- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haiti withdraws offer to host OAS XLV General Assembly
The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) took note today of the notification of the withdrawal of its offer to host the XLV (45th) General Assembly of the Organization due to “financial and logistical constraints” currently experienced by the Government of Haiti, as expressed by the country´s Foreign Minister, Duly Brutus, in a letter sent to the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza.
The Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Suriname to the Organization, Niermala Badrising, informed the representatives of the situation and reported that the discussion on the new site will be on the agenda of the next meeting of the Permanent Council.
Secretary General Insulza explained that the situation raised by the decision of Haiti “is foreseen both in the OAS Charter and the rules of the General Assembly,” which indicate that “if it cannot be held in the location previously chosen, it should be held at the headquarters of the Organization,” unless another member state offers to host the event at least three months ahead of time.
The letter from the Minister of Foreign Relations of Haiti, Duly Brutus, to the Secretary General explains that the withdrawal of the offer to host the event is due to “financial and logistical constraints that could affect organization of the forty-fifth regular session of the General Assembly and Haiti's ability to host a fruitful and outstanding General Assembly, given the electoral process that the Government of the Republic has set in motion.”
During the Council meeting, the Permanent Representative of Haiti to the OAS, Bocchit Edmond, added that “it has been a difficult decision for the Government of Haiti, because we wanted to host the event twenty years after the first time in Haiti. There are reasons beyond our control that have forced us to take this decision.”
The decision to name Haiti host of the XLV General Assembly had been taken by acclamation by the member states during the XLIV General Assembly, held last year in Asuncion, Paraguay.
Attack on consulate stuns Dominican Republic-Haiti ties
Herald staff with Télam
Santo Domingo.- The government of the Dominican Republic last night protested the attack on the Dominican Consulate in Haiti Wednesday which according to local media were thousands of people who marched to protest alleged Dominican racism.
The diplomatic crisis caps two weeks of incidents in the wake of the death of a Haitian national found hanged in a park in Santiago, the country’s second biggest city
In a press conference called in haste, Dominican Foreign minister Andrés Navarro said the country cannot accept the attacks on its consulate. "A group of people not only threw stones at the facilities of our consulate, but also broke into the interior of the property, and dared to take down the Dominican flag from its pole and tried to mutilate and burn it."
He noted that while the Haitian government didn’t sponsor the assault, it should take clear steps to halt to the violence against Dominicans interests in Haiti.
Navarro said the Dominican government has been cautious and patient in its response to such violence.
The official warned Haiti’s authorities however that patience has its limit, "and we have proven to the world that we’ve made the greatest efforts to maintain a healthy, productive, respectful relationship with the Haitian government.”
Navarro said the Dominican government has called its envoy in Port au Prince for consultation and issued a diplomatic note of protest over yesterday’s violence.
He said Dominican Republic has been subjected to an international campaign, accusing it of racism, in contrast to the solidarity shown by the government and the Dominican people toward Haiti.
Navarro called the crimes in the country in recent days including the murder of two Haitian nationals, and the burglary at the residence of Haiti ambassador Fritz Cineas isolated facts, to which Dominican authorities gave a resounding and swift response, and in no way stems from official policy of the Dominican government, for which "it’s unacceptable to accuse the country of racism and xenophobia against the neighboring nation."
The official’s statements respond to a letter of protest to a missive from his Haitian counterpart Pierre Duly Brutus, accusing Dominican Republic of fostering racist policies.
Just hours after Navarro’s statement, Haiti envoy Fritz Cineas was removed from the post and replaced with Daniel Supplice, an announcement that comes one day after a group of Haitians staged a protest in Haiti’s Embassy demanding faster access to documents to qualify for Dominican residency.
THE ROOT March 2nd 2015
Man Celebrates 108th Birthday and 82 Years of Marriage to 104-Year-Old
Duranord Veillard knows a lot about longevity, but Saturday is a milestone for the record books. USA Today reports that not only will Veillard celebrate turning 108, he will also celebrate 82 years of marriage to his wife Jeanne, who is 104.
The husband and wife are believed to be the oldest couple in New York’s Rockland County, the report says, and both will celebrate their birthdays this weekend. Veillard’s wife, Jeanne, will turn 105 in May, but both will celebrate their birthdays at their home this weekend with family, friends and others, notes the report.
Veillard, a native of Haiti, studied law and lived in Port-au-Prince. He married Jeanne in November 1932 and together they have raised five children. He obtained a visa to visit the United States in 1968 after losing his job as a judge and never looked back, the report says. He settled in Spring Valley, N.Y., and worked as lab technician at the Good Samaritan Hospital for 10 years before retiring.
During an early birthday celebration Thursday at the couple’s home, Jeanne recounted to USA Today how they met.
“I found him in the street,” she joked in Haitian creole to a room full of relatives, the news outlet writes.
The Veillards, who leave home only to go to the doctor, have 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, the report notes.
During the celebration, Veillard revealed his secret to longevity: “That's God,” he said, USA Today writes.
The Veillards also nap early and often, the report notes.
Most peacekeepers in Haiti to return home
Buenos Aires Herald
The majority of Argentine United Nations peacekeepers based in Haiti will return to their country in April, signaling the virtual end to the Argentine commitment to the peace-keeping mission in the Caribbean island after 10 years, the government announced yesterday.
Argentina has been sending peacekeeping forces to Haiti since August 2004, when the UN established a peace mission in a resolution that had been ordered by the Security Council.
Argentine forces are returning after the UN mandated a downsizing of the peacekeeping mission in the island. The decision will not only affect Argentina, but also all the other countries that have contributed personnel.
Defense Minister Agustín Rossi, who was visiting the men and women working on the island, yesterday praised the forces, which are composed of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel. The Kirchnerite official participated in a United Nations award ceremony, where medals were given to several military groups working in Haiti — including Argentine peacekeepers.
“We are more than satisfied with the role played by Argentine armed forces throughout these 10 years,” Rossi said after visiting a hospital managed by Air Force in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince.The medical centre will continue operating in the country with a team of 70 officers, the majority being doctors and nurses.
CDC Leads Consortium Aimed At Eliminating Malaria From Hispaniola By 2020
CDC Foundation: Consortium Aims to Eliminate Malaria on Hispaniola by 2020 Starting With $29.9 Million Grant to CDC Foundation “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is leading a consortium of malaria partners aiming to eliminate indigenous cases of malaria on the island of Hispaniola by 2020. Acceleration of malaria elimination efforts will begin with a $29.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the CDC Foundation…” (2/25).
Confident Obama predicts success in immigration appeal
MIAMI (AP) -- President Barack Obama urged immigrants thrown into limbo by legal wrangling to keep planning for eventual relief, professing confidence Wednesday that his deportation directives won't be thrown out in court.
"This is just one federal judge," Obama said of the district judge in Texas who put Obama's order on hold. "We have appealed it very aggressively. We're going to be as aggressive as we can."
Obama said he expected to win when a U.S. circuit court hears his appeal, but added that his administration will "take it up from there" if the appeal fails, in an apparent reference to the Supreme Court. He said at each stage of the process, the White House believes it has the better argument.
The strong-willed defense of Obama's executive actions came as millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally wait to see whether Obama's order shielding them from deportation will be upheld. A 26-state coalition led by Texas is suing Obama, alleging he overstepped his legal authority.
Dismissing those hoping for a presidential about-face, Obama insisted he was "absolutely committed" to the new policy, which he described as focusing deportation efforts on felons.
"People should be gathering up their papers, make sure you can show you are a long standing resident of the United States," Obama said at a town hall meeting hosted by the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo. He said immigrants should make sure that by the time the legal issues are sorted out, "you are ready to go."
As Obama spoke in Miami, another immigration drama was playing out in Congress, where lawmakers were attempting to fund Homeland Security over the insistence by some Republicans that Obama's immigration actions be repealed at the same time. Obama derided Republicans for holding national security funding hostage and said he would veto a stand-alone measure to repeal his actions being contemplated in the Senate.
The immigration dispute has increasingly taken on political overtones as focus shifts to the campaign for Obama's successor, raising questions about whether Republicans can appeal to the fast-growing number of Hispanic voters. Obama said the first question for 2016 presidential candidates should be whether they really intend to deport 11 million people living here illegally. If not, voters should demand to know their alternative plan, Obama said.
Of Jeb Bush, a likely Republican candidate who is one of his party's more moderate voices on immigration, Obama said he appreciated that the former Florida governor was concerned about fixing the immigration system.
"I would suggest he talk to the speaker of the House and the members of his party," Obama said.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Pour seulement les deux premiers mois de l’année 2015, les autorités dominicaines ont rapatrié 892 ressortissants-es haïtiens au point frontalier de Belladère, selon des données du Garr.
16 personnes, dont 12 hommes et 4 femmes, ont été rapatriées, le jeudi 5 mars, à la frontière de Belladère/Elias Piña (est) par des militaires dominicains, apprend AlterPresse.
Les quatre femmes ont été rapatriées sans leurs enfants, âgés pour la plupart de 14 mois à 8 ans, rapporte le Groupe d’appui aux rapatriés et refugiés (Garr), dans une note.
Ces gens ont été accueillis dans un état très critique aux environs de 2 heures de l’après-midi au bureau du Garr à Belladère.
La séparation de familles, surtout des mineurs de leurs parents, est pourtant contraire au Protocole d’accord sur les mécanismes de rapatriement, constamment violé par les autorités dominicaines.
98 migrants et migrantes haïtiens ont aussi été rapatriés à Belladère du dimanche 1er au mardi 3 mars 2015.
Plusieurs d’entre eux étaient arrivés aux environs de 10h pm contrairement au dit document qui interdit les rapatriements après 6h du soir pour les jours ouvrables et aux jours dimanches et fériés dans l’après midi.
Cette amplification des rapatriements survient après l’assassinat, entre autres, d’un migrant haïtien, Henry Claude Jean, le 11 février 2015.
Sur 70 hommes, 16 femmes et 12 enfants, 33 d’entre eux dont 14 hommes, 9 femmes et 10 enfants, ont été assistés par le Garr.
Résidant pour la plupart dans la province dominicaine de Azua depuis plus de 10 ans, ces migrants haïtiens sont originaires des départements de l’Artibonite, de la Grand’Anse et du Centre.
« Les risques demeurent plus grands pour les mois à venir, surtout à partir du mois de juin de 2015 », qui marquera officiellement la fin du plan national de régularisation des étrangers en situation irrégulière, en République Dominicaine (Pnre).
Pour l’année 2014, 2, 227 ressortissants ont été rapatriés au point frontalier de Belladère/Elias Piña dans le Plateau central, selon les données du Garr.
Le nombre total de rapatriés s’élevait à 5569, alors qu’au point frontalier de Jimani/Malpasse, 90 personnes avaient été rapatriés-es, selon les chiffres communiqués par le Service jésuite aux migrants (Sjm-Haïti), à la frontière du Nord-Est (Ouanaminthe/Dajabon).
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Compte tenu de l’importance qu’a accordé l’ex-président du Venezuela à Haïti, Hugo Chavez, le Premier ministre, Evans Paul, dit qu’il était important, ce 6 mars 2015, marquant le 2e anniversaire de son décès, de saluer la mémoire de ce grand homme d’État et d’exprimer, au nom du gouvernement, la reconnaissance du peuple haïtien envers le peuple vénézuélien.
« Nous profitons de l’occasion pour dire merci au Venezuela pour tout son support à Haïti. Le fonds Petro caribe en témoigne bien. Nous n’avons pas oublié Hugo Chavez », .
Le chef de la Primature a également profité de l’occasion pour souligner que les relations bilatérales entre Haïti et le Venezuela sont au beau fixe ainsi que les relations trilatérales entre Haïti-Cuba-Venezuela.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
La « Platfòm Pitit Desalin » s’apprête à participer aux prochaines compétitions électorales. Mais, ce ne sera pas avec l’équipe Tèt Kale, d'après ce qu’a déclaré l’ex-sénateur, Moïse Jean Charles, ce mardi 10 mars dans les locaux de Rendez-vous 33.
Cette structure, indique Moïse Jean Charles, est à pied d’œuvre sur tout le territoire national en vue de participer aux prochains scrutins. L’organisation de ces compétitions, dit-il, nécessite un environnement propice. Aussi, a-t-il souligné que l’équipe au pouvoir a fait des mis en place, en procédant à la nomination de juges de paix en vue de s’accaparer des résultats.
Quant à l’invitation du Conseil électoral provisoire (CEP), M. Jean Charles n’entend pas y participer, critiquant l’absence de conditions adéquates à ces compétions. Celles-ci, insiste-t-il, doivent être transparentes, crédibles et honnêtes. Toutefois, ce Conseil, convient-il, a été mis en place selon l’esprit de l’article 289 de la Constitution du 29 mars 1987/ version amendée.
Pour l’ancien parlementaire, la mobilisation reprendra son cours. Car, ce qui importe est de chasser le président Michel Joseph Martelly du pouvoir en vue d’organiser des élections générales cette année dans le pays.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
‘Recurrent’ attacks’ shut Dominican Republic consulates in Haiti
Santo Domingo.- The Foreign Ministry (Mirex) said last week that its counterpart in Haiti was informed about the Dominican Government's decision to temporarily close its five consulates, because of recent "recurrent" attacks by Haitian groups, which it affirms pose a risk to their staff.
Mirex spokesman Miguel Medina said Foreign minister Andrés Navarro sent the missive to Haiti counterpart Pierre Duly Brutus Wednesday, noting that the attacks on Dominican consulates there have prevented their day-to-day activities.
In the letter, Navarro says the decision was made because in is view it’s impossible to achieve the security Dominican consular personnel needs, adding that the facilities will remain shuttered until Port-au-Prince guarantees adequate protection.
Caricom again slams Dominican Republic on Haiti row
Santo Domingo.- Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders expressed "serious concern" with the difficulties which people of Haitian descent face in Dominican Republic, EFE reports.
The statement by Caricom is the latest salvo in a war of attrition pitting the Caribbean’s biggest economy and the regional bloc over the issue of undocumented Haitian immigrants, but which they also reject.
"We’re concern with the increasing number of policies that seriously affect Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic" said Caricom leaders in a statement released today.
The regional leaders said Govt. Dominican representatives didn’t extend the deadline to apply for the Foreigners Regularization Plan, in which only 6,937 of those affected could request legalization on time.
Dominican Republic’s special Naturalization Law and Plan emerged after a Constitutional Court ruling in September 2013, which sets the parameters to request citizenship, and unleashed a backlash across the region.
The deadline to apply for the Plan, aimed at people without an official ID and who were born outside the country, ended on February 1.
According Caricom, the fact that 6,937 persons requested to join the Plan implies that "over100,000 people are vulnerable to expulsion."
Caricom cited the Inter-American Human Rights Court ruling handed down on October 22, 2014, which orders the Dominican court to amend its laws to recognize the citizenship of those born in that country.
Haitian immigrants' Brazilian dream sours as work hard to find for tens of thousands
SAO PAULO – Under a scorching sun, dozens of Haitians shuffled impatiently about the brick-walled courtyard of Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. The sight of an approaching employer sparked a skirmish, with the men pushing against each other, jostling for attention.
"How many people you need?" several men shouted. "I need a job, what do you want me to do?" No matter what the job was, someone in the crowd yelled out, "I can do that!"
There are fewer jobs in Brazil than there are Haitians looking for work. An open-door policy intended to help migrants from the impoverished island is fueling Brazil's largest immigration wave since World War II and prompting calls for lawmakers to do more to help the new arrivals.
"Seeing so many seeking jobs and so much hunger for work, it creates tension," said the Rev. Paolo Parise, a priest who directs the parish's efforts to help Haitian migrants and other impoverished newcomers.
While Haiti is picking itself up from the 7.0 earthquake that devastated its capital in 2010, progress has not been enough to keep tens of thousands of Haitians from chasing opportunities abroad, mainly in the United States and the Dominican Republic. But Brazil also has become an attractive landing spot for migrants eager to find a toehold in Latin America's biggest economy.
Brazil has no limit on the number of humanitarian visas it issues to Haitians. National Migration Council figures suggest more than 52,000 Haitians have migrated since 2012 and have become the country's largest group of foreign laborers, outpacing Portuguese who long held the top spot.
"No other country opened the doors for them like Brazil," said Duval Magalhaes, a demographer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais state who has researched the Haitian migration in Brazil.
Wooldeens Turenne, 23, once earned a reliable income guiding missionary workers helping quake victims in Haiti. But such work gradually dried up and, last year, Turenne saw it was time to leave. Despite being fluent in English, going to the United States wasn't an option due to its restrictive immigration laws. Instead, he flew to Panama, then Ecuador, where he received his visa to enter Brazil. He then flew to Sao Paulo.
Jobs can be found in construction, agriculture and factories, but the salaries barely cover Brazil's high cost of living, let alone leave Haitians enough money to support family back home. Employers know Haitians are desperate, and commonly pay them $300 to $400 a month, barely above the legal minimum.
"If they know you are an immigrant, they don't pay you the salary they are supposed to, and they will give you a lot of work to do," Turenne said. "It's better than Haiti, yes, but it's not possible to make a good living."
Two out of three companies interested in hiring migrants through Parise's church are turned away because they don't want to comply with labor laws, or their work sites don't meet safety standards.
Migrant advocates say the Haitians also face racial discrimination, and many struggle to understand Portuguese. Trying to survive on sporadic and meager incomes, most crowd into shared rooms amid the poorest slums ringing cities such as Sao Paulo.
Brazil has gone through a construction boom, both due to an economic expansion that lifted tens of millions out of poverty and because of public works projects tied to last year's World Cup and next year's Olympics. But the economy is now sluggish, contracting the first half of 2014 and barely moving as the year closed.
Former Presidential Security Chief Shot to Death in Haiti
The chief of presidential security under former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was shot to death Monday in the capital, where he had lived since returning to the country after finishing a prison sentence in the United States.
Oriel Jean, who had received a reduced sentence because he provided substantial assistance to U.S. authorities investigating allegations of drug trafficking tied to the Aristide government, was killed in an apparent ambush in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince, police said.
National Police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said two men on a motorcycle came up to Jean and one opened fire before they fled into the crowded streets. The former official was struck in the neck and stomach. No suspects were in custody.
After the attack, as officials tried to collect evidence and witness testimony, Jean's body was sprawled on the street as if he had been shot just as he stepped out of the vehicle, a grey Toyota SUV with tinted windows. The street, in a busy commercial and residential district, was packed with people heading home in the late afternoon.
Jean, who was about 50, had returned to Haiti after completing a sentence in the U.S. for money laundering.
From 2001 to 2003, he had been the head of security for Aristide, who was forced from power in a violent rebellion in February 2004. The following month, Jean was arrested in Canada and extradited to the United States to face charges stemming from an investigation focused on officials and associates of the former government.
Jean had faced up to 20 years in prison but was sentenced in Miami to only three years after providing what officials described in court documents as "substantial assistance" with other cases. The three-year investigation resulted in the arrests of 14 Haitians who held top government and private jobs during the Aristide administration.
He testified in one case that an accused Haitian drug kingpin received a security badge, at a cost of $40,000, which enabled him to travel freely about the country without Haitian police searching him at a time when the Caribbean country had become a transit point for cocaine bound for the United States. Jean testified that the badge had been approved by Aristide but said that the then-president was unaware at the time that his security chief was involved in the drug trade.
Aristide, a former priest who became the first democratically elected president of Haiti, was forced out by a violent rebellion in February 2004. He returned from exile in March 2011 and has kept a low profile though he has been under investigation for corruption while in office.
As a potential witness in that case, Jean had been ordered not to leave the country, Desrosiers said.
Film Review: 'Murder in Pacot'
(variety.com) A chamber drama in which even the chamber itself is on the verge of collapse, Raoul Peck’s “Murder in Pacot” offers little scope for healing as it surveys the geographical and psychological wreckage wrought by Haiti’s catastrophic 2010 earthquake. A dramatic companion piece to “Fatal Assistance,” Peck’s 2013 doc on the same subject, this allegorical story of two couples warring across divisions of class and turf in Port-au-Prince’s post-quake wasteland positively trembles with the weight of its own symbolism; in his first narrative feature since 2000’s “Lumumba,” former Haitian culture minister Peck remains a political filmmaker of stern conviction. Overlong and far from subtle, “Pacot” is nonetheless engrossing enough to entice topically-minded arthouse distributors, and should make considerable waves in Francophone territories.
Peck claims Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Theorem” as the guiding inspiration for his original screenplay, co-written with veteran scribe Pascal Bonitzer (who also worked on “Lumumba”) and Haitian novelist Lyonel Trouillot. The surface resemblance is clear — both films detail the effect of a sexually magnetic drifter on a fractiously fragmented household — though the social context of the invasion and ensuing fallout in “Pacot” is a world away from Pasolini’s Euro-bourgeoisie satire. Instead, Peck’s narrative complicates notions of outsider identity by bringing race and nationality into the stew, while still identifying subtler conflicts within Haiti’s indigenous community.
For starters, the household in question is divided across every imaginable fault line, including the physical ruptures that have rendered most of the house — a once-substantial villa in suburban Port-au-Prince — uninhabitable. Having been all but bankrupted by the earthquake, its married, pointedly unnamed owners (played by Alex Descas and Nigerian singer-actress Ayo) are ordered by the authorities to renovate their ruined home or face having it demolished. To raise money for the necessary repairs, they are forced to move into an adjacent shed, renting out the house’s remaining rooms to Alex (Thibault Vincon), a young white Frenchman working for a foreign aid organization. That this would-be do-gooder is purportedly bringing relief to disenfranchised Haitians while benefiting from one couple’s homelessness is just one of the film’s many blunt ironies. The husband regards Alex with scarcely-contained hostility; his traumatized wife is haunted by less material losses, principally that of their adopted son, who disappeared during the disaster and may be buried under the rubble.
Despite the film’s intimacy of scale — set over just eight days, methodically marked with title cards, it never leaves the confines of the property — this is expansive, high-stakes storytelling, ramping up the melodrama ahead of a punchy, somewhat overwrought climax, complete with thunderclaps and rain-soaked fisticuffs. “Murder in Pacot” (not the most discreet of titles) is most powerful, however, when it tunes into finer sociopolitical observation, as it does in one remarkable sequence where Andremise throws an all-native party in Alex’s absence, with previously separated classes grinding up against each other on the dance floor. Despite such fleeting glimpses of unification amid adversity, Peck’s outlook remains angrily pessimistic: Referred to at frequent intervals, the fetid odor emanating from the couple’s basement is yet another broad metaphor for decaying national foundations.
Handed such a bristling script, the actors are smart enough to underplay the material, largely letting the subtext speak for itself. Kermonde Fifi, in her screen debut, is a particularly riveting presence, playing the heated facade of “Jennifer” with sultry humor while exposing the cool, crafty wiring of the prematurely grown woman behind her.
Tech credits are stark but strong. With its liberal use of astute, peering close-ups, Eric Guichard’s bright, clear lensing contributes to the hothouse atmosphere of the enterprise — a virtue that could use more assistance from Alexandra Strauss’s overly deliberate editing.