Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 8 juin 2022

 Miami fires manager of Little Haiti Cultural Center for second time in six years
Miami City Manager Art Noriega has fired Sandy Dorsainvil, the manager of the Little Haiti Cultural Center.
The dismissal — the second time in six years that a top administrator has fired Dorsainvil — ends what has been a tumultuous relationship between the city government and the director of a cultural hub that hosts the Caribbean Marketplace, a fine art gallery and a theater.
Noriega signed her termination letter May 27, catching Dorsainvil by surprise because she had decided to resign weeks earlier amid tensions with city management. Internal emails show Dorsainvil had verbally resigned May 10 during an “emotional” meeting with management, but she later tried to rescind her comments after consulting with her employee union. After more disagreement with the city, Dorsainvil decided to maintain her resignation.
The night before she was fired, the center had held a farewell for Dorsainvil at the opening of an art exhibit, Bèl Fanm . She was let go less than a week before her last day.
In his letter, Noriega wrote that Dorsainvil was insubordinate and broke several city rules leading up a five-day suspension in mid-May, during which he said she violated policies again by sending emails from her work account. The city manager wrote that in April and May, Dorsainvil had improperly signed off on a city contract and violated city purchasing policies when she spent $2,000 on an electronic billboard to promote Haitian Heritage Month without necessary approvals.
On Thursday, Dorsainvil told the Miami Herald she acknowledges that paperwork should’ve been done correctly and city processes should’ve been followed, but the cultural center was too understaffed for her to get work done without breaking some rules.
“I know I’m not perfect,” Dorsainvil said. “But what I can say with 100% certainty is the errors that occurred were because I am one person. I did not have the staff to accomplish what they wanted accomplished the way they wanted it done.”
The fired manager of the Haitian Cultural Center, Sandy Dorsainvil Haitian Cultural Center
Dorsainvil said she does not plan to contest her firing. She had managed the cultural center since May 2013, with a break after the first time she was fired.
In April 2016, Dorsainvil was suddenly fired when her boss suspected she was embezzling money. Her firing caused an uproar among her supporters in Miami’s Haitian community, and it led some commissioners to unsuccessfully push for the firing of Daniel Alfonso, the city manager at the time.
A three-year inquiry led to no charges after investigators found no evidence that Dorsainvil had stolen or diverted any money from the facility. She was later reinstated.
The latest firing came a week after controversy over a planned musical performance by former Haitian President Michel Martelly, also known as “Sweet Micky,” at the cultural center. Activists in Miami’s Haitian community decried Martelly and planned to protest the May 25 event. Martelly has faced accusations of corruption since leaving office, and his political party has been blamed for political unrest and increasing gang violence in Haiti.
Miami police barred Martelly from performing , citing safety concerns. In 2018, Dorsainvil defended a decision to invite Martelly to perform in Little Haiti.
Noriega’s letter did not mention Martelly, and Dorsainvil said she didn’t think her dismissal had anything to do with the concert. She suggested that she and the city did not see eye to eye on how to properly support the cultural center.
“The goal is not for the center to succeed. I don’t know what the goal is, but all of the dots don’t align,” Dorsainvil said. “If you want a public facility to succeed, you give it the staff it needs, the resources it needs.”
Residents participate in Afro-dances during a Fèt Chanpèt event at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. Devoun Cetoute/Miami Herald file photo

https://insightcrime.org/news/haiti-gangs-recruiting-arming-more-children/
Haiti Gangs Recruiting, Arming More Children
CARIBBEAN / 3 JUN 2022 BY ALESSANDRO FORD EN
Gangs in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince are rounding up homeless and at-risk teens, who are increasingly being used as foot soldiers in gang wars that have forced schools to close and engulfed neighborhoods.
Homeless minors are disappearing from streets and shelters as armed groups recruit them with offers of money and security. One shelter near the National Palace was down to nearly 10 percent capacity, having been targeted by the Ti Lapli, Bougoy and 100 Jours gangs, reported Spanish news agency EFE on May 30.
The child recruitment reports come just weeks after United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm at the extreme gang violence in Port-au-Prince, which has caused thousands of families to flee. The UN noted in a news release the gangs were using minors as combatants and killing them for being informants to rivals. The gangs are also imposing control through sexual violence, including raping children as young as ten.
By early May, gang violence forced the closure of almost 1,700 schools and deprived half a million children of access to education, according to UNICEF, the UN’s children’s rights body.
“Giving children weapons to fight and using them as soldiers or spies is a violation of their child rights and condemned by both national and international laws,” Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti, said in the news release.
Gangs arming children in Haiti drew attention in early April, when a videocirculated on social media of a boy carrying an M4 rifle. In the video, the boy proclaims his gang membership while wielding the firearm. The video was shot in the fiercely contested neighborhood of Martissant, at the capital's southern entrance.
InSight Crime Analysis
In Haiti – as in countries like Colombia, Argentina and Mexico – urban gangs have long used minors in supporting roles, such as lookouts and couriers for arms or drugs. But escalating gang warfare in Haiti's capital has led youths to be press-ganged and recruited for street battles.
Child recruitment in Haiti first became visible in the early 2000s, when the country’s fledgling gangs took advantage of political and economic chaos to recruit vulnerable children. The gangs offered them food and safety, according to a 2008 report by the non-governmental organization Child Soldiers International.
In return, notes the report, the children served as messengers, watched over kidnap victims and even conducted sabotage missions against UN peacekeepers, such as one case in which very young children cut the brake cables of UN tanks during an operation to arrest gang leaders.
Child combatants existed, but they were relatively rare. Previously, many gang leaders in Martissant would not even allow young children to hang around their soldiers, said Eric Calpas, a researcher who has studied gangs in Haiti. Around 2018, when sporadic gang violence escalated into a criminal war in Port-au-Prince, Haiti began to see a significant increase in minors equipped with firearms.
“Today, because of the war situation … they are forced to recruit really broadly: adults and teenagers and children as young as 10 to 12 years old,” Calpas said.
Two hotspots for child recruitment have been the battleground districts of Martissant and Croix-des-Bouquets, where conflicts have raged since mid-2021. According to Calpas, Haiti’s most notorious gang, 400 Mawozo, is the worst offender, relying on intimidation to force minors into its ranks as it wages an expansionist campaign across the capital's northern areas.
However, the majority of underage recruits join willingly, says Calpas, seeking emotional belonging as much as food and shelter. In this, they resemble more the child aspirants of Central American street gangs like the MS13 than the often forced conscripts of Colombia’s rural armed groups.
Certain Haitian gang leaders today began as child recruits, notes Calpas, mirroring many of their Central American counterparts.

Joseph Alfred via groups.io <joe_alfred=Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.>;

sam. 4 juin 22:22 (il y a 12 heures)

The next government of Haiti shall use this documented article from a prestigious US media to launch a lawsuit against the United States and France.
Where is the Haitian Diaspora? The Haitian Diaspora could have been more useful to Haiti if it was organized.
There is a case !!! against France and the United States. Also, the former US president confessed and there should be compensation.
Make sure you know the moral character of the people you are dealing with in Haiti and the Diaspora.
It is fair game to use your own words against you in due time.
My Dad and Mom taught me this: if someone is not going to be useful to me or has nothing to gain from my success in my future, drop that person. I follow their advice religiously. I help you, you help me. It is not going to be one way !!!
Peace !!!

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 27 mai 2022

 US Approves Resumption of Operations in Venezuela For US, European Oil Companies

The United States has allowed US and European oil companies to resume work in Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president of Venezuela, said on Tuesday.

"The Bolivarian government of Venezuela has verified and confirmed the published news that the United States of America has authorized American and European oil companies to negotiate and resume operations in Venezuela," Rodriguez tweeted.

US officials told reporters that if progress is made, there may be an opportunity for US engagement with the government of Nicolás Maduro.

It has also been said that the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition will soon resume a political dialogue and, depending on the results, Washington could adjust its sanction policy in order to increase or decrease pressure.

Earlier, it was reported that the US had decided to resume negotiations with Venezuela amid the strict sanctions imposed on Russian energy suppliers. In March, both sides discussed the possibility of easing oil sanctions against Caracas but failed to make significant progress.

Washington introduced the first package of restrictions against Venezuela in 2015, citing “human rights violations.” The sanctions were extended after the presidential elections that took place in 2019. The US, along with a number of other Western countries, didn’t recognize the reelection of President Nicolás Maduro and endorsed Juan Guaido, head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, as "interim head of state."

JetBlue makes hostile bid for Spirit. Flight attendants’ union favors Spirit-Frontier merger

Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.

Updated May 17, 2022 5:04 PM

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JetBlue made a second unsolicited bid to acquire South Florida-based Spirit Airlines on Monday, May 16, 2022, in an attempt to stop Spirit’s merger with Frontier Airlines. GERMÁN GUERRA EL NUEVO HERALD

JetBlue Airways is not taking no for an answer from Spirit Airlines, now making a hostile tender offer directly to Spirit’s shareholders. 

New York-based JetBlue on Monday made its second unsolicited bid to acquire Spirit and thwart its planned merger with rival ultra-low fare carrier Frontier Airlines of Denver. Spirit said in a statement it would review JetBlue’s new offer, which is required by its fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.

Miramar-based Spirit employs 3,400 people in South Florida and is the largest carrier at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

JetBlue’s latest move is a hostile attempt to get Spirit’s stockholders to sell their stock for $30 a share in cash (a little more than $3.2 billion), and that would increase to its original offer of $33 a share if Spirit’s management and board cooperates. 

The bid comes two weeks after Spirit announced its board rejected JetBlue’s offer and intended to go ahead to combine with Frontier to create the nation’s fifth-largest airline. In February, Spirit and Frontier announced they would merge, seeking to bring their cheap passenger fares from coast to coast.

Spirit has set a June 10 shareholder vote on its merger with Frontier and urged shareholders to approve the deal. JetBlue filed a proxy statement Monday to urge Spirit shareholders to “vote no” against the Spirit-Frontier union, calling the $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal, “inferior, high risk and low value.”

“Given the Spirit Board of Directors’ complete unwillingness to share the same necessary diligence information that was shared with Frontier, JetBlue is now offering to acquire Spirit for $30 per share in cash through a fully financed tender offer,” JetBlue said in a statement, noting that its offer is a 60% higher premium than Frontier’s. “JetBlue is fully prepared to negotiate in good faith a consensual transaction at $33, subject to receiving necessary diligence.”

The Association of Flight Attendants, a national union which represents flight attendants from Spirit and Frontier, on Tuesday voiced support for the combination and said the union had reached a merger transition agreement with Frontier Holdings. Frontier would be the majority shareholder if the marriage with Spirit is completed.

Pilot and flight attendants’ unions play key roles in the aviation workforce. Airline industry analysts say that union negotiations and merging staffs with their seniority lists are among the most arduous parts of airline mergers and acquisitions. 

“We are thrilled to announce our support for the merger of Spirit and Frontier Airlines after reaching a transition agreement that protects flight attendant jobs, assists with the AFA-CWA seniority integration that protects the bidding seniority each flight attendant has accrued prior to the merger, and paves the way for efficient contract bargaining that allows flight attendants to experience the benefits of the merger as soon as possible,” Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said in a statement. 

Early this month, JetBlue said it also was offering Spirit a $200 million break-up fee, if federal regulators would block its acquisition of the Broward County airline due to antitrust reasons. Ultimately, federal regulators would have to approve any deal Spirit and an airline partner agreed on. That evaluation would take at least 18 to 24 months.

Spirit and Frontier share a similar deep discount business model and have had overlapping executives and investors. Indigo Partners, a private equity group, first owned a controlling share of Spirit from 2006 to 2013, before selling its interest and buying the majority of Frontier. Last year, Indigo took Frontier public, selling shares to investors. 

Frontier CEO Barry Biffle was Spirit’s chief marketing officer from 2008 to 2016. The co-founder of Indigo is chairman of Frontier’s board of directors, and some of Spirit’s directors have ties to Indigo. In a letter to Spirit’s shareholders, JetBlue claimed the “longstanding relationships” between Spirit and Indigo are why Spirit won’t engage in talks about a deal with JetBlue.

Airline industry analysts have said Spirit and Frontier have long been likely candidates for a merger, while JetBlue’s original bid in April for Spirit was a surprise.

Spirit’s stock jumped $2.31 a share Monday on takeover speculation, closing at $19.27. Frontier’s stock added $.51, closing at $9.23, while JetBlue shares fell $.61 to $9.45.

This story was originally published  May 16, 2022 5:43 PM.

From The Weekly Bulletin of The National Center of The Haitian Apostolate

                                                           22 Mai , 2022

REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS OF THE 6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER - May 22, 2022

https://youtu.be/ZkI_QTF8b8g

Acts 15, 1-2 + 22-29; Psalm 67; Revelations 21, 10-14 + 22-23; John 14, 23-29 

Msgr. Pierre André Pierre

From time to time we hear that an old woman or an old man, aware that death is not far away, gives advice to his sons and daughters: “When I am gone, do this or that for your own good and happiness. Jesus' parting words are also addressed to us; they are like a kind of last will and testament. Jesus is telling us that if we want find that elusive true peace that only he can give, we have to love him and the Father, and also love one another. We have to keep listening to the Holy Spirit who reminds us of his works and teachings.

This Sunday announces two great feasts that we shall be celebrating shortly: that of the glorious Ascension of the Lord next Thursday and that of Pentecost in two weeks. Both of these feasts cast tremendous lights on the Mystery of Christ.

First Jesus having laid the foundation of his Church and having performed on Calvary his mission of reconciling us to the Father tells his apostles: “I am going away and will come back to you.” Yes, he can go now for He has equipped the Church with the ability to know and preserve the truth and to dispense his grace. He vested the Apostles with authority telling them: “He who listens to you listens to me.” The glorious feast of the Ascension marks a turning point in the history of Salvation, the day when Jesus turns over his mission to the Apostles and when Peter assumes the power of the keys. “And I will be with you always until the end of time.”

Ten days later, we will celebrate the incredible feast of the Gift that is the feast of Pentecost. Love remains the first commandment…that special love that has its primary source in God himself. It is that supreme power of Love that will be poured out upon all who keep Jesus’ Word. All who receive the gift remain linked between themselves to prepare that day still in the future as described in the second reading of the day when the Church is described as it will be at the end of time. It will be like a Holy City gleaming with the radiance of God and will have at its foundation the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Then there will be no sun and no light for The City’s lamp will be the Lamb. These great feasts awaken us to the great future of mankind if only we learn to “Keep the Word” and be faithful members of One Body!Dropping anchor

My aunt called me the other day to urge me to repent, for the world seems to be coming to an end. “The Rapture is upon us,” she said with a tint of apprehension in her voice. With everything going on in the world, “moun domi ak on je fèmen, on je louvri,” she continued. It had been a while since I saw my aunt so worried. She is usually unfazed by the comings and goings of people and things. She is a believer of God whom she thinks is the master of all things. Therefore, all she must do is surrender. Long before the mindfulness craze swept across the Western world, my aunt created her version of dropping anchor which consists of singing hymns, kneeling, and praying steadfastly when difficult situations arise and unleash feelings of anxiety and hopelessness.  And there have been quite a few of those senseless situations that uncork overwhelming grief and powerlessness. She likes to think of herself as a mother of eight (5 living, 2 deceased, 1 adopted), a wife, a Christian, a businesswoman, and a die-hard Haitian. I always smile when she says with conviction “lakay se lakay, peyi blan pa peyi w.”

I do agree with my dear aunt that the times we live in are daunting. As we speak, Covid is still a thing, and a new Monkey virus that is usually endemic in West Africa is now spreading to other countries in Europe, the United States, and Canada. When the breaking news are not about the war in Ukraine, they are about hate crime, bigotry, inflation, extreme weather, or celebrities throwing tantrums. I wish there were a lakay I could return to, but unfortunately the lakay I fantasize about no longer exists. Haitians are escaping in droves. I like to think of home/lakay as the vertical time and space I inhabit where the simple things in life are readily available: fresh air, trees, laughter, incandescent sunsets, bike trails, books, coffee, and my old couch. Home is also immaterial. It is the cultural makeup from which stem my longing for true connections and my love of simple pleasures, art, and beauty. I was listening to Paul Beaubrun and Anie Alerte’s interpretation of Ayizan, and I was brought home. In my body. My senses. The Here and the Now. This is all there is.

https://youtu.be/JRfZdFwSQtM

This reminds me of Derek Walcott’s Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

D.W

Pascale Doresca
5/21/2022

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 19 mai 2022

 ELEVEN DEATH AFTER HAITIAN MIGRANT VESSEL CAPSIZES NEAR PUERTO RICO

Reuters –

By

 Rezo Nòdwès

Migrants, particularly from Haiti, have in recent months been attempting to escape gang violence and poverty through dangerous voyages on unseaworthy vessels.

At least 11 people drowned when a vessel carrying Haitian migrants capsized near Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday, amid a steady increase in migrants attempting reach U.S. shores in dangerous marine voyages.

The vessel, which was carrying « an undetermined number of people, » was spotted 10 nautical miles north of Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico. As of 6 p.m., 11 deceased and 31 survivors had been found, the Coast Guard said on Twitter.

« There’s a fast response Cutter from Sector San Juan that’s on scene, and Coast Guard helicopters from air station Borinquen are still searching and flying tonight, » a Coast Guard spokesperson told Reuters.

The survivors have been taken to Puerto Rico, with eight of them being treated at a local hospital, said Jeffrey Quinones, Public Affairs Officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Puerto and the Virgin Islands.

Migrants, particularly from Haiti, have in recent months been attempting to escape gang violence and poverty through dangerous voyages on unseaworthy vessels.

17 PEOPLE FROM TOURIST BUS HAVE BEEN ABDUCTED

BBC News

 Haiti’s 400 Mawozo gang abducts 17 people from tourist bus

.

Lundi 9 mai 2022 ((rezonodwes.com))–

Eight of the passengers are reportedly Turkish nationals, the remaining eight are Haitian and the driver is from the Dominican Republic.

They were kidnapped in the same area outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, in which a Dominican diplomat was abducted last month.

The diplomat was freed after four days.

Dominican newspaper El Día described the Turkish nationals as « missionaries » who had crossed into Haiti from neighbouring Dominican Republic.

But the Turkish consul in Haiti said they were « with an organisation promoting education ».

Haitian media said they were seized in Croix-des Bouquets, the stronghold of the 400 Mawozo gang.

Kidnappings for ransom have surged in Haiti in the past two years.

More than 1,200 people, 81 of them foreign nationals, were abducted last year, according to Haiti’s Center for Analysis and Research on Human Rights.

Among the foreigners kidnapped last year were 17 Christian missionaries from the US and Canada. The 400 Mawozo gang demanded $1m (£800,000) for the release of each of them.

US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Haitian Gang Leader Charged with Kidnapping of 16 U.S. Missionaries in Fall 2021

Most Victims Held for 61 Days in Effort to Secure Gang Leader’s Release from Prison

A Haitian national was indicted today by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to commit hostage taking for his role in the armed kidnapping of 16 U.S. citizens in Haiti in the fall of 2021. The victims were Christian missionaries serving in Haiti and most of them were held captive for 61 days before escaping.

The indictment charges Joly Germine, 29, aka Yonyon, who is described as a leader of the 400 Mawozo gang. He is the first defendant to be charged in connection with the missionaries’ kidnapping. Germine was previously charged with firearms trafficking in a separate case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Haitian government transferred Germine from a Haitian jail into U.S. custody on May 3, 2022, on the basis of an arrest warrant in that matter, and Germine has since been detained in the District of Columbia.

“This case shows that the Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to track down anyone who kidnaps a U.S. citizen abroad,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We will utilize the full reach of our law enforcement authorities to hold accountable anyone responsible for undermining the safety of Americans anywhere in the world.”

“Today’s indictment demonstrates that the United States will not tolerate crime against our citizens, here or abroad,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI will continue to work aggressively with our international partners to keep our citizens safe and bring perpetrators to justice.”

“This indictment is a step towards achieving justice for the victims who were volunteering their services in Haiti when they were kidnapped and held for weeks on end,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “Along with our law enforcement partners, we are committed to holding accountable those who carry out acts of violence against Americans abroad to further their own aims.”

The charges brought today are related to the Oct. 16, 2021, kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Sixteen of the kidnapping victims were U.S. citizens, including five children, one as young as eight months old. 

According to the indictment, Germine, who was in a Haitian prison at the time of the kidnapping, directed and asserted control of 400 Mawozo gang members’ kidnapping operations, including ransom negotiation for the hostages’ release.  One of the gang’s stated goals in holding the hostages was to secure from the Haitian government Germine’s release from prison. Germine is alleged to have been in regular contact with other 400 Mawozo leaders about the hostages’ kidnapping, captivity, and ransom. Two of the hostages were released on or about Nov. 20, 2021, and three more were released on or about Dec. 5, 2021. The remaining hostages escaped captivity on or about Dec. 16, 2021. 

Germine will have his initial appearance in the case tomorrow in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. If convicted of any offense, a defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Miami Field Office. Valuable assistance was provided by the Haitian National Police. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen P. Seifert, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Jorge Casillas and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Deeley of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Component(s): Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Office of the Attorney General
USAO – District of Columbia
Press Release Number: 22-493Updated May 10, 2022

SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS HAS PROBLEMS

By Nora Gámez Torres and Jacqueline Charles Updated May 11, 2022 5:39 PMThe White House has not made a final decision on which countries will be invited to the forthcoming Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, following warnings by Mexico’s president that he would skip the regional gathering next month if the authoritarian leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are excluded. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is not the only one threatening to boycott the largest gathering of leaders from the Western Hemisphere, which the U.S. will host for the first time since the inaugural Summit in Miami in 1994.

Reuters reported that President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil is planning to skip it. The president of Bolivia said he would also not attend “if the exclusion of sister nations persists.” And leaders of the 15-member Caribbean-Community block known as CARICOM plan to meet Thursday to decide whether they will boycott the event after agreeing in March to do so if Cuba and Venezuela were excluded, a source told the Miami Herald. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday she could not say whether representatives from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua will be invited because “a final decision has not been made yet,” leaving the matter still in the air. “We haven’t made a decision about who will be invited, and no invitations have been issued yet,” she said in a press briefing.

Previously, U.S. officials have said that the Summit will welcome representatives of democratically elected governments. Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters last week that those three countries were “unlikely” to be invited. But Mexico’s president took issue with the exclusion and asked president Joe Biden to reconsider it during a phone call last month. Following a visit to Cuba on Sunday in which he praised Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel and met with Raúl Castro, López Obrador doubled down Tuesday on his demand, threatening to skip the event. “If they’re excluded, if not all [countries] are invited, a representative from the Mexican government would go, but I wouldn’t,” Lopez Obrador said in a press conference on Tuesday. He made clear his comments should be read as a protest message, adding that he wanted to see “changes” in U.S. policies for Latin America. The Summit is seen as an opportunity for the Biden administration to assert U.S. leadership and dispel criticisms that it does not prioritize the region. And there was hope among experts that it would help set a clear policy agenda addressing the needs of countries that have been among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.But the possible absence of leaders of several nations, including some heavyweights like Mexico and Brazil, adds to the Biden administration’s struggles to generate enthusiasm about the gathering. The event had already received criticism for an overly focused agenda on what some countries perceived as mainly a domestic U.S. issue — immigration — and the lack of a trade component, despite some late efforts reported by Bloomberg to include some economic topics in the discussion. A Mexican president’s absence from a summit to be hosted in Los Angeles and centered around immigration, in particular, has set off alarms. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, was quickly dispatched Tuesday to meet López Obrador. The meeting, however, did not move the Mexican president. In his daily press conference, known as La Mañanera, López-Obrador said he reiterated his position to Salazar. 

“There is still time to address this matter, but it had to be put on the table,” he said. With only a few weeks left before the summit begins on June 6, the controversy over the invitations is shifting the narrative away from the event’s proposed theme of “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future” to expose deep regional divisions about what the summit stands for and resentment about some U.S. policies. “The Summit of the Americas is in danger,” Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda ambassador to the U.S., said during a Florida International University event in which he suggested that Caribbean nations may decide to boycott if Cuba is not invited. Sanders also said that the “insistence” by some members of Congress on including Juan Guaidó, Venezuela’s opposition leader, “will also result in a number of countries not attending.” Guaidó is recognized by the U.S. and other governments as the country’s interim president. The Biden administration is the host government, Sanders said. “Now does that give the United States the right to decide who in the Western Hemisphere should or should not be invited?” he asked. “This is a critical issue and it is one that we will have to address or that summit is in danger.” Whether it is organizational issues or diplomatic deliberations, the delay in issuing the invitations created an opportunity for Cuba to rally support for the demand that all governments be invited, regardless of how they stay in power. 

The summit’s aim is to gather the leaders of the countries that are members of the Organization of American States. In 2001, the organization adopted the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which states that “the unconstitutional alteration or interruption of the democratic order” is “an insurmountable obstacle” to participation in the Summit of the Americas process. “More to the point, carrying water for the brutal Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela dictatorships deep into the 21st century is just not something that instills confidence in a future-oriented, pragmatic approach to economic competitiveness and social development,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in Washington, D.C.“It seems the hemisphere has taken a giant step back since the first Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994,” he added. 

This story was originally published May 11, 2022 5:18 PM.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 11 mai 2022

 UN raises concern over Haitian gangs’ recruitment of children

Thousands of people have been displaced and dozens killed as gang violence escalates in Haiti’s capital, officials say.

The United Nations has expressed concern over the recruitment of children by Haitian gangs, as escalating violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has forced thousands from their homes and killed dozens of civilians.

The UN “is particularly worried about the recruitment of minors within the gangs, one of the six serious violations of the rights of the child”, the Integrated Office of the United Nations in Haiti tweeted on Wednesday.

The UN in Haiti “condemns the armed gang violence ongoing since April 24 that is affecting the communities in the north and northeast of Port-au-Prince, which has killed dozens of Haitians and injured and displaced thousands of others”, it said.

A day earlier, the UN’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq warned that unrest was growing between gangs in the neighbourhoods of Croix-des-Bouquets, Cite Soleil, Bas Delmas and Martissant.

“According to our humanitarian colleagues, violence in the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets has displaced more than 1,200 people … at least 26 civilians have been killed and 22 injured, although these figures are probably higher,” he said, according to a statement.

While gang violence has been a problem in Haiti for years, it has worsened in the aftermath of President Jovenel Moise’s July 2021 assassination, which plunged the country into an even deeper political and social crisis.

Last week, a video circulated on Haitian social media showing a masked pre-teen child wielding a high-calibre automatic weapon.

In the clip, taken in Martissant, a poor neighbourhood in western Port-au-Prince that has been entirely controlled by gangs since last year, the boy explains he is at war with a rival gang’s leader.

The UN’s denunciation of the criminal groups’ inclusion of children comes as gang control has continued to spread to the city’s northern and eastern suburbs.

In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, Haiti’s civil protection authority estimated that at least 39 people have been killed and 68 injured between April 24 and May 2. It also said about 9,000 people were displaced from three communities in suburban Port-au-Prince.

“Forty-eight schools, five medical centres and eight markets have been closed because of the situation,” the statement said.

Earlier in the day, the foreign minister of the Dominican Republic said that a diplomat kidnapped in Haiti in late April had been released after “four days of kidnapping”.

The national police and other government officials have not yet commented on this latest outbreak of violence. In October of last year, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry condemned the rise in gang violence and kidnappings.

“If they do not stop their wrongdoing, the law will apply to them,” Henry said in a televised address at that time. “The only option for bandits and all their sponsors is imprisonment or death if they do not want to change professions.”

Leader of Haiti’s 400 Mawozo gang, which kidnapped American missionaries, is flown to U.S.

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Updated May 03, 2022 5:34 PM

The leader of an infamous gang behind an ongoing armed conflict with another gang in Haiti was flown by federal agents from Port-au-Prince to the United States on Tuesday in connection with last year’s kidnapping of 16 American missionaries.

Haiti National Police confirmed that Germine Joly, better known as Yonyon, was sent to the U.S. aboard a special FBI flight following a request from the U.S. on April 22. Police did not say where he was being taken and the FBI did not immediately respond to request for comment, but a source told the Miami Herald that Joly was being flown to Washington, D.C.

Joly is considered to be the leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, which has been involved in an ongoing armed conflict that has led to the deaths of at least 20 civilians over the past nine days and forced hundreds of Haitians from their home in the area east of Port-au-Prince. 

Until his transfer Tuesday, Joly had been held at the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. From behind bars, he ran 400 Mawozo using his cell phone and negotiated the release of hostages while also trying to negotiate his freedom. Known for its mass abductions, the gang was behind the kidnapping last year of a group of Roman Catholic clergy, including French citizens, and then later a group of 17 American and Canadian missionaries with Ohio-based charity Christian Aid Ministries.

Some of the U.S. missionaries were held for as long as two months before finally being released after an undisclosed ransom amount was paid. During their captivity, the gang asked for $17 million and its second-in-command, Wilson Joseph, known as Lanmò Sanjou, threatened on social media to “put a bullet” in the missionaries if the gang’s demand for $1 million per hostage wasn’t met.

As the missionaries were being held hostage, federal agents arrested three Florida residents on federal charges for allegedly smuggling firearms in barrels from South Florida to 400 Mawozo. The criminal complaint unsealed in late October said that Eliande Tunis, Jocelyn Dor and Walder St. Louis filled orders for weapons such as AK-47s and AR-15 for two unnamed 400 Mawozo leaders. Tunis is a U.S. citizen, while Dor and St. Louis are Haitian nationals.

Prosecutors claim that Tunis lived in Florida and “is a member of 400 Mawozo.” The complaint says that on Oct. 9, , Tunis sent an audio file to “co-conspirator 1 on WhatsApp in Creole saying ‘We are snakes. We slither to get where we are going. They would be shocked to see Mawozo invade Miami.’”

The FBI criminal complaint for all three defendants doesn’t identify Joly by name but says co-conspirator 1 “is a Haitian national and a leader of 400 Mawozo” who is “incarcerated, but still serves as a leader in the organization and directs operations from prison using an unmonitored cellular phone.” That individual is believed to be Joly. 

The complaint also speaks of another individual, though not by name. He is described as serving as a leader and appearing on “videos posted on social media, stated his name and declared himself as the leader of 400 Mawozo.” That individual is believed to be “Lanmò Sanjou,” which means “death doesn’t know which day its coming.” 

The 400 Mawozo gang is believed to be behind the recent kidnapping of a Dominican diplomat and U.S. citizen, Carlos Guillén Tatis, who went missing on Friday while traveling through the gang’s stronghold in Croix-des-Bouquets on his way to the border.

Sources familiar with Joly’s activities said much of the ransom money collected by his gang went directly to him, which he in turn used to purchase arms and keep police officers and lawyers on his payroll. After the arrest of the three Floridians, he grew increasingly concern about his possible extradition, sources told the Miami Herald.

The ongoing armed conflict may have sped up Joly’s extradition. For weeks, rumors had circulated of a planned prison break involving the National Penitentiary, and concerns grew that Joly might meet the same fate as Arnel Joseph, another notorious gang leader the FBI had targeted. Joseph was was shot by police last February while traveling on a motorcycle in the town of L’Estère after a deadly prison break of the Croix-des-Bouquets Civil Prison.

In a statement on its Facebook page, Haiti police said Joly is being prosecuted via an international warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for conspiracy and violation of the U.S. Export and Contraband Control Reform Act, importation of weapons of war and kidnapping of American citizens.

Joly’s arrest is likely to spread panic among Haitian gangs, because it offers U.S. law enforcement and State Department officials the opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of 400 Mawozo, which controls one of the largest territories in Haiti. Following the release of the American missionaries, the gang had splintered, with Joly controlling one group and reportedly launching an attack while he was in prison to show he was still in charge.

“With the transfers of Yonyon to the U.S., we can learn a lot about how the gang functions and the people connected to them and giving them guns,” said Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist in Haiti.

In their statement Tuesday, Haiti police described Joly as “the leader of the criminal organization called ‘400 Mawozo’ involved in several criminal acts including assassination, kidnapping, vehicle theft, destruction of private property and arson, etc.”

Joly was taken by federal agents nine days after his gang launched an attack against a rival gang, Chen Mechan, in the lowland east of metropolitan Port-au-Prince. The armed conflict has killed at least 20 civilians and led to several torched homes. Hundreds of people have had to flee the combat area.

During the conflict, Lanmò Sanjou released a voice note saying he had been warned by a Haitian official of an attempt to kill Joly and that he would kill “thousands” if anything were to happen to the gang leader.

Joly was first arrested in Haiti in 2014 after authorities accused him of armed robbery, membership in a gang and kidnapping. 

Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.

This story was originally published  May 3, 2022 5:06 PM.