Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 8 octobre 2019

 FANM of Miami condemns Bahamas' decision to deport Haitians living in shelters

The Government of the Bahamas recently announced the upcoming removal of undocumented migrants who survived Hurricane Dorian and have been living since September 1 in shelters. This has raised concern in the area of human rights at the international level.

The Bahamas immigration minister, Elsworth Johnson, told Nassau Guardian newspaper that shelters will not be used “to circumvent the law.” He went on to say, “If you’re in a shelter and you’re undocumented and you’re not here in the right way, you’re still subject to deportation and immigration law enforcement.”

Marleine Bastien, executive director of the Miami-based Family Action Network (FANM) in Florida, said it was unacceptable for the Bahamas to deport undocumented immigrants who have recently experienced traumatic experiences.

Category 5 Dorian destroyed thousands of homes on Great Abaco and Grand Bahama and was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Bahamas. The damage, now clearly evident, seems calamitous. At least 53 people have died and more than 1,300 are still missing, FANM recalled in a note.

“It is inhumane to deport these people to Haiti, a country that is going through one of the worst political crises in its history, with serious human rights violations, arbitrary killings and massacres,” Bastien said.

Haitian Americans to Pelosi: Stop U.S. meddling. It’s time for Haiti president to go.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

OCTOBER 03, 2019 08:58 PM

A meeting in Miami between U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some of South Florida’s most prominent Haitian Americans ended Thursday with a message for the Democratic leader to take back to Washington: The U.S. needs to stop meddling in Haiti’s internal affairs — and Haiti President Jovenel Moïse needs to go.

“The people of Haiti are saying, ‘My goodness, let us govern ourselves. Let us find our own path... just support us,’” said Gepsie Metellus, the executive director of Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, which provides social services to the community. “What do people want to see? They want to see the United States ask, ‘What do you want and how can we help you get it?’ We don’t want the United States or Canada or France or the rest of our friends dictating. We don’t want to be dictated to.”

Activist Carline Paul was more blunt, telling Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, who organized the round-table discussion, that she called contacts in Haiti before coming.

“The people of Haiti say, ‘No interference. No [Temporary Protected Status] deportations after Jan. 20, no more support of President Jovenel Moïse as president of Haiti.”

Wilson, who represents one of the largest congressional districts of Haitian Americans, introduced Pelosi at the Father Gerard Jean-Juste Community Center in North Miami-Dade, saying that when she originally invited her, it was to discuss issues affecting the community. Haiti was not yet the powder keg it has become since protests over a recurring fuel shortage morphed into a fresh round of violent protests demanding the resignation of Moïse, who has been in office for 32 months.

On Thursday, a leading human rights group in the country said at least 17 people have been killed and 187 injured, including journalists, between Sept. 16-30.

Accusing anti-riot police officers of engaging in repressive violence, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights/Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains is calling for an investigation into the misuse of tear gas and incidents of police brutality by the Haiti National Police.

“The police, an apolitical institution, must be able to behave professionally,” the human rights group said, also criticizing the use of masked police officers during the demonstrations.

The human rights report said some of the individuals have turned out to be fake police officers, hired by the government to quell the anti-government demonstrations. Among the exhibits in the report: a photo showing armed men in uniform escorting the new representative of the executive in the North Department, Pierrot Degaul Augustin, during his installation on Monday.

The National Network for the Defense of Human Rights said the recent insurgency by the population can be blamed on public policies put in place by Haiti’s current authorities “who, since their accession to power, flout the democratic gains of the Haitian people and systematically violate their rights.”

“They have never taken seriously the various protest movements in the country since July 2018 by a population plagued by all ills,” the human rights group said.

Haiti protesters ask international community to stop supporting their president

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OCTOBER 04, 2019 06:33 PM, UPDATED OCTOBER 04, 2019 07:27 PM

A massive crowd of anti-government protesters in Haiti cranked up the pressure for President Jovenel Moïse to step down Friday, taking their resignation demands to the United Nation’s peacekeeping headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where they asked the international community to stop support the country’s leader.

On Friday, the massive protests in Port-au-Prince started peacefully but there were violent outbreaks, according to radio reports, when anti-riot officers with the Haiti National Police started firing tear gas.

The effect was so powerful that a nearby hospital sent an SOS alert to journalists, asking police and protesters to respect the perimeter of the hospital. One of its patients, in a coma, could no longer withstand the gas, a doctor said.

Earlier, police found themselves overrun and outsmarted as they tried to block the crowd from reaching the airport. Some demonstrators quickly branched off and traveled on a back road. Carrying placards that read, “Resign Jovenel,” and “America stop funding corruption,” the protesters marched past the Ministry of Health and turned onto Carrefour Rita to arrive in front of the U.N. site. Some of the placards referred to the Core Group, a label for the international community in Haiti.

In the crowd were mothers who complained about not being able to send their children to school; young men who decried the corruption involving public officials, and opposition politicians, including the mayor of Haiti’s largest city.

“We don’t have a choice,” Port-au-Prince Mayor Ralph Youri Chevry said when asked why he was out marching. “We need another system.”

He later tweeted: “Today I’m shutting down the streets along with my fellow Haitians to request the departure of President Jovenel Moïse. I believe in a Haiti where the people deserve more than what the central power offers. I will not stop fighting until a new system emerges under a different leadership that can lead the people well.”

Haiti National Police confirmed eight people were injured by gunshot Friday, including two police officers in the capital and six in Jeremie. Two homes were also set ablaze in Jeremie. In the southern region, where a 70-year-old hospital patient was assaulted earlier this week in Les Cayes, police made two arrests Friday for attempted arson of a gas station and three others for carrying illegal arms.

Unlike in recent protests, which quickly turned violent, demonstrators Friday tried to keep things peaceful. At some points it felt more festive than confrontational.

In Port-de-Paix, as a crowd headed toward the courthouse, protesters changed their mind and turned around to avoid clashing with police. And in Cap-Haitien, where they marched out of the city and back to Vertières, where a monument stands to the last battle of the second war of Haitian independence, some tried to negotiate their way past a police roadblock to get into Carenage, a residential area where the U.N. has an office.

Friday’s protest, one of the largest in recent months, came a day after a group of influential Haitian-American activists met with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a community center in unincorporated North Miami-Dade County. The round-table discussion before a packed room was organized by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat.

With a message similar to their counterparts in Haiti, the Miami group told Wilson and Pelosi that after years of interference in Haiti, it was time for the U.S. to listen to the people and respect the country’s sovereignty.

“They are calling for accountability from so-called elected officials,” Karen Andre, a lawyer who worked in the Obama administration said. “They are calling for an end to the massacres, the extrajudicial killings that are happening.”

In a letter addressed to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and delivered to the U.N. by a small delegation, opposition leaders blasted Moïse’s leadership, saying “the people do not recognize him anymore as head of state.” They provided an exhaustive list of issues, from a massacre in La Saline last year, in which two government officials were implicated, to a Haitian court’s audit of misuse of Venezuela’s PetroCaribe oil program, which implicated the president.

“We solicit, in your capacity as Secretary-General of the United Nations, your disassociation from Jovenel Moïse by giving all of your support to the Haitian people,” the letter said. “He doesn’t rule anything and he has no control over the country. He is incapable.”

Guterres’ office, which has mentioned Haiti twice this week during its daily press briefings, did not say anything about Friday’s protest. But during the noon U.N. briefing, spokesman Stephane Dujarric commented about street demonstrations taking place in several countries around the world. The secretary-general was deeply concerned that some of the protests had led to violence and, in some instances, resulted in the loss of life and serious injuries, Dujarric said.

“The Secretary-General restates that freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental rights that must be respected,” Dujarric said. “The Secretary-General reiterates his call to security forces to act at all times with maximum restraint and to respond to any acts of violence in conformity with relevant international human rights standards on the use of force by law enforcement officials. He also calls on protesters to demonstrate peacefully and to refrain from violence.”

Performance, Masterclass and Drum Workshop with Linda François and Youry Vixamar

Haiti Cultural Exchange is pleased to present Danse RASIN as part of our Haiti X New York programming. Haiti-based Dancer Linda François and Drummer Youry Vixamar join us in NYC for a day of dance and drumming.

Linda Isabelle François is a Haitian dancer who made her dance debut at the age of three. In 1980, she began dancing with Kettly Durand for two years, then at Lavinia Williams school for three years and later, in 1991, she integrated Artcho, and in 1993, she started her professional career. She learned from great dance professionals: Jeanguy Saintus, Jean René Delsoin, Gerard Florestal, Lena Blou, Bob Powers and Kathryn Sullivan to name a few. She has worked during her many years of professional experience on classical dance techniques, Latin dance, jazz, traditional Haitian, Afro-Cuban, Afro-contemporary, modern, ethnic dance, improvisation and choreographic composition.

She has proven herself as co-artistic director, soloist, choreographer, coach of Ayikodans, teacher at Artcho for over twenty years and has also participated in several commercials. Various audiences from foreign countries, appreciated the choreographies performed by Linda: Europe (Paris, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Upper Normandy), Japan (Tokyo, Nagano, Fukuyama), USA (New York, Ohio, Miami, Boston, Minnesota) , The Caribbean (Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados), Africa (Benin).

Youry Vixamar: Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Youry is passionate about music. He began piano lessons at the age of 10. At 15 years old he learned to play the trumpet. In 2000 he began his musical studies at Haiti's National School of Arts (ENARTS). His career began in 2002 with Sanba Zao in Djakata band. In 2003, he played in the choir of St. Jude (Meyotte), Brothers Posse, Fabienne Denis Ayizan and Tru Rasta . In 2007 he joined Paul Beaubrun's band, Zing Eksperyans. Starting in 2011, he began a solo career in collaboration with DJs such as Gardy Girault, DJ Stuba, DZgot, Jeff Afrozila, Boddhi Satva, Dead Fresh Nunas onstage and more.

Haiti X New York (HXNY) is a program of week-long residencies that brings Haiti-based artists to New York to present their work to and engage with Diaspora and broader NYC audiences. Artists participate in workshops, panel discussions, and culminating presentations. HXNY narrows the physical and cultural distance between Haitians and Haitian-Americans and lends new insights to historical and current concerns of Haitians in and out of the Diaspora. At the same time, the program introduces New York audiences to Haitian artists with whom they may not be familiar.

Danse RASIN

Sat, October 19, 2019 - 12:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Gibney Dance, 280 Broadway ,N.Y.

12 pm | Doors open

12:30 - 2 pm | Masterclass with Linda François accompanied by live drumming

2:30-3:30pm | Drum workshop with Youry Vixamar

4-5pm | Dance Performance by Linda François featuring Youry Vixamar

5pm-5:30pm | Ann Pale discussion with the artists

What’s New with Naomi Osaka?

Naomi Osaka went through a rather difficult period soon after winning the Australian Open. The Japanese sensation hit the headlines after she sacked her coach Sascha Bajin 2 weeks after her triumph in Melbourne. Later she had a rather depressing run during the clay and grass court seasons to finally fire also her new coach Jermaine Jenkins.

Naomi Osaka coached by her father

The former world no.1 had the sensible idea to “go back to the future” and being coached by her father Leonard Francois and that worked like a charm. The Japanese won the title in Osaka and she looked in top form in Beijing where she defeated Bianca Andreescu after a great 3-setter halting the 17-matches winning streak of the Canadian.

After the match, Naomi commented:

“It meant a lot because I feel like people counted me out after the Europe thing. I’m just like, I still won a slam this year, I won Osaka. I’m still here. But there’s a sort of beauty to be underrated.” Osaka qualified for the WTA Finals in Shenzhen

After her recent win, Naomi Osaka qualified for the 2nd consecutive year for the seasons’ finale. In 2018 she didn’t shine in Singapore where she lost all her matches. This year she looks to be in a much better mental space to have a much better run.

What do Americans know about Haitians?

Sadly, the American politicians and American lobbyists know a lot about the wrongdoings of the “Haitian Sellouts" who are always contacting them for favors and are selling the country sovereignty to keep themselves in power.

Those aforementioned Americans do not know about the Haitian People and its goodness and its endurance to hardship. Also, they do not know about its determination to change the status quo, when facing the impossible.

Nonetheless, nowadays, because of the Diaspora members' involvement in the cultural life of their communities in America, many Americans know about Haiti and its nationalists/citizens. They do know that Haiti helped The United States of America get its freedom during the Savannah independence fight in 1776 against England. They know how Haiti helped many “real leaders” in South America and Central America countries during their fight for liberation and freedom.

We as Haitians have to let the world know that we are not in agreement with the “sellouts.” We are proud to be born in the First Black Independent Republic of the World, a heritage left in 1804 by our ancestors, the former slaves.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 17 octobre 2019

 Haiti protesters ask international community to stop supporting their president

October 04, 2019 06:33 PM, Updated October 04, 2019 07:27 PM

MIAMI HERALD / JACQUELINE CHARLES

A massive crowd of anti-government protesters in Haiti cranked up the pressure for President Jovenel Moïse to step down Friday, taking their resignation demands to the United Nation’s peacekeeping headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where they asked the international community to stop support the country’s leader.

Tying up traffic in front of Toussaint Louverture International Airport, the demonstrators — who later burned tires in front of the nearby domestic airport while another group made its way to Petionville — were among thousands who took to the streets in a nationwide call against Moïse, whose 32 months in office have been saddled with graft allegations, soaring inflation, a depreciating currency and government ineptness.

Protests were also reported in Jeremie, Léogâne, Mirebalais, Port-de-Paix, Les Cayes and Cap-Haitien.

In a letter addressed to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and delivered to the U.N. by a small delegation, opposition leaders blasted Moïse’s leadership, saying “the people do not recognize him anymore as head of state.” They provided an exhaustive list of issues, from a massacre in La Saline last year, in which two government officials were implicated, to a Haitian court’s audit of misuse of Venezuela’s PetroCaribe oil program, which implicated the president.

“We solicit, in your capacity as Secretary-General of the United Nations, your disassociation from Jovenel Moïse by giving all of your support to the Haitian people,” the letter said. “He doesn’t rule anything and he has no control over the country. He is incapable.”

Guterres’ office, which has mentioned Haiti twice this week during its daily press briefings, did not say anything about Friday’s protest. But during the noon U.N. briefing, spokesman Stephane Dujarric commented about street demonstrations taking place in several countries around the world. The secretary-general was deeply concerned that some of the protests had led to violence and, in some instances, resulted in the loss of life and serious injuries, Dujarric said.

“The Secretary-General restates that freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental rights that must be respected,” Dujarric said. “The Secretary-General reiterates his call to security forces to act at all times with maximum restraint and to respond to any acts of violence in conformity with relevant international human rights standards on the use of force by law enforcement officials. He also calls on protesters to demonstrate peacefully and to refrain from violence.”

Ahead of Friday’s protests, Haiti’s National Network for the Defense of Human Rights reported that recent violent protests had left 17 people dead, and 187 injured, including two journalists who were shot.

The human rights group accused police of using repressive tactics and called for an investigation.

On Friday, the massive protests in Port-au-Prince started peacefully but there were violent outbreaks, according to radio reports, when anti-riot officers with the Haiti National Police started firing tear gas.

The effect was so powerful that a nearby hospital sent an SOS alert to journalists, asking police and protesters to respect the perimeter of the hospital. One of its patients, in a coma, could no longer withstand the gas, a doctor said.

Demonstrators in Haiti Are Fighting for an Uncertain Future

By Edwidge Danticat

October 10, 2019

The New Yorker

….

The young men and women demonstrators, when speaking to both local and foreign journalists, sometimes speak of their desire for a tabula rasa. They want a more egalitarian, inclusive, and just society, where the rights of every citizen will be respected. Not just the wealthy and well-connected but the urban and rural poor, too. They want the international community to stop meddling and pushing elections as a vehicle for change, only to rig them and saddle the country with leaders like Martelly and Moïse. They want Haitian-led solutions. They want institutions that work. They want an end to impunity. They want freedom from government and privately funded gangs, who routinely rape women and girls. They ultimately want accountability not just from Moïse but from everyone who has stolen or squandered the Petrocaribe money, which their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will still have to repay.

They must see some parallels between themselves and those taking part in the equally massive, and increasingly violent, protests in Hong Kong, to which the world at least is paying attention. Twenty people were killed and about two hundred injured during the protests this past September. The numbers are likely to increase this month as demonstrations persist and ramp up in intensity. One thing that Moïse said in his dead-of-night speech on September 25th, which all Haitians should be able to agree on, is that “Ayiti pap peri. Ayiti pa dwe peri.” Haiti will not perish. Haiti should not perish. Not over him, or anyone else.

• Edwidge Danticat is the author of many books, including, most recently, “Everything Inside: Stories.”Read more »

NAHOMY OSAKA GIVES UP U.S. CITIZENSHIP TO PLAY FOR JAPAN IN 2020 OLYMPICS.

by Black Cotton Apparel October 10, 2019

Tennis star Naomi Osaka has decided to take sole Japanese nationality over US citizenship with a view to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

Two-time grand slam champion Osaka, who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Haitian father but was brought up in the US, told NHK that it gives her "a special feeling to try to go to the Olympics to represent Japan." 

According to Japanese law, those with dual nationality must chose one before turning 22 years old. Osaka's 22nd birthday is on October 16.

"I think I will be able to put more of my emotion into it by playing for the pride of the country," she told NHK. 

Osaka, who resides in the US, defeated world No.1 Ash Barty in the final of the China Open in Beijing last Sunday. 

Her victory, coming after last month's title success at the Pan Pacific Open in Japan, lifted her back to No.3 in the world. 

She clinched her maiden grand slam title when she beat Serena Williams int he US Open final last year and backed it up with victory in he Australian Open in January to become one of Japan's biggest and most bankable sports stars.

Osaka, who plays under a Japanese flag on the WTA Tour, made her Fed Cup debut for the country in 2017. 

CNN has reached out to the Japan Tennis Association and Osaka's agent for comment.

Rubio on calls for Haitian president to resign: “We are not going to interfere”

October 07, 2019 04:31 PM

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has been one of Haiti’s most vocal supporters — urging the current government to side with the United States against longtime ally and oil benefactor, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and also warning the Caribbean nation against ditching Taiwan for China.

But on Monday as Haiti entered a fourth week of paralysis over demands forPresident Jovenel Moïse to step down, Rubio said the U.S. has no role to play in the deepening crisis spurred by recurring fuel shortages and allegations of graft and mismanagement of the economy by Moïse.

“My interest in Haiti has always been that it has democracy and elections and rule of law and I will continue to support it in those endeavors. Who they choose as their leader is up to the processes that they run internally,” Rubio told the Miami Herald. “We don’t have a role to play in who resigns and who stays on.”

While Rubio was not mentioned specifically, he’s was among those who pressured Haiti to cut ties with Maduro as he prepared to begin a new six-year term as president. Rubio also took to Twitter to publicly warn Haiti against ditching Taiwan for China, saying in March of last year, “it would inflict real & immediate damage on the U.S. relationship with Haitian govt.”

As chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Rubio’s comments on Haiti came at the end of a speech Monday at an Inter American Press Association conference in Coral Gables, and as Haitians woke up to another day of burning tires, barricaded streets and canceled schools in Port-au-Prince and other cities. 

Speaking to a roomful of journalists and news directors from across Latin America, Rubio touched on the crisis happening in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. He said having elections does not turn a country into a democracy, and no country could survive if it’s split into multiple parts.

“You cannot govern in a democracy if there is no consensus,” he said. 

Asked later by the Miami Herald if that sentiment also applied to Haiti, where Moïse was forced Monday to cancel a traditional ceremony opening the new judiciary year due to the ongoing political crisis and threats of protests, Rubio said: “That’s an internal matter for Haitians to decide. I don’t think it’s the proper job of the United States to call on a democratically elected leader to step down. That would be interference. Just like it would be wrong for the U.S. to step up and say he should stay.”

Thousands rally against Haitian president, clash with police

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press 

October 04, 2019 07:13 PM

A woman with painted nails leans against a truck as people wait for distribution to restart, after a federal government hand-out of food and school supplies was temporarily suspended when the lines turned into jostling crowds, at the mayor's office in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. The administration of President Jovenel Moise tried to alleviate Haiti’s economic crunch on Thursday by distributing plates of rice and beans, sacks of rice, and school backpacks filled with four notebooks and two pens. Rebecca BlackwellAP Photo

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Thousands of protesters marched through the Haitian capital to the U.N. headquarters Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in a weekslong push to oust embattled President Jovenel Moïse.

At least two people were shot as police in riot gear blocked the main entrance to the airport and fired tear gas at the crowd, which threw rocks and bottles.

Carlos Dorestant, a 22-year-old motorcycle driver, said he saw the man next to him shot, apparently by police, as protesters dismantled a barrier near the U.N. office.

"We are asking everyone in charge to tell Jovenel to resign," he said, his shirt stained with blood. "The people are suffering."

Several protesters held up signs asking the U.S. for help. "Trump give Haiti one chance" read one, while another quoted a tweet by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. A third referred to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who discussed the crisis with Haitians in Miami on Thursday.

The unrest on Friday came after almost four weeks of protests in which 17 people have been reported killed, the economy has been largely paralyzed, 2 million children have been kept from going to school and badly needed aid has been suspended, especially to rural areas. The U.S., United Nations and other important international players have yet to drop their support for Moïse, making it appear unlikely that he will step down, despite protests that have made gasoline, food and water scarce in some areas.

"We will continue until Jovenel leaves office," said Sen. Sorel Jacinthe, who was once the president's ally but joined the opposition earlier this year.

The opposition has rejected Moïse's call for dialogue and created a nine-person commission it says would oversee an orderly transition of power, with many demanding a more in-depth investigation into corruption allegations which involve the use of funds from a Venezuela-subsidized oil program. Critics say Moïse has not looked into the former top government officials accused, including ally and former President Michel Martelly.

To protest against the alleged corruption and a shortage of basic goods, Haitians have taken to the streets in force.

Opposition leader and attorney André Michel said the international community should recognize the protesters' demands and blamed Moïse for the country's economic and social problems.

"He has plunged the country into chaos," he said.

Moïse's ally, former Prime Minister Evans Paul, also met earlier this week with the Core Group, which includes officials from the United Nations, U.S., Canada and France to talk about the political situation. He has said that he believes Moïse has two options: nominate an opposition-backed prime minister or shorten the length of his mandate.

Moïse, who owned a company named in the investigation, has denied all corruption allegations. He urges dialogue and says he will not resign.

Laurent Dubois, a Haiti expert and Duke University professor, said there is no clear answer on what might happen next as the turmoil continues.

"The thing that haunts all of this is ... is this going to lead to the emergence of more authoritarian rule?" he said.

Earlier Friday, police fired tear gas at thousands gathered under a bridge to urge the international community to withdraw support for the president. Some demonstrators were carrying guns, machetes or knives.

A police commander could be heard ordering officers to take up their positions.

"It's become more than a protest!" he yelled. At various locations, water cannon trucks were on hand.

Getta Julien, 47, said she had enough of the protests and the president as she stabilized portions of rice, beans and vegetables she had packed into foam containers.

"He has to go," she said. "He's doing nothing for the country. Nothing at all."

Nearby, others cheered as Jacinthe arrived and greeted supporters, including an artist riding a white horse amid burning tires as he carried a large red and black flag that read, "Long live the economic revolution."

One protester, 38-year-old electrician Delva Sonel, said he did not want the international community to interfere.

"We're trying to send a signal to the world that we're not a little country," he said. "We want to tell them to stay out of our business."

Some questioned why international leaders had not spoken publicly against Moïse even as he and his administration face corruption allegations.

"How can they support this government if it represents everything that is wrong?" said Israel Voltaire, a 35-year-old attorney. "With us being a democratic country, it's like we're losing the war."

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 23 octobre 2019

 UN CALLS FOR A SUSPENSION OF THE REPATRIATION OF HAITIAN MIGRANTS FROM THE BAHAMAS

In a note published on October 26, the United Nations through the High Commissioner of Human Rights called on the Bahamian authorities to postpone their decision to deport Haitians living in an irregular situation in their territory, a deportation initiated since the passage of the Hurricane Dorian on this archipelago.

17 OCTOBER 2019: The year’s commemoration of Jean-Jacques Dessalines was bare-bone and consisted only of a floral offering to the MUPANAH

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, the First Lady, the Prime Minister Jean Michel Lapin and some high dignitaries of the regime were present last Thursday, October 17 at the Museum of the Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH) to lay a wreath of flowers at the feet of the Father of the Nation Jean Jacques Dessalines.

"Deposit of a wreath of flowers at MUPANAH as part of an offering and meditation ceremony. With this gesture, we wanted to honor the memory of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Founding Father of the Fatherland and above all to show ourselves worthy of the legacy he bequeathed to us," tweeted the Haitian president escorted by a strong security system for the ceremony.

In a short message for the occasion, Jovenel Moïse attacked once again the «system» preventing the proper functioning of the country. The tenant of the National Palace pled for a common front between all the sons and daughters of the country in order to eradicate this powerful system based on exclusion.

In addition to this imposing security system, journalists and other press workers had difficulties in accessing the Champs de Mars area. A colleague, Renald Petit-Frère, working at Signal FM was beaten by officers of the National Police of Haiti (PNH).

Alert for Cap Haitian

I am making an Alerte for the people in the north particularly Cap H. No fuel tanker, no propane tanker have been able to resupply the gaz stations now going into 5 weeks. An humanitarian crisis is quickly unfolding. The government has not done anything to open the roads and creating an humanitarian corridor to escort tankers and alieviate the problem . 

Soon something will have to be done because everything is collapsing now in this country . Hotels, Restaurants, stores,  Gaz stations, etc...employees are not getting paid , schools can't open. 

This is not about politics but someone has to make  hard decisions to help otherwise I think it will get out of hand and Haiti will never recover from this disastrous political situation.

UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, has called on the authorities to investigate the killing of Néhémie Joesph

UNESCO Press Release No.2019-94

Director-General condemns murder of journalist Néhémie Joseph in Haiti

Paris, 17 October—The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, has called on the authorities to investigate the killing of Néhémie Joesph on 10 October in the Haitian city of Mirebalais.

“I condemn the murder of Néhémie Joseph,” the Director-General said. “I urge authorities to spare no effort in investigating this crime and ensuring that all those involved are brought to trial. Journalists and the media bring an indispensable contribution to democracy and governments must prioritize their safety.”

The dead body of Néhémie Joseph, a radio reporter and presenter for Mirebalais-based Panic FM and Port-au-Prince radio station Méga, was found in the trunk of his car after his shooting by unknown assailants. The journalist recently said on social media that he had received threats regarding his reporting on the authorities’ handling of the political crisis affecting the country.

UNESCO promotes the safety of journalists through global awareness-raising, capacity building and a range of actions, notably in the framework of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

See also: UNESCO observatory of killed journalists

Media contact: Sylvie Coudray, Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.,+33 (0)1 45 68 08 91

Jeffrey Clark Lochard, Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser., +509 48 90 81 80

NEWS

HUMAN RIGHTS

Pro-Democracy Movement in Haiti Swells Despite Lethal Police Violence

It’s getting hard not to notice that U.S. corporate media is covering pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong far more than pro-democracy forces in the Caribbean. It can be challenging to catch up on significant events in a place that’s a mere two-hour flight from Miami; with a few exceptions, the media is largely failing Haiti right now.

A movement birthed in the shantytowns of Port-au-Prince has now swelled to broad swaths of the populace in all 10 of Haiti’s geographical departments. Friday, October 11, saw a national mobilization of tens of thousands of protesters out in force throughout the country demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise — and 10 of them didn’t make it home alive.

Longtime Haiti observer Kevin Pina, editor of Haiti Information Project, told Truthout that protesters were assaulted on October 11 by police armed with guns, tear gas and water cannons, and that seven protesters were reported to be killed by police in Petion-ville, a wealthy enclave in the hills above Port-au-Prince. Three more were killed in Saint-Marc in the western department of Artibonite. Those killed on October 11 included a 16-year-old boy, bringing the documented death toll (all on the side of the protesters) to more than 20.

Pasha Vorbe, a member of the executive committee of the political party Fanmi Lavalas, told Truthout in a call from Port-au-Prince that Lavalas has counted 28 total protesters killed by police during the current revolt.

“Today, I can tell you, we are living in a humanitarian crisis; it is not just Lavalas, the entire population is against Jovenel Moise and the rigged elections that delivered him to us,” Vorbe said.

Haiti is in revolt against The Core Group, a political entity formed by dint of United Nations Security Council Resolution in 2004, the same year as the U.S.-backed coup toppled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Lavalas party from Haiti’s helm. A multi-national supervisory body with the nebulous mission of “steering the electoral process,” its creation was originally proposed as a six-month interim transition support measure, yet it endures to this day.

At issue is the legitimacy of the presidency of Jovenel Moise, who was installed in 2017 to serve a five-year term. Protesters say Haiti cannot wait until 2022 for his departure from office.

Moise stands accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the proceeds of the PetroCaribe energy loan program extended by Venezuela. He earned the ire of many Haitians after attempting to remove energy subsidies in July 2018. The president’s administration has been directly implicated in the massacre of upward of 70 people (some reports say closer to 300) in the Lasalin neighborhood of Port-au-Prince — a four-day torture and killing spree in November 2018.

The massacres took place in the same community that had been demonstrating on a weekly basis since July 2018 in protest of the economic violence of double-digit inflation, currently at approximately 19 percent.

Targeted assassinations are ongoing. On October 10, Haitian journalist Néhémie Joseph, a reporter with Radio Méga and critic of the Moise administration, was found dead in his car with multiple shots to the head, prompting a demand for a swift investigation from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

With continued backing from The Core Group — which is chaired by the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General, and comprised of the Ambassadors to Haiti from Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, the U.S. and the Special Representative of the Organization of American States — Moise clings to power. If he can hold on until January 2020, and parliamentary elections (currently scheduled for October 27) do not take place by then, the parliament will be dissolved and Moise can rule by decree.

Cécile Accilien, director of the Institute of Haitian Studies at the University of Kansas told Truthout the political situation in Haiti is complex.

“We’re ruled by far more powerful countries, the 1 percent, the NGOs — everyone’s playing a game,” she said. “But most of us don’t know what the rules are or who the players are, but we know this: Everyone is playing Haiti.”

Pina noticed how Moise appeared more confident after meeting with Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago in March 2019.

“Moise’s entire disposition changed after he’d gotten reassurance from Trump that he will back him,” Pina told Truthout. “I assume there was aquid pro quo for Trump supporting him in exchange for doing a 180 on Venezuela.”

“I’ll make a promise to you,” Pence told the assembled leaders. “Stand with us and know we’ll stand with you. Work with us and we will work with you.” Haiti had pointedly not been invited in June 2018 to a confab with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence who was courting nations willing to vote to eject Venezuela from the Organization of American States and to invoke the Rio Treaty (the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance) for the first time since 9/11, potentially clearing the way for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.

Subsequently, Moise reversed Haiti’s support for Maduro and Venezuelan sovereignty.

“Our response has to be sarcastic,” Vorbe said. “If they think that Moise is so good and great why don’t they give him a job in the U.N. or in Washington? Quick, before he drains the economy completely.”

The hypocrisy of the U.S. attacking Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as “illegitimate” while upholding Moise is not lost on Vorbe. Much of what Washington claims about Maduro’s 2018 re-election is verifiably true about Moise’s election in 2016: Yes, there was a record low voter turnout in Venezuela, only 46 percent, but in Haiti it was vastly lower: only 18 percent of the electorate went to the polls. Accusing Maduro’s government of drug trafficking and money laundering reminds Haitians that Moise came into office already accused of laundering millions of dollars. Plus, he was mentored by Guy Phillippe, currently serving nine years in a U.S. prison for those exact crimes.

The Devastation of Haiti’s Economy

Vorbe said Moise has bankrupted the startup businesses that were developing in Haiti and has annihilated the education system. This year there will be 70,000 high school graduates and places for only 7,000 university students. Jobs are in scarce supply. Without a meaningful economic development program, Haitian workers are left to labor in sweatshops that pay the lowest sub-poverty wages in the hemisphere.According to the World Bank, 32 percent of the country’s GDP in 2018 was derived from remittances from family members living elsewhere.

“Today the majority of Haitians do not eat three regular meals a day,” Vorbe said. “Maybe they eat once a day, or every other day. They feel practically doomed, and their living conditions are getting worse every day.”

Maud Jean-Michel is known as Sanite B., the host of Sewom Patriyotik on Radyo Tele Timoun. A human rights protector and freedom fighter, she uses her radio platform to expose what the U.S. is doing to Haiti. She bristles at hearing Haiti referred to as a poor country, the poorest in the Western hemisphere.

“We are one of the richest, but Haiti has been impoverished,” she continued. “This is the reason they keep us in turmoil. If we stabilized, we could use our resources — our bauxite, uranium and black marble — how can we be poor when we have so much? If Haiti is so poor, why is the U.S. there, why is The Core Group there, why do they refuse to leave us alone?”

Haiti also has billions in gold, iridium, copper, and oil advises human rights attorney Èzili Dantò. “And,” she toldTruthout, “the Windward Passage and a history the enslaving nations must rewrite.”

She said the U.S. built its largest embassy in the Western Hemisphere in Haiti to control Haiti’s geopolitical position and strip it of its assets and riches.

“They will obliterate Haiti before they allow it to succeed as a nation,” Dantò said. “There is white fear of Haitian success.”

Vorbe sees preserving Haiti’s remaining riches for Haiti and the Haitian people as Haiti’s last chance for survival.

“It’s essential that Haiti get out from under the current constitution before any deals to develop mineral resources or arable lands go forward,” he warned.

“All of the institutions have failed the majority of the people,” he said. “Judiciary, legislature and executive, all corrupted completely. We have to start over, start fresh, with something that suits the younger generation.”

The country has come to a full stop and the demands are clear: Moise must go before finishing his five-year term, without conditions; the billions embezzled must be returned to the treasury to capitalize the future of the country; and a three-year “time-out” must be planned so the nation can stabilize and a meaningful process for free and fair elections can be created.

Lavalas has put out a transition plan that calls for “put[ting] in place an executive and a government of public safety…consist[ing] of credible personalities, engaged in the struggle against exclusion and corruption, who share a vision of a new method of governance.” If that sounds vague, it was meant to be a conversation starter. Dialogues across all segments of Haitian society have been ongoing with facilitation by civil society groups, and participants are finding common ground.

“We want a new nation, a democracy, free elections, a new constitution, and a type of government that’s better for us,” Vorbe said. “We’re doing the deep thinking about it now.”

A Political Crisis in the U.S.’s Backyard

Pacifica Radio journalist Margaret Prescod recently returned from a week of documenting the revolt in Port-au-Prince on the back of a motorcycle ridden through streets ablaze and blitzed with tear gas. She and her team were fortunate not to have been hit by the live rounds fired by police. This was her third trip to Haiti in the past few months, and she said she’s never seen a worse human rights crisis or people better organized and more determined to prevail.

“Over and over the people say, ‘We have no food, no jobs, no way to support our families,'” Prescod told Truthout. “‘We are not leaving the streets. We’d rather die on our feet than live on our knees.’”

Born in Barbados, Prescod keeps a sharp journalistic eye focused on foreign meddling in Haiti’s affairs.

“I’m with Frederick Douglass,” she said, referring to the abolitionist’s maxim in his 1893 World’s Fair speech: “Haitians…striking for their freedom, they struck for every Black man in the world.”

In the early 1800s, Haiti repelled Napoleon and ended slavery six decades before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Prescod said Haitian protesters have said that they view the current revolt as a continuation of the rejection by the Haitian grassroots of the subversion of Haiti’s sovereignty in the U.S.-backed 2004 coup and its aftermath, especially the imposition of presidents “selected” by the U.S. and Canada in elections ridden with fraud.

“After victory, what follows next is an important question,” she advises. “The grassroots have nothing, but they know what’s going on: I was told by protesters that any Haitian government you see backed and supported by the U.S. is generally not one that is good for the Haitian people.”

The days Prescod was on the ground were perilous — the police were shooting live rounds from unmarked trucks, she said. She added that her crew was told at the barricades that police were hiding in ambulances, a blatant violation of international law, transporting themselves with teargas to penetrate the roadblocks.

Prescod’s Pacifica radio team was the first international group of journalists to visit Lasalin and speak with survivors of a series of massacres said to be linked to the Moise government. They were accompanied by a delegation from the National Lawyers Guild. Following her reporting on the massacre, Prescod returned to Haiti as part of a delegation headed by U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters to further investigate the Lasalin massacres.

Surviving victims of the Lasalin massacre told Prescod that their communities were politically targeted to punish them for their protests against Jovenel Moise, and for their support for Lavalas, the party of Aristide.

“Jovenel Moise uses paramilitary thugs similar to the Tonton Macoutes, as a strategy to strike fear into their hearts,” she explained.

Prescod said the massacres were barely reported by U.S. and international media, and when they were, it was framed as gang warfare instead of political terrorism — even when a U.N. report verified there were in fact ties between the perpetrators and Moise’s government, specifically implicating Pierre Richard Duplan of the PHTK (Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale, the ruling party of Jovenel Moise).

What Happened in Lasalin

This sticks in Judith Mirkinson’s craw as well.

Mirkinson, president of the San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), is co-author with Seth Donnelly of The Lasalin Massacre and the Human Rights Crisis in Haiti, a 14-page report published on July 8, 2019, by the NLG and Haiti Action Committee.

“First of all, the narrative of competing gangs…throw that out, that’s garbage,” she told Truthout. “It was the worst massacre in decades. I get very angry thinking about it.”

The report begins:

On November 13, 2018, police and other paramilitary personnel entered the neighborhood of Lasalin in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. What followed was a massacre of the civilian population. Buildings, including schools, were fired upon and destroyed, people were injured and killed, with some burned alive, women were sexually assaulted and raped and hundreds were forcibly displaced from homes. Bodies were either burned, taken away to be disappeared, buried, never to be found, or in some cases left to be eaten by dogs and pigs.

Mirkinson hopes people will read the report and that it prompts a renewed focus on Haiti from the human rights and progressive communities.

“In recent history, the U.S. has overthrown the government twice, prevented democratic elections twice and treated Haiti like a neocolony,” Mirkinson said. “Haiti is in our hemisphere, $260 million of our tax dollars have paid for police in Haiti since 2010. We do have a responsibility to pay attention.”

Solidarity Actions in the Haitian Diaspora

A spate of solidarity actions has taken place in California, Montreal, Toronto, New York City and Miami in recent weeks.

On September 30, Solidarité Québec-Haïti #Petrochallenge 2019 occupied the prime minister’s election office in Montreal for three and a half hours. They delivered a statement to officials and media demanding that Justin Trudeau stop his support for Moise. Meanwhile, at a press conference in Toronto, Trudeau seemed flustered to hear a reporter’s question about the occupation of his Montreal election office. The group followed up with a boisterous rally on October 1, resulting in one arrest, which also garnered media attention.

Yves Engler, co-author of Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, told Truthout that the group plans to up the ante during the Canadian elections.

“Haiti is what brought me to be critical of Canadian foreign policy,” Engler explains. “In 2004, I was shocked by how terrible Canada had been in the coup against Aristide. Life in Haiti is decided in Washington and Ottawa.”

On October 1, a group of Haitians protested Hillary and Chelsea Clinton as they were promoting their new book: The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn, New York.

Human rights attorney Èzili Dantò said she supports the protests by KOMOKODA (the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti) who bird dog the Clintons’ public appearances.

“We know the harms the Clintons have done to Haitian women,” Dantò told Truthout. “Haitian women will not have their agony and colonially imposed poverty be used by parasites like Hillary and Bill Clinton.”

Ricot Dupuy, a Haitian journalist at Radio Soleil in New York City, said he holds then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responsible for installing Michel Martelly as president, ushering in an era of illegitimate governance that is still killing Haitians today.

On October 2, Haiti Action Committee held a march and rally with South Bay students, teachers, human rights and community activists in downtown San Jose, California. They expressed solidarity with the uprising of the Haitian people and demanded an end to U.S. support for the dictatorship and death squads in Haiti. Six activists blocked the entrance to the Federal Building while chanting “Stop massacres in Haiti!”

On October 3, Haitian Americans participated in a roundtable listening session organized by U.S. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson with invited guest U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in Miami, Florida.

On October 9, Solidarité Québec-Haïti #Petrochallenge 2019 held a press conference reiterating its demand that Trudeau denounce Jovenel Moise.

And on October 13, the group held a protest rally outside Trudeau’s campaign office in Montreal.

Dantò said that support from Haitians living in the diaspora now standing in solidarity with the masses in the streets has never been higher. Nevertheless, she worries about political machinations in Washington.

Truthout requested an update from the Congressional Caribbean Caucus and received a statement from staff containing these assertions:

The country is experiencing fuel shortages, lack of clean water, dwindling food reserves, and more as protests escalate…. We hope that the October 27th parliamentary elections will take place as scheduled and without violence.

October 17 is Dessalines Day, a national holiday in Haiti that commemorates the death in 1806 of Jean-Jacques Dessaline, a major hero of Haitian independence. It is also the one-year anniversary of a bloody day for protesters against Jovenel Moise; two people were killed last year and many others wounded. The passing of an entire year is a crystallizing reminder that the patience Moise asked of the people last year has been unanswered by any positive or meaningful action all this time.

“Haiti is caught in a vicious circle,” Vorbe said, “but we want to prepare for our future.”

Many of the masses of people anticipated to be in the streets on October 17 will be carrying leafy tree branches; most don’t have the money for poster board and magic markers. And they don’t need them — the branch is the symbol for the mobilization of the Haitian people. The historical covenant to rebel in 1804, to risk bloodshed, was made in the mountains, out of sight of the overseers and bosses. It was also carried by those fighting the tyranny of their day during the Duvalier era. The leafy branch is the sign of those ramifications.

From her academic perch at the Institute of Haitian Studies in Lawrence, Kansas, Accilien said she struggles to find the words about this moment.

“Seems like this a moment of steps forward and steps back. We have a glimpse of hope, but we’ve seen these moments before,” Accilien said. “When is it going to be something else — when will it be Haiti’s turn to tell the story?”

Note: This article has been corrected to clarify that Moise attempted to remove energy subsidies in July 2018.

CUBA: WASHINGON STILL TARGETS THE TOURISM SECTOR WITH AIR RESTRICTIONS

Last Friday, the United States tightened its sanctions targeting the - vital - sector of tourism in Cuba by restricting the possibility for companies of the country to rent planes.

The United States Department of Commerce has announced that it will revoke the existing licenses of American airlines leasing their aircraft to Cuban airlines, and will refuse any future applications.

This announcement could make it more difficult for Cuba to meet the growing demand due to the rapid expansion of its tourism sector, a key source of revenue for the country.

Washington, which has already implemented an economic embargo since 1962, is doing everything it can to force Cuba to withdraw its support for the government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, which the United States wants to see leave power.

"This Department of Commerce’s action sends a clear new message to the Cuban regime -- they must immediately stop its destructive behavior at home and abroad", said Trade Minister Wilbur Ross in a statement.

The number of aircraft involved was not known at this time.

Friday’s announcement also extends restrictions on imports from Cuba and US products that can be sold domestically.

Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, denounced on Twitter "additional acts of economic blockade, representative of a morally flawed policy, isolated internationally and promoted by a corrupt government".

In June, US President Donald Trump who reinstated sanctions against CUBA since his arrival in power, had announced that American cruise ships were now prohibited from making stopovers on the island.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 30 octobre 2019

 NEW CALL FROM THE UNITED STATES IN LESS THAN A WEEK

The United States has again spoken out on the crisis that has been shaking Haiti for several weeks. This, after the violent demonstration from the opposition, last Sunday, October 27. They urge the actors concerned to act to resolve the current crisis.

The United States, in a recent note, urged Haitian political and economic leaders to work together with civil society to achieve a peaceful and democratic solution.

The United States says, “It supports the aspirations of the Haitian people for a better life. These aspirations must be achieved through an inter-Haitian, non-violent and democratic solution, which is possible through an inclusive dialogue,” preached Uncle Sam.

By the same token, the note manifested the absence of urgent measures to get the country out of this prolonged political impasse, which is increasingly worrisome and has had a negative impact on public safety, the economy, and the distribution of humanitarian aid including food aid.

Moreover, the United States condemns the acts of violence that continue to occur in Port-au-Prince and in other cities.

These shootings, killings, arson and destruction not only cause harm to Haitian citizens, but also, they increase economic and social instability and prolong the interruption of the daily activities of the Haitian people, especially, school activities.

The United States says it strongly supports the right to peacefully protests, as well as the freedom of expression. It calls for Haitian citizens to be heard peacefully and without violence.

Embassy of France condemns “violent attacks” against its premises

The French embassy denounced and condemned the acts of vandalism against its premises in the Champ-March and rejected the allegations that it has requested the arrest of some students who participated in a demonstration against President Jovenel Moïse on Friday.

Port-au-Prince, October 27, 2019. – In a press release, a copy of which was sent to the editor of Vant Bef Info (VBI), the French Embassy in Haiti rejected rumors, which it described as “malicious and totally unfounded.” These rumors alleged that it requested the arrest of some students who participated in a demonstration on Friday to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse.

The French diplomatic representation also condemned the acts of violence and vandalism perpetrated against the exterior façade of the building housing the embassy in Champ-de-Mars.

However Marc Antoine Maisonneuve, one of the lawyers of the 4 students arrested at Avenue Lamartinière near the French Institute, maintained his statements that the French embassy is behind the arrest of these young people.

To be noted, the exterior façade of the French embassy was the target on Saturday of a group of protesters who wrote some inflammatory messages on the walls of the building.

Protest and burning tires at the entrance of the Canadian Embassy in Haiti

The building housing the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, located in Delmas 75, was the target of attempted arson during a demonstration to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse.

Delmas, 27 October 2019. - Demonstrators set fire this Sunday to the barrier at the main entrance of the Canadian Embassy in Haiti.

Social media images show burning tires at the entrance of the Canadian diplomatic representation whose main barrier was affected by the flames.

Shortly before, the protesters had attempted to set fire to a building in Delmas 71, housing several companies including a branch of a private bank. The damage was limited due the actions of law enforcement, including fire fighters.

At least two people were shot and two others injured during this new day of mobilization to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse in Delmas.

Catholics in Haiti demand president step down

22/10/2019 - 18:49

Port-au-Prince (AFP)

Thousands of Catholics demanding the resignation of Haiti's president marched through the capital Tuesday, becoming the latest group to join an outcry against him.

They gathered outside one of the main churches in Port-au-Prince and denounced President Jovenel Moise as corrupt and incompetent.

Over the past year, Haiti has sunk into political crisis amid anti-corruption protests demanding Moise's resignation.

"Jovenel, make a wise decision and resign. What are you president of? There is nothing in this country. No food, no hospitals, no schools," said protester Fausta Maisonneuve, who held a rosary in her hand.

Since coming to power in February 2017, Moise has had to face the anger of an opposition movement that refuses to recognize his victory in an election widely seen as dubious.

Anger mounted in late August due to a national fuel shortage, and protests turned violent.

In recent weeks, various professional or social groups have taken to the streets against the president one by one, such as university students and artists.

The Catholics that came out Tuesday were mainly young people who prayed aloud as they walked.

"We see that the president cannot run the country. He is incompetent. He must resign because the social situation has become critical and deplorable," said Osma Joseph, who studies education.

© 2019 AFP

Aftershock of Haiti protests: Best Western shutting down, other hotels temporarily closing

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OCTOBER 22, 2019 07:04 PM, UPDATED OCTOBER 22, 2019

After Haiti’s cataclysmic 2010 earthquake, the country rebuilt schools, churches and its tourism brand. Airlines expanded service and luxury brand hotels, boasting vibrant Haitian works of art, opened while others expanded. 

But more than a year of recurring fuel shortages, violent protests and currency devaluation is starting to take its toll as the owners of the Best Western Premier, the first U.S.-branded hotel to return to Haiti in 15 years, announced its permanent closure at the end of this month.

The surprise announcement comes on the heels of some temporary hotel closures and staff layoffs in tourism and other sectors as conditions in the country worsen. Haiti is facing a looming constitutional crisis, four unsuccessful attempts to confirm a new government, a deteriorating security environment and a sixth week of protests over demands that President Jovenel Moïse step down.

Christopher Handal, the president of Carabimmo SA, said the decision to close and terminate its franchise with Best Western International was “a financially wise decision” that took a lot of courage. 

“It saddens all of us to see that we have to send almost 100 people home. However, we could not hold on any longer,” Handal said about the hotel located in the upscale suburb of Petionville. “Since July 2018, we have been struggling to stay open due to so many riots going on, on almost a weekly or monthly basis. When the USA put the travel [warnings] to level 4, it also discouraged all tourists, any foreigner or diaspora, to travel to Haiti.”

Meanwhile, a contract war between the presidential palace and three private power providers — triggered by the Moïse administration’s sudden demand for payments and threats by a presidential adviser that contracts can be canceled and companies nationalized — risks plunging Haiti not just further into blackout, but exacerbating the crisis.

“The incapacity of the political leaders to solve the political crisis is greatly affecting the new fiscal year that started this month, and could affect the economic growth for 2020,” Pharel said. He noted that the last five years of political instability have “reduced the growth to less than 2 percent, which is too weak to reduce poverty in the population.”

Designer Pascale Theard, who worked with more than 250 artisans and artists to design everything in the hotel including the sheets, called what’s happening “a terrible economic tsunami,” that will lead to other businesses closing. 

“In September we did only 10 percent of our local sales and this month it is going to be zero,” she said, referring to her own business, which sells handmade leather purses and sandals. “The Best Western, from my experience, was a little example of how great things happen when we, as Haitians, dream together, get together and build together.” 

While Haiti’s economic malaise preceded Moise’s Feb. 7, 2017, inauguration, it has deepened during his 32 months in office through a series of economic missteps.

First, there was the August 2017 decision to “de-dollarize” the Haitian economy by forbidding the use of the U.S. dollar and making the gourde, the domestic currency, the only official currency in transactions. The decision was eventually reversed, but not before the gourde further depreciated against a strong U.S. dollar. 

Then came the administration’s decision in July 2018 to increase fuel pump prices by removing subsidies. Days of violent civil unrest accompanied by rioting, pillaging and the cancellation of international flights quickly ensued. At one point, a crowd of protesters even tried to gain access to the Best Western. When they couldn’t get through the front door, they set a car parked out front on fire.

The widespread protests were soon followed by more mass demonstrations in October and November, and a nearly two week lockdown of the capital in February. The lockdown led to “Do Not Travel” warnings from Canada and the U.S., an Expedia block on hotel and airline reservations and a reduction of flights.

And just as tourism appeared to be making a comeback after an uptick in summer travel, Spirit Airlines quietly canceled its Cap-Haitien service 14 months after announcing its expansion to the city amid great fanfare, and American Airlines announced a reduction to its daily Haiti service.

“I really hope that one lesson that is learned by all Haitians today by this closure is that the country cannot go on living in such a manner,“ Handal said.

Steve Mc Intosh, a hotelier in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, said the crisis “is the worst I’ve seen in Haiti in a while.”

Last week, he announced a temporary closure of one of his two hotels, the Mont Joli. Considered a landmark, the 42-room hotel, which sits on a mountaintop overlooking the historical city, first opened its doors in 1954. 

“I have to tell you we’ve been closed for a few months now. We have no clients coming to the hotel,” Mc Intosh said. “Our average occupancy rate is around 62 percent or 70 percent, and we have seen it for the past few months go down to 30 percent, 20 percent and for about a month now we have been at zero percent occupancy.”

Compounding the hotel’s economic woes, Mc Intosh said, has been the inability to get diesel over the past three weeks. Forced to ration fuel, some hotels have been turning away guests because they don’t want to turn on generators and operate at a loss. 

Meanwhile, there is no propane available for cooking anywhere in the city and a lot of businesses have had to put their staff on unpaid leave.

“They don’t have any food, any water, any propane gas, so the people are getting angrier and angrier every day,” Mc Intosh said. “People are really angry and frightened.”

Mc Intosh said his decision to close the Mont Joli came after a crowd showed up at the hotel and someone threatened his security guard with a machete. Prior to that, protesters had destroyed all of the windows in the restaurant at his other property, the Roi Christophe, which is located next to a police headquarters and jail. 

Two weeks after the restaurant incident, protesters covered the parking lot with charred glass bottles. The final straw, Mc Intosh said, was last week’s machete incident.

“We have protests happening almost every day,” he said. 

The repeated protests, which have turned violent at times, are creating what some believe is the second biggest shock after the quake.

Bertrand Buteau, whose family owns the Satama hotel in Cap-Haitien and three others in Port-au-Prince, said the Satama remains open “even though we don’t have customers.” His brother Richard, who runs the Karibe in Petionville, said their other properties are also functioning but with a reduced staff.

“Some hotels in the provinces have been suffering a lot from the effects of the road blockages ... and are closing down temporarily until things get back to normal,” Richard Buteau, a former president of the Haiti Tourism Association, said.

Businessman Fred Beliard said the occupancy at two of his properties in Cap-Haitien is less than 10 percent while his Habitation Jouissant, located not far from the Mont Joli, is temporarily closed due to the crisis.

Along the coast, the all-inclusive Royal Decameron Indigo Beach Resort & Spaon the Côte des Arcadins in Montrouis says it’s still open although it has reduced the staff by half and only nine of the 400 rooms are occupied due to roadblocks cutting the hotel off from both Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince.

“We have been here since 2015 and we are doing everything to make it work,” said Fernando Gracia, the property’s general manager for operations. “We are doing everything to stay and help the community and tourism in Haiti.”