that the automatic extension of "Employment Authorization Document" (EAD), given in January to Haitians with TPS, was set to expired on July 21st.
Canada: Solidarity without border asks for a moratorium concerning the deportation of Haitians
Last Saturday, in front of the Canadian federal offices of the Agency of the Border Services (ASFC), on Saint Antoine Street, in Montreal, Solidarity Without Borders Network which is involved in the immigrant struggle and has been active in Montreal since 2003, organized a sit-in for several hours to ask for an immediate moratorium on the deportations of Haitians who arrived illegally in Canada.
Dozens of activists of the network denounced the federal Government which on one hand recommends that Canadians avoid any non-essential trips to Haiti because of its climate of insecurity, but on the other hand continues to proceed with the deportations of Haitians back to Haiti.
Dominican petition for the construction of a wall along the border with Haiti
During a press conference this week, Pelegrin Castillo, vice-president of the Progressive National Strength Party (FNP), a minority opposition party known for its radical nationalist positions on immigration and sovereignty, declared that the Dominican people had to unite and mobilize peacefully to remind to the world that the solution to the Haitian problems is in Haiti and that the Dominican Republic, if she can be an ally, will never serve as "pivot" to solve these problems.
"We have to mobilize, because human rights agencies cannot come here to react every time there is a crisis in the nearby country." He also asserted that the construction of a wall along the border with Haiti will send a signal to the world that the Dominicans cannot take care of the Haitian situation.
In addition, Pelegrín Castillo reminded that for 2 weeks, in January, 2016, the FNP launched an effort intended to motivate Dominicans to defend their national sovereignty. It began in Grand Santo-Domingo to collect signatures of the citizens worried by the peaceful and progressive occupation of the national territory by Haitians.
It should be reminded that in June, 2014, former Deputy Vinicio Castillo, current managing of the FNP, after several rejections of the wall project by the Government of Danilo Medina, suggested collecting more than 300,000 signatures as required by law, to propose a bill concerning the building of this wall. He also suggested having a national referendum, so that the Dominican people could express their vote on the construction of this wall.
If Haiti’s government does not confront poverty, corruption, more unrest will follow
BY BRIAN CONCANNON JR.
July 17, 2018 06:00 AM
Updated July 17, 2018 11:55 AM
Saturday’s resignation of Haiti’s Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant, along with the suspension of controversial fuel price rises, will bring temporary respite from the latest social unrest in the country. But they will not resolve the problem underlying the protests — the Haitian people’s inability to demand better governance and basic services from its leaders.
In a 1962 speech to the Organization of American States, President Kennedy urged the United States and “those who possess wealth and power” in the hemisphere’s less wealthy nations to enact reforms to allow the people of the Americas “to hope for a suitable standard of living.” Kennedy famously warned that. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
We did not need last week’s images of angry protests and burning cars to know that, half a century later, a suitable standard of living is beyond most Haitians’ hopes. A drive through Port-au-Prince reveals shocking levels of poverty. In Haiti, 80 percent of the people live on less than $2 a day, which would buy a half-gallon of gas.
Haiti’s poverty, like the fuel-price increases, is the product of decisions made by those who possess wealth and power in Haiti and abroad — with a stunning absence of input from the majority of Haitians who are poor. The crippling fuel increases — between 38 percent and 51 percent — were imposed in February by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a condition of its bailout of Haiti’s government.
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The price increases came amid a long series of corruption scandals under current President Jovenel Moïse and his predecessor Michel Martelly that have diverted hundreds of millions from government services to the pockets of leaders and their associates.
A week before Moïse’s February 2017 inauguration, Haiti’s independent anti-corruption agency reported his frequent, large — $40,000 — and unexplained cash transactions that looked a lot like money laundering. Moïse illegally fired the agency’s head, which ended the inquiry. Revelations of up to $2 billion in theft from the PetroCaribe fuel assistance from Venezuela have rocked the country, with no visible consequences to the thieves. A few days before the massive protests, a prosecutor ordered the police to destroy houses —without the required court order — on land next to Moïse’s personal home where he wants to build an access road and helipad.
The United Nations refuses to fulfill its legal obligations to the victims of the cholera epidemic, introduced by its peacekeepers and that has killed more than 10,000 Haitians. Its own human-rights expert called the U.N.’s response “morally unconscionable, [and] legally indefensible.”
Fair elections, which should be Haitians’ best opportunity for peaceful revolution, are a fading memory. Martelly was elected in 2011, after the Electoral Council excluded Haiti’s largest party, Fanmi Lavalas, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton forced the Council (by threatening to cancel U.S. visas) to change the first-round results to move third-place candidate Martelly into the runoff. Martelly, after years of unconstitutional delay, presided over elections with enough violence, corruption and voter exclusion to reduce turnout to 21 percent for the 2016 presidential elections that Moïse, his protégé, won. In 2000, when Haitians voted enthusiastically — turnout was 68 percent — the results were overturned by the 2004 coup d’état organized by those who possess wealth and power in Haiti, the United States, Canada and France.
Haitians took to the streets last week because they justifiably believed that doing so was the only way they would be heard. More unrest is inevitable, unless Haiti immediately starts a peaceful revolution toward a suitable standard of living. The peaceful revolution requires Haiti’s government to take dramatic steps to penalize corruption and to respect the courts and others institutions that should hold it accountable. The peaceful revolution requires the international community to condition its support on the government’s willingness to be accountable to its people, not its willingness to squeeze them even more, and to practice what it preaches on fair elections and the rule of law.
BRIAN CONCANNON JR., A HUMAN-RIGHTS LAWYER, IS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE & DEMOCRACY IN HAITI.
Haiti Police chief Gédéon travels to the Cayemites Islands
Michel-Angel Gédéon, the General Director of the National Police Force of Haiti (PNH), together with his counterpart of the Minujusth, traveled to the Cayemites Islands in the locality of Anse à Maçon in the department of Grand-Anse. The trip was an evaluation visit of the Program Support Council of the PNH (PAC-PNH) and it answered the demands of the inhabitants of the area for the building of a local police station.
Haiti Senate: postponement of the hearing for the General Director of the PNH:
The invitation by the Haitian Senate to Michel-Angel Gédéon, the General Director of the National police force of Haiti (PNH), planned for last week was postponed to Tuesday, July 24th because of a scheduling conflicts with the Senate and the candidate, explained the Senator of the Artibonite Gracia Delva (PHTK).
Florence Elie decorated with the Legion of Honor by France
The former Protector of citizens in Haiti, Mrs. Florence Elie, was distinguished by the French government at a ceremony organized by the French Embassy in Haiti on Monday, July 16th, 2018. Elie received the award of the National Order of the Legion of Honor of France.
The distinction rewards "the eminent merits of French or foreign personalities in all the fields of activity" and represent "the highest French distinction and one of the most known to the world."
"By distinguishing this remarkable woman, the French Republic wished to reward her actions to strengthen justice, the defense of human rights and protection of citizens. This pays tribute to the determination as well as the courage of a tireless defender of human rights," indicated the French Embassy in a press release.