- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Launch of Carifesta
The Gardens of the MUPANAH were the showcase last Thursday evening, at an official welcome reception organized by the Ministry of Culture in honor of the main delegations already in Haiti to participate in the 12th edition of the CARIFESTA. The cocktail took place in the presence of the Prime Minister Evans Paul, in the presence of Minister of Culture Ditney Johanne Rateau and of Minister of Tourism Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin. The director of the Mupanah, Michèle Frish, was the host of the evening which ended in the middle of the night.
Then the next day, August 21st, it was "CARIFESTA XII. “Let the party begin" proclaimed President Michel Martelly at the kiosk Occide Jeanty, to officially open the XII edition of this cultural festival. The president addressed in English the guests coming from the Caribbean “who had believed in Haiti and accepted its application to organize the festival.”
The day before, the Prime Minister, Evans Paul, also thanked the guests who helped Haiti organize this big cultural party.
Friday afternoon began with an artistic parade in the streets of Port-au-Prince; a parade rich in the colors of the various Caribbean nations. As for the kiosk Occide Jeanty, many saw it for the first time in the magnificence of the renovation. The kiosk was the final destination of the parade.
This ceremony was a display of the arts and colors. As for Haitian culture, it was represented by greatly renowned Haitian artists: Mikaben, J-Perry, Renette Désir, and Rutschelle Guillaum. They interpreted the hymn of the festival, a composition by Junior Hantz Mercier and Mikaben who surpassed themselves.
A show of sound, light, artistic parade and folk dances made up the opening of the ten days of festivities, with artists coming from various nations of the Caribbean community,
A parade of nations followed. It included delegations carrying their respective flag, as well as taptaps decorated in the colors of 22 nations and symbolically representing a Caribbean known for its diversity.
Unfortunately the rain came along and ended the evening prematurely, just as icons of Haitian music had taken the stage of the kiosk Occide Jeanty: Emeline Michel, Edy François and James Germain to name a few. All of whom had come to participation in the concert. The rain also forced the cancellation of a performance by the group “Taboo Combo.”
But in spite of the rain, as well as technical difficulties, the beauty of the show created immense enthusiasm and the Caribbean started to dance even in the rain!
US senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul trades suits for scrubs on Haiti mission to fight cataract
Presidential candidate and ophthalmologist visits western hemisphere’s poorest country to restore vision to hundreds as he acknowledges political struggles.
Mathieux Saint Fleur has been virtually blind for two decades. In less than 24 hours, he will see again. As the 75-year-old Haitian patient lies on an operating table, a US eye surgeon turned politician reassures him, in broken Creole that the surgery is almost over.
“People need to be encouraged it’s not much longer,” said Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist by training, without taking his eyes off Saint Fleur.
As many of Paul’s competitors courted voters in Iowa and New Hampshire over the last week, Kentucky’s fiery junior senator joined a team of eye surgeons on a four-day mission to Haiti, giving vision to nearly 200 who would not have been blind if they lived in the US. Here in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, “curable blindness” from common ailments such as cataracts is the norm.
But despite the humanitarian focus of the visit, Paul’s precarious place in the 2016 presidential contest was never quite forgotten.
Paul acknowledged his recent struggle during an interview at a Cap-Haitien hotel, where razor wire protects the outer walls and raw sewage flows into the nearby ocean.
“It’s sort of like a schoolyard. Once you got ’em down, everybody piles on,” Paul said of the 2016 contest. “And I’ve been under a dog pile for a couple of weeks.”
There may be cause for optimism, however, in the form of Gary Heavin, a cigar-chomping billionaire Republican donor who was at Paul’s side in Haiti for much of the week, having arrived with the senator and some of the other doctors on his private jet.
At the eye center, at least, it was easy to find evidence that Paul’s privately funded mission made a difference. The trip was organised by the University of Utah’s Moran Eye Center, which regularly leads trips designed to train local doctors and address “curable blindness” in poor areas around the world.
Cataract surgeries often take no longer than 20 minutes, allowing teams of volunteer surgeons to perform dozens in a single day. The Haiti group completed 109 surgeries in the three days Paul was on hand and expected to finish nearly 200 by the time the full group left the country on Saturday.
On Tuesday morning, the day after his surgery, Saint Fleur sat in a room crowded with patients quietly waiting for the bandages to come off. He was speechless for a few moments after the white gauze was peeled away. Then he began to smile.
“I see! I see!” he said, joy spreading across his face. With shaking hands, he began reaching out for nearby medical staff, hugging anyone he could and affectionately touching their faces.
“I love you,” he told a nurse. “Yesterday I couldn’t see!”
Saint Fleur then spoke directly to Paul: “If it’s for money, I could not do this. I have no money,” he said through an interpreter. “God sent you to me.”
Cholera, climate change fuel Haiti's humanitarian crisis: UN
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Climate change, cholera and the return of thousands of emigrants from the neighboring Dominican Republican are fueling a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, the UN warned.
The impoverished Caribbean nation is facing a deluge of problems, pushing an already vulnerable population closer to the edge, said Enzo di Taranto, who heads Haiti's UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Among these pressures is a new cholera outbreak. Cases are up 300 percent in the first months of 2015 compared to the same period last year, di Taranto said in an interview with AFP.
Haiti -- the poorest country in the Americas -- is already suffering from chronic instability and struggling to recover from a devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people and crippled the nation's infrastructure.
A cholera outbreak after the quake was blamed on UN peacekeepers' poor hygiene.
According to UN data, nearly 20,000 people have been affected and 170 killed by the disease since the beginning of the year.
More than 8,800 Haitians have died of cholera since it appeared in October 2010 and, even today, cases recorded in Haiti surpass the total number of people with the disease elsewhere in the world.
Out of an estimated population of 10 million, around three million Haitians still are drinking dirty water, OCHA said.
Beyond the increase in cholera, the humanitarian situation in the country is worsening because of a "convergence of several factors," di Taranto said.
"The devaluation of the gourde (Haitian currency), which means an increase in the price of baseline products like medicine, food and water; the drought which has hit many regions in the country; and also the repatriation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic," are all contributing, he said.
- Families with nothing -
In June, the neighboring Dominican Republic introduced a tough new immigration policy, prompting 60,000 Haitians to leave the country.
Many ended up back in Haiti, straining an already vulnerable system.
The uncontrolled flow is exerting a "demographic pressure on the already very weak health system in Haiti and on the supply of food and water," di Taranto said.
He said the problems are especially bad in the southeastern community of Anse-a-Pitres.
Many families who returned from the Dominican Republic are living hand-to-mouth in shanties.
The effects of climate change are also encroaching. The summer drought previously confined to country's north has crept into the south.
"In the Cayes region and the Macaya natural park, water sources are dry," di Taranto said. "It's a problem that's spreading."
Haiti, which has lost 98 percent of its forest cover, has seen worsening agricultural conditions and topsoil erosion.
Because of this, the warm air current from "El Nino" is affecting Haiti more than other countries in the region.
"We need to launch public rural development programs which let us confront these climatological dynamics that we can't control," di Taranto said.
To address the immediate humanitarian emergency, OCHA estimates it will need around $25 million in the next four to six months.
But five years after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people, international aid for Haiti is diminishing.
It's a situation that directly threatens help for more than 60,000 victims of the quake who are still living in camps.
To access a broader pool of potential donors, the United Nations is planning an online crowdfunding campaign and also using celebrities to draw attention to the cause.
The last such visit was from the singer Beyonce in May.
State Department Cautiously Criticizes Dominican Deportations
A mild rebuke from the Obama administration isn’t doing it for many activists.
Roque Planas
Reporter, Latino Voices, The Huffington Post
The State Department on Friday gently scolded the Dominican Republic for its resumption of deportations, urging the country's government to avoid deporting people to Haiti if they had once held a claim to Dominican citizenship.
The statement was a notable departure for the Obama administration, which has otherwise remained largely silent in recent months as the Dominican government’s widely criticized immigration regularization process wound to a close.
“We recognize the prerogative of the Dominican Republic to remove individuals from its territory who are present without authorization,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner wrote in the statement. “At the same time, we urge the Dominican Republic to avoid mass deportations and to conduct any deportations in a transparent manner that fully respects the human rights of deportees.”
But for many human rights groups that have long protested the Dominican government’s actions, the State Department's remarks didn’t go far enough.
Francesca Menes, a co-coordinator of the #Rights4AllInDR campaign, says her U.S. coalition of Dominican and Haitian expat groups aims to pressure the U.S. government into taking more direct action to curb deportations in the Dominican Republic.
“Our expectation was that there was going to be some kind of intervening to hold the Dominican government accountable, rather than releasing some statement,” Menes told The WorldPost. "The Dominican Republic is so close to us and we’re just watching from afar.”
In this photo taken on Jan. 29, 2011, a Haitian woman gathers her belongings while shouting that she was only working and not doing anything wrong, after being detained by Dominican specialized military border officers in Jimani, Dominican Republic.
Menes said she was disappointed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasn't spoken about the issue, given the Clinton family’s close ties to Haiti. She noted that former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is competing with Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, recently met with Haitian and Dominican immigrants in Florida to discuss the crisis.
Clinton “has a national platform that she could use to speak up and she hasn’t,” Menes said. “[O’Malley] just taking that initiative meant a lot to us, as opposed to Hillary, who also came down here, but chose to only meet with the Cuban community.”
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wade McMullen, an attorney with RFK Human Rights, said that deportations in the Dominican Republic are carried out much more rapidly than in the United States and with little opportunity to appeal the decision.
“Some of the people who have been deported have reported that there’s no process at all,” McMullen told The WorldPost. “They just get picked up, put on a bus and sent to the border. It’s extremely quick... We’re really concerned that this process doesn’t comply with the Dominican government’s international human rights obligations.”
The Dominican Republic resumed deportations last week, according to local reports, after largely suspending them for a year and a half to give people a chance to comply with the new immigration normalization plan. Thousands of undocumented Haitians began leaving the Dominican Republic voluntarily when the June 17 deadline passed. Settlement camps have sprung up across the border in Haiti to receive the migrating Haitians, according to NPR.
A series of legal changes since 2004 have eliminated the concept of birthright citizenship in the Dominican Republic. The newer standard was enshrined in the country’s 2010 constitution, and a 2013 Constitutional Court ruling applied the standard retroactively, leaving thousands of people who'd once qualified for citizenship effectively stateless -- including an estimated 60,000 children.
Facing an onslaught of international criticism over the court’s ruling, the Dominican government implemented a plan to normalize the status of undocumented Haitians and to restore citizenship to Dominican-born people with undocumented parents who had previously qualified for citizenship.
But human rights groups largely panned the plan. Some 56,000 people who previously held passports, national IDs or other documentation identifying them as Dominican nationals had their citizenship restored under the plan. However, fewer than 9,000 people who were born in the country but lacked such documents, or else had difficulty obtaining them, applied to register as foreigners with an expedited pathway to citizenship before a February deadline. June 17 was the last day for undocumented immigrants, including people left stateless by the new policies, to register with the Dominican government as foreigners with the possibility of obtaining a provisional visa.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized the Dominican government’s new immigration and citizenship system, warning that the policies could lead to the deportations of thousands of Dominican-born people made stateless through the process. The vast majority of the estimated 200,000 stateless people in the Dominican Republic are of Haitian descent and black, fueling suspicions that racism played some role in creating the policies.
Dominican officials aren't likely to be very receptive to the foreign criticism. President Danilo Medina has defended the country's immigration and citizenship scheme as an issue of sovereignty, saying in speeches that he won’t bow to the interests of international nongovernmental organizations. Medina administration officials have pointed out that the United States routinely deports Haitians and other foreign nationals over the protests of U.S. immigrant rights advocates.
CARIFESTA
The following is the scheduled program of nine remaining days of this celebration of Caribbean Culture
These nine days will take place simultaneously in 5 planned cities: Jacmel, Port-au-Prince, Cayes, Gonaïves and in Cap-Haïtien.
CARIFESTA XII, official programming
Inauguration of the exhibit "Shared Memories"
On Saturday morning, First Lady Sophia Martelly, Honorary President of the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH), Dithny Joan Raton, Minister of Culture and Michèle G. Frisch, the Chief Executive Officer of the MUPANAH, inaugurated the exhibitb"Shared Memories" in the presence of the members of the official delegation of CARICOM led by its General Secretary, Irwin Larocque, accompanied by his assistant, Dr. Douglas Slater.
Conceived within the framework of the Festival of the Arts of the Caribbean (CARIFESTA XII Haïti 2015), this exhibit tells of the exceptional story of Haiti in the Caribbean context. A story marked by the revolutionary fights that led to the collapse of the slave colonial system in Haiti and the other islands of the Caribbean.
This exhibits also opens on the Creole identity, as an intercultural factor stemming from striking episodes of the history of humanity, as the conquests, the colonization, the atrocities of slavery, the resistances as well as the revolts.
To visit in the MUPANAH from August 23rd until October 22nd, 2015.
Grand Market is awaiting for you!
Last Saturday afternoon, the official inauguration of "Grand Market" took place.
Grand Market consists more than 100 exhibitors of small business craftsmen and women; more than 25 working restaurants serving throughout the day; a fashion stage, and a music stage for artistic representations every evening starting at 6:00 am p.m. Let us call recall that the Grand Market occupies the following streets: Magny, Saint Honoré, Magloire Ambroise, Capois and Legitime.
Ambassador Pamela White says Good bye …
After three years of service in Haiti, Ambassador Pamela White is leaving. In her last speech, she was eager to underline that she arrived "enthusiastic" and that she was leaving with the same feeling.
For her, the Haitian politicians are intelligent and passionate about their country. The main problem, she stressed, is that they blame each other and are unable to get along about common projects for their country.
Pamela White was also eager to speak about the corruption: "It is at every level," she said, adding, "There is a price to pay for anything here." During her interview with the newspaper Le Nouveliste, the American ambassador spoke for a long time about this plague. She said she had spoken about it not only with President Michel Martelly, but also with Minister of Justice Pierre Richard Casimthe ir. Even when she sees a street protest, Pamela White cannot refrain from wondering: "Who paid this time to make people take to the streets".
And then the ambassadress spoke about the ULCC, the Unity to Fight Against Corruption, financed largely by the United States. She said she was sorry about the departure of Colonel Atouriste, who was at the head of the institution. "He was not even given the opportunity to take to the courts cases of corruption that the ULCC had discovered.”
She was also questioned about the country’s national police force, the PNH which, according to White, had made a lot of progress, and become much more professional, thanks to 100 million dollars spent by the United States to equip the force. Drug trafficking had also decreased a lot, said the ambassador. The DEA was very satisfied with the work made by the BLTS, the Brigade to Fight Against Narcotics, which in 2015 was able to intercept more illegal drugs than it had during the previous 5 years
During the meeting, Pamela White was very open. It was as if she confided to “Le Nouveliste.” But for several years American ambassadors upon their departure have behaved this way.
It's as if they wanted to unload all that they had on their conscience by sharing everything that they had liked, and everything that hadn’t worked. In short, Pamela White is not different from those who preceded her in this office, which is so critical in Haiti.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
As Florida Preps for Storm That Was Erika, Caribbean Tallies Damage
Only remnants of the tropical storm that used to be Erika barreled toward Florida on Sunday night, but the state was still preparing for what the National Weather Service described as strong winds and heavy rain, and the governor was still urging vigilance.
Erika began weakening Saturday after it killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean last week and caused Florida Gov. Rick Scott to issue a state of emergency Friday. Flood watches were in effect from southern Georgia to Miami, The Weather Channel reported, and rip currents were expected all the way to the Carolinas.
In the Caribbean, hard-hit countries were still tallying the damage.
In Dominica, where nearly 13 inches of rain fell in as many hours, according to The Weather Channel, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit recounted Erika's "monumental" destruction in an emotional televised address: Bridges had been washed away, he said. Highways and roads were destroyed. At least 20 people were dead, and more were missing.
"This is a period of national tragedy," he said, adding that the storm had damaged "nearly every community" on the island.
"We have, in essence, to rebuild Dominica," he said.
In Puerto Rico, 200,000 people lost power and million of dollars in crops were destroyed. In Haiti, mudslides blocked roads, a prison was evacuated and rain appeared to have caused firey truck crash killed four people and injured 11 others.
NBC Miami: Erika Dissipates Over Hispanola; Remnants to Affect South Florida
In the Pacific, meanwhile, Hurricane Ignacio was churning toward Hawaii. The storm — once a Category 4 system — had begun weakening by late Sunday morning, a trend that was expected to continue in the coming days, The Weather Channel reported.
Tropical storm watches were in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe, according to the National Weather Service, and the storm's center is expected to pass by the state to the north on Monday and Tuesday, according to The Weather Channel.
Erika is a particularly wet storm, and was expected to dump up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain across the drought-stricken region.
Given how weak the storm is and how dry Puerto Rico and parts of Florida have been, "it could be a net benefit, this thing," said MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel.
The center of Erika was located about 25 miles (45 kilometers) southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was moving west at about 21 mph (33 kph), the Hurricane Center said. The storm's maximum sustained winds dropped slightly to 45 mph (75 kph).
The storm previously slid to the south of Puerto Rico, knocking out power to more than 200,000 people and causing more than $16 million in damage to crops including plantains, bananas and coffee, but causing no major damage or injuries.
Dominica, meanwhile, was struggling in the aftermath. Assistant Police Superintendent Claude Weekes said authorities still haven't been able to access many areas in the mountainous island because of impassable roads and bridges. "The aftermath is loads of damage," he said. "It really has been devastating."
An elderly blind man and two children were killed when a mudslide engulfed their home in the southeast of Dominica. Another man was found dead in the capital following a mudslide at his home.
People on the island told of narrowly escaping being engulfed by water as Erika downed trees and power lines while unleashing heavy floods that swept cars down streets and ripped scaffolding off some buildings.
"I was preparing to go to work when all of a sudden I heard this loud noise and saw the place flooded with water," said Shanie James, a 30-year-old mother who works at a bakery. "We had to run for survival."
Mudslides destroyed dozens of homes across Dominica, including that of 46-year-old security guard Peter Julian, who had joined friends after leaving work.
"When I returned, I saw that my house that I have lived in for over 20 years was gone," he said. "I am blessed to be alive. God was not ready for me ... I have lost everything and now have to start all over again."
Meanwhile in the Pacific, Ignacio strengthened into a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph). It was centered about 785 miles (1,260 kilometers) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and was moving northwest near 8 mph (13 kph).
Also in the Pacific, Jimena turned into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph (165 kph). It was centered about 1,135 miles (1,825 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. It does not pose a threat to land.
Erika death toll: 20 deaths in Dominica
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Tropical Storm Erika began to lose steam Friday as it dumped rain over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but it left behind a trail of destruction that included at least twenty people killed on the small eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, authorities said.
Heavy winds from the storm toppled trees and power lines in the Dominican Republic as it began to cut across neighboring Haiti.
Erika's heavy rains set off floods and mudslides in Dominica that are now blamed for at least a dozen deaths, the government said. At least two dozen people remained missing and authorities warned the death toll could rise.
"There are additional bodies recovered but it is an ongoing operation," Police Chief Daniel Carbon said, declining to provide specifics. "It will take us a couple of days to recover as many bodies as we can. So the count will increase."
CARIFESTA showcase continues in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) - Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Irwin LaRoque, toured the exhibition booths Grand Market at the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (CARIFESTA), last week, as the French speaking Caribbean nation pulled out all the stops for the event.
The 12th edition of CARIFESTA opened on Friday, August 21st with LaRoque saying it was a historic occasion for Haiti and the region.
He added that he was pleased to see that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)“ responded to the call to celebrate in Haiti as it hosts CARIFESTA for the first time.
LaRocque reiterated the CARICOM heads of government, ministers of culture and the artistic community’s commitment to the implementation of a new and improved CARIFESTA, stating that everyone should do their best to ensure that each edition of the festival is in line with the region’s mission and brings us closer to the goal of presenting a “world-renowned mega festival of Caribbean cultural and artistic excellence that brings economic benefits, unites the region and excites all peoples”.
The nine day festival continued with fashion shows and performances from groups representing the member states.
CARIFESTA is the region’s roving multi-disciplinary mega event that showcases the cultural expressions of artists in more than 30 countries in the region.
It was established in 1972 by regional government leaders to celebrate the arts, foster a vision of Caribbean unity and to positively advance Caribbean culture regionally and internationally.
Haiti snubs Dominican Republic´s “owners”
Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic´s biggest truckers union (Fenatrado) – dubbed the country´s “owners” for their often violent strikes with apparent impunity- complained recently that Haiti´s government has exacerbated their walkout now in its fourth week, by failing to show up for previously agreed meetings.
Fenatrado president Blas Peralta said a scheduled meeting on Monday was rescheduled for Tuesday and then suspended “for no apparent reason,” and there hasn’t been any communication with the Haitians since.
He said after more than three weeks since the flow of trucks has been halted, senior Haitian government officials agreed to meet to solve the deadlock and resume the haul of freight, interrupted when several truckers were victims of attacks.
"For Monday, we agreed a meeting with Haitian authorities, without explanation we were left waiting. Then we met on Tuesday and Thursday we told we would get a response. But it is Saturday and we still haven’t heard from them," Peralta said.
“There are sectors who want chaos both in this country and in Haiti. We believed that we would by now have a solution to this problem on Wednesday and wasn’t resolved. A commission was convened in Jimani (west), they were there that day to reach an agreement and the next day the Haitian government would sign it, but we´re still waiting."
The construction project for the Ministry of the Public works is moving forward quickly!
The three-story building that will shelter the Ministry of the Public Works, Transportation and Communications, financed by the European Union with 4,168,413 euros, is moving forward quickly and is two months away from completion.
Charles Jean Jacques, the national regulator of the European Development Fund (FED), accompanied by foreign and Haitian technicians working on the site, visited the construction site situated on Delmas 33 to ask about the state of progress of the infrastructure. This visit is the second by the regulator following the last one April http: // www.haitilibre.com/article-13725-haiti-reconstruction-suivi-du-chantier-du-nou-nouveau-ministere-des-travaux-publics.html
Together with Édouard Excellent, Coordinator and Emmanuel Fexile, Technical Adviser, the National Regulator explored the three-story building and received explanations and answers to his questions. During his visit, he explained the advantages of completing the project on time according to schedule.
Engineer Vincenzo Candido, Project Manager of the firm R.I.S.P.A on this construction site, said, "The next stages are: the electrification, the plumbing, the installation of ceramic tiles and the air conditioning. The installation of doors and windows and the completion of the roof will come then." Objectives, he believes, can be reached according to schedule.
Mrs. Martine Desruisseaux, the architect for the project, is also confident but careful, asserting "There is reason to hope that everything will take place as expected."
Let us remember that this project, which started in July, 2014 should be finished by the end of October, 2015 (in spite of a 3 month delay).
LES MISERABLES ACTOR KYLE JEAN BAPTISTE DIES AT 21
Broadway actor Kyle Jean-Baptiste has died after falling off his mother’s fire escape. He was 21.
Jean-Baptiste made Broadway history as the understudy for “Les Miserables” character Jean Valjean. When Jean-Baptiste stepped into the role, he became both the youngest actor to do so and the first African-American actor to play Valjean on Broadway. When he was not filling in as Valjean, the actor played the roles of Constable and Courfeyrac in the musical.
The company of “Les Mis” released the following statement on Jean-Baptiste’s death: “The entire ‘Les Miserables’ family is shocked and devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of Kyle, a remarkable young talent and tremendous person who made magic — and history — in his Broadway debut. We send our deepest condolences to his family and ask that you respect their privacy in this unimaginably difficult time.”
Broadway veteran Kristin Chenoweth tweeted her condolences, sending her “love and hugs to his family” and the “Les Mis” cast.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
The construction project for the Royal Decameron Hotel is progressing nicely
An official visit of the building site of the Royal Decameron - Indigo Beach Resort and Spa, the first all-inclusive hotel in Haiti, took place on Monday, August 31st in Montrouis on the Arcadins Coast.
According to information available on the site of the Ministry of Communication, Minister of Tourism and Creative Industries, Madam Stéphanie Balmir Villedrouin, led this important delegation consisting, among others, of the President of Decameron, Leonardo Gonzalez, Secretary of State of fiscal reform, Ronald Décembre and the Managing director of Haitian Customs, Victor H. Saint-Louis to the sites of the first all-inclusive Haitian hotel- a product of an agreement between the hotel group Decameron and the owners of the Indigo Club.
Royal Decameron Indigo Beach Resort and Spa will add 400 rooms of European standard to the Haitian hotel market. This large-scale tourist complex on the beach will also include 3 restaurants and 2 outside swimming pools, in which more than 800 customers can be accommodated. It will also include 2 gyms, a spa, a marina and aquatic attractions.
"All the suppliers who are going to furnish the Royal Decameron Hotel - Indigo Beach Resort and Spa will come from outof Haitian companies. The hotel is also going to generate 420 new local jobs," announced the executive team of the chain.
Decameron, subsidiary of the Colombian group Terranum and the main hotel administrator of Latin America, finalized in March, 2015 the terms of an agreement of operation of the Indigo Club of Haiti (formerly Club Med).
Completion of construction of this hotel is planned for next November.
KENNETH MERTEN TOOK OFFICE ON AUGUST 17TH AS SPECIAL COORDINATOR FOR HAITI AT THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Kenneth Merten's missions abroad include the embassy of the United States in Paris, the Mission of the United States to the European Union in Brussels, the embassy of the United States in Bonn during the period of the Germanunification, and three appointments to the embassy of the United States in Port-au-Prince, in Haiti. His work experience in Washington includes two missions at the center of Operations of the State Department which addresses international crises, ensure that top state employees of the State Department are kept informed about the latest events, and supports the daily duties and the travels of the Secretary of State. He also worked at the Office of Economic and Commercial Business, and at the office in charge of questions related to Cuba, as well as for the special councilors (advisers) on Haiti from 1993 till 1994.
Kenneth Merten holds a Bachelor's degree from Miami University in Ohio, and a Master's degree in public administration from American University in Washington, DC. Studies at the University of Aix-Marseille in France and at Karl Franzens Universität in Austria complete his academic curriculum. He presented a conference before an audience of more than 10,000 at the University of Miami in May, 2010 and also received an honorary doctorate of them. In July, 2012, Ambassador Merten was decorated by Haitian president Michel Martelly with the Big Cross of Honor and Merit, the fourth foreign diplomat to received this award in the 200 years of Haitian independence.
Ambassador Merten was born in Saint Louis, Missouri and considers Hudson, Ohio, as being his home town. He is married to Susan Greenman Merten and has two children.
NEW AMBASSADOR OF BRAZIL IN HAITI
On Friday, the President of the Republic of Haiti, Michel Martelly, received the letter of credentials of the new Ambassador of Brazil to Haiti, Fernando de Mello Vidal.
The new Ambassador renewed the commitment of his country to stand by President Martelly in his efforts to improve the living conditions of the Haitian people.
For his part, the Head of State reassured him of his commitment to work to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation between Haiti and Brazil.
Afterward the new Ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Haiti offered a floral arrangement to the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH) in honor of the Fathers of the Nation. Then, Mrs. Michèle Frisch, the Director of the Museum, invited the new Brazilian diplomat to visit the rooms of permanent and temporary exhibits at the museum.
At the end of his visit, Ambassador Fernando Vidal expressed his satisfaction to have been able to learn about Haiti’s rich history, a country so similar to his.
OPERATION FREE SMILE
What you need to do:
Friends, listen. Operation Smile is an organization that does free operations for people with split lips or cleft pallets. They were here in 2008.
This year once again, with the support of the Public Health Ministry, Operation Smile is coming to operate on patients on the ship USNS Comfort.
. Call toll free (4891-2597) or send a text to (509-3915-3477).
. You will need to go to the Grace Hospital in Lamentin 54 Carrefour, Port-au-Prince.
. After you first make an appointment, you will come for a consultation on eitherthe first day, Friday, September 11 or on the second day, Tuesday, September 22nd.
. Share this message.
4891-2597 / Call the office of Operation Free Smile.
Dominican Republic: UN experts warn against deportations, racial profiling of people of Haitian descent
July 28, 2015 – United Nations human rights experts today called on the Government of the Dominican Republic to take steps to prevent arbitrary deportations and to adopt measures to address allegations of racial profiling during deportations of people of Haitian descent.
“No one should be deported when there are legal and valid reasons to stay,” human rights expert Mireille Fanon Mendes-France, who currently heads the UN Working Group of Experts of People of African Descent, said in a news release.
“Migrants are entitled to protection and Dominicans of Haitian descent have the right to reside safely in the territory, as well as children born in the Dominican Republic who are legally registered,” she stated.
Some 19,000 people have reportedly left Dominican Republic for Haiti since June 21 due to fear and amidst concerns that there will be violations when deportations officially start in August.
“The Dominican Republic cannot violate international norms or those of the inter-American system of human rights protection, and especially not violate its own Constitution,” the expert emphasized.
According to the expert panel, the difficulties in obtaining necessary documents to register for the naturalization and regularization process, the lack of information on the deportation plan, and the deportations “have instilled fear, resulting in a situation whereby people of Haitian descent without documents are also leaving to avoid abrupt deportations.”
The Working Group today reiterated its call on the Dominican authorities to put in place effective and transparent legislation and other measures to successfully fight the discrimination and social exclusion faced mostly by Haitian migrants and people of Haitian descent in the country.
“The Dominican Republic does not recognize the existence of a structural problem of racism and xenophobia, but it must address these issues as a matter of priority so the country can live free from tension and fear,” Ms. Mendes-France added.
The Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.
Special Procedures' experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
Kerry’s aid sought in Dominican Republic citizenship crisis
Seven US senators, including the pair from Massachusetts, urged Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday to intercede in the citizenship crisis in the Dominican Republic, expressing concern that thousands of Dominican-born people of Haitian descent still are not recognized as citizens.
In a letter to Kerry, Senators Edward J. Markey, Elizabeth Warren and five other Democrats said the Dominican government proposed a “fair solution” by creating a path to citizenship after a 2013 court ruling stripped birthright citizenship from the children of unauthorized immigrants, mainly from neighboring Haiti. But, the letter said, less than a third of the 210,000 Dominicans eligible for that citizenship applied for it.
Critics of the citizenship program have said the requirements are so cumbersome that many cannot gather the hospital records and other documents needed to apply.
“In this context, we respectfully ask that you work with the Dominican government to ensure that the process is timely, efficient, and inclusive of everyone who was born in the country,” the senators wrote in the letter, adding that it was crucial that undocumented citizens “are provided a solution that guarantees their right to live in the only country they have known since their birth.”
Last month Kerry said through a spokeswoman that he was monitoring the situation and had stressed the importance of upholding human rights for all involved.
The senators also expressed concern for some 36,000 people of Haitian descent who have voluntarily left the Dominican Republic in recent months, an exodus they said has “overwhelmed” authorities in Haiti, one of the hemisphere’s poorest nations.
Dominican officials have said that they will not deport anyone who is entitled to Dominican citizenship, but they say the government also must properly screen applicants before granting them citizenship.
Ambassador Jose Tomas Perez said in a statement that his government was determined to act transparently and was looking “forward to a substantive dialogue with members of Congress and the State Department on this important matter.’’
He said the Dominican Republic is committed to working with the international community “to implement a regularization program and immigration policies that aim to give a regular status to everyone in the Dominican Republic.’’
The ambassador added “our government is implementing the same immigration rules that exist in any society governed by the rule of law, while recognizing each individual’s human rights.’’
The issue has drawn international attention, including in Massachusetts where immigrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic are some of the largest groups of foreign-born residents in the state.
Also signing the letter were senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Bill Nelson of Florida, Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, Christopher Coons of Delaware, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Voodoo priests' leader Max Beauvoir dies in Haiti
The Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Voodoo chief Max Beauvoir has died in his homeland of Haiti, where the mixture of beliefs from West Africa and Catholicism is recognized as an official religion. He was 79.
A government statement said Beauvoir died Saturday in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince after an illness. The cause of death was not immediately known.
On his Twitter account, President Michel Martelly described Beauvoir's death as a "great loss for the country."
Born in 1936, Beauvoir was a biochemical engineer who earned degrees abroad and became a Voodoo priest when he returned to his Caribbean homeland in the 1970s.
He became Voodoo's supreme chief, or national "ati," in 2008 and led Haiti's main priests' organization. Beauvoir was widely known as a passionate guardian of the Voodoo faith, which has often been sensationalized and misunderstood.
Voodoo, or Vodou as preferred by Haitians, evolved in the 17th century when colonists brought slaves to Haiti from West Africa. Slaves forced to practice Catholicism adopted saints to coincide with African spirits. Followers believe in reincarnation, one God and a pantheon of spirits.
Many of Haiti's 10 million people consider themselves followers of both Voodoo and Catholicism.
LAUNCH OF THE MISSION OF THE HOSPITAL SHIP THE USNS COMFORT
On Friday, September 11th an official ceremony took place to launch the humanitarian medical mission of the American Hospital ship the "USNS Comfort" in Haiti, at the Haitian Coastguard Naval base Amiral-Killick situated to Bizoton.
The mission "Keeping Promises" of the hospital ship enters within the framework of the continuous support of the American government for the Haitian people, in association with the Ministry of Health and the Population.
The hospital ship arrived in Haiti on Thursday, September 10th and will leave the bay of Port-au-Prince Sunday, September 18th, 2015.
Free medical care will be supplied in Port-au-Prince at the Amiral-Killick naval base of the Haitian Coastguards (in Bizoton), and at the Saint Luc Hospital (in Tabarre 41), from September 11th at 8 am in the morning and until September 18th. Every day, patients will be examined on first come, first served basis, until the hospital ship reaches its capacity.
The medical care will include general, pediatric care, dental, ophthalmological, orthopedic and other treatment. The Comfort’s team will also assist their Haitian partners at the level of the veterinary services and with projects of engineering, and will also participate in medical exchanges.
Amnesty International honors Human Rights Prize at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2015 (TTFF/15)
For the second year in a row, Amnesty International will award a human rights film prize at the Trinidad+Tobago film festival (TTFF), which runs from September 15–29.
Established in an effort to support the promotion of human rights in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, the Amnesty International Human Rights Film Prize will be awarded to the maker of the feature-length Caribbean film screening at TTFF/15 which best highlights a human rights issue.
“We are enthusiastically continuing our cooperation with the Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival this year as we remain convinced that films and filmmakers play an important role in promoting human rights,” said Chiara Sangiorgio, thematic adviser at Amnesty International.
“What may seem a remote and abstract UN instrument can suddenly become a close reality when analyzed through the camera lens—something affecting a friend, a neighbor, our country. Through this prize we wish to more formally acknowledge the efforts of filmmakers and activists in the Caribbean to raise awareness about human rights in the region.”
This year four films—all documentaries—will be in competition for the prize, one more than last year. They are:
Casa Blanca
Director: Aleksandra Maciuszek
Country: Cuba
Citizens of Nowhere
Directors: Regis Coussot and Nicolas Alexandre Tremblay
Countries: Dominican Republic, Haiti
The Last Colony
Director: Juan Agustín Márquez
Country: Puerto Rico
My Father’s Land
Directors: Miquel Galofré and Tyler Johnston
Countries: The Bahamas, Haiti
“We are pleased to see more films selected for this year’s Festival grappling with human-rights issues,” said Jonathan Ali, Editorial Director of the ttff. “The range of issues considered is also noteworthy. Both Citizens of Nowhere and My Father’s Land deal with the status of Haitians and people of Haitian descent in the Caribbean, a timely subject. The Last Colony considers the sovereignty issue in Puerto Rico, also timely, given the economic crisis there. And Casa Blanca is an intimate look at the status of the elderly and the mentally disabled in Cuba.”
The winning film will be chosen by a three-person jury. This year’s jury comprises Blanca Granados, Head of Industry at the Cartagena International Film Festival in Colombia; Jason Nathu, an attorney-at-law responsible for the Human Rights Law Clinic at the Hugh Wooding Law School in T&T; and Chiara Sangiorgio, Amnesty International’s London-based coordinator of the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty.
In addition to receiving a trophy, the winning filmmaker will also be given a cash prize of TT$5000. The ttff and Amnesty International will also assist the winning film in getting screened as widely as possible throughout the region.
Last year’s winning film was The Abominable Crime, a documentary directed by Micah Fink, about Jamaica’s LGBT community. Since then, Amnesty International USA has supported the screening of The Abominable Crime at the Pulitzer Center in New York City. There was also a screening of the film in Mexico City to celebrate the opening of Amnesty International’s regional office for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and both the film and associated tools have been promoted through Amnesty International’s activists.
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than three million members, supporters and activists in over 150 countries and territories. The organisation exposes human rights violations and campaigns for justice around the world. It is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion, and is funded mainly by its membership and public donations.
Convicted cocaine trafficker running for parliament in Haiti
A candidate headed into next month’s runoff for Haiti’s parliament was convicted of cocaine trafficking in Miami-Dade County, the Miami Herald has learned.
Ernst Jeudy, 58, who is seeking to represent one of Haiti’s most lucrative tax bases, the city of Delmas, was charged with cocaine trafficking and possession with intent to distribute after Miami-Dade police said he checked in a tote bag at Miami International Airport. The controlled substance — nearly a half-pound of cocaine — was detected by a dog.
“The above defendant was taken into custody,” said the police report obtained by the Herald. “The defendant was found guilty...sent to 3 1/2 years.”
Jeudy’s 1987 guilty plea for cocaine trafficking, escaped Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council. The council, known as the CEP, qualified Jeudy along with 1,845 other candidates to run for 139 legislative seats in last month’s violence- and fraudmarred Aug. 9 vote.
Jeudy’s conviction and presence in the race is yet another example of Haitian officials’ failure to require a police background check. The oversight, human rights advocates and others say, contributed to the attack of polling stations during the vote and could lead to a parliament of legal bandits.
“The legal department of the CEP didn’t do its job,” said Pierre Esperance, the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, which published a report earlier this year questioning the moral characters of 31 candidates who were “in conflict with the law.”
Asked about Jeudy’s case, Pierre-Louis Opont, the president of the elections council, told the Herald that officials received a document on Monday regarding the case indicating that Jeudy had been convicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking. The document was accompanied by a letter from Jean Martin, the Fanmi Lavalas challenger who finished behind Jeudy with 9.8 percent of the votes.
“The CEP is currently checking this information with representatives of the U.S. government in Haiti,” Opont said.
With more than 6,000 elective posts up for grabs and 41,000 candidates, elections officials cannot research everyone, he said, adding that “the CEP cannot ask for what the law doesn’t require.”
Leading political party pulls out of Haiti's legislative elections
Reuters - A leading political party in Haiti announced on Tuesday that it was pulling out of next month's legislative elections, saying it was the primary victim of violence during the first round of voting in August.
It was not immediately clear whether the pullout would disrupt the second-round runoff on Oct. 25, when Haitians are also due to cast ballots for a new president.
But the move was seen as another setback for stability in the impoverished Caribbean country, long rocked by political turmoil.
The Vérité (Truth) Party, which announced its boycott of the upcoming poll, is widely seen as a leading political threat to President Michel Martelly's Haitian Tet Kale (Bald Headed) Party, which takes its name from Martelly's trademark shaved scalp.
It cited violent attacks on polling stations in the capital of Port-au-Prince and about 50 of 1,500 voting centers around the country on election day on Aug. 9 as the reason it was withdrawing from the next round.
Party leaders have been seething, however, ever since an earlier decision by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to strike Vérité presidential candidate Jacky Lumarque from the October ballot.
Lumarque, the rector of Quisqueya University, one of the country's top educational institutions, was barred from the presidential race when the CEP determined he did not have the legal document, known as a "discharge," required of public officials to show they did not misuse public money while in office.
Lumarque was a member of a presidential commission on education under former President Rene Préval. His supporters say he did not distribute any money and thus did not need a discharge.
Haiti's highest court, the Court of Auditors, agreed but the CEP still moved to sideline Lumarque from the presidential contest.
He had been seen as a top contender for the presidency, alongside Jovenel Moise of Martelly's Tet Kale. Martelly himself cannot run for re-election.
Haiti's parliament dissolved in January after scheduled legislative elections in 2011 and 2014 were canceled. Since January, the 119-member Chamber of Deputies has sat empty and the Senate, with only 10 of its 30 members, has failed to hold a quorum.
AGRITRANS EXPORTS IN GERMANY ITS PREMIERE CARGO OF BANANAS
The first cargo of bananas of the project Agritrans, based in the Northeast of Haiti, was headed to Germany last Tuesday before President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Evans Paul.
More than a hundred tons of organic bananas will be exported according to the new project manager.
A contract was signed recently with the German company Mark Port for 93 million euro for a duration of three years. This contract anticipates the export of 160 thousand metric ton of bananas a year.
President Martelly greeted the work of the group Agritrans which benefited from a 6 million dollar loan from the government to realize the project.
For the Head of State this is a glimmer of hope for the country, which must be repeated.
The project was launched in November, 2013, at the University Henry Christophe (Limonade) and has brought together more than 3,000 farmers from various associations. Its aims is to produce organic bananas intended for export. Two million seedlings will be planted on thousands of hectares, for this initiative.
In order to reach its goals, the FEPA / Agritrans consortium will use modern farm equipment, pumps for irrigation, and an artificial lake with a capacity of 700,000 gallon. The project is projected to create approximately 3,000 jobs.
JUSTICE
Clifford Bandt will be judged following the reopening of the Courts
The Highest Court of Appeal transferred Clifford Brandt's file to the county court of Port-au-Prince, announced Dean Bernard Saint-Vil.
During an interview Bernard Saint-Vil specified that the case is currently at the public prosecutor's office before being transferred to the court for trial.
The dean Bernard Saint-Vil also specified that Clifford Brandt will be judged after the reopening of the courts.
The Protestant sector now has two candidates!
Last Tuesday, dissatisfied with the decision of the Mediation Commission, which had appointed the journalist Clarens Renois as the only candidate to the presidency for the Protestant sector, more than 150 Protestant leaders, managers of missions, churches, schools, organizations, leagues of ministers and Christian institutions came together at the Plaza Hotel Plaza to overturn this decision.
During this meeting, these leaders approved by a large majority Pasteur Jean-Chavannes Jeune and challenged Clarens Renois whose talent they recognize as former journalist, but whose commitment to Christianity and its beliefs they questioned.
Sheets of paper were distributed to the audience as ballots, containing the names of 9 candidates for the presidency: Amos André, Jean-Claude Rénold Bazin, Nelson Flecourt, Jean-Chavannes Jeune, Maxo Joseph, Jephté Lucien, Jean Palème Mathurin, Clarens Renois and Jacques Sampeur.
At the end of the vote Jean Chavannes Jeunes was elected, as expected, as the only candidate for the presidency to represent the protestant sector in the next elections. Out of the nine candidates, Pasteur Young person obtained 95 of the votes and Clarens Renois received 0 votes.
According to these religious leaders the Pasteur Chavannes Jeune, the candidate for the presidency running for the "CANAAN" party was chosen because his personal experience, his commitment to God and tireless work for 40 years in the church, as well as for his accomplishments: building schools, churches, hospitals among others...
The participants promised to pray for all the candidates and to support Jean Chavannes Jeune by any means, in order to help him be successful.
It should be noted that the members of the Mediation Commission did not answer the invitation of this group of Protestant leaders and none of the candidates was present at this meeting, having not been invited.
Clarens Renois and Chavannes Jeune have thus been appointed by two groups from the Protestant sector, as the only candidates to the presidential election... Note that the withdrawal of the other candidates to the presidency of this sector, was not requested by either of the two groups.
The United States is against the "establishment of a transition government in Haiti”
In a note Pamela White, the Ambassador of the United States to Haiti said she didn’t support having a transition government in Haiti, a demand made by several opposition parties.
"The Government of the United States considers that elections on October 25th and December 27th will open the way to the political predictability. We cannot go back, because it would be ' lava men siye ate.”
I know that there are many groups that want to stop the elections, and want the resignation of the CEP (Electoral Council) and that are pressing for a 'transitional government.” But this country needs a real government. Private enterprises are not attracted by transitional governments which do not offer long-term stability. This country needs a president, a parliament and mayors democratically elected. The American government has already financed 25 million dollars of the electoral process and recently committed an additional 5 million dollars for the second round.
We encourage all the political parties to respect the superiority of the law, and to stop causing disorder in the street."
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Sophia Martelly in Texas
On Saturday, by invitation from the George W. Bush Institute, Haitian First Lady Sophia Martelly left the country and headed to Dallas, Texas to participate in the "Global Women Network/Women Initiative" summit which was scheduled to take place on September 22nd of this year.
This summit was created for first ladies and women leaders, and aimed at addressing women’s issues worldwide. It was also designed to promote the role of First Ladies as an answer to these problems in their respective countries.
During this occasion, Sophia Martelly was to meet with a panel of representatives of organizations who work to improve women’s lives in the areas of economics, education and health.
During her stay, Mrs. Martelly will also travel to the United Nations in New York, to participate in two high-level activities for the wives of the heads of state and government regarding education for sustainable development and women’s challenges.
The OAS wants to initiate negotiations between the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and the leaders of political parties demanding the departure of the CEP and the cancelation of the elections of August 9th
The Organization of American States (OAS) wants to take the initiative of starting negotiations between the electoral council as well as candidates and political parties from the opposition. An electoral crisis persists in Haiti since the publication of the preliminary results of the ballot of August 9th, 2015.
An envoy of the hemispherical organization was expected in Port au Prince recently. Gerardo de Lcaza, the Director of the Department for the Cooperation and the Electoral Observation, tried to bring closer the positions of the political actors and the electoral advisers regarding the pursuit of the electoral process. He had working sessions with the leaders of the political parties which are demanding the resignation of the president of the CEP, Pierre Louis Opont, and the cancellation of the first round of the general election.
The definitive results of the first round of the general election, which were disrupted by violence, have not been published more than a month after the elections.
Officially the General Secretary of the OAS, Luiz Almagro, supports having the first round of the presidential election on October 25th of this year.
On a different note, the OAS advised that the head of the Electoral Observation Mission, former Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorim, was scheduled to take a preliminary evaluation trip to Haiti on September 21. The OAS’s Observation Mission recently transmitted to Haiti the an electoral authorities recommendations regarding the progress of voting operations. These recommendations are to contribute to the strengthening of the electoral machine before holding the first round of the presidential election.
Haiti Border Crisis Grows as Dominican Republic Expels 'Migrants'
New York Times, ANSE-à-PITRE, Haiti — Every morning, Gustavo Adolfo wakes up in a migrant shelter in Haiti, treks across a field of burnt brush where men make charcoal, and crosses a river into the Dominican Republic, a country he left in fear three months ago.
With a machete strapped to his waist, Adolfo is joined by others each day in a desperate effort to make a living. They cross the border into the wealthier Dominican Republic under constant threat of arrest or expulsion.
"I can make 200 pesos ($4.50) a day working in the fields there," said the middle-aged Haitian as he swatted away a swarm of mosquitoes.
Dominican officials last month began implementing a controversial immigration program targeting Haitian migrants and Dominican-born people of Haitian descent.
The program centers on round-ups and deportations that have triggered concerns about a slow-growing border migration crisis in the poorest country in the Americas.
So far about 1,500 people have been deported at a pace of 50 to 100 per day, according to relief officials with access to records supplied by the Dominican government. The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the number of deportees.
Thousands more have fled the Dominican Republic out of fear of arrest or harassment, scared by neighbors, bosses, coworkers and police or immigration officials.
More than 27 percent of those crossing into Haiti say they were born in the Dominican Republic, according to Amnesty International. But they lack documents to prove residency or citizenship, and many are undocumented immigrants who say they have lived most of their lives on the Dominican side of the border.
The Dominican Republic, which has a population of about 10 million, has long complained of illegal migration of Haitians, even as it benefits from a steady source of cheap labor for construction, agriculture and domestic work.
The Dominican government declined repeated requests for comment on its immigration crackdown. But the issue touches a centuries-old xenophobic nerve in the country, stemming from its occupation by Haiti in the early 19th century.
Four informal settlements have sprung up in southern Haiti for people affected by the deportations. They now house between 2,500 and 3,000 people, according to the Jesuit Refugee Service.
The Haitian government began a relocation program at one settlement camp, Tête à l’Eau, last month. But the program, including $30 in assistance for deportees, was suspended due to a lack of funds, according to Frantz Pierre-Louis, a top regional Haitian government representative.
A United Nations human rights official in Haiti, Gustavo Gallón, this week urged the government to establish health facilities and deliver drinking water to the camps.
"The conditions are horrible there, I don't know how people are living," he said.
The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti is seeking $6.9 million in emergency assistance for the country but it is unclear how much of it would be used to improve conditions in the migrant camps.
Camp residents complain they lack basic essentials and receive little or no help from the Haitian government.
"People come all the time and take our information but they never give us anything! We need food," yelled Manuel Amadice, a rail-thin man in his 50s wearing worn flip-flops.
Amadice left Haiti as a child but said he lacked the required documents to apply for residency in his adopted homeland.
The migrant crisis stems from a 2013 constitutional change that stripped citizenship away from the Dominican-born children of foreign parents - mostly of Haitian origin. The ruling was applied retroactively to 1929, sparking an international outcry that it would leave thousands stateless.
Under a separate law all "migrants" were required to apply for temporary residency by deadline of June 17, or face deportation.
Dominican officials have said 78,000 out of 289,000 applicants for residency were denied. It remains unclear how many of those may face expulsion.
"I was born in the Dominican Republic and my mom died when I was 7. I never had a birth certificate," said Pablito Felix Ramirez, a resident of one settlement camp called Parc Cadeau.
Ramirez, 24, who fixes motorcycles at his cardboard and stick shack, said he is legally Dominican, but the Dominican government sees him as Haitian.
He has no family in Haiti and added that he had been unable to get a Haitian identity card or birth certificate, making him a man without a country.
"Wherever I can make 50 pesos ($1), I'm happy," Ramirez said.
(Editing by David Adams and Tom Brown)
Cuban and American doctors lavish care at a hospital of Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince, September 16th, 2015 - (AHP) - Such a collaboration has not taken place since decades.
American doctors who were in Haiti within the framework of the humanitarian mission of the hospital ship USNS Comfort, worked last Thursday with Cuban doctors to supply care to Haitian patients at a private hospital in the capital, said the spokesman of the American embassy, Karl Adam.
This historic initiative which occurred in Haiti, is part of the framework of the warming of relations between both countries, after they were broken in 1961.
Last Thursday the Ambassador of Cuba, Ricardo Garcia Napoles and a group of Cuban doctors joined officials from the American embassy in Tabarre to the Saint Luc Hospital, which will benefit from this collaboration.
The Cuban and American doctors got together then started to look after the sick.
The latter received general, pediatric care, dental, ophthalmological and orthopedic treatment.
Two days earlier, American doctors from the Comfort had visited The Renaissance Clinic, where Cuban doctors work in the district of the Belle Air.
Earlier, Ambassador Napoles and a group of Cuban doctors participated in the ceremony marking the arrival of the USNS Comfort at the Admiral Killick Naval Base in Bizoton, said the spokesman of the U. S. Embassy.
The initiative between the Americans and Cuban doctors marks a new stage in the resumption of the relations between both countries, introduced on December 17th by the American president, Barack Obama, and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro.
President Obama maintains Haiti on Black List
Obama maintains Haiti on his "black list" of drug trafficking for 2016
In a memorandum signed by U. S. President Barack Obama, for the Secretary of State, regarding the presidential determination on the major transit of drugs or the main producing countries of illicit drugs for the 2016 fiscal year, it states, "… I undersigned to identify the following countries as countries that are major transit countries for drugs and/or main producing countries of illicit drugs: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.
The presence of a country on the list is not a reflection of its government’s efforts to fight drugs or its level of cooperation with the United States.
Seven nations in Central America and four of the Caribbean are included in the determination