Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 12 novembre 2019

 *DHS Extends TPS Documentation for Six Countries including Haiti*

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a Federal Register notice extending the validity of TPS-related documentation for beneficiaries under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan through Jan. 4, 2021. 

The notice automatically extends the validity of Employment Authorization Documents; Forms I-797, Notice of Action; and Forms I-94, Arrival/Departure Record (collectively, TPS-related documentation).

DHS is extending the TPS documentation in compliance with the preliminary injunctions of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Ramos, et al. v. Nielsen, et. al. and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Saget, et. al., v. Trump, et. al., and with the order of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to stay proceedings in Bhattarai v. Nielsen.

Should the government prevail in its challenge to the Ramos preliminary injunction, the secretary’s determination to terminate TPS for Nicaragua and Sudan will take effect no earlier than 120 days from the issuance of any appellate mandate to the district court. The secretary’s determination to terminate TPS for El Salvador will take effect no earlier than 365 days from the issuance of any appellate mandate to the Ramos district court to allow for an orderly transition for affected TPS beneficiaries. 

For more information, see the notice and the TPS page on the USCIS website.

Exclusive: State Department officials warned Trump not to revoke protections for immigrants

The Trump administration ignored them and ended Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Senior State Department officials and career diplomats repeatedly warned the Trump administration that taking away legal protections for immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti would put national security, foreign relations, and the immigrants’ American-born children at risk, according to internal State Department documents.

But Trump did it anyway — and concerns about the 2020 election appear to have helped determine the timeline for requiring immigrants to leave, according to the documents, which will be released in a report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday.

About 400,000 citizens of El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti have been able to stay in the US through Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a protection allowing them to legally live and work in the US typically offered to citizens of countries suffering from natural disasters or armed conflict. 

President Donald Trump tried to end TPS for El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti, among others, starting in November 2017. He argued that conditions in those countries have improved enough that their citizens can now safely return.

“The law is relatively explicit that if the conditions on the ground do not support a TPS designation, the [administration] must terminate the TPS designation,” a senior administration official told reporters at the time. 

The almost 80 pages of internal State Department memos and diplomatic cables — obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part of an investigation commissioned by Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the committee — show that senior agency officials advised former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that revoking TPS would destabilize the three countries and recommending that, if he must end the program, it should be wound down over three years. 

But a State Department policy memo from 2017 also noted that this would put the end of the program “directly in the middle of the 2020 election cycle.” Tillerson scribbled on the memo that the wind-down period should instead be 18 months — a decision that ran counter to every recommendation by career diplomats in the State Department. 

The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Courts have so far kept the protections alive following legal challenges brought by advocacygroups. But should the Trump administration eventually be allowed to end them, the documents warn of dire consequences.

Career State Department officials argue that ending the protections, which would force the immigrants to leave or go underground, would hurt efforts to combat international criminal gangs and drug trafficking. It would worsen the poverty, political volatility, and violence causing unauthorized immigration to the US in the first place. 

And it could directly endanger hundreds of thousands of American citizens: The documents include an estimation that ending the protections would mean 273,000 US citizen children would either be separated from their immigrant parents, or have to return to El Salvador and Honduras, where, the experts warn, they could be recruited by criminal gangs such as MS-13. 

In light of these concerns, Thomas Shannon, the most senior foreign service official in the State Department at the time, appealed to Tillerson to renew protections for immigrants from the three countries.

“It is rare for the State Department to be asked to comment on an issue with such immediate domestic political ramifications,” he wrote in a previously undisclosed memo in October 2017. “I understand the delicate nature of the decision. However, it is our purpose to provide the best possible foreign policy and diplomatic advice. From my point of view, that advice is obvious: extend TPS for the countries indicated.”

One question was whether El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti were ready to start reabsorbing their citizens who had been living in the US for years or even decades. The US conferred TPS on citizens of El Salvador after a 2001 earthquake, Hondurans after a 1999 hurricane, and Haitians after a 2010 earthquake. In each case, the natural disasters displaced hundreds of thousands of people and left the countries in ruins.

The State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, as well as the Office of Policy Planning, argued that enough time had passed for the three countries to recover.

“Beneficiaries and their countries of origin know that this is a temporary program governed by statute that must eventually come to an end,” reads a previously undisclosed memo from the policy office, dated October 26, 2017. “Another extension for any of these countries based on environmental disaster that struck more than a decade ago (slightly shorter for Haiti) is not supported by the facts on the ground and will only delay the inevitable.” 

Other senior officials disagreed. They acknowledged that the countries had largely rebuilt after the disasters, but had not recovered from the resulting “cascade of political economic and social crises whose impacts are still deeply felt,” Shannon wrote in his memo to Tillerson. Though conditions in Haiti relating to the 2010 earthquake had improved, for example, housing shortages and public health crises remained, particularly in the camps for internally displaced individuals where there were cholera outbreaks.

In the memo, Shannon; the State Department’s Bureau of Populations, Refugees and Migration; and the three US embassies in El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti urged Tillerson not to end the protections. 

“Doing so would not only continue the compassion and generosity that have underscored our approach to disaster and humanitarian assistance over time,” Shannon wrote. “It would also guarantee the necessary partnerships we have built with these countries and others in the struggle to promote safe and orderly migration, and fight the traffickers and criminal organizations that prey on the fears and aspirations of our neighbors.” 

U.S. Embassy Statement on USCIS Haiti Field Office Closure 

• •           In March, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, announced its plans to close many of its international field offices, which will now result in 13 closures globally.

• •           USCIS in Haiti will permanently close to the public on November 29. However, the Consular section of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince will assume responsibility for certain in-person services that USCIS currently provides to individuals residing in Haiti.

• •           The Consular section of the Embassy which is primarily responsible for American citizen services, and the adjudication of nonimmigrant and immigrant visas, remains open for all consular services.

• •           USCIS is working closely with the Department of State to provide for a smooth transition of responsibilities and to minimize disruptions in the provision of these services.

• •           For information on the work of USCIS, please visit uscis.gov.

Rare calm in Haiti as thousands seek free medical care from U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort

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NOVEMBER 07, 2019 09:20 PM 

• PORT-AU-PRINCE
• One man needed a hernia operation that he could not afford. A young girl came to seek help for her 3-year-old cousin whose skin was inexplicably covered with sores. And a mother of four needed help with a chronic allergy reaction.
• They all took the chance to travel miles away from home to the Haitian Coast Guard base Killick on Thursday in search of medical care from the U.S. Navy ship Comfort, the floating U.S. naval hospital that arrived Monday. It was a rare calm following two months of sustained protests, burning tires and impassable barricades.
• “I already feel better”’ Jean Seide, 47, said as he lay in a bed waiting to be wheeled into the operating room aboard the ship to treat a large hernia that he said has plagued him for years.
•  
• Two miles away on shore, Marie Sabrine Sempre, sitting underneath a tent with scores of other waiting patients, was equally hopeful.
•  
• “I found medicine from them before and it was good,” she said, describing what appeared to be an allergic reaction. “So I came hoping they could help.”
•  
• Haiti is the ship’s 12th and final stop following a deployment that began in June in Ecuador.
•  
• A dentist from Mexico treats a Haitian patient aboard the USNS Comfort naval hospital ship Thursday in Haiti. The ship arrived on Monday and will remain in the country until Wednesday. Kisley Jeannot COURTESY OF US EMBASSY HAITI
• Though the goal of the ship’s mission was to relieve the healthcare stress placed on nations in the hemisphere by the crisis in Venezuela, the Haiti stop was a personal request from the country’s U.S. ambassador, Michele Sison, according to the head of the U.S Southern Command, Adm. Craig Faller.
• When Sison made the request earlier this year, Haiti was not yet in a protracted political crisis. Schools were still functioning, hotels were struggling but still open and Haitians weren’t yet facing a disturbing humanitarian crisis.
• “Haiti is going through a tough time,” Sison told some of the more than 800 doctors, dentists, nurses and other medical professionals aboard the Comfort on Thursday. “If you haven’t had the opportunity to get down to the Haitian Coast Guard base Killick, which is the medical site... I want to tell you what we all saw down there touches the heart. There were over 1,000 people at the gates yesterday. They told me upwards of 3,000 today at the medical site.”
•  
• The Comfort, she said, has brand recognition in Haiti, where the ship first visited in 2007 and again after the 2010 earthquake.
• U.S. Southcom Commander Adm. Craig Faller tours the medical site in Port-au-Prince at the country’s coast guard base. Haiti is the final stop of a 5-month, 12-nation mission to the region. Kisley Jeannot COURTESY OF US EMBASSY HAITI
• Faller, who arrived in the country on Thursday as part of a three-country Caribbean tour and later met with President Jovenel Moïse, called the outreach in Haiti “very powerful.”
• “It shows the power of an outstretched hand, the power of what we can do when we work together,” he said. “Here in Haiti we’ve had the opportunity to see first hand the impact that it has made, changing lives forever.”
• During their time out to sea, the ship’s crew, which includes medical professionals from other countries in the region, has treated more than 64,000 patients. That number will surely rise, with the crew expecting to see anywhere between 300 and 500 patients a day at the shore-based medical site in Haiti. Ship surgeons can conduct as many as 20 operations a day. On Thursday, the crew treated 599 patients. They also performed 15 surgeries. So far, a total of 1,380 Haitians have received free medical care.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 20 novembre 2019

 Moulin sur Mer closes its doors

The resort Moulin sur Mer closes its doors due to the absence of customers. Haitian tourism is sinking.

A Demonstration took place in Brooklyn last Sunday to show solidarity to the Haitian people

The protest met at the corner of Flatbush & Parkside Ave. and planned to march down Flatbush Ave. to the intersection of Nostrand & Flatbush.

They marched to:

• • Call for and end to the criminal Jovenel Moise-PHTK regime.
• • Denounce the CORE Group countries (composed of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Ambassadors of Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, United States of America, and the representatives of Spain, the Organization of American States and the European Union) who are using Jovenel Moise as their puppet to allow them to steal Haiti’s resources and to massacre the Haitian people.
• • Say that Haitians are tired of being pushed out of our country and having to beg for a chance to live as human beings in neighboring countries. It is time that we can live with dignity in this country that our ancestors fought and died to create.
• • Denounce the false solutions being put forward by fake leaders whose true aim is to support the enemies of Haiti and keep Haitians who are now in the streets fighting from uprooting the rotten "shithole" system.

UNITED NATIONS LEADERS AND DOMINICAN SOLDIERS VISITING OUANAMINTHE

The delegation wanted to inquire about the functioning of the binational market and the free zone, in the industrial park Codevi, headed by Dominican businessman Fernando Aníbal Capellán.

The latter has maintained visitors on the functioning of this consortium of companies, according to what reported this Saturday, November 16, the newspaper Dominican Listindiario, in its electronic publishing.

Members of the delegation received explanations on the functioning of the binational market and were also able to observe the exchanges between Haitian and Dominican traders and buyers.

THE EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND OFFERS SCHOLARSHIPS.

Last week, the Embassy of Switzerland in Haiti announced the opening of the process of the excellence scholarship of the Swiss Confederation. The information was shared on the institution’s Facebook page.

Applicants for a doctorate can submit their papers by December. No specific date was chosen because the date of submission varies according to each country.

Two types of scholarship:

1. Grants for research internships, doctorates or post-doctorates in Swiss universities, Federal Polytechnic Schools and Universities of Applied Sciences (no grants at bachelor’s or master’s level)
2. Arts scholarships for advanced studies at Swiss conservatories and art colleges (only for a limited number of countries)

Interested parties can go to this link to read the eligibility criteria and other information concerning them: EXCELLENCE SCHOLARSHIP OF THE SWISS CONFEDERATION.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 27 novembre 2019

 MUTINY OVER COKING CHARCOAL IN A HAITIAN PRISON LED TO GANG RAPES, HUMAN-RIGHTS GROUPS SAY

JACQUELINE CHARLES

THE MIAMI HERALD NOVEMBER 22ND 2019

It started around noon, when male detainees inside a prison for men and women north of Haiti’s capital heard there was no charcoal or propane gas to cook their food, and began violently protesting prison conditions and attempting to escape.

By the time it was over and the jailbreak had been stopped by Haiti National Police, at least one inmate was dead, several others had been injured and 10 female detainees, including a 15-year-old teen girl and 62-year-old woman, had been gang raped, two Haiti-based human rights groups said.

Accusing the government of being irresponsible and neglectful in its mission to protect detainees in its custody, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights and the Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn are demanding an investigation into the Nov. 7 incident inside the Gonaives Civil Prison, and are calling on Haitian authorities to identify and prosecute everyone involved in the alleged rapes.

The human-rights groups are also demanding that medical, psychological and social assistance be given to the victims, and for prisons exclusively for women to be constructed in the country.

NEW DEVELOPMENT OPPOSING THE HAITIAN STATE TO SOGENER.

A new development occurred in the conflict between the Haitian State and the Société Générale de l'Énergie (SOGENER). Last week, the Prosecutor of Port-au-Prince accompanied by officials from the electric company EDH, took control of the sites hosting the power plants of Varreux. The decision was taken by judicial authorities, 24 hours after issuing an invitation to company officials, who did not show up.

After several days of threats, the Moises/Lapin administration went from words to deeds. In fact, the government commissioner of Port-au-Prince, Jacques Lafontant, accompanied by police officers, a justice of the peace and officials of the EDH, resumed possession and full enjoyment of the power plants of Varreux, managed by Société Générale d'Energie (SOGENER).

Les Cayes (South): 2 Mexicans and a Haitian arrested after a plane landed clandestinely

The Commissioner of the Government of Les Cayes (South), Ronald Richemond, has arrested two individuals of Mexican nationality and another of Haitian nationality. This is in connection with the clandestine landing of a plane in Saint-Jean du Sud.

The suspects are: Villeda Juan Jose, Vargas Flores Andres and Archil John Jhimy. These individuals were arrested at Cartagena Avenue, in the city of Les Cayes, at about 8 o'clock in the evening.

The initials reports said that a plane crashed in a locality called “Nan mwen” at the 3rd communal section of Saint-Jean du Sud.

The National Civil Aviation Office (FOCA) not only confirmed the information but also indicated that officers of the Anti-drug Brigade (BLTS) were on the scene, because the aircraft in question would have been transporting illegal goods.

HS/Haiti standard

The United States encourages the actors of the Haitian crisis to dialogue

VISIT OF THE AMERICAN EMISSARY IN HAITI:

OPPOSITION REFUSES TO SIT DOWN WITH PRESIDENT JOVENEL MOISE

The Permanent Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations (UN), Kelly Dawn Knight Craft failed to convince opposition leaders and business representatives to sit down with the President of the Republic Jovenel Moïse. After a few hours visit to the country, the diplomat Kelly Dawn Knight Craft met the Head of State, one of the leaders of the Haitian Party tèt kale (PHTK), Liné Balthazar, opposition leaders including Senators Youri Latortue, Joseph Lambert and Evalière Beauplan, the president of the Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats, Edmonde Supplice Beauzile and one of the representatives of the business sector in Haiti Bernard Craan.

Rep. Waters Statement on 1-Year Anniversary of Lasalin Massacre in Haiti

‘Those responsible for acts of politically motivated violence in Haiti must be held accountable.
Impunity in Haiti must end now’ 

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43) issued the following statement on the one-year anniversary of the Lasalin Massacre in Haiti:

“Following the anniversary of the brutal attack in the Lasalin neighborhood of Haiti’s capital – which resulted in the deaths of at least 71 civilians, in addition to the rape of at least 11 women, and the looting of more than 150 homes – I renew my call for justice for the victims and survivors of Lasalin and the protection of Haiti’s citizens in exercising their democratic rights to free expression and assembly.

“In April 2019, I led a delegation to Haiti, which met with residents of Lasalin and surrounding areas, who described acts of unconscionable violence that occurred the previous November.  Survivors expressed concern that government-connected gangs, working with police officers, carried out the attacks to punish the neighborhood for participation in anti-government protests.

“In the months since my trip to Haiti, credible investigations by Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), the United Nations (UN) Mission for Justice Support in Haiti together with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), and Haiti’s national directorate of judicial police have all consistently pointed to politically motivated violence. Furthermore, the judicial police investigation report named two senior officials from the administration of Haiti’s President, Jovenel Moise, in the list of alleged perpetrators.

“As a longtime friend of Haiti, I am deeply concerned that one year after the massacre, the state officials implicated in the Lasalin killings remain at liberty, and they were only suspended from their posts in September 2019, after repeated calls for accountability by victims and human rights organizations.  Meanwhile, judicial processes in Haiti regarding Lasalin appear stalled.

“Without justice for Lasalin, impunity for violence against civilians continues, and acts of repression are increasing. Early reports suggest that the recent killing of at least 15 people in the Bel-Air neighborhood between November 4-7, 2019, may have been carried out by the very same gang leaders implicated in the Lasalin massacre. OHCHR has verified that Haitian security forces were responsible for at least 19 killings since September 15, and attacks on journalists have steadily increased in recent months. Moreover, Amnesty International reported that Haitian police have repeatedly used excessive force during recent anti-government protests, including unlawfully firing live ammunition at protesters and indiscriminately launching tear gas.  These acts of violence are alarming and raise grave concerns about human rights in Haiti.

“Following the one-year anniversary of the Lasalin massacre, we are reminded that impunity for brutality against innocent civilians enables and perpetuates violence. These acts of violence endanger the safety of the population and violate fundamental human rights.

“Those responsible for acts of politically motivated violence in Haiti must be held accountable.  Impunity in Haiti must end now.”

‘Voodoo Is Part of Us’

By Gina Cherelus

Nov. 21, 2019

In a dark club in Downtown Brooklyn, surrounded by more than 100 people, Agathina Ginoue Nozy took a sip of Haitian rum. She stood near an altar stacked with skulls, lit candles, cigars, rum, coffee and bowls filled with charred salt fish, boiled plantains, cassava and piman (spicy peppers).

“You typically drink white liquor during Fet Gede, but if there is none you drink rum with no ice to feel the heat,” Ms. Nozy said. “Gede is a hot thing.” 

Her face was painted to look hollow, like a skull, and she wore a dark skeleton bodysuit and a black veil. With her fingers wrapped around a smoking pipe and an austere look on her face, Ms. Nozy had become the embodiment of Maman Brigitte, a Haitian lwa (or goddess) of death.

Voodoo believers, Haitians and curious partygoers gathered last Saturday night to celebrate Fet Gede, or the Festival of the Dead.

Similar to Mexico’s Day of the Dead, Gede invites revelers to dress up, eat, drink and dance to honor the lwas and the ancestors who came before them. It is one of the most anticipated celebrations in the Haitian voodoo religious calendar.

Ms. Nozy, a 29-year-old Haitian immigrant who was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, moved to New York City just before she turned 17. As someone who believes in voodoo, she looks forward to the celebration each year, but acknowledges that many people, including Haitians, lack an understanding of what it is.

They believe that the religion “has something to do with black magic,” Ms. Nozy said. “Voodoo is part of us. It’s who we are. It’s the culture. Voodoo is the food that we eat. It’s the language that we speak.”

What voodoo is not, contrary to popular belief, is a dark spell-casting practice full of pin-dolls and demonic prayers, said the party’s organizers, Monvelyno Alexis, 43, and Riva Précil, 30, a husband and wife musical duo who have organized one of the city’s most popular Fet Gede events for the past seven years.

This means that the event of Fet Gede can be somewhat misunderstood, too. 

“I know a lot of Haitians that dress up their kids for Halloween. But when it comes to Gede they say I am not interested in that thing,” Ms. Nozy said. 

“Our generation is more open-minded when it comes to the voodoo religion,” said Ms. Nozy, who was part of a large crew at the party that night.

At the club, guests were dressed in the official Gede colors — black, purple, and white — and danced to rhythmic drumming. The room was thick with smoke from incense and cigars. 

The night kicked off with a rum tasting at the altar, which helped guests get in the Gede mood. As Ms. Nozy and her crew danced, one man splattered Florida Water — a perfume used in voodoo for spiritual cleansing and protection — over their heads, leaving a sweet citrus and floral scent that covered the room. At times, Ms. Nozy and others would scream, throw their hands in the air or slam a wooden cane into the ground.

Fet Gede is observed typically in early November, although it can be celebrated all month.

Rituals include a special Gede dance, Banda, and making offerings to the spirits, the most famous of whom is Baron Samedi, known as the god of death (he is also the husband of Maman Brigitte, the goddess of death), Ms. Précil said. Together, both spirits — the Baron and Maman — revel in eroticisms, obscenities and drinking.

The ancestors, Ms. Précil said, like to party. “They don’t have the same restrictions or rules as we do here on earth,” she said. “They’re very fearless, so it’s a time where we sort of channel their ways and celebrate them by taking on their way of life.”

Haitian voodoo is a religion that emerged out of institutional slavery.

Starting in the mid-1600s, many Africans who had been brought against their will to the Island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) arrived with their own spiritual traditions, eventually integrating them with those of the indigenous people of the island. As a result, voodoo, which means “spirit,” was born.

Voodoo, often spelled Vodou, is still regarded by many Haitians as the spiritual source of the country’s strength, healing and resilience.

Mr. Alexis said that voodoo isn’t something he practices or follows with a strict set of rules; it is more of a connection. He emphasized the importance of working to help Haitians reconnect with voodoo through events like this one.

“Whenever somebody asks us questions we always answer them,” he said. “We want to bring the Haitian way back to Haitians.”

Despite more than 80,000 Haitian immigrants in New York City, Gede celebrations aren’t that common, Ms. Précil said. If her ever-expanding parties are proof, however, she sees a growing interest in the event. The couple has been asked recently to bring their party to parts of Canada and even Haiti.

Music and dance are key for a successful Gede. Last weekend, Mr. Alexis and Ms. Précil each sang, accompanied by a live band, and Ms. Nozy performed a Haitian folklore dance, gyrating and chanting to the drummer’s beat. The energy of the crowd swelled as the room became more congested, everyone trying to inch closer to the show.

Folks could be seen taking shots of liquor and eating different Haitian dishes, including griot (fried pork) or banan peze with pikliz (plantains with spicy pickled cabbage).

There was a tarot card reader and a face painter. At one point there was even a trivia contest, testing partygoers on their knowledge of Gede trivia and traditions.

“This is something that our ancestors left for us and we need to cherish it,” Ms. Nozy said. “Even though you’re not in Haiti, if you’re living in a foreign country, the culture is still alive. And it’s in you.”

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 3 décembre 2019

 Suggest US Southern Command be installed in Haiti

Edmond Mulet recommends two specific actions in Haiti. The first and most urgent is to attend and assist the current humanitarian crisis, mobilizing the necessary forces to guarantee food to Haitians.  

The second, which he understands important, is an international conference on Haiti, in which Latin American countries, the European Union, Canada, the United States, France, and Spain participate, to make decisions.

In the humanitarian aspect, it states that the Southern Command of the United States must arrive, by helicopter, with its military forces to settle there, so that it assumes the urgent action required at this time, to give food to all these people.

“Right now there has to be immediate action, I don’t see anyone else with the logistical capacity to be able to do it,” he said.

 As for the international conference he suggests, he said that the UN can promote initiatives but at the request of some State. He said there have been 5 United Nations missions in the last 30 years in Haiti, coming and going when the Security Council feels that the country has been stabilized.

“We cannot continue like this, what we need is a new mandate, but an executive mandate, not only for peace and security that lasts only for 20 years,” he said. 

André Michel announces an intense resumption of mobilization across the country

The apparent calm observed during the last few days in the country, could be abruptly interrupted by a strong mobilization in the next few days, according to recent statement of the spokesperson for Democratic and Popular Sector, André Michel.

The attorney stated that starting on Wednesday, the public will become aware of the latest measures taken by the political opposition in order to intensely relaunch the mobilization aimed at securing the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse from power.

ARNEL BELIZARE WANTED TO SET FIRE TO THE AMERICAN EMBASSY

Haiti standard, November 30, 2019.

Former MP Arnel Bélizaire was transferred to Port-au-Prince following his arrest in the Southeast Department by law enforcement on the night November 29. A special SWAT Team unit was dispatched on the scene to transport the political activist by helicopter. He was under warrant for bringing "conspiracy against the internal security of the State, threatening to burn down the American embassy in Port-au-Prince as well as the company called Brasserie La Couronne."

Charlot Jeudy is found dead in his house!

Charlot Jeudy, defender of the LGBTI cause in Haiti with his association KOURAJ, was found dead this week at his home under inexplicable circumstances. Jeudy worked on issues affecting the gay community in a deeply homophobic country, perverted by the Catholic and Evangelical churches. In Haiti, to assume one’s homosexuality is to put your life at risk.

Haiti is among the least safe countries for LGBTQ travelers

According to a study on the most and least dangerous countries for LGBTI travelers, Haiti is ranked 66th (out of 150), closer to the least safe countries for gay, lesbian and other travelers. The Dominican Republic, placed better at 81st place.

Nigeria tops the list as the most dangerous country in the world for LGBTI travelers, according to a study by travel journalist Asher Fergusson published on November 12. Norway remains the safest place in the world for gay, lesbian tourists, according to the ranking received by our editorial team on Thursday.

Investigators compiled a list of 150 countries and placed them from the most dangerous to the safest for LGBTI travelers. The danger index for the LGBTI community was created using eight (8) factors: legalization of same-sex marriage, protection of gay and lesbian workers, protection against discrimination, discrimination, recognition of adoption, is it a good place to live, illicit relationships between persons of the same sex, laws on the morality of propaganda.

In Nigeria, the most dangerous country for same-sex lovers, even advocating for gay rights is penalized and a member of the gay community faces up to 14 years in prison. It is the death penalty or the Sharia Laws that are applied, according to the report. Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Tanzania complete the list of the 5 most dangerous countries.

Barbados is in 8th place in the world rankings, but is ranked #1 among countries in the Caribbean region where LBGTI travelers are less safe. Next came Saint Lucia (12th), Jamaica (18th), Turks and Caicos Islands (45th), Bahamas (46th), Saint Martin (48th), Curaçao (52nd), Cayman Islands (53rd), Belize (55th), Aruba (56th), Cuba (71st), Trinidad and Tobago (72nd), Dominican Republic (81st) and Panama (84th).

Haiti's Former President Préval Has Credible Charges that UN Tried to Remove Him | Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch | CEPR

Written by CEPR

Published: 13 May 2013

Writing in the Toronto Star, Catherine Porter reports on revelations from former Haitian President René Préval in Raoul Peck’s documentary film Fatal Assistancethat UN head Edmond Mulet tried to remove him from the country on election day in November 2010:

“I got a phone call from Mr. (Edmond) Mulet, who was head of MINUSTAH, saying: ‘Mr. President, this is a political problem. We need to get you on a plane and evacuate you,’” Préval says in the documentary, Fatal Assistance. “I said: ‘Bring your plane, collect me from the palace, handcuff me, everyone will see that it’s a kidnapping.’”        

The comments from Préval echo those made at the time by Organization of American States special representative Ricardo Seitenfus, who told BBC Brasil in January 2011 that Mulet and other representatives of the “core group” of donor countries, “suggested that President Rene Préval should leave the country and we should think of an airplane for that. I heard it and was appalled.” The forced departure of Préval wouldn’t have been the first time a Haitian president was spirited out of the country, as former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was flown out of Haiti in 2004 on a U.S. airplane and taken to the Central African Republic in what he described as a “kidnapping” and “coup d’etat.” There is no doubt that it was a coup d’etat – the New York Times, among others, documented the U.S. role in bringing about the coup.  And Aristide’s charges that it was a kidnapping are credible and backed up by witnesses.

In response, Edmond Mulet told the Star, “I never said that, he [Préval] never answered that,” adding “I was worried if he didn’t stop the fraud and rioting, a revolution would force him to leave. I didn’t have the capability, the power or the interest of putting him on a plane.”

The first round of voting for president in November 2010 was plagued by irregularities. A CEPR statistical analysis found that some three-quarters of Haitians did not vote, over 12 percent of votes were never even received by the electoral authorities and that more than 8 percent of tally sheets contained irregularities. Perhaps most importantly, Haiti’s most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, was excluded from the election. At the time, 45 Democratic members of Congress wrote to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning that political party “exclusion[s] will undermine both Haitians' right to vote and the resulting government's ability to govern.” These warnings fell on deaf ears, but diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveal the international community’s thinking at the time. At an early December 2009 meeting, Haiti’s largest donors concluded that “the international community has too much invested in Haiti’s democracy to walk away from the upcoming elections, despite its imperfections.”

These imperfections proved even greater than anticipated. Based on the pervasiveness of the irregularities and the close results, we concluded at the time that “it is impossible to determine who should advance to a second round” and that if “there is a second round, it will be based on arbitrary assumptions and/or exclusions.”

After intense international pressure to exclude the government-backed candidate for the second round and to include now President Martelly, the Haitian government agreed to let a group from the OAS come to the country to review the results and determine who should advance to the second round. As Porter notes in the Star, Préval alleges that the UN and U.S. rigged the results and overturned the first round, leading to Martelly’s inclusion in the second round and eventually winning the Presidency. 

In the film, Préval states that after they agreed to let the OAS review the results:

“I summoned him [Mulet] to come: ‘Problem solved?’ He said: ‘No, it isn’t. If the OAS isn’t in line with the American mission’s recommendations we won’t accept the election results,’” Préval says in documentary.

“I told him whatever candidate wins, wins. And he replied that they wouldn’t accept those results. I asked: ‘So why hold elections?’”

Indeed, a CEPR statistical analysis of the OAS decision to replace the government candidate with Martelly in the second round found that the OAS “had no statistical evidence to do so,” and that in fact the “results showed that Célestin [the government-backed candidate], not Martelly, was by far the most likely second place finisher in the first round.” 

The director of the documentary in which Préval makes these comments, Raoul Peck, explains to Porter the history and rationale of international meddling in Haiti’s politics:

“You have a bunch of ambassadors who feel they are governors of Haiti…They are the ones crafting politics in Haiti. They are the ones creating government there. We have a long history of this. They’d rather have a dictator, if he’s our man and we can control the country.”

Porter notes in her article that:

Foreign powers, notably the United States, have a long record of meddling with Haitian politics. The country was occupied for 19 years by American marines, ending in 1934. More recently, an American plane whisked away dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier during the popular uprising of 1986 and, 18 years later, president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was facing a coup. Afterward, Aristide called his evacuation a “kidnapping.”

Tomorrow marks two years since Martelly came to office. Legislative elections, delayed for over a year, have yet to be scheduled. Former President Aristide, who spoke publicly last week for the first time since his return from exile in South Africa in 2011 stated that "if there are free, fair and democratic elections,” then “there is a good chance” that Fanmi Lavalas "can win the majority of posts that are in play." The international community is expected to pick up the tab on the forthcoming elections, as they did in 2010. Though elections have yet to be scheduled, the United States has already awarded over $2 million to the National Democratic Institute and the International Federation for Electoral Systems – U.S. government-linked institutions with a problematic history [PDF] in Haiti and other countries -- to “support” the electoral process

Meanwhile, Fanmi Lavalas supporters have voiced concern that a new attempt to exclude the party from the upcoming elections could be underway, via the renewed investigation into the murder of radio journalist Jean Dominique, who like Aristide was a fierce critic of Haiti’s wealthy elite, the Haitian army, and other powerful interests. Although some have suggested that attempts to link Aristide to the murder are a political smear, Aristide was called before a judge for questioning in the case last week. The AP’s Trenton Daniel wrote:

An open case against Aristide, the official leader of the Lavalas party, could make it difficult for candidates to register under the party in elections that are supposed to be held before year's end.

"We hope this isn't political, that the government isn't using the Jean Dominique case so Lavalas can't qualify for the elections," an Aristide supporter, Jean Cene, said while pressed against a barricade.

Racism in Cuba persists despite government efforts, prominent Afro-Cuban artist says

BY NORA GÁMEZ TORRES

THE MIAMI HERALD

Cuba has a black vice president and a black president of the National Assembly, but that says little about the racial disparities and racist practices that persist in Cuban society and take the central stage in the work of Cuban visual artist Juan Roberto Diago.

“Cuba is a society that has tried to transform constantly, but racism has mutated to other subtle levels and remains in Cuban society,” despite government’s efforts, he said in an interview a few weeks after the opening of his exhibition “Diago: The pasts of this Afro-Cuban present” in late October at the Lowe Art Museum in Miami.

Diago is one of the most successful contemporary Cuban artists, whose work channels a different story of the Cuban nation, one told from the voice and history of the Afro-Cuban population, marked by the heritage of slavery.

Throughout his career, since the 1990s, he has also been an active member of “the anti-racist movement in Cuba,” professor Alejandro de la Fuente said. He is the director of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University, and the curator of Diago’s exhibition.

“We are still a neglected population, the same in Cuba as in the U.S.,” the artist said, adding that this is very personal to him. “I am the one who gets asked for his ID on the streets, who they look at, and make racist gestures at.”

The artist also mentioned racial slurs used in everyday language in Cuba, such as “he had to be black” and “negro bembón” [roughly translated as a black person with big lips]. “I am the one who suffers all those daily expressions because I am black,” he said.

The faces in many of Diago’s paintings have no mouth, only big eyes that stare at the viewer.

“These are faces that look at you from the front, challenging you, without a mouth since they cannot speak because, over time, the word was taken away from us but not the thought,” he explained. “We express ourselves through music, spiritually, we don’t have the force of political discourse.”

After coming to power, Fidel Castro established policies for equal access to schools, jobs, and other services that led to the social mobility of the island’s black and mixed-race population.

More recently, under his brother, Raúl Castro, the government promoted Afro-Cubans to leadership positions in the National Assembly and the State Council. But Cuban authorities have been reluctant to implement affirmative policies. The government has also tried to limit the development of a grassroots Afro-Cuban movement.

And in the last two decades, the economic crisis and emigration patterns have exacerbated the social disadvantages that affect a large part of the Cuban black population.

“The government does not marginalize children or any population to attend a hospital or a school, but the inequalities continue, and those most affected by them are blacks,” Diago said. “It’s a fight, it is being debated, there are many government commissions to study the problem, but it still exists.”

Racial inequalities have different expressions on the island, the artist said, among them: blacks’ over-representation in the prison population, poor wages, little presence in the private sector, and lower access to remittances, as most Cuban émigrés are white.