Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 20 janvier 2015

 US Vice President’s Call with Haitian President Michel Martelly

The Vice President spoke today with Haitian President Michel Martelly, continuing their dialogue on the United States’ long-term support for Haiti’s reconstruction, development, and democratic progress. The Vice President commended President Martelly for his efforts to reach a negotiated agreement with the Haitian parliament and political parties to allow Haiti to hold elections. The Vice President recognized that President Martelly made several important concessions in order to reach consensus, and expressed disappointment that Haiti’s Parliament did not pass an electoral law before lapsing on January 12. The Vice President reiterated the support of the United States and the international community as President Martelly works to organize timely elections this year to permit Haitians to exercise their democratic right to choose their representatives. He also reaffirmed that the United States remains Haiti’s committed friend and partner and looks forward to deepening bilateral cooperation as President Martelly’s Administration works to build a more prosperous and secure future for the Haitian people.

Dominican Republic “seals” border on Haiti turmoil

Santo Domingo - Dominican Republic’s Defense Ministry has "sealed" the border on Haiti political instability, with heightened patrols by highly trained troops, ready to act against any adversity.

Haiti opposition groups on Wednesday (January, 14) called for civil disobedience, which further jeopardizes President Michel Martelly’s Administration.

The measure however doesn’t include additional troops, according to Border Security (CESFRONT) director Carlos Aguirre, who affirmed that there are enough soldiers to patrol and deal with any problems that could emerge in the heels of the call.

He did confirm constant patrols along the entire 370 kilometer border, which in his view has attracted the attention of many people.

The official said the implementation of ‘Operation Shield’ has halted the illegal entry of more than 15,000 Haitians or nearly 1,000 daily, just in the first two weeks of January.

Aguirre added that the forces deployed are well equipped to patrol the area and affirmed that precautions have been taken to avert any regretful situation at the border.

Every Haitian detained while trying to enter illegally is subjected to a thorough background check to determine their true identity and arrest Haitian fugitives, a Defense Ministry source told diariolibre.com.do.

Dominican Republic arrests prosecutors, 21 cops after 1 ton of seized cocaine disappears

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (AP) – A court in the Dominican Republic has ordered the arrest of three prosecutors and 21 police officers accused of not reporting drug seizures involving more than a ton of cocaine that has since disappeared.

Among those accused is the former director of an anti-narcotics unit, who is among the dozen of suspects that have been arrested. Authorities are still seeking to arrest the remainder.

"In one way or another they became drug traffickers," said General Prosecutor Francisco Domínguez. "This type of situation is unacceptable."

One of the three drug seizures occurred in September near Santo Domingo, where 950 kilograms (2,000 pounds) of cocaine were discovered but never turned over to authorities, he said.

Domínguez said he believes some of the drugs were sold, adding that some suspects have turned over the cash from the alleged transactions. Authorities are still investigating whether some of the drugs were returned as part of a bribe.

The investigation began in December after Police Chief Manuel Castro noticed the missing drugs.

The arrests are the latest in an ongoing crackdown on corruption in the Caribbean country's police force.

A 2011 Amnesty International report found that some 12,000 police officers were accused of corruption between 2007 and 2010. It is unclear how many of those cases were tied to drug trafficking.

Help could have been better

(THE ECONOMIST)

In future disasters the West should not treat the victims or the government like bystanders

FEW countries have suffered an earthquake so devastating, or have been less prepared for such a calamity. The quake that struck Haiti on January 12th 2010 killed perhaps 200,000 people—no one is sure how many—left 1.5 million homeless and caused economic damage equivalent to 120% of the country’s GDP. A cholera epidemic compounded the misery. These disasters called forth the biggest-ever outpouring of humanitarian relief, worth some $9.5 billion in the first three years after the quake. The well-wishers vowed, in the words of Bill Clinton, who helped co-ordinate their early efforts, to “build back better.” Yet five years later, the country is little better off than it was before the disaster—and in some ways it is worse.

The most visible devastation has largely been cleared away. Only about 85,000 people are still stuck under plastic in displacement camps. But many of the rest have moved to makeshift dwellings in slums without sanitation. Port-au-Prince, the overcrowded capital of an over-centralized country, is more jammed than ever. If another earthquake hits, the death toll might be even higher. Corruption, shoddy infrastructure and political instability discourage private investment, which Haiti desperately needs to bring down unemployment and raise its pitiful wages. A ferocious battle between the president, Michel Martelly, and the opposition came to a head on January 12th, when parliament’s mandate expired. This leaves Martelly free to govern by decree, which will do nothing to reassure Haitians or investors.

How did so many humanitarians bearing so much cash accomplish so little? The failure to “build back better” contains lessons for those who would rush to help when disaster strikes an impoverished country.

Haiti before the quake, though not quite a failed state, was a fragile one. A tortured history has stunted its institutions. It took a slave revolt and payment of crippling reparations to free Haiti from France. America marched in to enforce payment of debts in 1915 and did not fully withdraw until 32 years later. Many senior officials died in the quake that flattened the capital in 2010, further enfeebling the state.

But the rescuers did little to build up Haiti’s capacity to govern itself. Less than 10% of spending for relief and recovery went through government agencies. That is chiefly because many officials were corrupt and obstructive. The government demanded big fees to allow in medicines, vehicles and other relief supplies, for example. Local NGOs received even less. Foreign aid agencies set up a logistics compound where they held meetings in English. That helped them co-ordinate with one another but left Haitian organizations in the cold.

This spurning of Haiti’s institutions came at a high cost. Eager to impress donors at home, aid agencies built clinics, but the government was left without money to pay doctors and nurses. Foreign contractors saw far more of their money than did local businesses. The mistrust of officialdom was understandable, but experience in other poor countries shows that it is possible to funnel money through governments while strengthening their ability to monitor how it is spent.

It could have been better

“Non-traditional” donors such as Venezuela did not circumvent Haiti’s government. Some of the money from its PetroCaribe program, which lets participants buy oil with credit on subsidized terms and invest the profits from reselling it, was usefully spent on infrastructure. But this encouraged Haiti to accumulate debt. Should Venezuela, whose economy is suffering from the slump in oil prices, withdraw its subsidy, Haiti now risks disaster. The country needs grants, not more debt.

The progress from being a fragile state to becoming a functional one is inevitably slow. The World Bank reckons that even the fastest reformers require 15-30 years to move from Haiti’s level of institutional development to Ghana’s. Yet today’s political crisis suggests that Haiti may be moving in the wrong direction. Outsiders can do little to stabilize democracy in the country. But the 2010 tragedy could have been an opportunity to work through its institutions rather than around them, making them stronger. Unfortunately, Haiti’s friends did not make the most of it.

Earthquake: Warning for the region

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of the University of the West Indies (UWI) is warning the region to “move expeditiously” towards building resilience amid predictions of the Caribbean being hit with an earthquake with a magnitude of eight or larger.

“We must develop, legislate and enforce Building Codes using up-to-date seismic hazard maps based on the latest available science. Preparedness measures at the individual levels are insufficient and greater efforts are needed to facilitate self-resilience,” the SRC said in a statement as it marked the fifth anniversary of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti in 2010, killing an estimated 300,000 people.

The SRC said that the earthquake in Haiti “should have been the wakeup call for a fundamental shift in regional mechanisms for coping with seismic hazards”.

It said major earthquake disasters around the world have stimulated similar shifts and resulted in greater resilience to seismic hazards in these regions.

“This has not happened in the Caribbean and the region continues to be extremely vulnerable to seismic events,” the SRC said, adding “research suggests that the region is capable of generating an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or larger every 3-5 years.

“Of more concerns, we are long overdue for a magnitude 8.0 earthquake, which has 32 times more energy than the Haiti event. In light of these sobering facts, it is imperative for the region to move expeditiously towards building resilience to such events,” it added.

The SRC said that while there have been advances in many areas, “the effectiveness of the implemented strategy from country to country still needs to be measured.

“The need for broad based impact assessments for seismic hazards and risks is now greater than ever with clearly established short term and long term objectives. Every year that passes without the necessary measures being in place is a year closer to a repeat of the Haiti disaster. Now is the time to be ready,” the SRC added.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 27 janvier 2015

 New French ambassador in Haiti

Elisabeth Beton-Delègue was appointed as the new French Ambassador to Haiti in order to replace Ambassador Patrick Nicoloso, who was accredited in Haiti on June 29th, 2013, but was recently called to other functions.

Leonela Relys Díaz has left us

Last Saturday, the author Leonela Relys Díaz who was also an educator and the creator of the program to eliminate illiteracy "Yo, í puedo" (Wi mwen kapab), died of cancer. Her program broadcasted in Haiti, and later in the Dominican Republic, help hundreds of thousands of people learn how to read and write.

Did you know?

Ten percent of the richest Haitians possess 70 percent of all of the country’s income. While two out of three Haitians live on less than two dollars a day, 82 percent of those are in rural areas.

The disparities on the island are going to continue to increase, experts said.
During the First "Forum of the Dominican diplomacy" which ended last Friday, Temístocles Montás, Dominican Minister of the Economy, Planning and Development declared to the diplomatic corps, that Haiti was the highest priority for his country’s foreign policy, "Not only because of the importance in economic terms but especially for the implications of the migratory pressure on the Dominican nation and the implementation of big national development objectives."
In his speech, he declared, that according to the projections of "The Millenium Project: Latinoamérica on 2030" and of the "Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures" of the University of Denver, the disparities between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, are going to increase on the horizon of 2030, "When the objectives fixed in the national Strategy of development (of the RD) will be reached."
The Secretary indicated that according to these reports, in 2030, the population of the island will reach 25 million inhabitants. The Gross domestic product per capita (GDP) in Dominican Republic will be at $12,000 in 2030, compared to $5,296 in 2010.  Whereas for Haiti it will be at $1,043, compared to $720 in 2010. "It means that the income gap between the two countries will increase if the current trends remain. The GDP per capita in Haiti represented 13.6 percent of the Dominican GDP in 2010, and would represent no more than 9 percent in 2030. Temístocles Montás underlined that the migratory pressure from Haiti towards the Dominican Republic, will increase compared to the current migratory flow.

Haiti minister at U.N. asks world to support new government

(Reuters) - Haiti's foreign minister on Monday asked the U.N. Security Council and the rest of the world to continue supporting the impoverished Caribbean nation after President Michel Martelly named a new cabinet to end street protests.

Martelly announced his cabinet choices via Facebook late on Sunday night, keeping the ministers of defense, foreign affairs, health, tourism, education and public works in their jobs and appointing allies to the key positions of planning minister and secretary of state for public security.

The announcement was part of an attempt to end a wave of street demonstrations against Martelly's rule.

"We'd like the Security Council as well as all of our partners in the international community to continue to back the government and people of Haiti as they move toward shoring up the rule of law and democracy," Haiti's Foreign Minister Duly Brutus told the 15-nation council.

He added that Haiti "has overcome successfully the crisis which was threatening to undercut the achievements and results of the stabilization program undertaken over the past decade."

Brutus was speaking at a special Security Council session on the connection between development, peace and security.

Haiti has a long history of coups, uprisings and dictatorships and the dissolution of parliament raised fears that it is again on a slippery slope toward violent unrest.

Although Martelly is barred from re-election, his opponents accuse him of engineering the current crisis in order to promote his own candidate to succeed him in election late this year, possibly even his wife, Sophia Martelly.

Haiti is struggling to overcome decades of instability. It is recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake and a cholera epidemic that has killed thousands and is widely blamed on U.N. peacekeepers.

The United Nations has not accepted responsibility for the cholera outbreak.

Commercial activities on the Haitian-Dominican border have been paralyzed

The market of Jimani / Malpasse was again surrounded on Tuesday, January 13th, 2015 because of an imposed 2,500-peso tax demanded by Dominican authorities to Haitian students and vendors who spent more than 30 days in the Dominican Republic.

The union members of the Association of the Carriers and Workers of Malpasse (ATTM) in Founds-Parisien began a strike since Monday, January 12th, to demand that Dominican authorities cancel this measure, which they declared illegal. They also intend to denounce the mass repatriations of Haitian that begun on January 2nd, according to GARR.

On January 12th and 13th, 2015, vendors and customers who had come to do business at the border market of Jimani, had to turn back because commercial activities were paralyzed, according to eyewitnesses.

Romain Dérissaint, who heads the ATTM, denounced the decision taken by the Dominican authorities which requires every Haitian vendor present a valid passport in order to have access to the border market of Jimani.

The union activist also denounced the ill-treatment subjected to Haitian migrants during repatriations.

In only one day (January 12th, 2015), 43 Haitians among whom 13 women and 8 children were repatriated at the border of Jimani / Malpasse. These repatriated people were intercepted in the streets of the Dominican Republic whereas they attended to their ordinary activities.

"I work as cleaning lady for Dominican woman. I was quite surprised when immigration agents picked me up at my home with my 4 children and brought me to the Jimani border," confided a woman to two GARR representatives who were on site.

It should be highlighted that since the signature of the draft agreement on the mechanisms of Haitians' repatriations signed on December 2nd, 1999 by Haitian and Dominican authorities, GARR always denounced its violation during repatriations. GARR has continued to plead nonstop for its effective application.

A binational meeting during which representatives of the Haitian and Dominican National police force participated, as well as transportation union representatives, and the general of the Dominican Armed forces took place at the Jimani border in the afternoon of January 12th, 2015. At this meeting, no decision favorable to the resolution of this conflict was taken. Another meeting took place on Friday, January 16th with the aim of the freeing up commercial activities on Jimani / Malpasse border.

Belgium will still not have a Haitian ambassador

Belgium has been waiting since the last fall for Haiti to appoint another ambassador. Since his arrival in 2013, the current appointee never received the approval of the Belgian and European authorities, according to the publication “La Libre Belgique.”

On his Wikipedia page, Josué Pierre-Louis appears as "the extraordinary messenger and the authorized agent of Haiti with the European Union and with the Kingdom of Belgium." Actually, he was never recognized as ambassador since he arrived in Brussels in 2013.

"We refused the approval, and we would like him to leave,” summarized a Belgian diplomat. In a letter to Haitian authorities last fall, Brussel asked that a new ambassador be appointed. To date, according to this diplomat, no replied to this letter has been received.

The European Union (EU), following Belgian’s decision, also refused to accredit him in the second half-year of 2013. "It is a rather exceptional procedure ", a European state employee recognized. " There are cases of ambassadors to a country that topples over during a coup d'état. These people find themselves suddenly on the other side of the regime. But here the man was sent by his own country".

Josué Pierre - Louis's reaction

Mr. Pierre-Louis will be next week in Brussels. For the moment he is in Haiti, explained his secretary, following phone calls from of “Libre Begique.”

He hopes that Belgium is going to reconsider its position and asserts that the new Haitian government will address this case as soon as a Parliament will have been formed.

How to bring the Brazilian companies in Haiti?

The Inter-American Development Bank (BID) in partnership with the Center for Facilitation of Investments (CFI), and the Association of Haitian Industries (ADIH) organized a workshop under the theme "How to bring Brazilian companies to Haiti?" The event focused on the possibilities of inter-cultural management, as well as development strategies for the assembly sector between Brazil and Haiti. This workshop was managed by Xavier S. Casademunt, director of the Business Administration School of Brazil (ESADE) and professor-partner in the Internationalization of "ESADE Business School."

Mass visitors

Members of the United Nations Security Council arrived last Friday to Port-au-Prince for a three day visit. They were scheduled to have discussions with the highest authorities of the country including President Michel Martelly in particular on the question of holding elections.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the Madrid Club is expected, on January 27th, 28th and 29th in the capital to also discuss the case for elections. It will be led by former Mexican president, Luiz Felipe Calderon and former Bolivian president Jorge Kiroga.

Demonstrations against the French weekly magazine Charlie in Niger: five people were killed

The final count on the violence in Niamey amounts to five deaths, said the president of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou in a speech to the nation, last Saturday evening. Four people died in church fires, and the fifth one in a bar, specified the head of state.

The persecution of churches continued for the large part of the day. Many of them, in particular the church Saint Augustin of Niamey, in the city’s outskirts, was left in smoke. All in all, about twenty Christian places of worship and churches were set on fire. Out of the approximate fifty churches in Niamey, very few of them today have been left in good condition.

As for the main cathedral of Niamey, It was secured early on by security forces and its priests were evacuated under cover, according to sources close to the church. The most significant damage was caused by groups of young people on motorcycles, carrying Molotov cocktails that were thrown in churches, bars, restaurants and hotels.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 11 février 2015

 Protesters march in Haiti capital to demand lower gasoline prices, call for president's ouster

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – At least 6,000 protesters marched through Haiti's capital Saturday to demand lower gas prices and the ouster of President Michel Martelly.

The protest in Port-au-Prince remained peaceful overall although police briefly threw tear gas and dispersed a crowd that had thrown trash and tires in the street to block traffic.

The protest, which diminished in strength as the afternoon wore on, was the latest in a series of demonstrations over recent weeks fueled by anger over gas prices.

The government recently lowered the price by about 25 cents to $4.50 a gallon and diesel prices dropped by about 20 cents to $3.55, but protesters say the reductions don't fully reflect the global drop in oil prices.

"The cost of living is too high," said Joel Pierre, a welder who joined Saturday's protest instead of going to work.

He said he also would join in a two-day general strike scheduled to start Monday that is aimed at forcing a shutdown of schools, banks and other institutions.

"We need to let the government know that this is serious," Pierre said.

Bus drivers struck for two days earlier in the week, stranding hundreds of thousands of workers and students.

Protesters also remain angry that President Michel Martelly began ruling by decree last month after parliament was dissolved. Long-delayed elections have not been held.

Haiti-Venezuela: the oil story

Venezuela has given Haiti tankers of oil under preferential financing terms for years. What’s not to love?

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez passed away earlier this year, Haiti announced a three-day period of national mourning for the man who had become “a great friend of Haiti.” One month later, President Michel Martelly’s administration announced that it would name Haiti’s second largest airport after the late Venezuelan leader.

The fêting wasn’t out of the blue. Back in 2007, thousands of Haitians spilled into the streets to welcome Chávez during a state visit that marked a new agreement with then-president René Préval. That deal has brought 26 million barrels of oil and other petroleum products to the country under preferential financing terms, which has also allowed Haiti to fund a host of other development projects. The conspicuous power plants and roads funded by the program are one reason that Haitians champion Chávez and his country so much.

Venezuela started PetroCaribe – part regional alliance, part bulwark against U.S. influence in Latin America – in 2005. The program now gives 18 countries access to oil under preferential financing terms. In Haiti’s case, it works like this: Venezuela sends the country petroleum products – a total of $2.8 billion-worth as of July 2013. (The oil accounts for 11,000 of the 12,000 barrels of oil Haiti uses each day.) Haiti then sells the fuel to local energy and petrol companies. The exact terms depend on international oil prices, but Haiti pays Venezuela for about 40 percent of the fuel imports up front. The remaining 60 percent is payable over the next 25 years at 1 percent interest, with a two-year grace period. In the meantime, that chunk of money can be used by the central government for other projects.

It’s a significant source of revenue. During a June visit from Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s new president, Martelly said that the program funded 94 percent of all current infrastructure, agriculture, and education projects. “The majority of reconstruction projects,” he said, “such as roads, housing, hospitals, squares, and public buildings currently running in the country are financed from PetroCaribe funds.” An airport runway in Cap-Haïtien was one such project, hence the Hugo Chávez International Airport moniker.

The de facto aid that comes via PetroCaribe goes straight into government coffers and can be used however the state sees fit. That sort of unrestricted and direct funding is a far cry from most external money Haiti receives. In the two years following the January 2010 earthquake, donors sent less than 1 percent of the billions in aid money to the Haitian government. Almost 80 percent of money sent by the U.S. government was awarded to contractors in the Washington, D.C., area.

Because the loan on the PetroCaribe money will ostensibly come due one day, the funds are supposed to be used in ways that will provide a return – “growth-enhancing investment projects,” as the International Monetary Fund puts it (p. 13). That’s one reason Parliament demanded an explanation from the Prime Minister’s office in May when it suspected mismanagement of the oil funds. But even setting aside those worries, the structure underpinning Haiti’s PetroCaribe system may be another cause for consternation.

Once local energy companies pay for the imported fuel, they transform it into power and then sell it right back to the state through Électricité d’Haïti (EDH), the national utility. EDH then distributes electricity to Haitian homes and businesses. But its grids have deteriorated over decades of neglect, its offices lack effective billing and collection systems, and thousands of DIY connections siphon electricity away illegally. The consequence is that EDH collects revenues for only 19 percent of the electricity it provides, Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has said. The Haitian government has covered the shortfall with subsidies, recently to the tune of about $200 million in annual losses.

Not all Venezuelan fuel imports are burned to produce electricity. Some go to gas companies and, eventually, to power the vehicles of the drivers who clog Port-au-Prince streets nearly every hour of every day. Others wind up running the diesel generators that power pockets of the country during blackouts. The prices at the pump for gasoline, diesel, and kerosene haven’t changed in more two years (p. 12), even though world fuel prices and shipping costs fluctuate regularly. The pump-price stability is no accident; the Haitian government adjusts excise taxes and customs duties on fuel – it forgoes revenues, and sometimes provides outright subsidies – to keep the prices stable.

Giving electricity to people who would otherwise have none and cheap gas to everyone is good politics but terrible economics. The IMF notes that energy and fuel subsidies are expensive and inefficient ways to help the poor – and that every subsidy must be paid for by someone, somewhere, eventually. The rich use much more energy than the poor and therefore benefit the most, energy subsidies can crowd-out the very sort of ‘growth-enhancing’ public investment PetroCaribe is supposed to support, and fuel subsidies encourage overconsumption and increase pollution. Haiti’s years-long Venezuelan-fuel bender is more than enough to give pause to anyone whose parents ever told them not to buy gas or groceries on a credit card.

As inflation, slow growth, and product shortages plague Maduro’s people at home, Venezuela has recently decided to double PetroCaribe interest rates for some countries. Haiti’s rate remains unchanged so far.

Perhaps the Haitian debt that is slowly snowballing under PetroCaribe will never actually come due. Venezuela already canceled the $395 million that was owed under the program after the 2010 earthquake. Haiti has accumulated more than $1.1 billion in PetroCaribe debt in the three-plus years since the quake, but as the least-well-off country in the program, it may receive more grace than the other 17 members. Or, with a joint Venezuela-Haiti entity in the works that will soon assume responsibility for the account – and its debt – maybe the Haitian government will be able to distance itself from the fallout of any possible future default. In the meantime, Haiti’s administration has asked to pay part of its bill with crop exports, including coffee and mangoes. They will amount to an estimated $12 million yearly, perhaps enough to cover a month’s-worth of oil repayments.

Haiti has deep ties to Venezuela; heads of state from the two nations can hardly meet without rehashing the story of early–19th-century Haitian President Alexandre Pétion providing Simón Bolívar with sanctuary and military aid in his quest to win Latin American independence from Spain. The destiny of the oil deal and its aftereffects may write the next chapter of the two countries’ relations – and determine how Haitians ultimately view Chávez and his legacy to their country.

US PRESSING CUBA FOR DIPLOMATIC TIES…

(Reuters) - The United States is pressing Cuba to allow the opening of its embassy in Havana by April, U.S. officials told Reuters, despite the Communist island's demand that it first be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

A refusal by Cuba to allow the United States to quickly establish an official embassy for the first time in half a century could complicate talks between the Cold War foes, reflecting enduring mistrust as they move to end decades of confrontation.

Striking Cuba from the terrorism list could take until June or longer, although the White House is pushing officials to move quickly, said two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the State Department's review to take Cuba off the list.

Washington is eager to re-establish diplomatic ties before a regional summit in Panama in April, when President Barack Obama will meet Cuban leader Raul Castro for the first time since 2013, the officials said.

The two leaders announced a historic deal on Dec. 17 to restore relations. U.S. and Cuban diplomats will meet this month or in early March in Washington for a second round of talks.

While renewing diplomatic relations could happen quickly, the process to normalize, including removing the U.S. trade embargo, will take far longer.

Cuba has not made removal from the list a condition for restoring ties, U.S. officials said. But Havana made clear during the first round of talks last month that it first wants to be removed from the terrorism list.

GETTING OFF THE LIST

For Cuba, which considers its designation an injustice, getting removed from the list would be a long-coveted propaganda victory at home and abroad.

Washington placed Cuba on the list in 1982, citing then President Fidel Castro's training and arming of Communist rebels in Africa and Latin America. The list is short: just Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba.

But Cuba's presence on the list has been questioned in recent years. The State Department's latest annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" says Cuba has long provided a safe haven for members of the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrillas.

But ETA, severely weakened by Spanish and French police, called a ceasefire in 2011 and has pledged to disarm. And the FARC has been in peace talks with the Colombian government for the past two years, with Cuba as host.

Even the State Department acknowledged in its report that Cuba has made progress. "There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups," it said.

As part of the U.S. shift in policy toward Cuba, the White House ordered a State Department review of Cuba's listing as a state sponsor of terrorism, the U.S. officials said.

A U.S. national security official said intelligence agencies were under pressure from senior Obama administration officials to complete their role in the removal process by March.

"The process is under way," said the official.

To finalize Cuba's removal, Obama would need to submit to Congress a report stating Havana had not supported terrorism-related activities for six months, and that Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support terrorism in the future. Cuba would be automatically dropped from the list 45 days later.

Getting the embassy open is also tricky.

Converting the six-story U.S. interests sections in Havana into a full-fledged embassy after 53 years would require ending restrictions on the number of U.S. personnel in Havana, limits on diplomats' movements and appointing an ambassador. It would allow the U.S. to renovate the building and have U.S. security posted around the building, replacing Cuban police.

Cuba also wants the United States to scale back its support for Cuban dissidents when the sides meet again. U.S. administration officials have stood firm both publicly and privately that they intend to keep supporting the dissidents.

"I can't imagine that we would go to the next stage of our diplomatic relationship with an agreement not to see democracy activists," U.S. negotiator Roberta Jacobson told a hearing chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio, a vocal Republican opponent of Obama's new Cuba policy.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 17 février 2015

 Dominican Republic

Haitian Man Lynched Amid Dominican Republic Immigration Controversy

Huffington Post - The corpse of a Haitian man was found hanging from a tree in a public park in the Dominican Republic’s second-largest city [last] Wednesday morning, according the newspaper Listín Diario.

Local police said the killing in Santiago appeared to have occurred during a robbery. But human rights groups and other observers pointed out that the crime comes amid a furious debate over immigration from neighboring Haiti and a decade-long series of legal measures that have stripped birthright citizenship from thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent.

The victim, identified by the newspaper only by his nickname Tulile, worked shining shoes in Ercilia Pepín Park, where his body was found, according to Listín Diario. His hands and feet were bound, according to Dominican daily Diario Libre.

A spokesman for the Santiago police tweeted that investigators had “rejected racism as a motive,” and said investigators believed the killing resulted from a robbery.

Police declined to speak about the case by telephone with The Huffington Post.

Many view anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic as racist in nature because the vast majority of Haitians and their Dominican-born descendants are black. Most Dominicans are mixed-race or white, and 11 percent are black, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Wade McMullen, an attorney with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, said investigators appeared to have discounted race as a motive too quickly.

"For the Dominican authorities to rule out racism as a factor less than 24 hours after a man of Haitian descent was hanged in a public square is not just irresponsible policing, it is an outrageous example of discrimination endemic to the Dominican Republic," McMullen wrote to HuffPost in an email. "And frankly it is all too reminiscent of the shameful denials of Southern officials during the decades of terror lynchings perpetrated against African-Americans here at home."

Anti-Haitian sentiment runs high among some in the Dominican Republic. A small group of Dominican nationalists gathered in Santiago the day before the Haitian man's body was found to burn a Haitian flag and call for deportations of Haitian migrants.

A series of legal measures since 2004 have done away with birthright citizenship, and a decision by the Constitutional Court in 2013 applied the new standard retroactively, requiring the federal government to strip citizenship from Dominicans born after 1929 to undocumented Haitian parents.

A law passed in 2014 created a pathway for those who lost their citizenship to normalize their status. Fewer than 9,000 people applied, however. Human rights organization Amnesty International says that as many as 110,000 qualify.

Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, Amnesty International’s advocacy director for the Americas, said the human rights watchdog was “monitoring the situation” and urged the authorities to vigorously investigate the hanging.

“Amnesty International recalls that authorities have the obligation to thoroughly investigate the case like in any case of allegation of homicide,” Gonçalves Margerin wrote in an email to HuffPost, “but given the particular context going on in the country, special attention should be given whether it was a hate crime based on the origins or racial characteristics of the person.”

Still in Dominican Republic:

The Haitian Flag was burned

In Santiago in the Dominican Republic, organizations from the neighborhood of "Le Ciruelitos", burned a Haitian flag in the street, in what they described as an act of rebellion against the laissez-faire attitude of the Dominican government, in the face of an invasion of Haitian immigrants without papers.

JetBlue will connect Boston to Port-au-Prince

Last Wednesday, JetBlue Airways, the biggest airline company at Logan International Airport in Boston (BOS), announced three new seasonal flights without layover from Boston, one of which will be bound for Port-au-Prince.

JetBlue will offer the only connections without layover from Boston to Port-au-Prince.

The new service towards Port-au-Prince will be launched June 17th and will continue until September 5th, 2015 with flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is subject to the government’s approval. The service to Haiti will complete JetBlue’s daily flights to Haiti. These include one daily flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy’s International Airport (JFK), and two daily flights from Fort-Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL).

Special launch rates will be available starting Wednesday, February 12th, 2015, from $149, for one way tickets to Port-au-Prince between August 15th and September 2nd, 2015, Wednesdays and Saturdays only. Advance purchase 21 days prior to travel date is required. Prices are subject to availability, cannot be available on every day or every flight, and can change without advance notice. Special promotions must be presented at the time of the reservation and are for one-way, non-stop (unless otherwise specified). They are not refundable and not transferable.

To make reservations, visit www.jetblue.com

The Mobilization, it is not finished …

The national platform of labor unions of faithful transport (PNFTS), regrouped about twenty public transportation labor unions in Port-au-Prince, and in provincial towns, and announced that the mobilization for the reduction of gas prices will resume after the Carnival.