Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 23 septembre 2016

 A new mosquito-borne illness has been detected in Haiti

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES – The Miami Herald

There is a new mosquito-borne illness in Haiti.

Infectious disease specialists at the University of Florida say they have confirmed the existence of the Mayaro virus in a patient in Haiti. The virus is closely related to the chikungunya virus but researchers say they do not yet know if it’s caused by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito that’s been linked to chikungunya and the Zika virus.

“We are not sure,” said Dr. John Lednicky, a University of Florida associate professor in the environmental and global health department of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Many different mosquitoes can carry the same virus.”

Lednicky, who runs UF’s laboratory in Haiti, said the Mayaro virus first was found in Trinidad and Tobago in 1954, and has been causing outbreaks in South America, mainly in the Amazon. It causes similar symptoms to chikungunya: fever, joint and muscle pain, rashes and abdominal pain.

“One can say it’s as bad as chikungunya, but there is so little information available,” he said. “Maybe it’s been in Haiti this whole time and no one checked for it.”

Whether the confirmed case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region, researchers do not know, Lednicky said. Nor do they know if the virus is going to be widespread in Haiti where the Zika virus has been difficult to track because of the country’s weak health system.

“We would like to do a lot more but our hands are quite tied,” he said. “We would really like to help in Haiti... and look into which mosquitoes are carrying this virus.”

It was Lednicky and his team of researchers who earlier this year announced that the Zika virus had been present in the hemisphere months before it was confirmed in Brazil in March 2015. It was in Haiti as early as 2014, they said, citing blood samples collected in December 2014. The lab had begun monitoring chikungunya fever cases after its April 2014 outbreak in Haiti and had collected blood samples from schoolchildren in the Gressier/Leogane region, southwest of Port-au-Prince, where the laboratory is located.

Lednicky said the new Mayaro virus is different from what they found in 2014.

“The virus we detected is genetically different from the ones that have been described recently in Brazil, and we don’t know yet if it is unique to Haiti or if it is a recombinant strain from different types of Mayaro viruses,” he said.

On Thursday, the university announced that the National Institutes of Health awarded it more than $1.75 million to study the Zika virus. The funding will support the laboratory’s ongoing Zika research in Haiti.

“Any little bit helps,” Lednicky said. “A lot more money would be useful. It’s very difficult to do this type of work and do it well unless you have a lot of funding, and you also have to train the people to do this work.”

In addition to the NIH funding, Bernard Okech, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health, received a $100,000 award from the USDA to support his research into the mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus. He studies mosquito-borne diseases at the Haiti lab.

“Not only are we doing great research on the Zika virus, but for the first time we’re also getting awards to support that research,” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute. “The funds we are receiving to support our research on the Zika outbreaks in the Caribbean will help us begin to understand the risk to Florida.”

DONALD TRUMP VISITS MIAMI’S LITTLE HAITI

By Jacqueline Charles – The Miami Herald

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump met with a small group of Haitian Americans Friday in Little Haiti, telling them that they share “a lot of common values” and the country deserved better than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Clinton, Trump said, failed Haiti when it needed help the most.

“Clinton was responsible for doing things a lot of the Haitian people are not happy with,” Trump said from prepared remarks, referring to the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. “Taxpayer dollars intended for Haiti and the earthquake victims went to a lot of the Clinton cronies.”

Later, Trump told the crowd that he had come to “listen and learn” and to build a new relationship with the community.

“Whether you vote for me or not I really want to be your biggest champion,” he said.

There was no news from the candidate during the 26-minute discussion, in which attendees questioned him about his position on school choice. They also complained about the Clintons’ two-decade-plus involvement in Haiti.

“I didn’t understand, now I understand it,” Trump said in reference to many Haitians’ feelings about the Clintons.

Outside of his prepared remarks, Trump said very little during the meeting at the Little Haiti Cultural Center’s adjoining marketplace and visitor center before he was ushered out to his next stop. A few protesters held signs saying, “Little Haiti says No to Trump’s racism and hate.”

Trump was introduced by Georges Saati, a controversial blogger in the Haitian community, who told the room that this was the first time that a U.S. presidential candidate had visited the community. The remarks earned Trump applause from attendees, several of whom said they went because they were curious and wanted to hear what Trump had to say. Most of their remarks to the candidate focused on their personal disappointment over the lack of progress in Haiti despite the involvement of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

“The fact that he came here is everything for us as Haitians,” said Monique DieuJuste, 41, a Lauderhill residents who works as a registered respiratory therapist.

DieuJuste, who is registered with no party affiliation, said she plans to vote for Trump because the “Clintons haven’t done anything for us.”

As for Trump’s controversial stances on immigration, which many Haitians remain concerned about, DieuJuste said while she too has her concerns, he won her over with his support for possibly sending a Haitian-American as ambassador to Haiti should he be elected.

Attendees included Haitian doctors, lawyers and former Haiti government ministers. Ringo Cayard, a Haitian community activist who help put the event together, said it’s time for the Haitian-American vote to stop being taken for granted.

“I want them to listen to Trump and to listen to Hillary and then decide,” he said.

Leonce Thelusma, a former Haitian finance minister and a registered Republican, said his support for Trump will depend on the candidate’s stance on helping Haiti and Haitians. Clinton, he said, has little to show for her and her husband’s involvement in Haiti, where most recently Bill Clinton served as U.N. special envoy and czar of the recovery effort after the quake.

“No Haitian has benefited from that,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have any institutions in Haiti that can call him and demand that he gives an account of the [earthquake] money.”

HAITIANS ARE BEGINNING TO BE EXILED FROM GUIANA

Last week, about fifteen Haitian migrants with irregular immigration status were expelled from French Guiana and repatriated by air to Port-au-Prince.

The operation was carried out after the decision of the Prefecture last August, to suspend asylum applications because of the massive secret arrival in Guiana of immigrants, most of whom of Haitian origin, since the beginning of the year. About 4,000 files cases of asylum seekers were in progress in August, according to the French Office of Protection of the Refugees and Stateless persons (OFPRA).

It should be reminded that following a complaint from France, Suriname a nearby country, which is used as footbridge by illegal Haitian migrants to enter French Guiana, was forced to impose a visa on Haitian, effective September 15th, 2016 http: // www.haitilibre.com/article-18549-haiti-flash-suriname-visa-obligatoire-pour-le - haitiens.html

JEANS BERTRAND ARISTIDE EXPERIENCE HEALTH TROUBLE WHILE CAMPAIGNING IN CAP HAITIAN

(Haiti Libre) Last Saturday while at the Mont-Joli Hotel, in Cap-Haïtien, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide gave a press briefing a day after he was hospitalized for fainting after a speech. He wanted to reassure the population about his health. He also encouraged the population to beware of disputes, slander, the malicious gossip and all quibbles, that some are using destabilize others.

"… I thank all the people who thought of me, a special thank you to the medical team who took care of me yesterday evening to the Hospital Justinien of Cap-Haïtien… I was also pleased that among the doctors there was the future president of Haiti Dr. Maryse Narcisse.

Haïti-Justice / kidnapping: will Clifford Brandt appeal or not of his condemnation to 18 years of hard labor?

(Alter Presse) Haitian Businessman Clifford Brandt rejected the verdict, concerning his implication in the kidnapping and the detention of two children, but his lawyers did not indicate whether or not he is going to appeal.

The verdict, pronounced on Tuesday, September 13th, 2016, by Judge Joseph Jeudilien Fanfan, without a jury, condemns Brandt to 18 years of hard labor, for his implication in the kidnapping and the detention of Nicolas and Coralie Moscoso.

The entrepreneur moves forward that there is nothing which proves that there was a conversation between him and the people who kidnapped the children.

"Among all of the play by plays, presented before the court, nothing showed that my telephone was used within the framework of texts messages with the kidnappers," he protested, immediately after the reading of the verdict by the judge.

Contacted by AlterPresse, one of Brandt’s lawyres did not want to discuss the question by the telephone. Brandt, is the second condemned persons in this affair.  He had up to 5 days to appeal the judgment.

After more than 4 years of detentions, Carline Richema and Sawadienne Jean were anxious to enjoy their freedom, due to insufficient evidence.

Brandt condemned for kidnapping

• By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Sep 14, 2016, 4:35 PM ET

A man from a wealthy Haitian family has been convicted of running a kidnapping ring that preyed on other members of the elite in this impoverished country.

Clifford Brandt, who briefly escaped during a mass jail uprising in 2014, was convicted of charges that included kidnapping and sentenced to 18 years of hard labor at a hearing Tuesday (September, 13)  before an investigative judge in the capital,Port-au-Prince.

Judge Jeudilien Fanfan Joseph also convicted two co-defendants, Ricot Pierre-Val, who sentenced to 18 years, and Carlo Bendel Saint-Fort, who got a 19-year sentence. He found two others not guilty and ordered their immediate release.

Brandt, 45, was first jailed in 2012 for allegedly kidnapping two adult children of another wealthy family and demanding a ransom of $2.5 million. A 2012 report from Haiti's National Human RightsDefense Network alleged that Brandt was the leader of a kidnapping gang that had at least 13 victims.

He escaped from a maximum-security lockup in a mass breakout in 2014 but was recaptured a couple of days later near the Dominican border.

A new mosquito-borne illness has been detected in Haiti

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

There is a new mosquito-borne illness in Haiti.

Infectious disease specialists at the University of Florida say they have confirmed the existence of the Mayaro virus in a patient in Haiti. The virus is closely related to the chikungunya virus but researchers say they do not yet know if it’s caused by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito that’s been linked to chikungunya and the Zika virus.

“We are not sure,” said Dr. John Lednicky, a University of Florida associate professor in the environmental and global health department of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Many different mosquitoes can carry the same virus.”

Lednicky, who runs UF’s laboratory in Haiti, said the Mayaro virus first was found in Trinidad and Tobago in 1954, and has been causing outbreaks in South America, mainly in the Amazon. It causes similar symptoms to chikungunya: fever, joint and muscle pain, rashes and abdominal pain.

“One can say it’s as bad as chikungunya, but there is so little information available,” he said. “Maybe it’s been in Haiti this whole time and no one checked for it.”

Whether the confirmed case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region, researchers do not know, Lednicky said. Nor do they know if the virus is going to be widespread in Haiti where the Zika virus has been difficult to track because of the country’s weak health system.

“We would like to do a lot more but our hands are quite tied,” he said. “We would really like to help in Haiti... and look into which mosquitoes are carrying this virus.”

It was Lednicky and his team of researchers who earlier this year announced that the Zika virus had been present in the hemisphere months before it was confirmed in Brazil in March 2015. It was in Haiti as early as 2014, they said, citing blood samples collected in December 2014. The lab had begun monitoring chikungunya fever cases after its April 2014 outbreak in Haiti and had collected blood samples from schoolchildren in the Gressier/Leogane region, southwest of Port-au-Prince, where the laboratory is located.

Lednicky said the new Mayaro virus is different from what they found in 2014.

“The virus we detected is genetically different from the ones that have been described recently in Brazil, and we don’t know yet if it is unique to Haiti or if it is a recombinant strain from different types of Mayaro viruses,” he said.

On Thursday, the university announced that the National Institutes of Health awarded it more than $1.75 million to study the Zika virus. The funding will support the laboratory’s ongoing Zika research in Haiti.

“Any little bit helps,” Lednicky said. “A lot more money would be useful. It’s very difficult to do this type of work and do it well unless you have a lot of funding, and you also have to train the people to do this work.”

In addition to the NIH funding, Bernard Okech, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health, received a $100,000 award from the USDA to support his research into the mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus. He studies mosquito-borne diseases at the Haiti lab.

“Not only are we doing great research on the Zika virus, but for the first time we’re also getting awards to support that research,” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute. “The funds we are receiving to support our research on the Zika outbreaks in the Caribbean will help us begin to understand the risk to Florida.”

DONALD TRUMP VISITS LITTLE HAITI, MIAMI

By Jacqueline Charles

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump met with a small group of Haitian Americans Friday in Little Haiti, telling them that they share “a lot of common values” and the country deserved better than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Clinton, Trump said, failed Haiti when it needed help the most.

“Clinton was responsible for doing things a lot of the Haitian people are not happy with,” Trump said from prepared remarks, referring to the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. “Taxpayer dollars intended for Haiti and the earthquake victims went to a lot of the Clinton cronies.”

Later, Trump told the crowd that he had come to “listen and learn” and to build a new relationship with the community.

“Whether you vote for me or not I really want to be your biggest champion,” he said.

There was no news from the candidate during the 26-minute discussion, in which attendees questioned him about his position on school choice. They also complained about the Clintons’ two-decade-plus involvement in Haiti.

“I didn’t understand, now I understand it,” Trump said in reference to many Haitians’ feelings about the Clintons.

Outside of his prepared remarks, Trump said very little during the meeting at the Little Haiti Cultural Center’s adjoining marketplace and visitor center before he was ushered out to his next stop. A few protesters held signs saying, “Little Haiti says No to Trump’s racism and hate.”

Trump was introduced by Georges Saati, a controversial blogger in the Haitian community, who told the room that this was the first time that a U.S. presidential candidate had visited the community. The remarks earned Trump applause from attendees, several of whom said they went because they were curious and wanted to hear what Trump had to say. Most of their remarks to the candidate focused on their personal disappointment over the lack of progress in Haiti despite the involvement of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

“The fact that he came here is everything for us as Haitians,” said Monique DieuJuste, 41, a Lauderhill residents who works as a registered respiratory therapist.

DieuJuste, who is registered with no party affiliation, said she plans to vote for Trump because the “Clintons haven’t done anything for us.”

As for Trump’s controversial stances on immigration, which many Haitians remain concerned about, DieuJuste said while she too has her concerns, he won her over with his support for possibly sending a Haitian-American as ambassador to Haiti should he be elected.

Attendees included Haitian doctors, lawyers and former Haiti government ministers. Ringo Cayard, a Haitian community activist who help put the event together, said it’s time for the Haitian-American vote to stop being taken for granted.

“I want them to listen to Trump and to listen to Hillary and then decide,” he said.

Leonce Thelusma, a former Haitian finance minister and a registered Republican, said his support for Trump will depend on the candidate’s stance on helping Haiti and Haitians. Clinton, he said, has little to show for her and her husband’s involvement in Haiti, where most recently Bill Clinton served as U.N. special envoy and czar of the recovery effort after the quake.

“No Haitian has benefited from that,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have any institutions in Haiti that can call him and demand that he gives an account of the [earthquake] money.”

CAN UPSCALE CHOCOLATE TURN THE TIDE ON HAITI’S DEVASTATING DEFORESTATION?

With 98 percent of their trees gone, Haitians eye cocoa-based agroforestry as a way to combat poverty and renew the land.

September 14, 2016 —When a tiny Quebec chocolate maker wona gold prizeat this year’s premier International Chocolate Awards for a bar made with Haitian cocoa beans, it rocked the specialty chocolate world. The cocoa beans had been on the market for less than a year, and a Haitian chocolate bar had never before received the award.

Haiti produces less than 1 percent of the world’s cocoa. But today, cocoa industry players are aiming to put the Caribbean nation on the craft quality chocolate map, while providing some of the world’s poorest farmers with a better life and stemming the forces that have left Haiti a near moonscape. Stunningly 98 percent deforested, Haiti is an environmental mess, vulnerable to devastating floods and mudslides.

Efforts to connect poor cocoa farmers in Haiti to consumers willing to pay upwards of US$8 for a single chocolate bar are part of a much broader movement within the development community to combat global poverty and protect natural resources through access to such specialty markets.

But can these efforts make a difference in tackling some of the key drivers of environmental degradation? And can they do it at a scale that actually transforms struggling rural economies?

Reforesting Haiti With Tree Crops

Grinding poverty is a root cause for Haiti’s deforestation. Per capita income was just US$828 in 2015, and two-thirds of Haitians are subsistence farmers. The vast majority cook their food with wood charcoal. Charcoal production fuels deforestation, which leads to soil erosion, loss of productive agricultural land and a vicious cycle of poverty.

An estimated 50 percent of Haitian topsoil has washed away, destroying Haiti’s farmland and contributing to crop losses that reached70 percentin some places in the face of extreme drought this year.

Cocoa is a tree crop that grows well in agroforestry systems, which is why Ralph Denize of FOMIN (Multilateral Investment Fund) says, “Cocoa is one of the best crops you can use for reforesting the country.”

Larger coconut, breadfruit, mango and avocado trees tower over and offer shade to the smaller cocoa trees, as well as food for the farmers and habitat for birds and other animals. Cocoa farms are in fact one of the few places in Haiti with standing trees.

“As long as the market is stable and farmers can depend on it, those trees will be in the ground for at least 40 years,” adds Emily Stone, founder of Uncommon Cacao.

Currently, some 20,000 smallholder farmers harvest cocoa as a cash crop in what they call “creole gardens” in two regions of Haiti. But, “garden” is a misnomer, because these dense tangles of vegetation, averaging an acre (half a hectare) in size, form mini-forests. Larger coconut, breadfruit, mango and avocado trees tower over and offer shade to the smaller cocoa trees, as well as food for the farmers and habitat for birds and other animals.

Cocoa farms are in fact one of the few places in Haiti with standing trees, according to Patrick Dessources fromRoot Capital, which finances small agricultural businesses and is partnering with FOMIN and other groups to rebuild Haiti’s cocoa industry.

Haiti currently exports 4,000 metric tons (4,400 tons) of cocoa per year, a big drop from its peak of 20,000 metric tons (22,000 tons) in the 1960s and far less than neighboring Dominican Republic, which exported 70,000 metric tons (77,000 tons) in 2014.

Revitalizing Haiti’s Cocoa Sector

Revitalizing Haiti’s cocoa industry can help reforest the country, but key to that revitalization is building capacity for producing the high-quality fermented cocoa beans that are used by specialty and dark chocolate manufacturers, likePalette de Bine, the award winner. Those beans fetch higher prices that help farmers live better.

As Denize puts it, “moving from unfermented to fermented cocoa is about keeping the value added in the country.”

Currently, more than 90 percent of Haiti’s cocoa beans are sold and exported in their raw, unprocessed state for mass-produced chocolate because farmers have few options for fermenting their beans. Currently there are only three fermentation facilities in the country.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 28 septembre 2016

 THE PRESIDENT OF PANAMA IS DELIGHTED AT THE U.S.’s DECISION TO DEPORT HAITIAN MIGRANTS

Last Friday, the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, expressed his confidence that the flow of the Haitian migrants in Central America will further decrease due to the decision of the United States to reactivate the deportation of Haitian without papers.

Varela reminded that the American Government decided to eliminate the migratory advantages granted to Haitian after the earthquake of 2010, which will allow the deportation of those who enter the U.S. in an irregular way. "One way or another, it is going to discourage the flow of Haitians," underlined Varela at the end of a meeting of polices chiefs of the Americas in Panama.

It should be reminded that several thousand Haitians have tried to reach the United States via Central America during the last few months. Most of them migrated to Brazil after the 2010 earthquake, but the economic decline of the South American giant forced them to look for opportunities in the United States. According to Panamanian authorities, every year, more than 30,000 immigrants from Haiti, Cuba and countries in Asia and Africa, cross Central America and Mexico for the United States.

The Haitians had their path blocked due to Nicaragua’s refusal to allow them to pass, which left them waiting in Costa Rica, Panama and in Colombia...

Although the Panamanian Government closed its border in the inhospitable jungle of Darien, the migrants continued to come, in spite of the risks to which they could be exposed - violence, theft and extortion by traffickers and other criminal groups.

The Panamanian government set up three camps for about 3,000 migrants on the border with Colombia.

U.S. to Step Up Deportations of Haitians Amid Surge at Border

By KIRK SEMPLESEPT. 22, 2016

Message: turn around or go elsewhere

MEXICO CITY — The Obama administration, responding to an extraordinary wave of Haitian migrants seeking to enter the United States, said on Thursday that it would fully resume deportations of undocumented Haitian immigrants.

After an earthquake devastated parts of Haiti in 2010, the United States suspended deportations, saying that sending Haitians back to the country at a time of great instability would put their lives at risk. About a year later, officials partly resumed deportations, focusing on people convicted of serious crimes or those considered a threat to national security.

But since last spring, thousands of Haitian migrants who had moved to Brazil in search of work have been streaming north, mostly by land, winding up at American border crossings that lead to Southern California.

Few have arrived with American visas, but nearly all have been allowed to enter the United States because immigration officials were prohibited, under the modified deportation policy, from using the so-called fast-track removal process often employed at the border for new, undocumented arrivals.

Instead, the migrants were placed in a slower deportation process and released, with an appointment to appear in immigration court at a later date, officials said. Since early summer, most have been given permission to remain in the country for as long as three years under a humanitarian parole provision, immigrant advocates said.

With the full resumption of deportations, which took effect on Thursday morning, Haitians who arrive at the border without visas will be put into expedited removal proceedings.

Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement that conditions in Haiti had “improved sufficiently to permit the U.S. government to remove Haitian nationals on a more regular basis.”

While Mr. Johnson’s statement did not mention the recent influx of Haitians along the southwestern border, Homeland Security officials, during a conference call with reporters, cited the migrant wave as the other major factor in the administration’s decision.

Since last October, officials said, more than 5,000 Haitians without visas have shown up at the San Ysidro crossing that links Tijuana, Mexico, with San Diego. By comparison, 339 Haitians without visas arrived at the San Ysidro crossing in the 2015 fiscal year.

An additional 4,000 to 6,000 Haitians were thought to be making their way from Brazil, immigrant advocates in San Diego and Tijuana said, based on estimates from shelters along the Brazil-to-Mexico migration route.

The message to those Haitians from the Obama administration, however, seems clear: Turn around or go elsewhere.

An uptick in deportations might not occur immediately. Removals require the cooperation of and paperwork from the receiving country, and Homeland Security officials said they were still in talks with the Haitian government about the policy shift.

In the meantime, officials said, nearly all Haitians stopped at the border and scheduled for accelerated deportations will be put into detention centers.

Officials clarified, however, that asylum law would continue to apply to newly arriving Haitians. A migrant who feared returning to Haiti because of the threat of persecution or torture would be interviewed to determine whether that fear was credible. If an immigration officer determined it was, the immigrant could apply for asylum.

Haitian immigrants covered by temporary protected status would be unaffected by the change in policy.

Over the summer, the unusual surge in Haitian migrants was accompanied by an equally unusual surge in migrants from more than two dozen other countries, nearly all traveling along the same arduous routes from South America, across as many as 10 borders.

Costa Rica gets 100 illegal immigrants a day hoping to get to U.S.

By Hugh Bronstein

NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - More than 100 illegal immigrants are entering the small Central American country of Costa Rica every day, looking for "coyotes" to take them across the Nicaraguan border and on toward the United States, President Luis Solis said on Friday.

Eighty-five percent of the new arrivals are from Haiti by way of Brazil, where many settled after Haiti's 2010 earthquake, but whose construction jobs have disappeared now that the Rio Olympics are over and the country wallows in recession, Solis said on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

"The phenomenon has shifted quite significantly," Solis said.

His government has set up centers that offer the migrants basic shelter and food, before they take the day-long bus trip through Costa Rica to the Nicaraguan frontier. Nicaragua does not allow the migrants to enter, so they are forced into the world of "coyotes," or illegal guides, often linked to criminal gangs.

Solis said the 15 percent of arrivals who are not Haitians are Cubans as well as Africans and Asians who make their way across the Atlantic to Brazil, and then trudge through Colombia and Panama to get to Costa Rica.

"Migration is a global phenomenon and it is not new. But something unexpected is happening, a refurbished flow of migrants is on the move in Latin America," Solis said.

So far, Solis said, Costa Rica can handle the inflow and outflow of immigrants passing through the country.

The United States, however, responding to a surge in Haitian immigrants, will end special protections for them dating back to the devastating 2010 earthquake, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.

"What if they start deciding to stay in Costa Rica after hearing that the United States has changed its tolerance policy and is going to start deporting them?" Solis said. "That's a concern."

More than 5,000 Haitians have entered the United States without visas this fiscal year through Oct. 1, according to Department of Homeland Security officials, up from 339 in fiscal year 2015.

Panama's president, Juan Carlos Varela, said this week that Haiti's economy and democracy must be fortified in order to stanch the rapid outflow of people from the impoverished island nation.

In February, Michel Martelly stepped down as president of Haiti without a successor. New elections are scheduled for Oct. 9. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Leslie Adler)

WHAT PRESIDENT PRIVERT SAID ABOUT THE MIGRANTS CRISIS DURING HIS SPEECH TO UNITED NATIONS

While speaking at the United Nations, President Privert recently said that he was concerned about the Haitian migrant crisis and added that the Haitian government would offer substantial measures to assist the host countries. “We believe we are taking all possible measures to fight against the traffickers who are abusing these people of good faith who are fleeing the poverty and misery”.

In his speech, Privert also said: “The Haitian delegation is aware of the reoccurring number of our Haitian compatriots who leave the country in search of a better life. Our delegation understands and takes note of the legitimate concerns expressed to this body by representatives of certain host or transit countries. This human crisis calls for concrete decisions and measures to offer the Haitian people new opportunities and a better life. To achieve this, the country needs political stability, the establishment of an infrastructure that will boost development, a system that respects the rule of law, and a better understanding of the major socio-economic challenges that the country is facing. We have begun a dialogue with some of the host countries in search of common solutions. ”  

Haiti: The investigation on the seizure of weapons in St-Marc progresses

Camille Edouard Jr., the Minister of Justice, advised that the investigation on the major arms shipment discovered on September 8 in Saint-Marc is progressing satisfactorily. He announced that the sender and recipient have been identified and will be arrested soon, stating that as part of this investigation, Interpol's collaboration was requested.

For his part, Prime Minister Jean-Charles, also Head of the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN), confirmed that the authorities are already able to identify the origin of these weapons and their destination, highlighting that "The situation is sensitive to the point that we do not want to reveal certain information," confirming that there is a name circulating, while avoiding revealing whether it is a trafficker or not. He promised that those involved in arms trafficking will soon be apprehended.

François Anick Joseph, Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities, explained the silence of the authorities about the investigation into the seizure of weapons in Saint Marc, by the necessity not to harm the ongoing investigation. He confirmed that investigators from the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,and Firearms (BATF) are working with the scientific police of the National Police of Haiti (PNH). He warned against rushing in connection and pay attention to homonyms and find the real concerned. In addition, police are looking for two people, including a customs agent of Saint-Marc, who are currently on the run.

Haiti-disaster / Tornado to Saint Michel de l' Attalaye

In the afternoon of Friday, September 23^rd, 2016, a violent tornado struck the urban area of Saint Michel de l'Attalaye. There was no loss of human life but the damages were significant.

More than 40 houses were destroyed, some people were hurt and farms were ravaged. The affected localities are: Nan Citron, Nan Calvaire, Nan Silo and the bottom of the municipal cemetery.

According to information from the local mayor, Gueilllant Dorcinvil, local authorities have been in touch with the victims of this tornado to in an effort to quickly meet their needs.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 11 octobre 2016

 MATTHEW, the hurricane of the century

REUTERS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A powerful Hurricane Matthew moved slowly Sunday across the Caribbean Sea on a track that authorities warned could trigger devastation in parts of Haiti.

The storm had winds of 145 mph (230 kph) as it moved northwest and the center was expected to pass across or very close to the southwestern tip of Haiti late Monday before reaching Cuba, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti. Forecasters said the southern Haitian countryside around Les Cayes could see the worst of it.

RADIO CANADA

On Sunday, the United States began to evacuate by air hundreds of people from their naval base in Guantánamo Bay, in Cuba, while Hurricane Matthew approached the island and its neighbors - Jamaica and Haiti.

The U.S. Navy specified that 700 wives and children of the soldiers based in Guantánamo, were going to be evacuated towards Florida.

"The rest of the military and civilian staff will stay on site to help in the aftermath of the storm," said the U.S. in a press release.

Meteorologists consider that Matthew, which was generating winds blowing up to 240 kph, to be the most powerful hurricane to have formed in the Atlantic Ocean since Felix, in 2007.

The Alarming evolution of cholera in the country

Over the first 8 months of 2016, cholera experienced an alarming evolution in Haiti compared to the same period in 2015. The number of new cases seen during the last 16 epidemiological weeks - from May 15^th till September 3^rd, 2016, remained high among new cases seen over the same period in 2014 and 2015. An average of 18 municipalities were on red alert and 10 others on orange alert throughout August 2016. Without a doubt, the heavy rain in May also had an impact on the evolution of the epidemic, as well as the reduction of funds available for projects to fight the disease, which forced humanitarian organizations to reduce the human resources and the number of mobile units which provided rapid intervention.

From January till August, 2016 there were 27,742 new cases of cholera, an increase 27 % in comparison to that same period in 2015. There were 255 deaths, an increase of 33 % compared to the same period in 2015.

From October, 2010 till August, 2016 there were 790,000 total cases and 9,243 deaths.

At the level of financing the national plan that calls for 2.1 billion dollar from 2012 to 2022 has been financed at a rate of 18 %. The 2016 humanitarian plan (HRP) which called 20.3 million dollar has been financed at 42 %.

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) specifies that if the global sub-financing of the national plan persists, the elimination of the disease will be reached in 2022, while a sub-financing of the HRP, can hinder an appropriate control of the disease in 2017.

The OCHA indicates that cholera is persisting because of a number of factors. Among them, the under-financing of the National Plan of Elimination of the disease, the inadequate access to drinking water and water purification, the lack of access to quality medical care, the lack of knowledge of sociocultural factors linked to this problem, the strong density of the population and the mobility towards urban areas.

The United Nations wants to mobilize 181 million dollars to improve the response to the cholera epidemic

Last Thursday, Dr. Nabarro special advisor at the United Nations for sustainable development, which negotiates with the Haitian government and donors regarding the cholera epidemic, indicated that the UN set a goal of mobilizing 181 million dollar over 3 years to improve the immediate response the epidemic in Haiti. He underlined that “The most urgent is to finance the response the cholera, because the new cases increased this year (in 2016 by 27 % or 27,742 cases from January till August, 2016 and 33 % more of deaths 255 fatalities) compared to the same period of 2015.

Dr. Nabarro added that such an amount should be mobilized in favor of the victims of the disease and their families, specifying that discussion are continuing and that Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General, should announce at the end of October a set of the measures to be undertaken.

High-level Meeting on the repatriation of Haitians

Last Friday at the National Palace a high-level meeting took place between President Jocelerme Privert, and government officials including the Office of National Migration (ONM), the Office of Identification (ONI), the National Commission to Fight Against Human Trafficking    (CNLTP), the Ministry of the Interior and Regions (MICT), the Ministry of Social Affairs, and Work (MAST), and the international authorities: the International Organization of the Migration (OIM), the American Embassy, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees  (UNCHR) regarding the repatriation process of Haitian migrants.

The Head of State was very worried about the threat of massive deportations of thousands of fellow countrymen with irregular immigration status in foreign countries. He said he was ready to mobilize all of the national institutions concerned, as well as necessary financial and material resources to receive our fellow countrymen with respect and dignity. This is a sudden concern for the president, following the decision of the United States to restart the regular deportation of Haitians who migrate irregularly. Prior to this, after more than 6 months in power, the Haitian government had done nothing to welcome the more than 50,000 countrymen who have been repatriated from the Dominican Republic. 

During this meeting, the Commission in charge of welcoming and repatriated presented its budget to Privert.

Jonas Cofy, the Managing director of MAST, and President of this Commission announced that he was going to lead an awareness campaign to discourage our fellow countrymen to venture on secret journeys that put their lives in danger. Besides, the main parties involved made a commitment to use all measures to facilitate reintegration in the country, identify and work on the dismantling of the networks of boatmen and traffickers of human being.

U.S. to boost Haitian deportations, but Haiti may not take them

Reuters - By Julia Edwards | WASHINGTON

The United States, responding to a surge in Haitian immigrants, will end special protections for them dating back to a 2010 earthquake that devastated that nation, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Thursday.

In a move that could send many back to an impoverished and violent country, the United States would now take steps to deport newly arrived Haitian migrants who do not have a case for seeking asylum, according to Department of Homeland Security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

More than 5,000 Haitian immigrants have entered the United States without visas this fiscal year through Oct. 1, said Department of Homeland Security officials, up from 339 in fiscal year 2015.

Deportations could be difficult if Haiti remains reluctant to issue documents needed to take back its residents.

"Haiti has not always issued travel documents as quickly as we would like," one official said. "Having said that, we are hopeful that they will live up to their international obligations and issue travel documents for people that have received the full measure of due process."

U.S. immigration authorities along the Mexico-California border have struggled to find enough resources to interview and temporarily detain Haitian migrants, most of whom are traveling from Brazil.

Many Haitians who found work in Brazil through a visa program offered after the earthquake are starting to leave because of Brazil's economic downturn and the shrinking work opportunities caused by the end of the summer Olympics.

Haitians who have been in the United States since January 12, 2011 and have Temporary Protected Status granted to earthquake victims will not be subject to deportation, Johnson said in a statement.

"The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State are working with the Government of Haiti and other key partners to resume removals in as humane and minimally disruptive a manner as possible," Johnson said.

Haitians who arrive on Thursday or later will be subject to "expedited removal" in which they are detained and ordered deported if they do not have a credible claim to asylum, Department of Homeland Security officials said.

Under previous protections, only Haitians who have been convicted of a serious crime or pose a national security threat have been ordered deported.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and David Gregorio)

Canadian officials feeling 'intense frustration' with Haiti's 'kleptocracy'

By Evan Dyer, CBC News Posted: Sep 25, 2016 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 27, 2016 2:21 PM ET

CBC News - When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosted his U.S. and Mexican counterparts in Ottawa in June, the three countries' foreign ministers found a topic they could all agree on, according to Canadian officials.

Everyone has had it with Haiti.

The earthquake that levelled much of capital city Port-au-Prince in 2010, killing at least 200,000 people, triggered the largest outpouring of Canadian private charity ever directed overseas: $221 million.

Since the quake, Canada has sent about $1.2 billion to Haiti, the hemisphere's poorest country, including $11 million to help pay for its failed presidential election last October. Per capita, Canadians have given more to Haiti in recent years than any other country.

But donor fatigue may finally be setting in for Haiti's most loyal backer, and the corruption and dysfunction of Haiti's ruling elite is mostly to blame.

From its place as the top recipient of Canadian aid in 2010, Haiti fell to 16th in 2015, with new favourite Ukraine getting more than five times as much.

Democracy delayed

Next month Haiti will attempt to rerun last year's national election.

The October vote failed to produce a winner after opposition parties claimed it was marred by widespread fraud, including hundreds of thousands of "zombie votes." Opposition mobs attacked polling stations, overwhelming Haitian police and forcing the cancellation of the second round of voting.

But the foreign donors who paid for the election — and who dispatched 408 observers to watch it — said it was clean.

"They tossed out the results from a perfectly good election," says Jim Morrell, executive director of the Haiti Democracy Project in Washington D.C. His organization provided 208 of those 408 observers.

The 200 observers from the Organization of American States, paid for mostly by the U.S., Canada and Brazil, agreed: the election was clean by Haitian standards and the results should have stood.

However, faced with a fait accompli, the foreign donors reluctantly agreed to try again when Haiti promised a rerun in January. But two days before it was to take place, Haiti postponed it again, setting yet another date in April.

By this point, Haiti was being ruled by an unelected interim president. When Haiti once again announced it was not ready to open the polls, donors' patience began to run out.

"Canada deplores the fact that the elections, scheduled to take place on April 24, have been cancelled for the third time," said Canada's Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion at the time.

With the latest rerun just around the corner, on Oct. 9, it's not clear what has changed, except that Haiti will have a whole lot less Canadian assistance.

Canada: No new money for elections

Haiti went into last year's presidential election with a fund of about $100 million from foreign donors to pay for it. The U.S. and Canada provided about half of that money.

Canada has told Haiti it will have to use whatever money is left over from that to pay for next month's rerun. (Global Affairs Canada, the federal body that leads Canada's international development and humanitarian assistance efforts, estimates that $6.3 million remains in the fund.)

It's also looking doubtful Canada will provide observers this time.

"We are currently assessing our potential support for the OAS Electoral Observation Mission," says Jessica Seguin of Global Affairs Canada. "Canada urges Haitian political actors to assume their responsibility to the Haitian people by completing impartial, transparent and credible elections within the established timeline."

It's a dramatic change from past elections, which Canada has always been there to scrutinize. In 2006, Canada's then-chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, personally led a team of Canadian observers to Haiti. One of them, Cheickh Bangoura of Ottawa, was shot in the arm carrying out his duties in Port-au-Prince, but was back at his post observing the vote the next day.

In private, senior government sources say Ottawa may yet relent and provide some token assistance, but with the clear message that Canada is fed up with Haiti's leaders playing political games on the donor's dime.

"At the end we may make some small contribution," says a senior official with the Trudeau government. "But mainly because we don't want to spite ourselves," he added, pointing out that if Haiti descends further into chaos the fallout could end up costing Canada even more.

Disillusioned by corruption

A major factor in Canada's disillusionment with aid to Haiti has been the ruling elite's penchant for violence and venality.

"It goes to the behaviour and opportunism of the political class," says Morrell. "Typically a president arrives in power with one idea, to hold power and aggrandize power. They don't really represent anyone but themselves."

Political parties in Haiti are organized around personalities and patronage, rather than ideology, which former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide once described as being like a hat you can put on and take off.

'You have no choice, because otherwise the money will just go into the pockets of people who are building the mansions.' 

The Haitian government has criticized Canada for channeling its aid money through foreign NGOs, rather than through the Haitian government.

One senior Canadian official says Canada has little choice, describing Haiti's system of government as a "kleptocracy."

Morell admits that approach has failed to build capacity within the government. "But you have no choice, because otherwise the money will just go into the pockets of the people who are building the mansions. That's why we keep coming back to elections. That's why we've chosen to make our investment in building Haitian democracy.

"Over time, if given real choices, Haitians would choose the more competent people from among them."

Morrell says it's sad that Canada is pulling back from assisting Haiti, but also understandable.

"They need some tough love," he says.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 13 octobre 2016

How to help Haiti after Hurricane Matthew

OCTOBER 5, 2016 4:38 PM

After Hurricane Matthew made landfall in Haiti Tuesday, organizations are collecting supplies and financial donations.

Agencies collecting donations and supplies include:

▪ Catholic Relief Services is collecting blankets, kitchen, hygiene kits, other supplies and financial donations on its website.

▪ Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities established a relief fund for people in the Caribbean affected by the hurricane. Financial donations will be designated to provide transportation, gas, food and rebuilding or repairs. Those contributions can be made at the Catholic Charities website. On the donate tab, select the box “Disaster Relief — Hurricane Matthew.”

▪ United Way and Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald have already activated Operation Helping Hands to raise money for people affected by the storm and are building a disaster volunteer database. All of the money raised through Operation Helping Hands will go directly to help people affected by Hurricane Matthew.

▪ Food Aid International is sending meals to Haiti. Donations can be made at its website.

▪ Guidelines for giving can be found at the Center for International Disaster Informationwebsite.

President Barack Obama met with FEMA Wednesday about Hurricane Matthew and encouraged people to help those in Haiti “who didn’t have a lot to begin with and are now getting hammered by this storm.”

The Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, or CARE, director in Haiti, Jean-Michel Vigreux, said the southern part of Haiti was hit hard and is cut off from the rest of the country.

 “The impacts of Matthew there are hard to evaluate as communication is very difficult, but we know of floods, landslides and continuous heavy rains in some areas of the south,” he said. “We also heard of destroyed houses, streets and bridges, dead livestock, destroyed livelihoods.”

The government estimates damages at about $1 billion.

Trees were uprooted and electric lines were cut off due to strong winds in the capital of Port-au-Prince. CARE distributed blankets and buckets at 11 a.m. before the storm hit Tuesday, the director said.

View image on Twitter

Haiti is still recovering from long-term effects of the earthquake in 2008, the cholera outbreak two years later, two cyclones, a tropical storm and two droughts, Vigreux said.

“The population is very strained,” he said. “Strengthening people’s resilience and boosting the reconstruction are key.”

.

Matthew worse than Azel

Oct.2016

It is far worse than Hazel (1954) although there was a major effort to alert people and the death toll was not, as far as we know, in the thousands. The Civil defense force played a role and the govt stepped up to the plate as did radios.. But it is not enough. We are not really prepared like other island for such gigantic disasters. And the disaster has not ended, it has just begun. The aftershock is coming. Impressive was our friend Francois Anick Joseph, former priest and now Interior Minister who told tv and radio how it was or is. The town of poets, Jeremie  is a complete wreck and even the solid old St Louis Roi de France church on Dumas place lost its roof. There is so much wreckage it is hard to visualize anyone has an undamaged home. Pilot Jeff Barnes flew into the airport in Jeremie the day after and could not enter the city because of fallen trees that blocked the road. It is the same for Cayes and town and villages on the peninsula. Mattthew rooted up the once beautiful Port Salut and more places.

Theo Wiener, who has worked with little farmers above Dame Marie went with Bernard Chauvet in his boat to see what has to be done. The uprooting of coffee and cacao trees is a disaster.  Theo has invested his young life in helping the farmers and recently investing in making chocolate there. At Beaumond , coffee from the time of the French (Jesuits) suffered casualties, even trees that remain may take years to return to bear fruit. The peanut crop and small gardens may no longer help families to survive. The foreign reports don’t tell the origin of cholera that was brought to Haiti by Nepalese UN troops

Lauidear, driver and housekeeper went to Cayes to help fix his house that lost its roof. His mother’s house was totaled All we could do is give him some financial help which so many millions need now. Unable to help physically as in 1954  makes one feel so inadequate!

To witness thousands of family members returning to their wrecked original homes, especially in the south, will mean they and thousands of others will return with them and seek haven in Port-au-Prince.

One Haitian TV showed ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his candidate for president using the crisis yesterday for a campaign tour of the South in Aquin. He was born in the Port Salut area.

Election, that were set for Sunday have been postponed, yet again. Whoever becomes President will face an enormous rebuilding task.

Bernard

The international community announces humanitarian aid to Haiti

We are still in a provisional state. It is still too early to give firm figures.

In the morning of Wednesday, October 5th, 2016, the Interior Minister of Venezuela, Nestor Luis Reverol, announced the shipping of a cargo of 20 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Haiti.

This cargo contains non-perishable foodstuffs, water, blankets, sheets and medicine to help the population of Haiti, in particular local residents of Les Cayes, he said.

For his part, the Ambassador of Cuba said that a Cuban plane landed at the Toussaint Louverture Airport of Port-au-Prince last Saturday. On board were 300 doctors, nurses and other members of the Cuban medical staff. Their mission: to go and lend a hand to the members of the Cuban medical staff already on site for years assisting victims of Hurricane Matthew.

The USAID said that a million US dollars will be given in humanitarian aid as support to departments affected by Hurricane Matthew. This amount will be used to distribute vouchers and daily food rations, transfer funds, and meals in the evacuation shelters.

The USAID also supplied five hundred thousand dollars to international partners in Haiti to bring in logistic support and distribute supplies, including drinking water, cases of hygiene products, equipment for emergency shelters, blankets and household appliances.

The European Union (EU), through its head office for humanitarian aid and disaster and emergency services (Echo), immediately assigned two hundred fifty-five thousand euro to assist the victims most seriously affected, indicated a press release.

For his part, U.S. President Barack Obama launched a call for solidarity for Haiti, during a meeting with the press at the White House, according to the newspaper “The Short Story Writer”.

In response to this emergency situation, the General Secretary of Francophony, Madam Michaëlle Jean, encouraged states and member governments of the Francophony to mobilize, in solidarity, for the affected Haitian populations, in cities and in the countryside.

Several social organizations expressed their concerns in the face of these promised international humanitarian aid pledges, following the devastation of Hurricane Matthew.

“These financial pledges are going to create wealth for some in Haiti, as well in the international community, to the detriment of the hurricane victims,” warned Guy Numa, who heads the Popular Democratic Movement (Modep).

"The humanitarian aid must come within the strategic framework controlled and defined by Haitians," and must have a long-term outlook, recommended Camille Chalmers, who heads the Platform for an Alternate Development (PAPDA).

A response plan is being developed by the government, which will coordinate the international assistance, explained Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles during a press conference.

The international response to the request for help by the Haitian Government

The following is an ON THE GROUND HAITI UPDATE, which is an initiative by Michael Capponi

October 7, 2016 aid delivery and surveys of Haitian villages within a 40 km vicinity of Jérémie, including downtown Jeremie

1 . Today we were able to get approximately 30 to 40 km outside Jeremie. We were fortunate to have a God-sent Caterpillar to help us get through.

2 . We wanted to go from Jeremie to Les Anglais, where there is even more catastrophic destruction, but that was absolutely impossible. The next attempt was getting to Dame-Marie. That is also absolutely impossible. The roads are knee to waist high deep muddy swamps at every corner.

There are large fallen trees every 20 ft. With the help of a large Caterpillar and a crew of 6, they cleared approximately a few miles of road all day. At that rate, we anticipate it may take weeks before the roads are minimally operational again.

3. There is not 1 out of 3 homes destroyed but 3 out of 3 homes destroyed.

4. Our biggest fear is how long could injured starving children survive without aid in remote areas. It has now been 5 days and we are still days away from even getting to these areas.

5. Jeremi‘s cell phone towers have collapsed so there was no ability to communicate. But at 9 pm DIGICEL manage to do the repair. Thank you@maartenboute.

6. The biggest hope for these areas is the UN, US Navy helicopters and other countries’ peace keepers. We were very happy to see a series of military helicopters fly around Jeremie that have supplies, food and water. We brought a plane full from PAP but we also bought more in Jeremie.

7. Monetary donations to the proper trusted and proven Haiti expert specific NG0’s is going to be the quickest way of supporting immediately. (Be sure to see their financials to verify that no money is wasted on overhead and unnecessary expenses. People got burned once, never again)

8 . I can honestly say it looks just as bad as the 2010 earthquake in some areas. What’s much much worse, is the entire landscape, trees and agriculture fields are completely desolated. All the newly planted trees are mostly gone in the south west coast.

DEATH TOLL TO DATE IS CLOSE TO 900.

This is a statement by the Departmental Representative: Anse d’Hainault 12 dead, D’Espagne 15 dead, Abricots 5 dead, Baumont 82 dead, Mouline 58 missing, Moron 85 dead. Jérémie 31 dead…

Chambellan, Dame Marie, Beaumont, Pestel, Roseau are impossible areas to reach so far. Grand’Anse is an emergency zone.

This is a humanitarian disaster, an apocalyptic situation, all streets, from the large cities are affected. Jeremie is in huge trouble, all the trees are uprooted and torn down, all roofs have been torn.

Grand Anse had to face more than 12 hours of Hurricane Matthews at a level of 4-5.

This is a call for international solidarity. All the debris would have to be cleared- impossible to pass! There is an urgent need for food, water, medication

To see pictures of the catastrophe, click: www.globalempowermentmision.org

An initiative of the Perez Museum in Miami

Artist are encouraging visitors to write inspirational messages on postcards to be included in care packages which will be sent to Haiti.

The elections have been postponed to a later date which will be communicated before October 12^th

Temporary electoral council (CEP) president, Léopold Berlanger Junior, announced the official postponement of the elections that were planned for this Sunday, October 9^th, 2016.

The electoral council should be able to announce, on Wednesday, October 12th, the new date for the elections.

The president of the CEP indicated that meanwhile, the process of evaluation of the post-hurricane situation will continue this week and the CEP will keep in touch with the government and its national and foreign partners, he said.

As for the electoral campaign, the end of which was planned for this Friday, October 7th, this date is maintained until further notice, said Léopold Berlanger.

Toll Rises by Hour in Haiti Amid Ruin Left by Hurricane Matthew

LES CAYES, Haiti — A hospital now a shambles, its floors swamped with garbage and water, absent electricity. People living in the streets, camped in front of their broken homes. Buildings smashed into splinters. Farm fields flattened, portending a hard year ahead.

“For me, Roche-à-Bateau is not a place to live anymore,” said Warens Jeanty, 26, a tourism operator surveying the beach towns and picturesque port hamlets that dot Haiti’s coast. “People have nowhere to stay.”

As Haiti picks through the detritus left by Hurricane Matthew, more bodies are turning up every hour. Some estimates said that more than 800 people had died in the storm, more than double what the government has reported, though it acknowledged that the toll was unknown. In one part of the country’s southern peninsula, nearly 30,000 homes were destroyed and 150 lives lost, officials said.

And a full accounting of damage has not even started.

 “I had never seen anything like this,” said Marie Yolene Gateau, a retired New York City guidance counselor who lives in Leogane, Haiti, a town that was largely flattened in the 2010 earthquake. Now the storm has wiped out most of the region’s sugar crop, bananas and mangoes, she said. “The hurricane was attacking the trees. I watched thinking, ‘When is it going to stop?’ ”

Passage to many areas remained blocked, thwarting efforts to assess the destruction and to help survivors. A single remote village reported 82 dead on Friday, while others said they were waiting to account for dozens of missing people. The government, which requires visual proof to count a death in its toll, could hardly keep up with the accounts of loss stitched together from hospitals.

“We’re still far from having a full picture of the extent of the damage,” said Marc Vincent, a Unicef representative in Haiti. “We are hoping for the best, but bracing for the worst.”

Photo

It is a state that Haiti has grown accustomed to.

The country was getting ready for elections this Sunday, the product of nearly a year of wrangling and recriminations. But after a long period of political uncertainty and delay, even nature would not let Haiti hold the vote.

Now the hurricane has presented yet another hurdle to a nation still grappling with the devastation of the 2010 earthquake and a cholera epidemic inadvertently introduced to the country by United Nations peacekeepers.

Etienne Navuson, 27, waited out the hurricane this week in his concrete home as the wind lashed his village on the southwestern peninsula. When he awoke, almost everything had vanished: cattle, crops, fields and homes.

“Had the rain fallen more than it did — had it gone for just one more hour — we would have lost even more,” Mr. Navuson said.

At least 90 percent of the village was destroyed, he said. Residents are searching for food and water buried in the rubble.

“Those who find something are fortunate,” he said. Seven more family members have taken refuge in Mr. Navuson’s home after losing their own to the storm. The tiny home is now packed with people sleeping on plastic sheets for bedding.

“There will be food shortages in the days to come,” Mr. Navuson said.

Msgr. Pierre-André Pierre, the head of the Catholic University of Notre Dame of Haiti, encountered chaos when he reached the coastal town of Jérémie. Trees were gone, leaving an empty field. Someone had discarded a body in front of a Catholic bishop’s house, not knowing where else to dispose of it.

 “They were in a state of shock on what had happened in that place,” Monsignor Pierre said. “People were running in the streets.”

The monsignor said he then took a flight to the southern part of the peninsula where he passed over the town of Roche-à-Bateau, where little was left.

“That town did not exist,” he said.

Jeff Barnes, a Haitian-American pilot, was making relief flights on Friday. Many of the towns around Jérémie remained cut off from the rest of Haiti. In some neighborhoods, 80 to 90 percent of homes had been severely damaged or destroyed.

Swaths of trees had been reduced to stumps, he said. Large teams of young people had taken to the streets with machetes and chain saws, trying to clear roads blocked by fallen trees, some several feet in diameter.

“Almost everyone is living under the sky now, sleeping under the stars,” he said. “Doors are gone, people don’t have a place to live.”

Observers said that the hurricane and the lack of a coordinated response recalled the troubles the country faced during the 2010 earthquake.

“It is during natural disasters such as this the frailty and near-absence of Haiti’s state becomes most visible,” said Michael Deibert, the author of two books on Haiti. “As the country slides downhill, the political elites squabble in the capital and the international community fails to come up with an effective way of engaging with Haiti’s most vulnerable.”

Others agreed.

“Haiti has been in the path of the storm just way too often,” said Robert E. Maguire, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University. “It isn’t because of anything the Haitian people are doing. It’s natural disasters exacerbated because of the way people have managed the country.”

Policies that ordered or permitted the stripping of trees have left barren and scorched landscapes susceptible to mudslides. Poor development has left the country defenseless to hurricanes, without sea walls or other hard defenses to soften the blow.

The nation’s politics, meanwhile, often brew their own type of disaster, leaving the country bereft of clearly elected leaders.

The interim government is still assessing the damage. Haiti’s Civil Protection Force maintained on Friday that fewer than 300 people had died, but Reuters had tallied that nearly 900 lives were lost.

In many areas, schools, police stations and other buildings that would typically serve as voting stations are in tatters. The hope of most is that the government will reschedule the elections for this year.

“We will have another disaster here if these elections aren’t held this year,” said Pierre Esperance, the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network. “The interim government doesn’t really have the power or legitimacy to control the country.”

For many, looking for food or still searching for loved ones, the elections were the last thing on their minds. On Friday, the Charmant Hotel in Jérémie had left a message on its website, saying its owners had not been in touch since the storm.

“We do know that Bette and Edwin were taking precautions for their guests, staff and family prior to the hurricane,” said the message, left by staff members.

Valery Numa, a well-known radio host in Port-au-Prince, ran three businesses — a hotel, a radio station and a Haitian Creole restaurant — in the town of Camp Perrin. All three were destroyed in the hurricane. But Mr. Numba has put an ambitious date, Nov. 1, for opening his three operations again.

“Any businessman who loses everything is going to be in distress,” he said, adding that he found himself lucky that none of his family members had died.

The aftermath of the storm also brought scenes of hope as survivors appeared. As the hurricane subsided, a team from St.-Boniface Hospital in southwestern Haiti went out to clear a route through debris. Looking up through the lessening rain, one of the workers saw the figure of a pregnant woman.

Her name was Julienne Cadet. She had been walking for at least half a mile. She was bleeding, in active labor.

The team quickly gathered around Ms. Cadet, helped her across a raging stream and drove her to the hospital. After an emergency cesarean section, she delivered two healthy boys: Jonas and Jean-atan

Father Sansaricq to President Obama

October 4^th, 2016

Mr. Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

The White House

Washington DC

Mr. President:

The recent Deportation Policy adopted by the Justice Department with regard to undocumented Haitian entrants resonates as a statement of utter contempt to a population in distress.

 In your various statements throughout your tenure you have always made it clear that people in distress are not to be treated as cattle or merchandise. With all due respect, forgive me to lament that the new policy contradicts your stated principles.

Indeed, Haitian Politicians are far from being blameless but we must also admit that misguided

Interference of the US Governments over the past fifty years have significantly worsened the political

and social conditions of that country. The US management of relief funds after the 2010 earthquake, the imposition of Mr. Martelly as President five years ago and the entire cholera file can be pointed out as some of the many examples of contributing factors to the current crisis.

 Let us honestly acknowledge it, Haitians who are running away by throve from their homeland are escaping dire conditions. I understand that it creates a political problem to the US. But we are dealing with human beings and human lives.

President Boyer of Haiti in 1826 invited any of the US born African slaves who were being forced back to Africa to take up residence in Haiti. Quite a few accepted the offer. Haitian soldiers fought in Savannah Georgia for the independence of the US.   Haiti in spite of its present condition of poverty stands as a symbol of something great and hence deserves special regards from its more prosperous neighbor.

I plead that the stated deportation policy recently adopted be revoked for humanitarian reasons.   

It is my hope that your legacy with regards to human rights will not be soiled by a last minute policy

that is likely to generate grave injustices, tremendous human sufferings, family separation and even

unknown numbers of avoidable tragedies. 

 Respectfully yours.

 +Guy Sansaricq

 Auxiliary-Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn NY

Director of the National Center of the Haitian Apostolate.