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- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haiti's sudden turn for the worse puts Trudeau on the spot
Biden's visit is expected to focus heavily on Haiti, where Washington wants Canada to take the lead
CBC News, March 15, 2023
By Evan Dyer
"There's one event that tells it all," Haitian businessman Marco Larosilière told CBC News from his home in Port-au-Prince.
"Last week, the general inspector of the national police was kidnapped with his son in front of his school."
If a high-ranking official of the national police is not safe, said Larosilière, "what about the rest of the population?"
"It's unbearable," he added. "You feel that every day, the situation is getting worse and worse. And you're thinking it can't be worse. And the next day, you find out it's worse."
Larosilière's own neighbourhood has so far been spared, although he can hear the gunfire.
He's essentially trapped in Port-au-Prince, unable to reach his agrifood business in Haiti's south because of the gangs' stranglehold on the capital.
Over the past two weeks, the situation in Port-au-Prince has taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse.
Dr. William Pape of Cornell University is a member of the World Health Organization's scientific committee and one of Haiti's most distinguished medical doctors. He warned last week that the country could be on the road to a Rwanda-scale massacre (albeit without the inter-ethnic element of those events).
And last week, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was forced to close its hospital in Cite Soleil, a place famous for staying open no matter what. "We are living scenes of warfare just meters from the establishment," said MSF medical adviser Vincent Harris in a media statement.
Biden visit raises the pressure
The spiralling chaos comes at a difficult time for the Trudeau government as it prepares to welcome U.S. President Joe Biden to Canada.
Canada has been saddled with the expectation that it will "take the lead" in restoring order to Haiti because the Biden administration pressured it to do so — and because it suggested to other countries that Canada was going to do so.
The last time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Biden shared a bilateral stage was in Mexico City on January 11. "We're all very aware that things could get worse in Haiti," Trudeau said then.
"That's why Canada and various partners, including the United States, are preparing various scenarios if it does start to get worse."
Since then, U.S. pressure on Canada appears only to have increased.
By the time Trudeau headed to the Bahamas in February as a guest of the 15 member states of Caricom, the Caribbean community of nations, the belief that Canada was in charge of fixing Haiti was shared by all.
The other thing everyone agreed on was that, as Haiti's acting prime minister Ariel Henry told Trudeau in Nassau, "the situation is getting worse and worse."
Canada's ambassador in Haiti, Sébastien Carrière, echoed that view in an interview with CBC News. "I think you'd have to be blind to not realize that it's gotten worse," he said.
But that was in February. What has happened so far in March has been even more disturbing.
No more safe zone
When 2023 began, there were still areas of Port-au-Prince that felt like they were beyond the reach of the gangs. "When you start a story for children, you say, 'Once upon a time,'" said Fritz Jean. "This is no longer the case."
Jean, the former governor of the Bank of Haiti and the leading figure of Haiti's political opposition, spoke to CBC News from the formerly safe, middle-class neighbourhood of Petionville.
"Right now, you're in danger in any part of Petionville because gangs can penetrate any time. In the middle of the street, they're kidnapping people, killing people. This is the situation that we live in right now. In fact, they're killing with impunity. They're kidnapping with impunity. The police force cannot handle the situation. They are completely outgunned."
Global Affairs Canada told CBC News that it maintains an evacuation plan for Canadians in Haiti. Asked about the number of Canadian citizens there, GAC's Charlotte MacLeod said "there are presently 2,834 registrants in Haiti. As registration with the service is voluntary, this is not a complete picture of the number."
Last week, Haiti's interior minister told residents of Port-au-Prince to prepare to defend themselves in their own homes. But few Haitians have the means to do so.
"This happened to a friend of mine one week ago," Jean said. "His wife was shot. Even the ambulance could not get up there where he lives. He lives on top of a hill in Kenscoff (south of Petionville). So, we are to do it ourselves."
National Center of Haitian Apostolate
REFLEXIONS ON THE READINGS OF THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (March 19, 2023)
1 Samuel 16, 1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5, 8-14; John 9, 1-41
Easter will come before long. The Church wants Christians to prepare for the celebration of this event. It is the basis of the Christian faith, life, and hope: Jesus who died and rose again. In preparation, the liturgy of the church reminds us today:
JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
The first reading asks us to meditate on David's election as king of Israel. Jesse, David's own father, did not even think to present this child to the prophet Samuel as a candidate so that God would choose him to be King. Yet, he was the one God chose from among all his other brothers, despite their beautiful appearance. Because "man looks at the appearance, but God looks at the heart". We too, like God, must learn to overlook outward appearances, to discern inner greatness.
"THE HEALING OF THE MAN WHO WAS BORN BLIND"
The story of the healing of the man born blind in the Gospel of St. John brings a key lesson for us today. To many, this man seemed like a poor wreck. Since he was born he is blind and his job is asking. He represents all of us. We cannot see beyond their appearance. When his eyes were opened, he became a new man. We, too, need new eyes to see what escapes our eyes now. Those who come to Christ with a sincere heart, receive a New vision.
"THE FORMER BLIND MAN BECAME A WITNESS FOR JESUS"
Opposing the blind man are the Pharisees who, pretending to know it all, prove themselves to be the real blind men. They ask him how he recovered his sight "What I know is that I was blind and now I see. Jesus healed me. Therefore, if Jesus heals me, he is a man of God. Do you want to be a follower of Jesus?” Now it is the formerly blind man who is questioning the Jews and the Pharisees. It is surprising that they do not see that Jesus is the light. They themselves are upset. A shame serves anger, they insulted him. Jesus tells the Pharisees that if they refuse to recognize that they are blind, their sins will remain.
“YOU TOO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”
Jesus reveals to the blind who He is. Kneeling he worshiped Jesus. As we approach Easter, it is an opportunity to recognize that we are blind to God's grace and mercy. We must confess like the blind man Jesus healed. Being stubborn in the wrong will get you nowhere. A sincere and humble heart can open the door to NEW LIFE! This is what St. Paul said to the Ephesians: "You were once in darkness, but now you are light in Christ." Live like light people. Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
Haiti and the failed promise of US aid
When Bill and Hillary Clinton travelled to the Caribbean nation of Haiti as newlyweds in 1975, they were enchanted. Bill had recently lost a race for Congress back home in Arkansas, but by the time they returned to the US, he had set his mind to running for Arkansas state attorney general, a decision which would put him on the path to the White House. “We have had a deep connection to and with Haiti ever since,” Hillary later said.
Over the next four decades, the Clintons became increasingly involved in Haiti, working to reshape the country in profound ways. As US president in the 1990s, Bill lobbied for sweeping changes to Haiti’s agricultural sector that significantly increased the country’s dependence on American food crops. In 1994, three years after a military coup in Haiti, Bill ordered a US invasion that overthrew the junta and restored the country’s democratically elected president to power. Fifteen years later, Bill was appointed United Nations’ special envoy to Haiti, tasked with helping the country to develop its private sector and invigorate its economy. By 2010, the Clintons were two of Haiti’s largest benefactors. Their personal philanthropic fund, The Clinton Foundation, had 34 projects in the country, focused on things such as creating jobs.
Over their many decades of involvement there, the Clintons became two of the leading proponents of a particular approach to improving Haiti’s fortunes, one that relies on making the country an attractive place for multinational companies to do business. They have done this by combining foreign aid with diplomacy, attracting foreign financing to build factories, roads and other infrastructure that, in many cases, Haitian taxpayers must repay. Hillary has called this “economic statecraft”; others have called it a “neoliberal” approach to aid.
The most significant test of this approach in Haiti began on 12 January 2010, when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck just west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. In a nation of 10 million people, 1.6 million were displaced by the disaster, and as many as 316,000 are estimated to have died. The earthquake also dealt a huge blow to Haiti’s economic development, levelling homes and businesses in the most populous area of the country and destroying crucial infrastructure, including the nation’s biggest port.
Within days of the earthquake, the Clintons stepped up to lead the global response. Bill was selected to co-chair the commission tasked with directing relief spending. As US secretary of state, Hillary helped to oversee $4.4bn that Congress had earmarked for recovery efforts by the US Agency for International Development, or USAid. “At every stage of Haiti’s reconstruction – fundraising, oversight and allocation – a Clinton was now involved,” Jonathan Katz, a journalist who has covered Haiti for more than a decade, wrote in 2015.
There was no greater embodiment of the neoliberal approach to aid in Haiti than the US’s largest post-earthquake project – a $300m, 600-acre industrial park called Caracol, on the country’s northern coast. To make the park more attractive, the US also agreed to finance a power plant, and a new port through which firms operating at Caracol could ship in materials such as cotton, and ship out finished products including T-shirts and jeans.
The Clintons and their allies believed the Caracol project would attract international manufacturers, which they saw as the primary fix to Haiti’s faltering economy. “Haiti has failed, failed and failed again,” wrote the British economist Paul Collier and his colleague Jean-Louis Warnholz, who have both advised the Clintons, in the Financial Times two weeks after the earthquake. By building “critical assets such as ports”, they argued, the US and its allies could help Haiti attract private, foreign investment and create the stable jobs it needed to prosper.
Ten years later, the industrial park is widely considered to have failed to deliver the economic transformation the Clintons promised. But less attention has been paid to the fate of the port. Last year, after sinking tens of millions of dollars into the port project, the US quietly abandoned it. The port is now one of the final failures in an American post-earthquake plan for Haiti that has been characterised by disappointment throughout. It is also the latest in a long line of supposed solutions to Haiti’s woes that have done little – or worse – to serve the country’s interests. “The neoliberal, exploitative economic model currently being imposed” on Haiti “has failed many times before,” Antony Loewenstein, author of Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe, has written. The result, he adds, is that many Haitians are living “in a state of despair and daily desperation”.
Haiti makes up the western third of the island of Hispaniola – the other two-thirds are the Dominican Republic – situated between the Atlantic and the Caribbean along several major international shipping lanes. “It’s a strategic location,” says Claude Lamothe, the former director of a small port in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien. “All the big boats from the US pass right by here.”
For decades, the vast majority of goods coming to or leaving Haiti travelled through the ageing port at Port-au-Prince in the south. In the 70s, that port handled 90% of Haiti’s imports and 60% of its exports (including thousands of baseballs destined for the US, some for the Major League). But by the late 2000s, the fees it charged companies to dock, load and offload their goods were higher than any other port in the region. So companies turned to ports in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the Bahamas or Trinidad and Tobago instead. When the earthquake hit, a large section of the port at Port-au-Prince collapsed into the sea. “The damage was unbelievable,” said Russell Green, a civil engineer at Virginia Tech University, who arrived to survey the port a few weeks after the disaster.
Just before the earthquake hit, Paul Collier had published a report for the UN that laid out a vision for Haiti in which international manufacturing and trade would create hundreds of thousands of jobs in a few short years and drive the country’s economy into the future. His plan was a particularly clear expression of the neoliberal prescription for aid: reduce taxes on businesses to attract foreign investment, reduce tariffs to make it cheaper to buy and sell goods and offer loans to finance the infrastructure necessary to accommodate the rest. All this would create jobs, and these new wage-earners would then spend their money on goods from abroad. Everybody, in theory, would win.
Port-au-Prince in Haiti during the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Photograph: Olivier Laban Mattei/AFP/Getty
The new port was a key part of this vision. There were several obvious locations for it in and around the earthquake-devastated capital, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people would have provided a ready workforce. Ultimately, however, USAid decided to build the park and port near Cap-Haïtien, on the country’s northern coast, 650 miles south-east of Miami, Florida.
A 2011 US government report declared: “With its proximity to Miami, a new container port in this region could become a hub for the north,” which had “untapped potential” in light manufacturing, such as garments, and in certain kinds of high-value agriculture. Companies such as the major Korean textile manufacturer Sae-A, which became one of Caracol’s first tenants, would be able to ship in cotton and ship out apparel. “A port – that was the carrot for these companies,” Jake Johnston, a Haiti expert at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a liberal thinktank, told me.
But the location was attractive for other reasons, too. “Land was readily available in the north,” and the “hundreds of small farmers who had to be moved” to make way for the park and port “were far less resistant than the wealthy landowners in the capital,” Johnston wrote in 2014. Members of Haiti’s northern elite were also lobbying Bill Clinton to invest in the region, says Leslie Voltaire, who served alongside Bill as Haiti’s special envoy to the UN from 2009 to 2010.
Haitians themselves had remarkably little control over these plans. Between April 2010 and October 2011, decisions about how to rebuild Haiti were made not by Haiti’s parliament, but by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which Bill co-chaired. This was supposed to be a Haitian-led body, but in December 2010, the 12 Haitian members of the committee wrote a letter declaring: “In reality, Haitian members of the board have one role: to endorse the decisions made by the director and executive committee,” which included donors and other Clinton allies.
Haiti’s then-president, a musician-turned politician named Michel Martelly, seemed reluctant to push back against the US’s redevelopment ideas, according to Voltaire. “At that time, Clinton was very close to Martelly,” he told me. “Martelly is an amateur and he respects Clinton’s ideas. They would follow whatever USAid and Clinton would say.” (Martelly did not respond to a request for an interview.)
“You have to put it in context,” Voltaire continued. “Almost all the countries in the world would want someone like Bill Clinton to be a lobbyist for his country.” A former US president with ties to major investors across the globe was expending political capital to help Haiti rebuild. For Haiti, “it was a double asset,” Voltaire went on, “because his wife was secretary of state,” and had influence over USAid, which controlled most of the US’s post-earthquake spending.
In the months after the earthquake, Bill worked tirelessly to attract manufacturing companies to the Caracol industrial park. When construction on the park broke ground in 2011, Bill laid the first foundation stone. A year later, at the park’s opening ceremony, Bill looked on as Hillary delivered a speech promising that the park would lead Haiti toward economic independence.
International trade has dictated Haiti’s economy almost since Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola by mistake, in 1492. After Spain and later France colonised the island, they imported African slaves to produce one of the most lucrative commodities in history – sugar – and exported it around the globe. By the eve of Haiti’s independence, which Haitians won in 1804, global trade had made the country one of the most profitable pieces of land in the world.
But all this international commerce has rarely benefited the vast majority of Haitians. Little of the wealth generated in the country has ever stayed there. For almost its entire history, Haiti has owed a trade debt to other nations – most notably, a $21bn (in today’s money) burden levied by France after independence. During the two centuries that followed, the effect of these debts has been to severely impoverish the country, and to make it beholden to the rich nations who have acted as its creditors. In the past 100 years, the US and the international financial institutions it partners with have been the most important of these creditors, indebting Haiti by extending foreign development loans and creating a trade imbalance – an early form of the neoliberal model.
But what worked for the US’s interests worked less well for Haiti. By the 1950s, neither Haiti’s agricultural economy, nor the dollars spent by thousands of American tourists every year, was enough to pay back those debts. By 1961, the US was sending $13m in aid to Haiti – half Haiti’s national budget – in part to help the nation bolster industry. Much of this early US aid to Haiti was looted or wasted by Haiti’s autocratic leaders, especially François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, and his son, Jean-Claude, who spent it on personal militias that terrorised Haiti’s citizenry. “Since 1946, the United States has poured about $100m in economic aid … into Haiti without much to show for the money,” the New York Times reported in 1963.
Aid from the US and loans from international financial institutions failed to lift Haiti out of poverty. And yet, American aid kept pouring in. When the Clintons and their allies sought to mould Haiti’s economic future around manufacturing and trade, it was essentially the same neoliberal programme that the US had been pushing for decades.
The most pernicious part of this programme was the agricultural policies that the US imposed on Haiti beginning in the 70s. The US pressured Haiti to reduce its tariffs on imported crops, then shipped surplus American crops into Haiti’s ports under the guise of “food aid”. Haitian farmers could not compete with all the artificially cheap rice and other food crops from abroad, which was part of the point. The strategy was to create another market for American farmers while pushing Haiti’s labour force away from the fields and into factories. As president, Bill Clinton furthered this programme, creating massive surpluses of crops such as rice by extending hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to US farmers. In Haiti, the result was that thousands upon thousands of farmers lost their land, but industrialisation never moved fast enough to replace their livelihoods.
Only years later would Bill Clinton acknowledge how this policy had failed Haitians.“The United States has followed a policy … that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so, thank goodness, they can leap directly into the industrial era,” he told Congress in 2010. “It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked … I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people.” By the time the earthquake struck, in 2010, a nation that in the 70s grew enough rice to feed itself was now importing 80% of it from abroad.
“Artibonite used to be rich, but now it’s poor,” Denis Jesu-car, a rice farmer in one of Haiti’s most agriculturally rich regions, once explained to me. “We produce rice, but it doesn’t sell.”
Despite his acknowledgement that the US’s prior attempt to liberalise Haiti’s economy had decimated its agricultural sector, in 2010, after the earthquake struck, Bill Clinton and his allies prescribed the same, familiar medicine – this time in the form of construction projects and clothing, instead of rice.
One year later, Bill presided over a conference at which building firms from across the globe presented their designs for permanent housing for the displaced, most of which never came to fruition, in part because many were financially or practically infeasible, and in part for lack of land on which to build them. The largest piece of real estate of Haiti’s post-earthquake reconstruction was not built for poor Haitians at all, but for wealthy ones and foreigners: a new Marriott hotel in Port-au-Prince, financed by a multinational telecoms corporation whose chairman was a friend of Clinton’s. The Clinton Foundation brokered the deal, and Bill inaugurated the hotel in 2015.
The flagship projects of Haiti’s reconstruction were the Caracol industrial park and a power plant and new port that were to come with it. “Each must be completed and remain viable for the others to succeed,” the US Government Accountability Office, Congress’s official financial watchdog, wrote in an audit of the project in 2013. But the audit also found that USAid, which was leading the port project, lacked “staff with technical expertise in planning, construction, and oversight of a port.” USAid, the audit pointed out, “has not constructed a port anywhere in the world since the 70s”.
Former US president Bill Clinton visiting a new power plant in Caracol, Haiti, in 2012. Photograph: Larry Downing/AP
The audit offered a damning account of USAid’s efforts to build the port. Construction was delayed from the start. The time needed to build the port was revised from an initial estimate of two-and-a-half years to 10 years – and then indefinitely. USAid had “no current projection for when construction of the port may begin or how long it will take”. This was “due in part to a lack of USAid expertise in port planning in Haiti”.
To make matters worse, in June 2015, a USAid feasibility study found that “a new port was not viable for a variety of technical, environmental and economic reasons”. What’s more, the US did not have enough money to finish the job: “USAid funding will be insufficient to cover a majority of projected costs,” with an “estimated gap” of $117m to $189m. Not only was the port not viable, it was not even wanted: the private companies USAid had hoped to attract to Haiti’s north “had no interest in supporting the construction of a new port in northern Haiti”, the feasibility study determined.
While the port stalled, the industrial park underdelivered. When Bill and Hillary Clinton flew to northern Haiti to inaugurate the $300m Caracol park in 2012, the overall project had created just 1,500 of the 65,000 jobs that were promised. In fact, many Haitians may have lost their livelihoods because of Caracol: in the end, 366 families were evicted from their land to make way for the project, according to a report by the NGO ActionAid. By June 2017, Caracol still employed only 13,000 people. (In an email, the Clinton Foundation wrote that “The Clinton Foundation did not have a role in building the Caracol Industrial Park and has never invested any funds into the park,” but acknowledged that as part of its wider goal of facilitating investment in Haiti, “the Foundation helped identify potential tenants, including Haitian companies, for the park”.)
As the US’s failure to deliver on its promises for the industrial park made international headlines, the faltering plans for the new port went overlooked. In 2013, USAid reallocated almost all of the $72m that was supposed to be used to build a new port to instead expand and modernise the small, dilapidated port in nearby Cap-Haïtien. US officials knew they were throwing good money after bad: two years prior, a study by the State Department concluded it would be a bad idea to attempt to expand that port because there simply was not enough land on which to do so.
The Cap-Haïtien port “is locked into the city”, Voltaire said. “There is no way you can expand the hangers, the customs, the container areas. There’s not enough space.” But USAid officials went ahead with it anyway. “To scrap it or to stop allocating money is to admit failure,” Johnston, the Haiti researcher said. “And that’s not something that USAid is good at.”
Finally, more than seven years after the port was conceived, USAid confronted reality. In May 2018, almost three years after a new port was originally supposed to be completed, USAid entirely abandoned its plans to build a new port or expand the old one. In August, a spokesperson explained the decision to me: “Based on proposals received and the current marketplace, it appeared that the cost of the project would significantly exceed the business forecast, cost estimate and available funding.” In short, a port was simply not economically viable. Which was precisely the conclusion that US audits and reports had come to dating back to 2011 – reports that USAid had ignored.
After the project was abandoned, US officials did not even bother to tell Haiti the news. When I visited Cap-Haïtien in December, Haitian port authorities were unaware that USAid had scrapped the project. “Last conversation we had, they told us the money is there,” Anaclé Gervè, the director of the Cap-Haïtien port, said. I told him what a USAid official told me: it had decided to cancel the port project six months earlier. Gervè leaned back in his chair. “Wow,” he said. “They didn’t tell us that.”
When I asked Gervè what the US’s $70m had achieved, he pointed to two concrete electricity poles, erected as part of a plan to connect the port to the public grid. USAid had paid for the poles, but had not strung the cables needed to electrify them.
By January 2019, nine years after the earthquake, USAid had spent $2.3bn in Haiti. Most of it was given to American companies and hardly any passed through Haitian hands. Less than 3% of that spending went directly to Haitian organisations or firms, according to research by CEPR. In contrast, 55% of the money went to American companies located in and around Washington DC. Most likely, according to the research, the majority of what USAid allegedly spent on Haiti’s recovery ended right back in the US.
It is not clear what happened to the money allocated for a port in Haiti, because USAid would not tell me. In August, it released a factsheet claiming that it still planned to invest in “infrastructure upgrades” at the port, such as “improving the electricity system”. Some of these were things the agency had committed to doing previously, but that had yet to be achieved by the time I visited last December. The factsheet gave no indication of how much money was being directed to these projects, or when they would be completed. In other words, even after abandoning the idea of building a new port in favour of expanding the old one, then abandoning plans to expand the old one, too, USAid is still making new promises, still claiming it will at least do something, despite its failure to make good on earlier promises dating back almost a decade. The only physical improvements the agency claims to have made at the port are “electrical lines, security wall upgrades, a pilot boat and a security card machine”. It also claims to have trained 575 Haitian customs officers, but did not say how many of them are employed at the Cap-Haïtien port.
Over the past 12 months, I have repeatedly asked USAid spokespeople for a breakdown as to how the $70m allocated to the Cap-Haïtien port was ultimately spent. In July 2018, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to the port expenditures, and last October I resubmitted the request in further detail after discussing it on the phone with a USAid official. The agency acknowledged my request, but has yet to send me a single document in response to it.
“Seventy million dollars? It’s a lot of money” for a project that never materialised, said Voltaire. For that amount, “we could have a nice port in Saint-Marc”, just a few miles north-west of Haiti’s capital. In Canaan, a new city on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince that was formed after the earthquake, he added, “they could do 72km of nice road, or 72 primary schools,” with all that money. At the end of last year, Canaan – which is now Haiti’s third-largest city – had fewer than 5km of paved roads and just one public school, for a population of 300,000.
“Here you have an industrial park an eight-hour drive north from where the quake was,” said Johnston, referring to Caracol. “And then you have this city that’s just 8km north, that was created from the earthquake – and it’s gotten nothing.”
In post-earthquake Haiti, there were all manner of things the US could have spent its money on. It could have spent that money to revitalise Haiti’s agricultural sector. In a country where only one in four people have access to basic sanitation facilities, the US could have invested in building things such as flush toilets, sewers and sewage treatment plants. In a country where 59% of the population lives on less than $2.41 per day, the US could have simply given Haitians the money. Studies have shown that such “unconditional cash transfers” can be a more effective way to increase income and access to education and housing than many types of traditional “project-based” aid. But policies like cash transfers would have undermined the approach to aid in which rich countries simply prescribe “solutions” for poor ones, rather than allowing people to take their futures into their own hands.
Little about the US’s foreign policy toward Haiti has changed since the 2010 earthquake. The US continues to send the country surplus crops through the Food for Peace programme to this day. Hillary Clinton stepped down as US secretary of state in 2013, but her successors have championed the same sort of private-sector-focused development. USAid continues to spend money to boost Haiti’s textile industry, and the US government continues to advertise Haiti as a business opportunity for US investors.
In spite of its failures to ring in a new era of prosperity for Haiti by building an industrial park and a port, the US is undeterred in its belief that industry and manufacturing are the key to Haiti’s future. “Despite the challenges, there are opportunities in the Haitian market for small-to-medium-sized US businesses,” wrote the US Department of Commerce in August. “The apparel sector is the most promising opportunity in the manufacturing sector in Haiti.”
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ONU/Haïti/Crise: Maria Isabel Salvador nommée nouvelle Représentante spéciale du Secrétaire général de l’ONU et chef du Bureau Intégré des Nations Unies en Haïti (BINUH)
ONU/Haïti/Crise: Maria Isabel Salvador nommée nouvelle représentante spéciale du secrétaire de l’ONU en Haïti et chef du Bureau Intégré des Nations Unies en Haïti ( BINUH)
Le Secrétaire général des Nations Unies, António Guterres, a annoncé ce mercredi la nomination de María Isabel Salvador, de l’Équateur, au poste de Représentante spéciale pour Haïti et Chef du Bureau intégré des Nations Unies en Haïti (BINUH).
Mme Salvador succèdera à Helen Meagher La Lime, des États-Unis, à qui le Secrétaire général est reconnaissant pour son service dévoué et son engagement indéfectible envers le travail des Nations Unies en Haïti.
María Isabel Salvador apporte à ce poste plus de 25 ans d’expérience dans des fonctions de gestion, de conseil, dans les domaines politiques et diplomatiques. Elle a été présidente du conseil d’administration des Galapagos (2013-2015), représentante permanente de l’Équateur auprès de l’Organisation des États américains (2010-2013), membre du Parlement andin (2009-2010), ainsi que ministre de Affaires étrangères, Commerce et Intégration (2007-2008) et ministre du Tourisme (2005-2007) de l’Équateur. Elle possède également une vaste expérience de gestion dans le secteur privé, ayant été directrice générale et représentante légale d’Air France en Équateur (1995-2005). Elle est actuellement directrice des relations extérieures à l’Université UDLA des Amériques en Équateur, poste qu’elle occupe depuis 2015.
Mme Salvador est titulaire d’une maîtrise en administration des affaires de l’Université Andrés Bello au Chili, et de l’Université européenne de Madrid (Espagne), et d’une licence en langue et civilisation françaises de l’Université de Genève en Suisse. Elle termine actuellement un diplôme en droits de l’homme et de la nature à l’Université des Amériques en Équateur. Elle parle couramment l’anglais et le français, en plus de son espagnol natal.
Port-au-Prince: les gangs continuent d’étendre leurs tentacules et se battent pour le contrôle du quartier de Solino
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JUNO7 - Jour après jour, les gangs continuent d’encercler la capitale haïtienne. Les groupes armés qui imposent leur loi dans la zone métropolitaine de Port-au-Prince ne cessent de jeter la panique au sein de la population. La guerre des gangs rivaux qui veulent à tout prix contrôler certains territoires stratégiques, oblige plusieurs centaines de riverains à fuir leurs quartiers.
Depuis environ trois jours, les habitants des quartiers de Solino, Fort National, Bel-Air, Delmas 18, Nazon fuient les attaques des groupes armés du bas de Delmas et au bas de la ville qui se battent entre eux pour le contrôle du quartier de Solino. Ne se sentant plus en sécurité, ces familles ont pris la fuite pour se réfugier dans d’autres endroits.
En effet, les gangs montrent de plus en plus leur puissance. Vitelhomme contrôle une partie de la commune de Tabarre et met son empreinte sur le côté sud de Pétion-ville jusqu’à Fort Jacques.
D’un autre côté, le groupe armé dirigé par le nommé Ti Makak dicte sa loi à Laboule 12 et Thomassin, tandis que 400 Mawozo contrôle une bonne partie de la commune de Croix-des-Bouquets.
La capitale est quasiment encerclée par les gangs. Au sud, les groupes armés de Izo, Ti Lapli et Krisla contrôlent la troisième circonscription de Port-au-Prince.
Maintenant, c’est au tour des groupes armés du bas de Delmas et du Centre-ville de se battre pour le contrôle du quartier de Solino, une zone considérée stratégique dans l’aire métropolitaine de Port-au-Prince. Depuis trois jours, des tirs d’armes automatiques inquiètent les familles qui ne savent à quel Saint se vouer.
Le jeudi 2 mars 2023, nos reporters ont constaté des centaines de familles en train de fuir les quartiers ciblés par les gangs. Ils sont arrivés à pied, à moto. “Je suis obligé de quitter ma maison, je ne peux pas supporter cette situation. Depuis deux jours, je suis obligé de me cacher avec mes deux enfants sous le lit“, raconte une mère en détresse qui se dirigeait avec ses deux fils à Delmas 32.
Toutefois certains résidents du quartier de Solino et ses environs ont décidé de rester afin de faire opposition à ces malfrats. “Il y a des gens qui ont décidé de rester, notamment les garçons ainsi que les policiers de la zone qui ont décidé de monter la garde. Sans eux, Solino serait déjà entre les mains de ces bandits qui tirent, brûlent et font vraiment peur“, a expliqué une dame essoufflée qui prenait la direction de Christ-Roi pour aller se réfugier chez sa sœur qui l’attendait.
Ces citoyens en détresse ont lancé un SOS au haut commandement de la police afin qu’il vienne en aide aux habitants de ce quartier laissé pour compte depuis le déclenchement de cette guerre. En larmes, ils demandent une intervention urgente des autorités. “O Bondye sa n fè n ap peye“, a lancé une femme avec ses deux mains posées sur sa tête. “Otorite yo ede nou, nou pa kapab ankò, di yon mo pou nou“, a crié une jeune femme.
Personne n’est à l’abri face à la montée des actes de banditisme. La population est encerclée par des bandits lourdement armés alors que les autorités en place paraissent impuissantes et n’envoient aucun signal qui pourrait donner un espoir aux citoyens assoiffés d’un moment de quiétude et de tranquillité. La population n’est au courant d’aucun plan stratégique de sécurité qui pourrait réduire le taux de criminalité.
Malgré l’opération Tornade 1 lancée par le Directeur Général de la PNH Frantz Elbé, jusqu’à présent aucune action concrète pour déloger les chefs de gangs et les mettre hors d’état de nuire. Avec un effectif de plus de 15 000 policiers et une force armée de plusieurs centaines de soldats, la population ne peut pas vivre une minute de tranquillité.
Ajouter à cela que la demande du gouvernement en place à la communauté internationale pour une assistance militaire pour lutter contre les bandits, est une affaire presqu’oubliée.
Rappelons que le pouvoir dirigé par le Premier ministre Ariel Henry avait commandé 18 blindés don’t seulement huit ont été livrés. Jusqu’à présent les dix autres n’ont pas encore été livrés alors que l’Etat haïtien a décaissé 14 millions de dollars pour l’achat de ces engins. Le versement de l’avance a été effectué en juin de l’année dernière.
Ces derniers temps, il y a une recrudescence des cas d’enlèvement dans la zone métropolitaine de Port-au-Prince. Des professionnels, notamment des médecins, des journalistes, des professeurs et même des policiers ne sont pas épargnés. L’ancien secrétaire d’État à la sécurité publique, l’Inspecteur Général Frantz Sébastien Jean-Charles a été victime d’un acte d’enlèvement suivi de séquestration, ce vendredi 3 mars à Port-au-Prince. Il a été enlevé en compagnie de sa fille qu’il emmenait à l’école vendredi matin.
Notons que depuis plusieurs années, la PNH est en grande difficulté pour capturer des chefs de gangs connus. Il faut remonter aux cas de Anel Joseph, Odma et de Ti Je. Depuis lors, l’institution policière n’a capturé aucun chef de gang connu.
Rappelons enfin que des citoyens avaient déjà fui les quartiers de Gran Ravin, Martissant, Cité Soleil, Pernier, Torcel, Croix-des-Bouquets pour le même problème: la guerre des gangs rivaux pour le contrôle des territoires.
Insécurité : un pasteur vient d’être tué par des individus armés
Le Filet Infoil y a 10 heures
Des bandits armés ont assassiné le pasteur Wisnel Julien. L’homme de Dieu a été tué à Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite ce samedi 4 mars 2023.
Le leader religieux a été attaqué par des malfrats, au moment où li s’apprêtait à rentrer chez lui.
En raison de l’insécurité, l’institution du Sacré-Cœur ferme ses portes et annonce la reprise des cours en ligne
L’établissement scolaire se dit choqué suite à l’enlèvement d’une élève et de son père devant la barrière principale de l’école le jeudi 2 mars écoulé. Tenant compte de la détérioration de la situation sécuritaire, l’Institution du Sacré Cœur annonce la reprise des cours en ligne pour ses élèves et du coup ferme ses portes en présentiel. L’État est tenu de jouer son rôle dans le but de protéger ses citoyens.
Port-au-Prince, 04 mars 2023.- Les Sœurs du Sacré Cœur expriment leur inquiétude quant à la dégradation du climat sécuritaire prévalant dans le pays où les citoyens sont exposés, lit-on dans une note en date du 3 Mars. Elles mettent l’emphase sur cette liste interminable de » trop nombreuses victimes d’enlèvement et l’angoisse de leur famille spécialement leurs élèves ainsi que leurs parents ».
En raison de l’insécurité qui sévit dans le pays notamment des incidents survenus ces derniers jours dans la zone où est logé cet établissement scolaire, les responsables disent avoir pris la décision de continuer les cours en ligne la semaine prochaine. Pour les élèves qui ne disposent pas d’un environnement serein suffisant pour leur demander de composer, les examens sont reportés, a fait savoir la direction.
A noter que plusieurs parents et élèves ont été enlevés devant les locaux de plusieurs écoles pendant la semaine. Une nouvelle vague d’insécurité frappe plusieurs secteurs de la vie nationale sous le regard impuissant et passif du gouvernement.
Beethovens François Fils
Vant Bef Info, VBI
Des balles perdues font près d’une dizaine de victimes
Depuis la reprise des affrontements entre des groupes armés dans certains quartiers populaires, les balles perdues font des victimes. Selon des témoignages reçus par notre rédaction, près d’une dizaines de personnes ont été blessées ces derniers jours.
Port-au-Prince, le 3 mars 2023.- “Elle était assise sur le toit de la maison mardi après-midi. Elle a reçu un projectile au dos. Elle a été conduite d’urgence à l’Hôpital pour recevoir les soins. Pour l’heure plus de peur que de mal », a expliqué un habitant de Cité Militaire.
Il ajoute que deux (2) autres riverains de la zone ont été eux aussi blessés par des balles perdues.
“À Nazon, un projectile a atteint un citoyen qui, lui aussi, était assis sur le toit de sa maison”, a indiqué une journaliste à notre rédaction, soulignant que sa situation est pour le moins stable.
« Mis à part cet homme, au moins trois (3) autres personnes ont été victimes de balles perdues à Nazon, théâtre des affrontements armés ces derniers jours », a ajouté la consoeur.
“À Delmas 24, au moins une personne a été touchée, jeudi soir”, rapporte un riverain. Ce dernier ajoute que les gens fuient leurs quartiers par centaines.
Dépassés, ces citoyens appellent à une intervention policière dans ces zones, afin de stopper cette vague de violences.
Vant Bèf Info (VBI)
7 anciens sénateurs dont Hervé Fourcand, Jacques Sauveur Jean dans le collimateur de l’ULCC pour non respect de la loi anti-corruption
By
JUNO7 - L’Unité de Lute Contre La Corruption (ULCC) a transmis, le vendredi 3 mars 2023, aux différentes juridictions compétentes, les requêtes relatives à 7 anciens sénateurs de la République pour défaut de déclaration de patrimoine. Il s’agit des sénateurs MARCELUS Nawoom, ETIENNE LUMA JEAN Dieudonné, JEAN JACQUES Sauveur, Jean-Marie Junior Salomon, FOURCAND Richard Lenine Hervé, GELIN Wilfrid, JOSEPH Willot.
“L’ULCC demande que l’action publique soit mise en mouvement contre ces anciens Sénateurs de la République. En outre, elle exige que soit insérée dans la citation au correctionnel à intervenir, l’interdiction totale d’exercer leurs droits civils, politiques et de famille, particulièrement en ce qui a trait au droit de vote et d’élection, à l’éligibilité, pour la période.”
En tant qu’organisme chargé de l’exécution de la Loi du 12 février 2008 portant déclaration de patrimoine par certaines catégories de personnalités politiques, de fonctionnaires et autres agents publics, l’ULCC précise que les personnalités assujetties visées par cette saisine des Parquets des différentes juridictions compétentes auraient dû faire leur déclaration de patrimoine à leur entrée et à leur sortie de fonction.
Cependant, dit-elle, force est de constater qu’en dépit des exploits de rappels signifiés à la diligence de l’ULCC à ces anciens sénateurs, ces derniers n’ont pas jugé bon d’obtempérer, et ce faisant, ont commis une infraction qui emporte des sanctions prévues aux articles 18 de la loi du 12 février 2008 et 28 du Code pénal haïtien.
Humanitarian Parole: Approuvés pour le programme, des milliers d’Haïtiens n’ont toujours pas obtenu leur passeport
Selon les données de l’IFSI-USA 11, 300 haïtiens sont approuvés dans le cadre du programme Humanitarian Parole. Plus de la moitié des personnes agréées n’ont toujours pu faire le voyage. A cause de la lenteur au niveau des services fournis par la Direction de l’Immigration et de l’Emigration.
Port-au-Prince, le 1er Mars 2023.- S’ils sont parvenus à se procurer la première page de leur passeport qui leur a permis de remplir le formulaire et d’être approuvés, plus de 6000 mille haïtiens sont en difficulté pour faire le voyage vers les USA.
Le service d’immigration n’arrive toujours pas à satisfaire à temps les demandes de passeports reçus. « J’ai déposé la demande pour la production de mon passeport depuis le 20 janvier dernier. Aujourd’hui nous sommes déjà en mars et je n’ai pas encore le document.
Des responsables m’ont indiqué que le passeport a été produit et se trouve au service de livraison, mais il n’en est rien. C’est le même discours chaque jour », se désole Alexis, déjà approuvé par le programme d’immigration humanitaire vers les Etats-Unis.
Il faut souligner que depuis l’annonce du programme, les annexes du CRLDI explosent en termes d’affluence. Les autorités n’arrivent toujours à trouver la bonne formule pour faciliter la tâche aux demandeurs de passeport.
Vant Bèf Info ( VBI)
61 Haïtiens et 26 Dominicains interceptés à Porto Rico rapatriés dans leur pays
Les garde-côtes américains ont annoncé vendredi avoir rapatrié 26 migrants dominicains et 61 haïtiens après avoir intercepté deux bateaux mercredi et jeudi alors qu’ils tentaient d’atteindre l’île Mona, une réserve naturelle située à l’ouest de Porto Rico.
Selon la presse locale citant un communiqué officiel, le patrouilleur des garde-côtes Richard Dixon a remis les migrants à un navire de la marine de la République dominicaine.
L’un des bateaux a d’abord été repéré jeudi par l’équipage d’un avion de contrôle maritime et aérien des douanes et de la protection des frontières, à environ neuf milles marins de l’île inhabitée de Monito.
Du 1er octobre 2022 au 28 février 2023, la Garde côtière américaine a arrêté 462 Dominicains et 98 Haïtiens dans les eaux portoricaines.
Vant Bef Info ( VBI)
Cindy McCain, veuve du sénateur John McCain, nommée à la tête du PAM
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JUNO7 - Le Programme Alimentaire Mondial des Nations-Unies (PAM) a une nouvelle directrice exécutive. Il s’agit de l’Américaine Cindy Lou Hensley McCain. L’organisation a annoncé la nouvelle à travers un communiqué publié le 2 mars 2023.
Cindy McCain remplace son compatriote David Muldrow Beasley qui aura passé six ans comme Directeur exécutif du PAM. Son mandat arrive à terme le 5 avril prochain.
Saluant la nomination de Mme McCain, le président du Conseil d’administration du PAM, Artur Andrzej Pollok, a souligné que la nouvelle directrice prend la tête de cette organisation « à un moment où le monde est confronté à la plus grave crise de sécurité alimentaire de l’histoire moderne et ce rôle de direction n’a jamais été aussi important ».
Qui est Cindy L. H. McCain ?
Née en 1954 à Phoenix, Cindy McCain est une cheffe d’entreprise américaine. Elle est diplômée en pédagogie à l’université de la Californie du Sud.
Veuve du sénateur d’Arizona et candidat à la Présidence des Etats-Unis John McCain, décédé en 2018, Cindy McCain est actuellement ambassadrice des États-Unis auprès de la FAO, du PAM et du Fonds de développement agricole (FIDA) à Rome.
Considérée comme une championne des droits de la personne, Mme McCain a siégé au conseil d’administration de multiples institutions philanthropiques et particulièrement d’Operation Smile, une organisation à but non lucratif luttant contre les malformations faciales infantiles qu’elle a représentée lors de déplacements en Inde, au Maroc et au Vietnam.
AVIS AHPH
L’Association des Hôpitaux Privés d’Haïti (AHPH) informe le grand public que, lors de l’Assemblée Générale du 4 février 2023, un nouveau Conseil d’Administration a été élu pour une période de deux ans (2023-2025), et suite à une réunion extraordinaire tenue le 24 février 2023 le nouveau Conseil est ainsi composé :
Président : Dr Charles Gérard ABEL ; Vice-Président : Dr Charles Patrick ALMAZOR ; Trésorier : Dr Wisly JOSEPH ; Trésorier Adjoint : Dr Sylvio AUGUSTIN ; Secrétaire Général : Dr Pascal LAURENT
Conseillers : Dr Yvette Edouard-AUGUSTIN ; Dr Ronald LAROCHE ; Dr Jean Roumel THEODORE ; Mme Nathalie PIERRE-LOUIS ; Dr Jean Danton MOROSE
Fait à Port-au-Prince, le 25 février 2023
Le Conseil d’Administration
Pour Authentification :
Dr Pascal LAURENT
Secrétaire Général
Exploitation sexuelle : une nouvelle pratique qui s’impose aux femmes demandeuses de passeport
Les citoyens rencontrent des difficultés de toutes sortes dans le processus de production de leurs documents de voyage, dans les Centres de Réception et de Livraison de Documents d’Identité (CRLDI) que ce soit à Delmas 31 ou à Tabarre, au Parc Sainte Thérèse à Pétion-Ville ou au Gymnasium Vincent à la Rue Romain, au Champs-de-Mars ou à Lalue. Les demandeurs dénoncent des individus, en complicité avec les responsables de certains Centres qui, selon leurs déclarations, leur réclament entre 50 000 et 75 000 gourdes pour obtenir le sésame (passeport). De plus, des « prédateurs » demandent aux femmes d’avoir des relations sexuelles avec eux pour leur faciliter la tâche.
L’obtention des documents de voyage est devenu un véritable calvaire pour les citoyens, depuis le lancement du programme baptisé « Humanitarian Parole » lancé par l’administration américaine au profit des ressortissants de quatre (4) pays dont Haïti. En effet, produire une demande de passeport dans la capitale coûte aux intéressés entre 50 000 et 75 000 gourdes. Une pratique qui est dénoncée par les demandeurs, fustigeant le comportement irresponsable des autorités notamment les responsables du Bureau de l’immigration et de l’Emigration qui peinent à trouver la bonne formule pour leur faciliter la tâche en ce qui a trait à la demande de passeport.
Selon les dires des citoyens, les montants réclamés ont été empochés par des individus en lien avec des employés ou avec les responsables de certains Centres de Réception et de Livraison de Documents d’Identité (CRLDI).
Un citoyen qui frise la trentaine, rencontré par Haïti Infos Pro, affirme avoir arpenté la majorité des Centres de la zone métropolitaine de Port-au-Prince dans l’objectif de déposer sa demande pour un passeport. Il nous explique que dans tous les Centres, on lui demande de payer 50 000 gourdes après négociation. Il affirme qu’une agence de voyage lui avait soutiré 30 000 gourdes déjà pour un passeport en urgence. Depuis qu’il a versé l’argent, il n’a plus les nouvelles des responsables de l’entreprise de voyage.
« Pour un document qui devait coûter moins de 15 000 gourdes, vous payez le double, le triple pour l’avoir, dans un pays où vous arrivez à peine à subvenir aux besoins primaires. À quoi servent les autorités si elles ne peuvent même pas nous faciliter l’accès d’avoir notre passeport », se plaint cet homme.
Pot de vin ou exploitation sexuelle, deux choix s’imposent aux femmes
Si aux hommes on exige qu’ils payent des sommes astronomiques, quant aux femmes on leur demande soit de payer, soit de se prostituer.
Une jeune dame âgée de 25 ans dénonce cette nouvelle pratique qui fait surface dans la ruée vers le passeport : « Deux hommes m’ont abordé, et m’ont dit que si je n’ai pas les moyens ils me faciliteront la tâche pour produire ma demande à condition que je leur offre un moment de plaisir », nous confie-t-elle, soulignant que d’autres ont aussi fait face à cette proposition indécente.
Elle dénonce cette « pratique inacceptable » car, soutient-elle, il revient aux autorités de permettre à toute personne de faire son passeport avec facilité et non en versant des pots-de-vin.
Les citoyens s’en prennent aussi aux agents de police qu’ils accusent de complicité dans ce qu’ils qualifient de « privatisation » de l’institution de l’État. Ils déplorent le comportement des policiers qui oublient leurs responsabilités pour faire du commerce avec les demandeurs de passeport.
À noter que deux femmes ont été blessées par balle, le lundi 27 février 2023, dans un Centre de demande de passeport à Pétion-Ville. L’une d’elles a été touchée au pied. Un agent de la Brigade d’Intervention Motorisée (BIM) est pointé du doigt.
Un nouveau responsable prend les rênes du commissariat des Gonaïves
C’est le directeur départemental de la PNH dans l’Artibonite qui a procédé à cette cérémonie d’installation du commissaire principal Philipe Juste.
Gonaïves, le 27 Février 23.- Le nouveau commissaire promet de travailler d’un commun accord avec les policiers du département pour enrayer le phénomène de l’insécurité prévalant dans cette région. Le commissaire Philipe Juste se dit conscient des nombreux défis qui l’attendent tenant compte de la détérioration du climat sécuritaire.
Ce changement s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’implémentation des nouvelles dispositions adoptées en matière de sécurité, a dit le directeur départemental Goodson Jeune. Il en a profité pour réitérer la volonté de l’Institution policière à combattre le banditisme sous toutes ses formes.
La police tente de reprendre le contrôle de la situation depuis l’assassinat tragique de 7 policiers à Liancourt, le 25 janvier dernier. La situation est toujours préoccupante dans plusieurs communes du département dont Petite rivière de l’Artibonite, Verrettes et ses environs.
Vant Bef Info
Le commissariat de Fort Jacques incendié par des hommes armés
Des individus armés ont mis le feu dans les locaux du commissariat de police de Fort-Jacques, le mercredi 1er mars dans la soirée. Selon plusieurs sources, de nombreux véhicules qui se trouvaient dans l’espace ont aussi été incendiés.
Pour l’heure, on ignore l’étendue des dégâts causé par cet incendie criminel.
Depuis quelques jours, des citoyens alertaient sans relâche la police sur la présence d’hommes armés dans la commune de Fort Jacques. Un appel resté sans suite jusqu’à présent.
Vant Bèf Info (VBI)
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Les bandits armés de Vitelhomme ont incendié mercredi soir le sous commissariat de Fort Jacques ainsi que plusieurs véhicules de la PNH. Ils ont également pillié plusieurs maisons. Les policiers ont pris le marquis, jusqu'à l'heure c'est la panique généralisée dans les hauteurs de PV
Le bras droit du chef de gang de Canaan arrêté par la police
Le nommé Samedi Edison a été arrêté à Jacmel le jeudi 2 mars 2023. Il a été appréhendé quelques jours après avoir braqué un chauffeur de camionette et volé sa voiture sur la route de l’aéroport.
Samedi Edison est le bras droit du chef de gang de Canaan, Jeff ainsi connu. Ce présumé chef de gang a été présenté par la section audiovisuelle de la Police Nationale d’Haïti sur sa page Facebook.
Kidnapping, braquage, détournement de camions de marchandises, sont entre autres faits reprochés à ce présumé chef de gang.
Un minibus de transport en commun détourné par des individus armés à la ruelle Alerte
mars 2, 2023 VBI
Des hommes armés ont détourné un minibus assurant le trajet Jacmel/Port-au-Prince, mercredi, aux environs de 7h du soir, à la ruelle Alerte, au centre-ville de la capitale. L’information a été confirmée par l’Association des Propriétaires et Chauffeurs d’Haïti (APCH).
Port-au-Prince, le 2 mars 2023.- Selon ce qu’a expliqué l’un des dirigeants de l’APCH requérant l’anonymat, les malfrats se sont emparés du véhicule, au moment où le chauffeur s’apprêtait à le garer, de retour d’un voyage à Jacmel.
“Aucun passager n’était à bord du minibus lors de son détournement”, a précisé notre contact.
Les bandits ont dépouillé le transporteur public de son portefeuille et de son portable avant de se diriger en direction de “Village de Dieu” avec le minibus, a-t-il rapporté.
NB
Flash, Flash. Le véhicule du Commissaire de police de Port-au-Prince a été criblée de balles dans la zone du Canapé Vert par des bandits circulant à bord d’une Nissan Patrol Blanche sans plaques. Blessé, le commissaire a été transporté dans un centre hospitalier pour les soins nécessaires.
Nécrologie : La date et le lieu des funérailles du Juge Eddy Darang communiqués
Les funérailles du juge Eddy Darang seront chantées le samedi 4 mars 2023, en Floride, aux États-Unis. Une soirée hommage sera organisée en mémoire du très regretté Magistrat, a annoncé la Cour d’Appel de Port-au-Prince dans une note datée du 28 février 2023.
Port-au-Prince, le 28 février 2023.- La Cour d’Appel de la capitale ne tiendra pas audience durant les 1er, 2 et 3 mars 2023, en mémoire du Magistrat décédé selon le vœu de la loi, lit-on dans la note.
Les personnes intéressées à suivre en ligne la soirée hommage pour saluer la mémoire du défunt peuvent y assister à partir du lien Zoom :
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7248853624/
ID: 724 885 3624
Les obsèques auront lieu au Grace Funeral Chapels sis au 5980, West Oakland Park Blvd, Lauderhill Fl 333313.
L’exposition se fera à 9h du matin, précise la note.
Me Eddy Darang, juge à la cour d’appel de Port-au-Prince est décédé le 4 février 2023, des suites d’un accident cardio vasculaire.
Jean Allens Macajoux
Vant Bèf Info ( VBI)
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Florida a battleground : civil rights left vs. anti-woke right
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
TALLAHASSEEAs protesters marched to the Florida Capitol on Wednesday for the second rally in three weeks to oppose what they say is Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “assault” on Black history, the state’s battle over the future of education started to take shape as a war over the future of civil rights in America.
On one side is DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature — with coaching from Christopher Rufo of the conservative Manhattan Institute. They vow to move the nation to a pre-1960s America with “a new conservative counter revolution.” Their goal: ending what they say is a “neo-Marxist” focus on “wokeness” in education, corporate America and government that discriminates against individuals.
On the other side are Florida’s Black leaders and national civil rights activists like Al Sharpton. They vow to ignite voter energy and unleash a grassroots movement to remind people that “this is not 1963. It’s 2023.”
Their goal: halting what they see is the effort to reverse the gains of the civil rights era, particularly as it relates to education and voting — which they have long viewed as the two pillars of a multiracial democracy.
The conflict could have national implications but, right now, DeSantis has the upper hand, and the Black pastors who assembled on the Capitol plaza with hundreds of their supporters took note.
“We are here today to serve notice on you that we will not stand for it,” bellowed the Rev. Rudolph McKissick Jr., pastor at Bethel Church in Jacksonville, within shouting distance of the governor’s office. “We are not just marching, but we are coming to affect change. ... We’re not going to let you determine how our story gets told.”
The leaders talked about voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts. They threatened legal challenges and suggested Black athletes could boycott Florida universities. They vowed to teach “truthful Black history” in churches, community programs and college clubs. And they warned of a national effort to have their supporters protest wherever DeSantis goes if he launches a presidential campaign, as expected.
Sharpton, the talk show host and civil rights activist, told the crowd that Florida may be DeSantis’ “domain” but he could face “a real fight” with a broad coalition of opponents outside of his home state.
“He needs to understand that he will have resistance all over this country if he keeps messing with Blacks, LGBTQ and women,’’ he said.
FIGHTING AGAINST A REGRESSION IN CIVIL RIGHTS
The leaders pointed to what they say is DeSantis’ history of being anti-Black: his strong-arming the Legislature to pass a redistricting map that eliminated two congressional districts held by Black Democrats; his push for legislation aimed at criminalizing peaceful protests; his plan to ban colleges and universities from offering diversity, equity and inclusion programs; his ban on critical race theory; his law restricting the instruction of race relations in classrooms; and his rejection of the College Board course on African-American studies.
“This governor is trying to turn back the hands of time,’’ said Ben Frazier, a Jacksonville activist and president of the Northside Coalition as he spoke to protesters gathered at the Bethel AME Church in Tallahassee. “He’s a one-man wrecking machine.”
While DeSantis may have one of the highest profiles in the battle, he is not the only Republican leader who has engaged in the fight.
According to the UCLA School of Law’s tracking project, at least 183 local, state and federal government entities across the country have introduced bills, resolutions, executive orders, opinion letters, statements or other measures to roll back equity and inclusion measures and block discussions about race and systemic racism.
“This is not just a Florida problem,’’ said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, at a Jan. 25 rally to announce a threatened lawsuit against the governor. “Florida is just a petri dish. But people from across the country should be concerned. ... If it can happen in Florida, it can happen in Tennessee. It can happen in Colorado.”
A NEW FLORIDA EXPORT
Exporting Florida’s initiatives to other states, especially Republican-governed ones, is precisely the plan for Rufo and other DeSantis allies.
Shortly after DeSantis named Rufo, a conservative activist who is an architect of the anti-woke crusade, to the board of the New College of Florida last month, he quickly posted a video titled “The Conservative Counter-Revolution Begins in the Universities.” In it, Rufo explained how he will use the “strategies” of Marxist theorists of the 1960s and change public policy from the top down to “recapture institutions” from “bureaucratic morality.”
“It starts with this hostile takeover of the New College of Florida and on the beaches of Sarasota,’’ he declared. “And if we are to be successful, I think that we’re going to create a model for red state governors all over the country.”
In March 2021, Rufo acknowledged the desire to create the code words for the movement that could be used to reflect common grievances of Americans. He began with the term: “critical race theory.”
“The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory,’ ” he wrote on Twitter. “We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”
Critical Race Theory is “a euphemism for equity, social justice, diversity and inclusion and culturally responsive teaching,’’ Rufo argued in another video, and those are things embedded in our institutions. He suggested that the changes to public education are intended to “put guardrails on what kind of values and ideologies you can transmit” and to “exclude certain ideas — like one race is inherently superior to another race, or you should feel guilty on behalf of your ancestry or your racial identity.”
Those who study the discipline of critical race theory, however, say the goal is not to suggest individuals are racist but instead to shift the emphasis to public-policy tools that can be used to create equity and freedom for all.
“Rufo, the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, all have a rhetorical strategy that tries to broadly reframe civil rights remedies as themselves a threat to civil rights,’’ said Jonathan Feingold, a history professor and expert on anti-discrimination law at Boston University. “If you are comfortable with inequality, and would prefer a system that retreats to the hierarchies of old, then it makes sense to try to villainize and delegitimize modest efforts to account for all the ways in which race and racism continue to operate in American society.”
If there is a rallying cry for this revolution, however, it is DeSantis’ declaration on his reelection night that Florida is “where woke goes to die.”
WHAT DOES ‘WOKE’ REALLY MEAN?
The governor has used “woke” to describe the Advanced Placement African-American Studies course, the College Board, Walt Disney Co., the NCAA, math books, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, school boards, universities, cruise ship companies and businesses that offer diversity, equity and inclusion training.
But what the governor means precisely is open to interpretation.
Like Rufo, DeSantis equates “wokeism” to Marxism, the political and economic theories that formed the basis of communism. But he offers no examples.
“I think what you see now with the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions,” DeSantis said last year as he signed into law the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which restricts race-based conversations in schools and businesses. “And I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism.”
But civil rights leaders say it is DeSantis who is delegitimizing history with conduct that parallels what happened during the era of Jim Crow by reversing progress.
After the Civil War and slavery was abolished, Blacks were elected to state and local offices and, for the first time, made strides in business and education. But the movement to “deconstruct reconstruction” reversed their gains as state and local Jim Crow laws legalized racial segregation and suppressed Black voting.
Jim Crow laws were outlawed in 1964, with the signing of the Civil Rights Act and the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act. But the intense and sustained backlash against Reconstruction, which lasted nearly a century, “was a period of unrivaled racial terrorism and your rights were determined by the state you were in,’’ Feingold said.
“We see the same thing happening now with this governor and his attack on things that are Black,’’ said Frazier, the Jacksonville activist.
Feingold suggests that DeSantis is trying to wrap together the public’s frustration with racial divisions when he uses the term “woke.”
That became clear when Ryan Newman, the governor’s general counsel, was asked under oath what “woke” meant. Testifying in the court case brought against the governor by the ousted Hillsborough County state attorney, Newman answered: “Generally, the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”
“Newman placed DeSantis on the side of injustice,” Feingold wrote in an essay for The Conversation. Feingold said DeSantis could be called an “injustice denier.”
DESANTIS SAYS AMERICA IS OPPORTUNITY, NOT SYSTEMIC RACISM
The DeSantis camp not only denies that institutional racism and systemic injustices exist in the United States, it argues that the remedies to racial inequities — such as programs that encourage diversity, equity and inclusion — are themselves violations of anti-discrimination laws and other civil rights protections.
In an April 2021 interview with Laura Ingraham, DeSantis was asked if he thought systemic racism exists. The governor quipped that it was “a bunch of horse manure.”
“I mean, give me a break,’’ he said. “This country has had more opportunities for people to succeed than any other country. It doesn’t matter where you trace your ancestry from.”
Jones, the state senator, echoed the words of many Black leaders when he described the governor’s policies as intended to roll back advances in racial justice in America as the country becomes increasingly less white and more racially diverse.
“It’s not just about AP history,’’ Jones said. “The fight is against this strong uprising of racism from people who are seeing the shifting of America.”
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau reporters Ana Ceballos and Lawrence Mower contributed to this report.
Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at
Le Quotidien News
Announcement
It is estimated that at least 30 per cent of Haitian women between the ages of 15 and 30 years old have been the victims of sexual abuse or violence.
To raise awareness, the Quotidien News, in collaboration with the Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince, is leading the second edition of the competition on violence against women for young people aged 18 to 30.
Thanks to your contribution, the fifteen finalists of the competition will be able to receive a financial reward for their essays, which will then be published and socialised to create more awareness of this issue. 100% of the funds raised by GoFundMe will be given to the competition winners. https://gofundme.com/f/end-the-violence-against-women-in-haiti
Arrested for possession of an illegal weapon
February 23, 2023
The police proceeded, this Tuesday, February 21, to the arrest of the named Ludson Zéphyr Pierre, alias John, aged 33, on Tuesday February 21, 2023, in Charrier, an area located near Vertières and Haut du Cap.
During this arrest Ludson Zéphyr had in his possession a 9mm caliber pistol which he carried illegally.
According to the Police note, the defendant took this weapon on Friday evening, February 17, 2023, in the possession of two individuals who were trying to steal a motorcycle in the same area.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haiti: Rise in extreme gang violence makes for “living nightmare” GENEVA/PORT-AU-PRINCE (10 February 2023) – Extreme violence and gross human rights abuses, including mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks, have sharply increased in Cité Soleil on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, said a UN report* published today, creating “a living nightmare” for thousands."The findings of this report are horrifying: it paints a picture of how people are being harassed and terrorized by criminal gangs for months without the State being able to stop it. It can only be described as a living nightmare," Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.The report said that from 8 July to 31 December 2022 gang violence resulted in 263 murders in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Cité Soleil, the impoverished and densely populated commune near the capital Port-au-Prince. It documented at least 57 gang rapes of women and girls, as well as kidnappings and sexual exploitation.
On one day alone, 8 July 2022, gang members murdered 95 people, including six children one of whom was two years of age.The situation in Brooklyn mirrors the plight of hundreds of thousands of others in Haiti who reside in areas under the control of heavily armed gangs, the report by the Human Rights Service of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti said.The G-9 gang has spread terror by using snipers, who indiscriminately kill anyone who enter their field of vision, the report said, adding that on average six people are killed each week by snipers.The gang blocked access to the neighbourhood, thus controlling the entry of basic necessities such as food and health services. Unsanitary conditions have been exacerbated, leading to the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera.The report detailed the case of Rose, a mother of four and five months pregnant, who was severely beaten and raped in the presence of her children by three heavily armed masked men who forced their way into her home in Cité Soleil. Earlier in the day, Rose's husband was shot by members of the same gang. Before leaving, the gunmen set fire to her house."The case of Cité Soleil is not an isolated one, and sadly many Haitians are experiencing similar ordeals,” said Türk. “It is time for the international community to help the Haitian authorities regain full control, so this suffering can be stopped.”The UN Human Rights Chief called for a strengthening of the security forces, as well as the judicial system. All perpetrators, as well as those providing support and finance to the gangs, must be prosecuted and tried according to rule of law, and all victims recognized and their rights to truth, justice and reparations must be fulfilled, Türk added.*To read the full report, please click here<https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/population-cite-soleil-grip-gang-violence-investigative-report-human>For more information and media requests, please contact:
Ravina Shamdasani – (travelling with the High Commissioner)
Beatrice Nibogora - + 509 36537043 /
Criminal Power in Haiti and Hunger as an Instrument of Governance
Around two hundred criminal groups operate in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, a city with a population of one million people. These numerous gangs have established a criminal order capable of hindering the supply of food and humanitarian aid in Haiti; this criminal sovereignty, organized through the illegal activity and violence, manufactures political legitimacy for these gangs. While the criminal network and governmental corruption in Haiti has drawn the attention of the international community, the related food insecurity crisis has not received significant external concern. This article analyzes the use of hunger as an instrument of criminal governance and reinterprets the meaning of sovereignty and governance within the context of criminality.
Haiti is a ‘Criminocracy’
Haiti today can be characterized as a phantom state with a supplanted political structure—competition between gangs vying for political authority has created a limited, fragmented, and authoritarian presence within the state. The country can also be considered as a criminal federation, or a ‘criminocracy’, because several criminal organizations have acquired government capabilities and their sphere of influence threatens the lives of Haitians through direct violence or forced starvation.
Following the assassination of former president Jovenel Moïse on June 7, 2021, the humanitarian and food security crisis of the last two decades further deteriorated. The polarization and political violence that ensued after Moïse’s assassination precipitated limited access to COVID-19 vaccines and widespread hunger due to food shortages. These factors have also enabled criminal networks in Haiti to govern by enacting rules and corrupting the legal regime to exercise control over the lives of the Haitian population, suppressing individual liberties and the most basic rights of Haitian citizens, such as the right to freedom of movement or to access food.
One prominent criminal leader, a former police officer and commander of the G-9 gang, Jimmy Chérizier, previously co-governed with president Moïse through a non-aggression pact in which Chérizier provided territorial control and intimidation over Moïse’s political opposition in return for legal immunity. Pacts between governments and criminals are not uncommon in Haiti. In fact, during the dictatorial government of the Duvalier family (1957–1986), paramilitary forces were developed for intimidation purposes. Presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide (2001–2004) and Michel Martelly (2011–2016) were also tolerant of organized crime and suspected of ignoring drug trafficking in exchange for bribes. The process by which gangs rose to power in Haiti was gradual, but since 2017, when Moïse took office, their territorial control has greatly increased. The rise of gangs in Haiti is intertwined with domestic political incentives and the deterioration of democracy that sustained the Moïse regime through armed support. Additionally, the criminal groups managed to make alliances with the police and security during the Moïse regime, thus enabling kidnapping, human trafficking, the flow of weapons, and other crimes while minimizing the consequences. Now, following the Moïse regime, more than half of the political institutions in Haiti are controlled by criminal gangs and operate as de facto governments. At this moment, about 60 percent of Port-au-Prince is under gang control. The Haitian state demonstrates its acceptance of gang violence by not counteracting or inhibiting it.
Hunger and Crime
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), there are around one million people at risk of acute food insecurity in Port-au-Prince alone, and five million people currently experience food insecurity across the country. This food insecurity is due, in large part, to the criminal gangs that exercise control over food distribution in Haiti by imposing restrictions on mobility, including access to markets, fuel, medicine, food, and international humanitarian assistance. The hunger produced by criminal intervention in food distribution is leading to the extinction of the Haitian population because an alarmingly high proportion of the population, around 60 percent, depend on criminal gangs to distribute food. Gangs allocate stolen food to cooperative civilians who share information about other gangs or state forces, and leverage food distribution by orchestrating sex trafficking networks in which women and girls receive food in exchange for sexual favors and forced labor. Thus, hunger has become a weapon to control the lives of Haitian people. Gangs take advantage of basic needs to build dependency, legitimize criminal actions, and force cooperation in exchange for food.
In the Cité Soleil neighborhood in the capital of Port-au-Prince armed gangs have besieged the town and blocked the entry of humanitarian missions. Sixty-five percent of residents are experiencing food insecurity, and five percent is on the verge of death from starvation and disease. The combination of natural disasters, such as the earthquake of August 2021, the devastation following Hurricane Nicole in November 2022, and the global crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, has left the Haitian population even more vulnerable. After the 2021 earthquake, the destruction and poverty that ensued, combined with preexisting criminal structures, further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Cité Soleil.
Gang warfare for territorial control often occurs in public, forcing civilians to watch members of armed groups behead dissidents, burn people alive in retaliation for non-submission, and rape women in the streets. Criminal groups maintain a presence on major roads that connect urban and rural areas, controlling the passage of citizens, merchandise, medicines, and food. On the highway that connects Port-au-Prince with southern Haiti gangs have prevented the passage of various humanitarian missions attempting to supply medicine and drinking water. The hijacking and burning of food trucks by gang members has furher inhibited humanitarian aid in the city. Additionally, the 400 Mawozo group controls the land route that connects Haiti with the Dominican Republic—a strategic location for the Haitian economy and an area transited by irregular migrants who are recruited by the gang. There, the criminal group controls movement of people and merchandise by killing presumed enemies and rewarding informants.
Thus, Haitian gangs have facilitated the construction of a criminal federal state. Though the gangs are fragmented, they control large territories and obey an overarching criminal structure. In early October 2022, the Canaán and 5 Seconds gangs, two allied criminal groups, launched an operation on a highway that accesses northern Port-au-Prince, where the largest flour processing company in the country is located, Moulins d’Haïti. The motive of this operation was to take control of the food supply infrastructure in Port-au-Prince, which produces food for a large part of the Haitian population. Fortunately, state forces intervened, but if the operation had been successful, the supply of food to the capital and elsewhere would have been at the mercy of criminal leaders. The seizure of food infrastructure in Haiti elevates the influence of criminal gangs, thus potentially necessitating negotiations with intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations (UN) to attenuate the effects.
Policy-based Solutions
Structural solutions can be built in two ways: internationally and domestically. On the one hand, international support is useful for monitoring the contribution of humanitarian aid and as an instrument for constructing a system of governance that appropriately oversees the rule of law and the security forces. But it must be a short, limited, and precise international support mission to avoid repeating the human rights violations of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Teaching Haitians to facilitate their own democratic institutions, as well as police and justice systems, is a crucial component of this process. International experts in law enforcement could help strengthen institutional management and supervision of criminal activity and develop educational and employment opportunities that would dissuade young people from joining criminal structures. The solution, however, should not rely on a multinational military intervention, as this could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and threaten civil society with potential war. There must be support for the restoration of the democratic order, and increased monitoring of free and transparent elections with the support of organizations like the UN.
The possibility of negotiating with criminal gangs should be considered. For that, there must be an established agenda, political volition, and clear rules for justice. With the support of the international community, there can be a post-crime transitional justice process to disarm the gangs. In other words, the idea may be to involve former members of criminal gangs as participants in building institutions for Haitian peace.
On the other hand, legitimate institutions must originate in Haiti. The best way to build legitimate institutions is through local initiatives backed by citizen confidence. Without structural change, Haiti could be the catalyst of broader security problems and instability throughout the region. The power and scope of the gangs greatly increase this possibility, in combination with the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which has generated irregular migration across the continent.
. . .
César Niño is an associate professor and researcher in international relations at the Universidad de la Salle (Colombia). His research areas include international security, conflict, terrorism, violence, peace, and organized crime. He has a PhD in International Law from the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio (Spain), and is currently a PhD student in International Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at the Universitat Jaume I (Spain).
Image Credits: Wikimedia, Alex Proimos
Official Launch of USAID’s Boost
Livestock Profitability Activity in Haiti
For Immediate Release
February 10, 2023
(Port-au-Prince) - The U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has launched the Boost Livestock Profitability activity called Programme d’Appui à la Rentabilisation de l’Elevage (PARE). Beginning in 2023, USAID will be partnering with livestock market actors to support livestock value chains. PARE will build a more resilient livestock market that will boost profitable commercialization of the cattle, goat, sheep, and poultry value chains in 35 communes of Haiti’s North, North-East, Center, and South departments. USAID will enable long-lasting market linkages with aspiring private and public sector partners, while building the resilience of smallholder farmers and their communities.
“Currently, smallholder farmers in Haiti lack access to inputs and services, such as quality feed and forages, and health, veterinary, and financial services. Outbreaks in animal diseases are common — as are supply chain disruptions around the country — making it difficult for producers to sell and transport goods,” says U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Eric Stromayer. PARE will use a $3.6 million market co-investment fund to kickstart the sector to tackle these issues, while improving local markets and livelihoods. By 2027, the activity will improve the resilience of up to 30,000 households and 100 firms, facilitating more than $65 million USD in sales for producers, input providers, and other businesses, and leveraging $3.6 million USD in private sector investment.
USAID/Haiti’s Mission Director Jennifer Link, adds that, “In Haiti, the livestock sector is of significant importance for most of the rural households as a means of savings and safety net. PARE will help increase livestock production to feed families, increase farmers’ earnings, and improve the resilience of the livestock market actors.”
Beyond livestock programming, USAID/Haiti works to promote economic growth, improve sustainable reconstruction and development, create jobs and agricultural development, provide health and education services, and improve effective governance.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
facilitate the task for voters.