ELEVEN DEATH AFTER HAITIAN MIGRANT VESSEL CAPSIZES NEAR PUERTO RICO
Reuters –
By
Migrants, particularly from Haiti, have in recent months been attempting to escape gang violence and poverty through dangerous voyages on unseaworthy vessels.
At least 11 people drowned when a vessel carrying Haitian migrants capsized near Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday, amid a steady increase in migrants attempting reach U.S. shores in dangerous marine voyages.
The vessel, which was carrying « an undetermined number of people, » was spotted 10 nautical miles north of Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico. As of 6 p.m., 11 deceased and 31 survivors had been found, the Coast Guard said on Twitter.
« There’s a fast response Cutter from Sector San Juan that’s on scene, and Coast Guard helicopters from air station Borinquen are still searching and flying tonight, » a Coast Guard spokesperson told Reuters.
The survivors have been taken to Puerto Rico, with eight of them being treated at a local hospital, said Jeffrey Quinones, Public Affairs Officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Puerto and the Virgin Islands.
Migrants, particularly from Haiti, have in recent months been attempting to escape gang violence and poverty through dangerous voyages on unseaworthy vessels.
17 PEOPLE FROM TOURIST BUS HAVE BEEN ABDUCTED
BBC News
Haiti’s 400 Mawozo gang abducts 17 people from tourist bus
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Lundi 9 mai 2022 ((rezonodwes.com))–
Eight of the passengers are reportedly Turkish nationals, the remaining eight are Haitian and the driver is from the Dominican Republic.
They were kidnapped in the same area outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, in which a Dominican diplomat was abducted last month.
The diplomat was freed after four days.
Dominican newspaper El Día described the Turkish nationals as « missionaries » who had crossed into Haiti from neighbouring Dominican Republic.
But the Turkish consul in Haiti said they were « with an organisation promoting education ».
Haitian media said they were seized in Croix-des Bouquets, the stronghold of the 400 Mawozo gang.
Kidnappings for ransom have surged in Haiti in the past two years.
More than 1,200 people, 81 of them foreign nationals, were abducted last year, according to Haiti’s Center for Analysis and Research on Human Rights.
Among the foreigners kidnapped last year were 17 Christian missionaries from the US and Canada. The 400 Mawozo gang demanded $1m (£800,000) for the release of each of them.
US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Haitian Gang Leader Charged with Kidnapping of 16 U.S. Missionaries in Fall 2021
Most Victims Held for 61 Days in Effort to Secure Gang Leader’s Release from Prison
A Haitian national was indicted today by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to commit hostage taking for his role in the armed kidnapping of 16 U.S. citizens in Haiti in the fall of 2021. The victims were Christian missionaries serving in Haiti and most of them were held captive for 61 days before escaping.
The indictment charges Joly Germine, 29, aka Yonyon, who is described as a leader of the 400 Mawozo gang. He is the first defendant to be charged in connection with the missionaries’ kidnapping. Germine was previously charged with firearms trafficking in a separate case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Haitian government transferred Germine from a Haitian jail into U.S. custody on May 3, 2022, on the basis of an arrest warrant in that matter, and Germine has since been detained in the District of Columbia.
“This case shows that the Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to track down anyone who kidnaps a U.S. citizen abroad,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We will utilize the full reach of our law enforcement authorities to hold accountable anyone responsible for undermining the safety of Americans anywhere in the world.”
“Today’s indictment demonstrates that the United States will not tolerate crime against our citizens, here or abroad,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI will continue to work aggressively with our international partners to keep our citizens safe and bring perpetrators to justice.”
“This indictment is a step towards achieving justice for the victims who were volunteering their services in Haiti when they were kidnapped and held for weeks on end,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “Along with our law enforcement partners, we are committed to holding accountable those who carry out acts of violence against Americans abroad to further their own aims.”
The charges brought today are related to the Oct. 16, 2021, kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Sixteen of the kidnapping victims were U.S. citizens, including five children, one as young as eight months old.
According to the indictment, Germine, who was in a Haitian prison at the time of the kidnapping, directed and asserted control of 400 Mawozo gang members’ kidnapping operations, including ransom negotiation for the hostages’ release. One of the gang’s stated goals in holding the hostages was to secure from the Haitian government Germine’s release from prison. Germine is alleged to have been in regular contact with other 400 Mawozo leaders about the hostages’ kidnapping, captivity, and ransom. Two of the hostages were released on or about Nov. 20, 2021, and three more were released on or about Dec. 5, 2021. The remaining hostages escaped captivity on or about Dec. 16, 2021.
Germine will have his initial appearance in the case tomorrow in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. If convicted of any offense, a defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Miami Field Office. Valuable assistance was provided by the Haitian National Police. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen P. Seifert, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Jorge Casillas and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Deeley of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Component(s): Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Office of the Attorney General
USAO – District of Columbia
Press Release Number: 22-493Updated May 10, 2022
SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS HAS PROBLEMS
By Nora Gámez Torres and Jacqueline Charles Updated May 11, 2022 5:39 PMThe White House has not made a final decision on which countries will be invited to the forthcoming Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, following warnings by Mexico’s president that he would skip the regional gathering next month if the authoritarian leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are excluded. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is not the only one threatening to boycott the largest gathering of leaders from the Western Hemisphere, which the U.S. will host for the first time since the inaugural Summit in Miami in 1994.
Reuters reported that President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil is planning to skip it. The president of Bolivia said he would also not attend “if the exclusion of sister nations persists.” And leaders of the 15-member Caribbean-Community block known as CARICOM plan to meet Thursday to decide whether they will boycott the event after agreeing in March to do so if Cuba and Venezuela were excluded, a source told the Miami Herald. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday she could not say whether representatives from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua will be invited because “a final decision has not been made yet,” leaving the matter still in the air. “We haven’t made a decision about who will be invited, and no invitations have been issued yet,” she said in a press briefing.
Previously, U.S. officials have said that the Summit will welcome representatives of democratically elected governments. Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters last week that those three countries were “unlikely” to be invited. But Mexico’s president took issue with the exclusion and asked president Joe Biden to reconsider it during a phone call last month. Following a visit to Cuba on Sunday in which he praised Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel and met with Raúl Castro, López Obrador doubled down Tuesday on his demand, threatening to skip the event. “If they’re excluded, if not all [countries] are invited, a representative from the Mexican government would go, but I wouldn’t,” Lopez Obrador said in a press conference on Tuesday. He made clear his comments should be read as a protest message, adding that he wanted to see “changes” in U.S. policies for Latin America. The Summit is seen as an opportunity for the Biden administration to assert U.S. leadership and dispel criticisms that it does not prioritize the region. And there was hope among experts that it would help set a clear policy agenda addressing the needs of countries that have been among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.But the possible absence of leaders of several nations, including some heavyweights like Mexico and Brazil, adds to the Biden administration’s struggles to generate enthusiasm about the gathering. The event had already received criticism for an overly focused agenda on what some countries perceived as mainly a domestic U.S. issue — immigration — and the lack of a trade component, despite some late efforts reported by Bloomberg to include some economic topics in the discussion. A Mexican president’s absence from a summit to be hosted in Los Angeles and centered around immigration, in particular, has set off alarms. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, was quickly dispatched Tuesday to meet López Obrador. The meeting, however, did not move the Mexican president. In his daily press conference, known as La Mañanera, López-Obrador said he reiterated his position to Salazar.
“There is still time to address this matter, but it had to be put on the table,” he said. With only a few weeks left before the summit begins on June 6, the controversy over the invitations is shifting the narrative away from the event’s proposed theme of “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future” to expose deep regional divisions about what the summit stands for and resentment about some U.S. policies. “The Summit of the Americas is in danger,” Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda ambassador to the U.S., said during a Florida International University event in which he suggested that Caribbean nations may decide to boycott if Cuba is not invited. Sanders also said that the “insistence” by some members of Congress on including Juan Guaidó, Venezuela’s opposition leader, “will also result in a number of countries not attending.” Guaidó is recognized by the U.S. and other governments as the country’s interim president. The Biden administration is the host government, Sanders said. “Now does that give the United States the right to decide who in the Western Hemisphere should or should not be invited?” he asked. “This is a critical issue and it is one that we will have to address or that summit is in danger.” Whether it is organizational issues or diplomatic deliberations, the delay in issuing the invitations created an opportunity for Cuba to rally support for the demand that all governments be invited, regardless of how they stay in power.
The summit’s aim is to gather the leaders of the countries that are members of the Organization of American States. In 2001, the organization adopted the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which states that “the unconstitutional alteration or interruption of the democratic order” is “an insurmountable obstacle” to participation in the Summit of the Americas process. “More to the point, carrying water for the brutal Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela dictatorships deep into the 21st century is just not something that instills confidence in a future-oriented, pragmatic approach to economic competitiveness and social development,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in Washington, D.C.“It seems the hemisphere has taken a giant step back since the first Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994,” he added.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 5:18 PM.