Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 2 mai 2015

Published on April 21, 2015

PETIT PORT A PIMENT, Haiti -- A Dutch couple aboard an Australian flagged boat en route from Cuba to Ile a Vache, Haiti, was anchored at Petit Port a Pimient, Haiti, when it was boarded overnight by six armed men last week, Caribbean Safety and Security Net (CSSN) reported.

The couple cooperated with the pirates and offered everything, but they were nevertheless violently attacked. The captain was tied to the rail on deck and beaten badly, resulting in broken bones and machete wounds. His wife sustained machete injuries also, both were hospitalized. 

Stolen items included cash, solar panels, computers, navigation electronics, etc.

Embassy officials have become involved and are providing assistance.

While confirming details of the incident of piracy/assault last week, CSSN said it became aware of another such incident in Haiti earlier this year.

On January 20, a French couple and their children had anchored overnight between Corail and Pestel, Haiti. At 3 am they were boarded by 12 men armed with machine guns and machetes. The leader of the group was in uniform. The boat was “inspected” for 2-1/2 hours, rummaging through drawers, lockers, etc. The roller furling and main sheet were deliberately damaged. 

The men were aggressive, with much yelling and arm waving, but the crew cooperated. They forced the boat to go two miles back to Corial at first light after taking all the cash on board ($1,000), laptops, diving equipment and some other gear from the captain. The official then “allowed” the boat to depart to go onward to Pestel, Haiti, the next planned stop. 

It is unlikely a police report was made, CSSN said.

Haitian marine biologist wins environmental activism prize

(Reuters) - A Haitian marine biologist who successfully fought to create a national park to protect a large swath of Haiti's north coast has won a prominent U.S. environmental activism prize.

Jean Wiener was awarded a Goldman Environmental Foundation prize for his efforts to establish the Caribbean nation's first Marine Protected Areas while working with local communities to promote sustainable fishing practices and preserve mangrove forests.

In awarding the $175,000 prize, the Goldman foundation highlighted Wiener's efforts in overcoming extreme poverty and political instability in Haiti, a country with few full-time environmentalists and almost no government programs to protect natural resources.

Wiener, 50, is being honored along with five other prize winners at a ceremony in Washington on Wednesday for a campaign he led to create the Three Bays National Park, covering 30,000 square miles (75,000 sq km) stretching from the city of Cap Haitien to the border with the Dominican Republican.

The park, created in 2014, protects the vulnerable eco-system of over-fished waters in the bays of Limonade, Caracol and Fort Liberté.

The area includes Haiti's second-largest mangrove area, as well as one of its longest barrier reefs and important seagrass beds. That trifecta of coastal eco-sytems "makes it probably Haiti's most productive coastal system in terms of marine life and fish nurseries," Wiener said in a phone interview.

The Fort Liberté bay had been targeted for port development by a U.S. government-backed project which was scrapped last year over environmental concerns and lack of investor interest.

A schoolteacher in Port-au-Prince, Wiener studied biology at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is the founder of the Marine Biodiversity Protection Foundation (FoProBiM), Haiti's only nongovernmental environmental organization focusing on coastal and marine areas.

Funded by the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development, FoProBiM works with community groups to preserve natural resources, including fishing waters, endangered coral and mangroves which are cut down for charcoal.

"It's been over-fished to a point where the fishermen are catching almost nothing except juveniles," Wiener said.

Despite tough regulations, "there's no throwing anything back," he said. "The rules need to be updated and more importantly enforced. There's barely a Coast Guard."

The other Goldman prize winners for 2015 are from Myanmar, Canada, Scotland, Honduras and Kenya.

The prize, created in 1990 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman to encourage environmental protection, has been awarded to activists in more than 80 countries. 

Justice Minister appeals Sonson Lafamila ruling

Written by Staff Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - Minister of Justice Pierre Richard Casimir submitted an appeal to the Haitian Supreme Court for a reconsideration of the ruling on the case of Woodly Etheart alias Sonson Lafamilia and Renel Nelfort alias Renel Le Recif.

The appeal was submitted before the Tuesday deadline and if the court of appeals chooses to accept it, the two previously indicted, murderer-kidnappers, close to President Michel Martelly, may be returned to prison.

Minister Casimir's appeal comes after the Obama administration expressed "concern" of the speed at which the case of Sonson Lafamilia was thrown out by the embattled Judge Lamarre Belizaire.

Tuesday tweets from the Ministry of Justice account said the government was not okay with decision on Sonson Lafamilia and an earlier tweet said it would exercise the power of appeal.

Over the weekend, Casimir dismissed the Government Commissioner of Port-au-Prince Kerson Darius Charles for his performance in prosecuting the case.

U.S. ‘concerned’ about ruling in Haiti kidnapping case

By Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 20 (Reuters) – The Obama administration said it was “concerned” about the speed of a court ruling in Haiti that saw charges suddenly dropped in the indictment of an accused kidnapper with close ties to the family of President Michel Martelly.

On Friday, the judge freed Woodly Ethéart and Renel Nelfort, two leaders of the so-called Galil Gang, who had been indicted a month earlier for masterminding a host of violent crimes, including murder, money laundering and more than a dozen kidnappings.

Two days later, the Minister of Justice sacked the prosecutor, saying his deputies asked the judge to free the men, arguing they could not win a conviction.

“We are concerned about the ruling, including the speed in which it was made,” a State Department spokesman said in an email on Monday in response to a request for comment.

“This is an ongoing case in the Haitian courts, and we understand the ruling could be appealed.

Ethéart, who is a friend of Martelly’s brother-in-law, Charles Saint-Rémy, is known by the street name ‘Sonson Lafamilia,’ and is the former owner of one of Haiti’s fanciest restaurants, La Souvenance.

“The prosecutor in Port au Prince was removed because the government was not satisfied with the performance at the trial,” Peguy Jean, spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said on Monday. “At the end of the trial, the prosecutors asked the charges to be dropped.”

The release of Ethéart immediately raised questions about the handling of the case, with some Haitians suggesting he was let off because of the close relationship with the president’s family.

“The move (to free them) absolutely came from the top,” argued Pierre Esperance, the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network. He accused the judge, Lamarre Bélizaire, of corruption, saying he frequently rules in favor of the Martelly government.

The Galil Gang made nearly $2 million dollars from kidnapping ransoms in a two year period, said lawyer Newton Louis Saint-Juste, who testified in the case.

“Of course I’m scared. This exposes all the victims and all the witnesses to the Galil Gang,” said Saint-Juste, an outspoken critic of the Martelly government.

Martelly’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The Ministry of Justice has until Tuesday to appeal the tossed indictment. If no appeal is filed, government critics say it will be a sign the Ministry of Justice is doing favors for the president. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington. Editing by David Adams and Christian Plumb).

The Focus On Haiti Initiative is proud to publish our Voices of Haiti’s Voiceless: Post-Earthquake Aspirations & Achievements symposium

The Focus On Haiti Initiative and the U.S. Department of State will host Voices of Haiti’s Voiceless in Washington, D.C. on Friday, May 1, 2015. The symposium will discuss Haiti’s fundamental development challenges and progress toward meeting them in the post-quake period, focusing on the aspirations of the country’s under-represented population as presented at the March 31, 2010 post-earthquake UN-sponsored Donors’ Conference in New York.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 5 mai 2015

 Haiti - Economy: investments of the Diaspora in Latin America and in the Caribbean

For the first time, the Association of the American Chambers of Commerce of Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA) will hold its annual regional conference, "Business Future of the Americas," in Haiti, from June 15 till 17, 2015. The event will take place at the hotel Marriott of Port-au-Prince. The theme will be "Investments by the Diaspora in Latin America and in the Caribbean." This conference is organized with the support of several Haitian companies: Brana, Digicel, Marriott, Decently, Delta, DHL, Groups Accra, Dagmar, Access Haiti.

This event will offer opportunities to exchange with a network of more than 300 business managers from the United States, the Caribbean, Brazil and several other countries of the region. With world-famous speakers, companies and organizations strategically based at the heart of the Caribbean, this conference will allow Haiti and Latin America to distance themselves from their emergent status in the global economy. "The emphasis put on the Diaspora and its driving role in investments seems to us particularly interesting for Haiti, and we hope that this conference will be a meeting place for our Haitian businessmen from the diaspora, who are the best placed to do business and to work in the region," explained Régine René Labrousse, President of the Steering committee of the conference.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti (AmCham) will give to this annual conference a wider reach by adding to its conference one day to discuss "Doing business in Haiti." The panels which will be held at this event will give an additional insight into the challenges identified in terms of investments and the available solutions. "Business-to-Business Meetings" (B2Bs) will be also planned throughout the day.

The Diaspora has a new Secretary for Haitians Living Abroad

His name is Robert Labrousse and he was installed in his post last Wednesday, April 29th. In his speech, Secretary Labrousse [who replaces Olicier Pieriche] asserted, “I shall be a Secretary of dialogue and openness. We all know that the mission of the MHAVE is to allow Haitians living abroad to maintain the link with their homeland. Roots, attachment, link, connection, all these words bring [us] to the same concept, the unity of Haitians, whether it is from the inside or from the outside!

He replaces Olicier Pieriche who was appointed in January, 2015.

Robert Labrousse is a businessman who occupied the post of external Secretary of State for Overseas Development within the government of Evans Paul. He is a treasurer and founder of the Pink and White Foundation of President Michel Martelly and his wife Sophia St Rémy.

He was a vice-president of the chamber of commerce and industry.

Pieriche had to resign at the request of Prime Minister Evans Paul, after having made a diplomatic passport for the Assistant General Coordinator of the Program of Identification and Documentation of Haitian Immigrants (PIDIH), the ex-deputy of Petit-Goâve Jean Limongi. The latter was arrested at the beginning of April in Florida and charged with drug trafficking.

Deportations: june is getting near

It is the month chosen by the Dominican Republic to deport Haitian citizens living in the Dominican Republic but having no documentation allowing them to stay in the country.

The deportations, however, have already begun, and every week we learn that a new contingent of Haitian-Dominicans has arrived in Haiti.

We are talking about hundreds of thousands of Haitians who are in this situation. While those who were authorized to legalize their papers by obtaining birth certificates and passports from the Haitian government are few, due to the slowness of Haitian authorities to supply them this documentation.

On the Haitian side, no preparations have been made to welcome these fellow countrymen. What are the possibilities for them to find employment in a country already known for its very high unemployment? Will there be enough schools for their children? What about hospitals, when sanitary services are clearly insufficient in the country?

When we are considering that these compatriots don’t even speak French nor Creole, having been born in the Dominican Republic, we easily understand the extent of the problem.

But nothing has been done to welcome them and it is without a doubt that their arrival will increase the number of people living in the capital or other large cities in the country, building a place to live wherever they can, even in ravines along major roads. This will only increase the number of shanty towns.

MOVIE: “Sweet Micky for President”

“That’s how things were happening to us — to the point where if you really look at the movie, it feels like a narrative,” admitted former Fugees rapper Pras Michel, who never expected the experience to become a film. “How it was going down was how it was captured and then we went back and went ‘Wow, this really feels like a movie.’”

Since his days as one-third of Grammy-winning group The Fugees, Michel has been “loving the film aspect” of his career as much as making music. Having produced documentaries like 2007’s Skid Row (where he masqueraded as a homeless person) and a long-awaited project about Somali pirates, these days he’s certainly more filmmaker than Fugee.

“I’m catching the buzz and I’ve got a couple more narrative projects that I’m developing,” said Michel. “We want to make things that are avant-garde (and) interesting but at the same time, get to the core of the issue.”

“Sweet Micky for President” will have its Canadian debut next Wednesday at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.

Lessons Nepal can learn from its tragic twin Haiti

Nepal faces a Himalayan task: it must overcome the aftershocks of history just as much as the effects of Saturday’s calamitous earthquake. As with Haiti, also a historically impoverished, poorly governed country hit by a devastating quake, Nepal may find it a struggle to “build back better.” Bill Clinton crafted the memorable slogan after the “goudo goudo” – the onomatopoeic Creole name the Haitians gave the 2010 quake in memory of its frightening rumble. Now, Clinton’s phrase is used wryly, if not in outright jest.

Unsurprisingly, development do-gooders are cautious about suggesting Nepal build back better, even at this point, [a few] days after the quake, when the world feels its pain most acutely.

For, the slow, ineffective – in some cases, even impossible –search for survivors in Nepal’s remote, hardest-hit western regions illustrates the massive fault lines of its entrenched problems: acute poverty, political dysfunction, rampant corruption and a deep fatalism that inhibits planning.

Those infuriatingly inaccessible western districts were the ones that suffered such prolonged government neglect that the violent Maoist insurgency first took root there nearly 20 years ago. And it says a great deal that those areas still remain so cut off from Kathmandu that earthquake relief packages cannot reach them, and there seems to be no way to assess deaths and damage. The Maoists, supposedly the party of the poor, have been elected – and rejected. The monarchy has been swept away. Nothing has changed and nothing works. For Nepal, its worst earthquake in 80 years has been “an acute-on-chronic event”, to quote Harvard doctor and Haiti champion Paul Farmer on the Haitian catastrophe.

The two countries make for a tragic twinning. Until this earthquake, perhaps the only time the words “Haiti” and “Nepal” appeared in one sentence was in reference to the cholera epidemic unwittingly introduced by Nepalese United Nations peacekeepers stationed in Haiti. It seemed an excessively cruel twist to a pathetic story – dirt-poor Haiti, leveled by a devastating earthquake and infected by soldiers from an equally poor faraway land. But now, the two earthquakes – five years apart – may have created discouragingly new parallel lines of protracted woe. The Nepalese quake was 16 times stronger than that in Haiti. More than 200,000 people died in Haiti; what will be the final toll in Nepal?

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 13 mai 2015

 The French President on visit in Haiti during the day of May 12th. 

The French President, François Hollande, was scheduled to begin a five day visit in the Caribbean on Friday. This will take him to Haiti on May 12^th. He was also scheduled to travel to Martinique, Guadeloupe and Cuba.

The French Head of state was accompanied by an important delegation of French businessmen. 

Immediately upon landing, François Hollande, who will also be accompanied with a significant press corps, will be welcomed by Michel Martelly and driven to the National Palace, then to the MUPANAH – National Museum of Pantéon. 

François Hollande will lay a floral wreath in front of the monument dedicated to the precursor of Haiti’s Independence - Toussaint Louverture, whose symbolic remains rest at the base of the Pantheon in Paris. 

François Hollande and the delegation accompanying him are set to fly back in the evening.

New American ambassador in Haiti. He replaces Pamela White who has been in office in Haiti since 2012

Last Wednesday, Barack Obama appointed Peter F. Mulrean as new Ambassador in Haiti. After ratification by the American Senate, he will replace Pamela A. White, who presented her credentials to the Haitian Government on August 3rd, 2012. At this time, no official starting date for Mulrean has been communicated.

Peter F. Mulrean, a career member of the Foreign Service, class of Counselor, is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, a position he has held since 2012.  Previously, Mulrean served as Director of Interagency Provincial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012, Counselor for Refugee and Migration Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva from 2008 to 2011, and Regional Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia from 2004 to 2008.  He also served as Deputy Director of the Office for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy at the Department of State from 2002 to 2004, Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium from 1999 to 2002, and Exchange Diplomat at the European Commission in Brussels from 1998 to 1999.  Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was an English teacher in Japan and China and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. Mulrean received an A.B. from Harvard University.

Judge in Haiti dismisses abuse case against US citizen

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A judge in Haiti has dismissed the case against a U.S. citizen who was accused of abusing residents of an orphanage that he has run for three decades in the Haitian capital.

Michael Geilenfeld, who had been in custody since his Sept. 5 arrest, was released Wednesday after a brief trial before a judge in Port-au-Prince.

Five former residents of the St. Joseph's Home for Boys had accused Geilenfeld of physical and sexual abuse. None of the alleged victims, all adults now, testified at the trial.

Defense lawyer Alain Lemithe said the accusations were vague and unsubstantiated.

"They had nothing against him," Lemithe told The Associated Press on Thursday. "They had no proof whatsoever so he has been released."

Manuel Jeanty, a lawyer for the victims, said neither he nor any of his clients attended the proceeding because they weren't notified in advance that it would be taking place. He said he planned to file an appeal.

"The justice system is not working," Jeanty said.

Geilenfeld, 63, founded the St. Joseph's Home for Boys in 1985. His charity grew to encompass three homes, a guest house for missionaries and a dance troupe that toured the U.S. and Canada to promote the organization.

In February 2013, Geilenfeld and Hearts with Haiti, a North Carolina nonprofit group that raises money for the orphanage, filed a defamation suit against Paul Kendrick, an activist in Maine who had publicized allegations of child sexual and physical abuse at the facility. The suit called the charges "false and heinous" and said they had been investigated and determined to be false.

Geilenfeld said in a deposition filed in the civil case that an email and blog campaign by the activist had cost his organization more than $1.5 million in donations.

He denied ever engaging in a sexual act with anyone under age 18. "I have devoted my life to enriching the lives of children in Haiti, the United States and abroad," he said in the deposition.

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and David Sharp in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.

Haitian-Montrealers want more time before deportation moratorium lifted Ottawa lifted the ban on deportations to Haiti last December

Members of Montreal's Haitian community are asking the federal government for more time to apply for permanent resident status.

Ottawa lifted the moratorium on deportations to Haiti and Zimbabwe in December. The moratorium in Haiti was originally put in place because of political violence and conditions in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in 2010.

Now, many Haitians fear they could soon face deportation.

Marjorie Villefranche, director of Montreal's Maison d'Haiti, said the six-month window Ottawa provided isn't long enough. 

"So that's why we are asking them, asking the government to give us three more months," she said.

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says the country has been generous to Haitians and Zimbabweans for more than a decade.

Alexander says the temporary ban on deportations has been lifted because he believes the uncertainty in those countries has ended.

HAITI CHILDREN - Unicef: Nearly half of Haitian children under 5 suffer malnutrition

EFE | PORT-AU-PRINCE

Nearly one in two Haitian children under 5 suffers from malnutrition, the Unicef office in Port-au-Prince said Tuesday.

In an article signed by the Unicef chief of communication in Haiti, Cornelia Walther, the U.N. Children's Fund says the malnutrition of Haitian minors is due, among other causes, to poverty, disease and poor nutritional practices.

Several stars of National Football League (NFL) were scheduled to travel to Haiti from May 6 to May 11, while on a visit, to gauge business opportunities in Haiti

This visit is held through the initiative of the Jack Brewer Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Industries (MTIC), according to a ministry press release. 

Two American television channels SPIKE TV/NBC led by André Berto will produce reports on the trip, Haitian sports in general, and boxing in particular, explained the press release.

The ministry also informed that other big names such as Clinton Portis, Ramses Barden, Tommi Harris or models of from the Wilhelmina models agency will also make the trip for this EducTour.

For the tourist and sports promotion of Haiti …

The Canadian boxer of Haitian origin, Adonis Stevenson, will be in Haiti during September, to compete for a fight. This project is organized the Group Yvon Michel (GYM), learnt HPN.

GYM would want this event, "to demonstrate the tourist qualities of Haiti," declared Yvon Michel in the Canadian newspaper, “The Press.”

"There is a strong political will over there, but we are starting from behind. In all the history of the country, there has been never an international sporting event broadcasted to the outside," he explained.

The president of GYM underlines that "… When we go on holiday in the Caribbean, we always think of Cuba or of the Dominican Republic. But nobody considers going to Haiti. […].

Through this initiative, the organizers think of using Adonis as inspiration for the Haitians, to show them that one of their own reached the highest summits, reports the newspaper.

Because of this event, Adonis Stevenson will not fight in the Centre Bell on June 27th of this year. The boxer instead wants to concentrate his efforts to prepare for the fight in Haiti, specifies GYM.

For this fight, Stevenson Adonis 37 years (26-1, 21 K-O) could face the 27-year-old South African Thomas Oosthuizen (24-0-2, 14 K-O). The evet would be aired on Showtime and offered à la carte in Quebec.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 21 mai 2015

 Haiti elections committee gives green light to candidate

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

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A one-time coup leader who is wanted in the U.S. under sealed indictment is among 1, 515 individuals given the green light by Haiti’s electoral council to run for office in the upcoming legislative elections.

Up for grabs are the entire 118 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies and 20 of 30 Senate seats.

Among those who will be vying for one of those empty Senate seats is Guy Philippe, a former Haitian police officer who led the 2004 coup that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Over the years, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents have tried — and failed — on at least three occasions to arrest Philippe, who has been wanted in the United States since 2005. This will be Philippe’s third try at elected office in Haiti.

Meanwhile, 522 people — 466 for Deputy, 76 for Senate —were deemed unqualified to run, according to an analysis of the final list of candidates published Friday by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).

Among them is not only First Lady Sophia Martelly, whose name was listed as being “rejected,” but also former minister in charge of parliament relations Ralph Theano and former Senator Rudy Boulos. Like Martelly, they were hoping to run for the Senate.

Also disqualified is popular singer and first-time Deputy Garcia Delva. He was first elected to Haiti’s lower house in 2010, representing the Artibonite region. The CEP did not give a reason for the rejections. In total, 29 percent of those who filed to run for the Senate were rejected while 25 percent of candidates for Deputies were rejected.

One popular singer who did make it is Don Kato, the lead singer of Brothers Posse, a Haitian group banned from the country’s last two national carnivals because of his lyrics criticizing President Michel Martelly.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified former minister Ralph Theano as president of the lower chamber. He was former minister in charge of parliament relations.

UNIR chooses Clarens Renoit as its candidate 

During the national congress of the party. which took place last Saturday, May 16th, at the Vincent Gymnasium in Port-au-Prince, members of UNIR, who chose Renois, believe that he represents the ideology of the party which is morality, honesty, reconciliation and the integrity to give a better future to the young people of the country.

Clarens Renois said, in his speech, that he trusts the youth to change the way the country functions, which according to him, doesn’t allow it to be an egalitarian state.

"A State with less waste, less corruption, that is impartial, that is the state for which I am fighting. It is for a Haiti where peace reigns, where there is work for citizens, and a country which does not bend over before foreign countries to defend the rights of the Haitians almost everywhere in the world. It is especially important to reconcile Haitians with Haiti," Those were some of Renois’ comments before members of his party who came from almost anywhere in the country to support their candidate to the highest office of the state.

UN struggles to stem new rise in Haiti cholera cases

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti that experts say was introduced by UN peacekeepers from Nepal is on the rise, with hundreds of new cases registered weekly, a UN official said Thursday.

Pedro Medrano, the UN coordinator for Haiti's cholera outbreak, said years of work to beat back the disease are in jeopardy as donors turn away from the emergency.

"Unfortunately because of lack of resources and of the rainy season, in the last six months we have moved from a thousand new cases a month to almost a thousand a week, "Medrano told AFP in an interview.

The UN official predicts more than 50,000 new cases this year, up from 28,000 last year, the lowest level since the outbreak began in October 2010.

More than 8,800 people have died from cholera and 736,000 Haitians have been infected since the outbreak that expert studies have shown was brought to the island by Nepalese troops.

Studies traced the bacteria to the sewage system of a peacekeeping base run by the Nepalese that contaminated a river used by many Haitians for drinking water.

This year alone, 113 people have died and there have been 11,721 new cases in Haiti but there are fears that with the start of the rainy season in June, the number of cases will soar.

At the same time, many aid agencies have left Haiti and treatment centers have shut down.

"The risk here is that all the progress we made so far can be lost," said Medrano.

"For the donor community this is not an emergency, and because it is not considered an emergency, the money, the resources we need to deal with the humanitarian crisis are not coming," he said.

Left unchecked, the epidemic could spread to neighboring Dominican Republic or Cuba, he warned.

The United Nations has officially refused to recognize its responsibility for the cholera outbreak despite lawsuits brought by the victims, but it is leading an effort to rid Haiti of the disease.

The United Nations is hoping to vaccinate 300,000 people this year, but it needs $1.9 million for the effort.

About $37 million dollars in total are needed to fight cholera this year.

Martelly tells Hollande Haiti doesn't need France to pay debt

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) - President Michel Martelly is under a storm of criticism for unilaterally deciding and telling the France President, Francois Hollande, that Haiti did not need France to return the $21 billion "ransom for independence" but instead needed France's accompaniment in projects.

"The meaning of this trip was not to give a blank check to anyone," said the French President, himself, while in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday.

During official ceremonies in Haiti, at the foot of the statue of Toussaint Louverture, Haitian President Michel Martelly told Francois Hollande that "no haggling, no compensation can rewrite the snagging of history that mark us so deeply today."

At a joint press briefing at the presidential palace, Martelly added that he had "such repairs as beneficial to the Haitian people, we can finally finally open the way for development for Haitians who have never had the same educational opportunity."

When questioned by journalists, the French president said that in two meetings at the Elysee Palace in France, the Haitian president told him that returning the money was not what Haiti needed, Haiti needed accompaniment in health, education and gaining investment. Hollande told journalists, "we are doing what the leaders have asked."

Hollande said he was responding to the wish of Haitian leaders to implement a "Marshall Plan for Education". Hollande announced that through the French Development Agency (similar to USAID), 50 million euros would be invested in Haiti to support the Free and Compulsory Education Program initiated by Martelly during his term.

"This is the most beautiful symbol that we can, we offer together," said the French president. "We cannot change history, we can change the future." Martelly spoke with a spirit of appeasement, supporting the response of aid and thanking the cooperation with the French.

Different actors in Haitian public life said that Martelly cannot decide on his own what Haiti would accept as restitution for the ransom which amounts to $21 billion [US] today. It should also be noted that the Haitian executive cannot make any agreements binding with foreign governments or institutions without the approval of Parliament.

They also raised their voices against a number of other, declared offenses, which took place during Hollande's visit.

Many were offended that France continues to denigrate the Haitian hero of independence and first Head of State, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. In his speech, Hollande named Dessalines last among the four Haitian forefathers and also misspoke his name saying "Jacques Dessalines".

There was also the image of Haitian President Michel Martelly driving Hollande during the first official visit of a French president to Haiti. Many felt this was degrading to the Office of the President of Haiti, at least, a unseemly departure from protocol.

Week of the Haitian culture in Caracas

From Monday, May 18 until Sunday, May 24^th, Haitian Culture Week 2015 will take place in Caracas, Venezuela. The program will consists of 4 conferences by the historian and political analyst Frantz Voltaire, Director of the international Center of documentation and Haitian information Caribbean and Afro-Canadian (CIDIHCA); a photo exhibit " Discover Haiti " and a big concert featuring T-Vice.

Schedule of Events:

Monday, May 18th: conference by Frantz Voltaire "The Haitian revolution or the universality of the freedom.” 2:00 pm at the Santa Maria University

Tuesday, May 19th: Start of the photo exhibit “Discover Haiti" (19 on May 24th). The exhibit’s schedule: will be Tuesday to Friday from 9:00 am till 6:00 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am till 3:30 pm at the Los Palos Grandes Library

Wednesday, May 20th: conference of Frantz Voltaire "Spanish Haiti and the emancipation of America from Bolivar to Marti."10:30 at the Monteavila University.

Thursday, May 21st: conference by Frantz Voltaire "History of the music of Haiti."10:30 am at the UNEARTE University, Sede Sartenejas.

Friday, May 22nd: conference by Frantz Voltaire "The History of literature of Haiti." 7:00 pm to the Bookshop Lugar Común.

Saturday, 23: T-Vice Concert. 5:00 pm to the Concha Acústica del Parque del Este

Sunday, May 24th: closing of the photo exhibit, in the Los Palos Grandes Library..

On May 18th: Flag Celebration!

May 18^th is Flag Day for our blue and red national symbol.  

Haitian of everywhere will pay tribute in the country’s history and its heritage which the flag represents, to remember their patriotic duty of unity to lead the national forward.

The Embassy of Haiti in Washington DC, in association with the various consular missions of Haiti in the United States, planned different sorts of activities to celebrate the Fête du Drapeau!

Michel Martelly comments on the rejection of his wife’s application as a senate candidate

The Haitian Head of State, Michel Martelly, says he hoped that the rejection of his wife’s application as a candidate by the electoral court is not politically motivated. 

The National Electoral Litigation Office (BCEN) rejected the application of Sofia Martelly for the Senate, deducing that she does not hold Haitian citizenship and had not submitted a certificate of discharge as public figure. 

Martelly did not mention those who headed the movement to disqualify his wife, but he suggested that a politically motivated decision could discredit the electoral process. 

Reminding that he had made concessions for training of the CEP that the opposition would find credible, President Martelly underlined that the electoral body should also inspire his trust and confidence. 

Questioned outside a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his election, Martelly pointed out that the protesters should present convincing arguments to support the rejection of his wife’s application as a candidate. 

One of Sofia Martelly's lawyers indicated under cover of anonymity to radio Metropolis that a civil petition will be conducted regarding this case. However from an electoral standpoint, there are recourses for an appeal. 

Gregory Mayard Paul, another of the First Lady’s lawyer had also denounced it as a political decision. 

Officials from the presidential party, Tet Kalé (PHTK) regretted the verdict of the electoral Court against Mrs. Martelly. In a press release they noted some of the contradictions in decisions by the BCEN. 

Other allies of the PHTK, including the Peasant political party, regretted the political decision. They believed the electoral judges acted under the "pressure from the street ".

Health: a Canadian citizen becomes the Director of the hospital The Providence of Gonaïves …

The Ministry of Health and the population (Mspp) proceeded, on Wednesday, May 13th, 2015, to the installation of a Canadian national at the post of executive director at the public hospital (The Providence) of Gonaives 171 km north of the capital Port-au-Prince, observed the on-line agency AlterPresse.

The new executive director is Dr. Gaetan Garon, who worked more than about forty years, in health services in Quebec and also, during a decade, in countries of Africa, as the Gabon, Morocco and Benin.

"I like to tell it like it is. We should be honest (with ourselves) and recognize our weaknesses. We have weaknesses in management of all kinds, not only in health, but in all areas in general in Haiti," said the head of the Mspp, Dr. Florence Duperval Guillaume, to justify the presence of a foreign national as the executive direction of the public hospital of Gonaïves.

Haiti - Dominican Republic: Who is right?

Haiti Libre - While the Ambassador of Haiti to the Dominican Republic, Daniel Supplice, declares in the media that "The extension of the expiration deadline of PNRE (National Plan for Regularization of Foreigners) will be at the heart of the next meeting of the Joint Bilateral Commission," the Dominican Chancellor Andres Navarro said this week that the extension of PNRE in favor of people living in the Dominican Republic in an irregular situation was not a topic to be discussed between governments, Dominican and Haitian.

Navarro lamented that the Haitian government has not fulfilled the promise to open on time, three centers for issuing documentation of origin to its nationals so that they can benefit from Dominican provisions.

"For us, the commitment of the Dominican Government was able to include in the Plan, the maximum number of immigrants; and one of the conditions was that they are endowed by their country of origin of the basic documentation," adding that this greatly limited the process.

Remarks that can contradict the Ambassador of Haiti which recently acknowledged the failure of the Program of Identification of Haitian Immigrants 

[...] The authorities had set a goal to identify 200,000 people, only 52,000 undocumented Haitians living in the Dominican Republic are at present included in the program. Of these 52,000 registered, 2,000 have already received their passport and 15,000 their national identity card (CIN) [...]"

Andres Navarro hoped that by June 17 (deadline of PNRE) the necessary efforts would be made on the Haitian side, for people who have not been able to access this plan, complete their documentation and register.

He indicated that after the deadline the Dominican authorities will normally apply the law on migration for all illegal aliens. Moreover, he stressed that the Dominican Republic does not expect a wave of criticism or censure open about deportations, because according to him of the total transparency that his country has shown in this process since the beginning .

It should be noted that the Haitian Government was now working to develop a contingency plan for hosting the Haitians to be repatriated.