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AP Interview: Haitian president pledges to outlast troubles
CHRISTOPHER GILLETTE, Associated Press - President Jovenel Moise speaks during an interview in his office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti's president says he will serve out his term despite rising violence, poor economic performance and months of protests over unresolved allegations of corruption in his predecessor's administration.
President Jovenel Moise pledged in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday to respect the findings of a commission investigating the corruption allegations.
"It takes a lot of courage to stay in power, but I am pledging to you to have the courage to continue moving forward," Moise said, saying he would resist pressure to resign.
Moise was named in two reports resulting from a corruption investigation by judicial authorities into the spending of funds from Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan government program that provided subsidized oil to Caribbean nations. Protesters have repeatedly taken to the streets in recent months in demonstrations prompted by the findings of widespread fraud in government contracts awarded to contractors to build roads, buildings and administer social programs.
Moise was described as receiving potentially improper payments as a private contractor to build a road in northern Haiti before he became president.
The audits revealed millions of dollars of aid money siphoned off by contractors for shoddy and substandard work, like an overpass built over busy Delmas avenue that cost more than $30 million, but should have cost around $2 million.
Once revealed, the extent of the corruption sparked widespread protests and street violence, and calls for Moise to step down.
Moise has refused to resign, though he promised to criminally charge anyone found by the audit board to have stolen funds from the government.
"Of course we must know the truth and the truth about this investigation must be released. That is very important. The investigation must reveal the truth so that justice can be served and the guilty jailed. Those who misspent the government's money, they should be arrested and locked up," Moise said Wednesday.
The protests, economic downturn and increasing insecurity and gang-related crime have made Moise's political future uncertain despite his determination to stay in power.
Moise said he was not concerned about more allegations of his involvement in potentially improper contracting, saying: "The judicial audit does not involve the executive branch. This is a concern of the judicial branch."
The president insisted that Haiti must move beyond the crisis and let the judicial process play out.
"We must go beyond talking about the survival of the government, because political stability in Haiti is the most important thing for us," he said. "If the opposition wants power they must participate in democratic elections and win the vote of the people."
HAITIAN NATIONAL POLICE
He caught one of Haiti’s most wanted criminals. Now the nation’s top cop is out of a job
A month after arresting one of Haiti’s most wanted gang leaders and exposing a troubling connection between gang leaders and a member of the nation’s parliament, the head of the country’s beleaguered police force is out of a job.
Haiti National Police Director Michel-Ange Gédéon was told on Monday by Haiti President Jovenel Moïse that he would not be staying on, and that his replacement would be announced as early as Tuesday morning.
The president did not say who the next chief would be. But those familiar with the decision said the choices come down to two individuals: Normil Rameau, Gédéon’s one-time No. 2 and former head of Haiti’s Central Directorate of the Judicial Police; and Noel Charles Nazaire, the head of the country’s prison system. Rameau, who is currently assigned to the Haitian embassy in Washington, was told last week by the presidential palace to report to Port-au-Prince.
“Under my tenure, bandits always had to be worried regardless of their political affiliation,” Gédéon, 46, said Monday, summarizing his three years as Haiti’s top cop.
In Haiti, he said, bandits are everywhere — in the city, in the countryside, the slums and the villas — and Haitians must continue to “fight mercilessly against bandits and traffickers of all kinds.”
Gédéon was appointed to the job in 2016 by interim Haiti President Jocelerme Privert and ratified by the Haitian Senate, but his mandate expired last week. Moïse, who has authority under the constitution to appoint the police chief, could have named him to a second term. Some observers in the international community, which funds most of the police force, wanted him to keep Gédéon on the job.
But despite months of lobbying by foreign diplomats in Port-au-Prince for continuity in the 15,937-member police force, Moïse decided to let Gédéon go and appoint his own chief.
The switch in command comes as Haiti continues to undergo a worsening political and economic crisis with no functioning government and Moïse continues to face calls for his resignation from political opponents and anti-corruption grassroots activists. It also comes as the United Nations prepares to permanently end its peacekeeping operation in October after 15 years.
Rebuilding the Haiti National Police and training police officers have been key priorities for the U.N.., which in its most recent report from the secretary-general to the U.N. Security Council warned that “without stronger support from the government and the international community, Haiti’s police force risks losing the gains” in professionalization it has achieved.
Some of those gains, Gédéon said, came under his tenure. He credits his administration with not only making the police more professional, but less political. Among some of the measures carried out under his leadership: adding more women to the force; providing more training opportunities for officers at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington and similar institutions in Chile; and promoting officers to middle management positions.
Another significant achievement, he said, was tackling corruption in the force. Under his leadership, the institution recovered 834 weapons from no-longer-active officers and recuperated thousands of dollars in money that was still being paid to fired or deceased cops.
But that’s not all, said Pierre Esperance, a leading human rights advocate in Haiti, who initially was unsure about Gédéon, the former police chief of west region — which includes Port-au-Prince. Gédéon had been dismissed by former Haitian President Michel Martelly and spent two years on the sidelines before being tapped by Privert.
“Our experience with Gédéon has been nothing but positive. Under him, the police had courage,” Esperance said, referring to two police investigations, one on the November 2018 massacre in the La Saline neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, in which two presidential appointees were implicated, and the other on gang leader Arnel Joseph, which exposed his relationship with Sen. Garcia Delva.
The first police chief to rise through the ranks and not the army, Gédéon is widely respected among officers who view him as an inspiration in a country where former police chiefs usually came out of the military.
Still, he and Moïse have a contentious relationship at best. Supporters of the president often wanted Gédéon to be repressive against protesters, and didn’t like his push back on their attempts to politicize the police. With few resources, he regularly led a force that was ill-equipped to intervene in gang-affected areas, or even regular policing.
“He’s a professional. He always listened to his officers. However, he was working with bare bones. People sometimes commend the job the police are doing but they have no idea under what conditions they do it with,” Esperance said. “Gédéon spent three exceptional years as the head of the police where the executive fought him for no reason. [Gédéon] was loyal to the authorities.”
If there is another trait that Gédéon should be commended for, Esperance said, it’s the fact he “doesn’t do repression against the protesters.”
Still, Gédéon has come under fire as Haiti has witnessed a resurgence in gang activities and insecurity in the past three years. Last July, when protesters shut the country down for three days, many questioned whether Gédéon and the police were up to the task.
“The [HNP] is often singled out for every spurt of acts of banditry because our society is facing a lack of training and information,” Gédéon said Monday. “The police cannot fight disorder alone and can only take social control; other actors and social groups must be involved. Security is a collective job.”
Gédéon leaves the job after his cops made two of the most highly celebrated arrests in recent memory: drug trafficker and rebel leader Guy Philippe, and Joseph, the wanted gang leader.
Philippe, a newly elected Haitian senator at the time of his capture by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Haitian police, was arrested in January 2017, months after Gédéon officially took over. Joseph’s arrest came last month after a manhunt that lasted more than two years.
Joseph’s arrest briefly sparked a campaign among some in the population for a renewal of Gédéon’s term by Moïse.
Frustrated by his inability to control the police, Moïse told an audience in Miami at a public meeting he planned to ask his prime minister to invite him to a gathering of the police council so that he could give directives on security measures. Later his administration told Gédéon that he had to run all administrative changes by the prime minister first.
Parliament member Jerry Tardieu, who introduced a law in 2016 to modernize Haiti’s police force, said if Gédéon and Moïse enjoyed a better relationship the police could have accomplished more.
“If I were the president, I would have rallied him to my side and given him all of the resources he needed,” Tardieu said. “I think his three years were diminished by the fact that the president never trusted him and did not allow him much margin to maneuver. He could have done more, but had to pay a price because of this ongoing suspicion on the part the president.”
Gédéon conceded that the “up-and-down” relationship had “counterproductive consequences for both the security governance and political governance.”
He added that while he has always stressed that the Haiti National Police needs to “remain apolitical and a public service institution,” few people are tolerant of individuals who adhere to this philosophy.
“In a society as polarized and confrontational as Haiti, the desire to have control over the country’s public force, be it the army or the police, has always tried almost every government.”
American Airlines, Spirit reduce service to Haiti just as tourism appears to make comeback
AUGUST 13, 2019 12:13 PM, UPDATED AUGUST 13, 2019
Year: 2010. Passengers were waiting to depart with bittersweet feelings of returning to a home they may not recognize, and for some, going back to families no longer intact. AA has not been flying to Haiti since the January 12 quake. BY
Travelers bound for Port-au-Prince from Miami will soon face fewer options.
Starting on Aug. 20, American Airlines is once again reducing its direct flights from Miami to Port-au-Prince, cutting the number of daily flights from two to one.
The change is due to American Airlines’ cancellations of about 115 daily flights because of the ongoing grounding of the Boeing 737 Max jets, said American Airlines spokeswoman Martha Pantin.
The reduced Haiti flight schedule is supposed to last until Nov. 2.
Though not the only airline to fly to Haiti — Air France, Delta, JetBlue and Spirit all fly out of the U.S. — American has long been the dominant player in Haiti travel. It has its own second floor departure lounge at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince and occupies six check-in reservation counters compared to JetBlue’s four.
Spirit Airlines, which flew its last flight from Fort Lauderdale to Cap-Haitien, the country’s second largest city, on June 18, said unrest and operational issues were behind its decision to suspend service. “We have not determined a restart date,” spokesman Derek Dombrowski said.
Haiti’s tourism market has been taking a huge hit since last July. First, mass protests and rioting over a proposed fuel hike led to temporary cancellations of international flights. Then in February, more anti-government protests and a nine-day shutdown of the country led the U.S., Canada and France to all raise their travel warnings. The decision prompted the booking company Expedia to temporarily remove all Haiti flights and hotels from its site.
The reduction in air travel options comes just as Haiti’s tourism market appears to be on the mend. In June, the U.S. State Department reduced its travel warning from Level 4 to 3. And last month, the diaspora, the country’s biggest market, began returning along with its musicians, who launched summer tours with packed street and bikini beach parties, and sold-out concerts.
“The more the Haitian community promotes Haiti or travel to Haiti, the more the airlines are reducing flights, canceling flights or overcharging on tickets to Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien airports,” said Wanda Tima, founder of the L’union Suite and the Haitian American, the largest Haitian American social media platforms. “So how are we supposed to boost tourism or vacation home if we keep losing flights and being forced to pay for pricier tickets.”
The only U.S. carrier with daily flights to Port-au-Prince, American competes only with Air France out of Miami. But where AIr France offers only one daily flight out of Miami International Airport to Port-au-Prince, American currently provides two options: 6:01 a.m. and 10:51 a.m.
“The early flight is very popular,” said Joubert Pascal, a former airline employee who works protocol at MIA on behalf of the Haiti consulate in Miami. “Business people can come for the weekend and leave on Monday early enough to get to work.”
Under the reduced schedule, Pantin said the daily flight will depart Miami International Airport at 2:39 p.m. and arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince at 4:46 p.m. The Miami-bound flight will depart at 5:46 p.m. and arrive at 8 p.m.
Pascal, like others, also raises concerns about the new time change given Haiti’s security issues and the fact that many of the Haiti-bound passengers do not live in Port-au-Prince and have to travel by public bus or car to their final destination. “I’ve spoken to the manager here in Miami about that. They told me the decision was made out of Dallas,” where American is based, Pascal said.
The new time change means some travelers may need to spend the night in Port-au-Prince, or forgo travel on American altogether where ticket prices are already high. Booking eight days ahead, a round-trip ticket for someone looking to travel on Aug. 20 with a return a week later would pay $1,484.
“Where’s the logic here?” said Georges Sassine, head of the Association of Haiti Industries and a frequent traveler from Port-au-Prince to Washington with a stopover in Miami. “All the flights from Haiti are already the highest passenger per mile ticket that we pay.”
“Why is that?” he said, before turning to Haiti’s ongoing political turmoil and lack of a functional government to answer his own question. “There is no one in the government to put their foot down and to say to American either they change course, or we get somebody else.”
This is the second time in a year that American has announced a reduction in its service to Haiti. Last August, American announced that it would no longer fly direct to Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport or New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The decision reduced the number of American Airlines flights to Haiti each day from six to four — with all four, including a daily flight to Cap-Haitien, departing from MIA. The cuts were part of a series of reductions, including the end of service into Scotland’s Glasgow Airport and Mexico’s Puebla International Airport, the U.S. carrier said at the time.
Richard Buteau, owner of the Karibe Hotel in Petionville, Haiti, said the travel warning is affecting the country's tourism industry and is unfair to the Haitian people.
By
Pantin said the latest reduction is part of a number of changes that have come into play at the beginning of August and throughout the fall. For example, there will be changes to Dominican-bound flights, with American reducing its five daily flights to Santo Domingo to four on Oct. 20. Other destinations in the country will also lose a flight each starting on Aug. 19.
The airline is also operating a reduced schedule to Cap-Haitien. Starting Sept. 4, American will operate four flights a week: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Then starting on Nov. 21, it will increase to five weekly with no flights on Wednesdays and Fridays, and will return back to daily service on Dec. 18, Pantin said.
“Changes are made after careful evaluation,” said Pantin, adding that American has been servicing Haiti for more than 45 years and “our goal is to minimize the impact to the smallest number of customers.”
Haiti travelers, however, don’t see it that way. The decision, they say, means that only those with deep pockets or part of American Airlines’ loyalty points program will be able to afford the steep prices that will ensue as a result of too little supply and high demand.
Guy Francois, Haiti’s former minister for Haitians living abroad, said American appears to be handing over the market to JetBlue, which has added flights out of Fort Lauderdale in addition to maintaining direct service from New York and Orlando.
Francois said last month he was forced to fly into Santo Domingo in the neighboring Dominican Republic from Miami aboard American because the airline was charging $1,000 for a one-way fare to Port-au-Prince compared to $199 to Santo Domingo. The Dominican Republic and Haiti both share the same island of Hispaniola.
This week, Francois said, he was faced with a similar dilemma after one-way fares aboard American were between $1,200 and $1,600 because the two daily flights to Port-au-Prince were full.
“They knew demand would be up during the summer and they didn’t add a flight,” he said, noting that two extra flights were added on the Santo Domingo-Miami route.
As for the recent decision, he said, he’s baffled and said it’s not without consequences.
“I don’t see why they are reducing it to one flight,” Francois said “A lot of American Airlines customers have started to fly JetBlue now. They are going to allow JetBlue to take over the market.”
Coast Guard intercepts 146 Haitians at sea. But 90 more made it to the Turks and Caicos
AUGUST 14, 2019 02:14 PM, UPDATED AUGUST 16, 2019
- Haitian migrants intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard on the deck of the Cutter William Trump. BY
One Haitian freighter arrived in the Turks and Caicos on Saturday, ferrying at least 26 men and 11 women. Then on Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted another freighter at sea, this time with 146 people on board, including several children.
And on Monday, a third boat made landfall in the Turks and Caicos with 53 migrants aboard.
The unusual surge of 236 migrants coming from Haiti in recent days created enough alarm that the Turks and Caicos minister of immigration is threatening to shut down legal migration from Haiti to his British Overseas Territory.
“Enough is enough,” Immigration Minister Vaden Delroy Williams said Wednesday, noting that it may be time to consider “stopping the first-time work permits for Haitian nationals if this continues.”
“While I understand what’s going on in Haiti and what the Haitian people are experiencing there, we must protect the Turks and Caicos Islands for future generations.”
The territory, located 137 miles from Haiti’s north coast and 372 miles from Miami, has become a popular stepping stone for desperate Haitians trying to flee their nation’s economic and political turmoil. It is also one of the few islands in the Caribbean that offers legal migration from Haiti through a work-permit process.
Williams called on Haitian nationals living in the Turks and Caicos to discourage their families and friends from seeking entry by illegal vessels.
“This process will not work for you,” he said, directing his comments at Haitians illegally migrating. “If this continues, you will never be able to work or live peacefully or to become legal. We will find you, deport you and place you on the Stop List, so you will never be able to enter the TCI ever again. We will no longer allow individuals who break the law to come into these islands to become legal residents.”
On Wednesday, Williams said there are 119 individuals being housed in the islands’ detention center in Providenciales, the country’s main tourist hub. The center has a maximum capacity of 165 people. At least 90 of the individuals — all Haitians — arrived over the weekend after Turks and Caicos immigration and police officers discovered two wooden Haitian sloops, approximately 30 feet long each.
The first vessel arrived Saturday morning, and landed within the Malcolm Beach area of Providenciales. After a search of the area, officials found 37 Haitians, including 11 females.
Two days later on Monday, another vessel transporting 53 Haitians, including 12 females and a child, was intercepted by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Marine Branch.
But that’s not all.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that it, too, had picked up Haitian migrants at sea: 146 of them traveling in a 40-foot sail freighter.
The Coast Guard said its William Trump cutter intercepted the boat with 120 men, 22 women and four children aboard on Sunday, about 69 miles north of Ile de la Tortue on Haiti’s northwest coast. The Trump (named after a World War II veteran and no relation to President Donald Trump) loaded the migrants onto the Coast Guard Cutter Resolute, which then took them back to Haiti on Tuesday.
That’s at least 236 Haitians who have attempted to flee their politically volatile nation in three days.
A Haitian-American activist who has helped more than 3,000 migrants since May talks about the tragic stories behind their treacherous journey.
“A strong message has to be sent to the Haitian immigrants who are coming here and to those who are helping them to come here and stay here,” said Williams.
He said he plans to meet with immigration enforcement officials and police so they can figure out how to find Haitians who illegally entered the island chain and were not apprehended.
“We simply cannot allow them to come here illegally, live here illegally and work here illegally. We have to find them and deal with them,” he said in a statement.
While the U.S. Coast Guard has returned its boatload of migrants, those apprehended in the Turks and Caicos remain in custody and will be repatriated back to Haiti.
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- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haitians among Dorian’s victims in the Bahamas
Among the missing persons, there are many Haitians. The two islands of the Bahamas most affected are “mostly [populated by] fishermen, manual workers and many Haitian immigrants”, writes Loophaïti. This media outlet based in Port-au-Prince tells that in «Saint-Louis du Nord, one of the communes (located in the northwest of Haiti) with the most immigrants in the Bahamas, families are desperate». Many Haitian nationals lived in the slum of Marsh Harbour, on the Abaco Islands. This neighborhood, commonly known as The Mud, was completely devastated.
The Miami Herald published on the front page of its website a photo of a Haitian woman with her arms crossed in front of what remains of her home. The reporter described “wet mattresses, gutted buildings, torn clothing, broken toilets, dead dogs… and miles and miles of mud”. This area of Marsh Harbour, this pocket of poverty, has not yet been visited by the rescue teams. Residents report seeing bodies, which have not yet been removed. “Haitians here,” says the Miami Herald, “have long complained about discrimination and lack of opportunity. Now they fear they will be the last to get help”.
The water in this area is now probably contaminated. This is certainly the working hypothesis of the Minister of Health of the Bahamas, who is quoted by The Nassau Guardian. “We assume,” he says, “that all the aquifers, all the water in the community, are contaminated. Contaminated with open latrines, decomposing animals, anything that may have entered the supply system”.
According to Loophaiti, videos are circulating on social networks. They show angry Haitians. They “say they are on their own.” The outgoing Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs had however communicated emergency numbers for residents in the Bahamas. But «despite the many attempts of Loophaïti none of its numbers was reachable», at least not from Haiti. A delegation from the Haitian embassy in the Bahamas is scheduled to travel to Grand Abaco this Friday.
HAITI SENDING AID TO BAHAMAS
The first plane load of aid out of #haiti🇭🇹 to the #bahamas🇧🇸 is ready to fly. Onboard, there are water purification machines that have the ability to provide safe drinking water to thousands of people daily, thanks to Joe of Air Mobile Ministries. Also flying to the disaster zone are MRE food rations, blankets, hygiene kits, shoes, cases of medications and hospital/clinic/EMS supplies, and more urgently needed survival provisions. Very special thanks to @hopitalbernardmevs for a generous donation to this mission, and to everyone else in Haiti who sent over supplies and plane fuel funds.
URGENT DISASTER UPDATE: After being pummeled by Hurricane Dorian for 48 hours, approximately 60% of Grand Bahama Island may be submerged in water and 76,000 people are in need of lifesaving assistance. Our emergency response team is on the ground to aid survivors, but they can’t do it without supporters like you.
Our goal is to raise $25,000 in humanitarian aid by midnight, but we’ve got a long way to go: Will you rush a donation to help Mercy Corps deliver critical humanitarian relief in the Bahamas and around the world?
Send emergency aid to families in need
Mercy Corps is responding in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian's landfall as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.
Our team has reached the Bahamas and is rushing to help survivors and meet the needs of families and communities affected by this devastating storm. Reports are starting to come in about the scale of damage, and we are hearing that thousands of homes have been destroyed and entire communities may be under water.
As we determine the most pressing needs, we need your support. Please make an emergency gift to our Humanitarian Response Fund today. Every $1 we receive from generous people like you helps provide more lifesaving aid for people facing disasters like this around the world.
Prime Minister Hubert Minnis Urged to put a Moratorium to all deportations and an Easing the Rule for Refugees and Immigrants to Access Services
Family Action Network Movement (FANM) and a growing list of immigrants, faith, and social justice organizations urge Prime Minister Hubert Minnis to put a moratorium on all deportations and to waive any and all requirements to prove immigration status in order to access assistance for all immigrants and refugees in this time of grave crisis.
In a letter to Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, released this morning, FANM reports receiving SOS from Haitian immigrants who fear seeking assistance because they were reportedly asked for immigration papers.
Marleine Bastien, Executive Director of Family Action Network Movement (FANM) stated:” Access to hurricane relief efforts after a natural disaster is a fundamental human right, seeking these services should never lead to intimidation, detention or deportation.” Consequently, We, the undersigned organizations urge the Prime Minister to put a moratorium on all deportations in addition to waving the legal documents’ requirement for life-saving and other pertinent services. This is the humane, compassionate, and sensible thing to do under these grave circumstances.
Haitians in the US, including some FANM employees, have been having a hard time locating families in the Bahamas. They fear the worst, especially since there seems to be a blackout on their very existence and the troubling news of being asked for immigration papers to access vital services.
Family Action Network Movement (FANM) formerly known as Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Inc)/ Haitian Women of Miami is a private not-for-profit organization dedicated to the social, economic, financial and political empowerment of low to moderate-income families to give them the tools to transform their communities.
Rhenie Dalger, 786-280-9062,
Supporting Organizations
Ira Kurzban, Immigration Attorney
Kurzban Immigration Sourcebook
Alana Greer, Community Justice Project
Leonie Hermantin, Sant La Neighborhood Center
Isabel Vinent, Florida Immigrant Coalition
Marcia Olivo, Miami Workers Center
Andrea Mercado, New Florida Majority
David McDougal, Miami Climate Alliance
Jonatan Fried, We Count
Resilience Force/ National Guestworkers Alliance
Thomas Kennedy, FLIC Votes
Tessa Painson, Haitian American Community Development Corporation
Archdeacon Jean Fritz Bazin, Episcopal Diocese of S Florida
Bud Conlin, Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees
Stephanie Phadael, Families Rights Network
Rosie Appolon, Bethel Church
Jimy Mertune and Tina Lorquet, Vwa Ayiti
Brax Tinkler, Power U
Lourdes Villanueva, Redland Christian Migrant Association
Jonathan Alingu, Central Florida Job with Justice
Trenise Bryant, Miami Workers Center
Jack Lieberman, 350 South Florida
Progressive Jewish Action
South Florida Labor Community Alliance
71-year-old man tells 8-year-old he’d ‘kill her’ if she told anyone he raped her, cops say
Sexual violence is a social and public health problem in the U.S. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey says nearly 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men experienced sexual violence victimization other than rape at some point in their lives. BY CDC
Joseph Cherima, 71, took an 8-year-old girl into a dark bedroom, forced her onto the bed and raped her, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
When someone in the home came looking for her, the girl screamed for help, but he held the door closed for about 10 minutes before letting her out, deputies said.
When the unnamed person asked what was going on, the girl replied, according to a police report: “He put his thing in my thing and this is not the first time it happened.”
The girl then told deputies the Aug. 31 incident was the fourth time the man had raped her, according to the sheriff’s office.
Cherima was arrested Monday on four counts of sexual battery on a child under 12 years old. He was being held Friday with no bond.
According to the report, the inappropriate encounters happened in a West Palm Beach home. The girl didn’t remember exact days and times, but told investigators that the first time he raped her, her grandmother was at church, a detective wrote in the report. Another time, she was playing with her baby sister and one time she was outside hanging up laundry, detectives said.
In one case, the girl told investigators he took her into the bathroom and “put her on the floor,” according to the report.
THE FORMER PEARL OF THE ANTILLES RANKS AMONG THE TOP 10 COUNTRIES TO AVOID OUT OF 140 COUNTRIES.
According to the latest report of the World Economic Forum on the Competitiveness of Travel and Tourism (The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019), published in early September, Haiti, the former “Pearl of The Antilles” is ranked in the TOP 10 of the worst countries to visit (just ahead of Angola and behind Burkina Faso) out of 140 countries analyzed by in the study.
The study analyzes all the factors and policies that allow the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector in each country, Haiti ranks among others (on more than 17 segments analyzed) 108th for its Travel and Tourism Policy; 133rd in terms of the competitiveness of travel and tourism; 120th for the prioritization of travel and tourism; 109th in terms of security; 126th in terms of transport infrastructure and 115th in terms of tourism infrastructure….
TOP 10 countries to visit:
1 - Spain
2 - France
3 - Germany
4 - Japan
5 - USA
6 - England
7 - Australia
8 - Italy
9 - Canada
10 – Switzerland
TOP 10 countries to avoid:
131 - Sierra Leone
132 - Burkina Faso
133 - Haiti
134 - Angola
135 - Mauritania
136 - Dem. Rep. of Congo
137 - Burundi
138 - Liberia
139 - Chad
140 – Yemen
MILES DAVIS ON KASSAV AND AFRO-CARIBBEAN MUSIC, among other topics.
Click: View the entire interview here. 👉🏽 https://youtu.be/KllwtKMtYTA
Post By Jean Jean-Pierre
The American icon speaks of a colleague he sent to Haiti (1987-1988) who came back with the music of Kassav. As he discovered the Zouk, it is worth mentioning this music comes partially from Nemours Jean-Baptiste’s Compas Direct, without the congas. A fact confirmed by the cadence, the pulses of the rhythm and the format of the style and by musicians such as the pianist/accordionist from Martinique, Serge Alexandre, who eloquently wrote about the genesis of the implantation of Haitian musicians in Martinique and Guadeloupe in the early/mid 60’s.
THE SALE OF GASOLINE: A SCANDAL!
Motorcycle taxi drivers denounced last Friday (September 6), on the radio Preference of Petit-Goâve, the way fuel is sold at the service stations. They said that intentional favoritism was found in the sale of gasoline at the city’s gas stations. " Petit-Goâve may experience another rarity of petroleum products in the coming days, if nothing is done to improve the sale of fuel", warned one of the motorcycle taxi drivers who added that as soon as the oil products arrived, the stock is depleted.
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- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
‘Give Paperless Haitians Temporary Asylum’
HAITIAN TIMES
HAITIAN Chargé d’Affaires Dorval Darlier wants the Bahamas government to grant temporary asylum to undocumented migrants affected by Hurricane Dorian.
This, he asserted yesterday, was the best way to assist devastated Haitians living in Grand Bahama and Abaco to rebuild their lives after losing everything to Dorian’s destruction.
His comments came days after North Eleuthera MP Hank Johnson was caught on video by a Florida reporter arguing about the picture being painted of how the Bahamas government is treating Haitian evacuees. Mr Johnson insisted migrant storm victims are being treated fairly and accused a group of Haitians evacuees of complaining.
Meanwhile, Mr Darlier appealed to the government yesterday to enforce a mandatory evacuation in Abaco, telling The Tribune some storm victims were refusing to leave despite mounting health concerns.
However, the chargé said he had no idea just how many people from various Abaco shanty towns were still alive or dead in the aftermath of the storm as the government had not yet communicated its findings regarding those communities.
But what he was certain of yesterday was the larger communities – the Mudd and Pigeon Peas – were completely wiped out, leaving many missing and families desperate to find loved ones.
“I’ve been to the Mudd and Pigeon Peas, that does not exist anymore. There is no Mudd, there is no Pigeon Peas,” Mr Darlier said.
“I go around down there. The reason I went is because they say Haitians shooting at people. It’s not true. I go around but I don’t see no one.
“It’s like a ghost town. My major concern is how are all those people going to be relocated? Some who have insurance, it’s easy for them to get back, but those who don’t, what is going to happen to them? What is the plan for them?
“I think both governments have to sit together to see what plan they can do just for them, especially for those who have nowhere to go.
Bahamas: Naomi Osaka rescues victims of Hurricane Dorian
Tennis woman Naomi Osaka has decided to help the thousands of victims of Hurricane of victims of Hurricane Dorian that devastate the Bahamas. The Japanese made the announcement on Twitter, without mentioning the details of the donations.
“I donate to the Red Cross to help relief in the Bahamas” tweeted the 21-year-old Grand Slam Champion Double. I invite other interested parties to do the same in order to assst those affected by an increasing number of victims. According to the authorities, more than 76 thousand people are affected in the Abacos Islands where Dorian destroyed 90% of the housing.
More than a week after the Bahamas was hit hard by Hurricane Dorian, which claimed 50 lives, several personalities and great fortunes have responded to the appeals for donations launched by humanitarian and religious organizations all over the world to relieve the victims.
That’s how the NBA legend, Michael Jordan, announced at the beginning of a week a donation of $1 million. The basketball player was followed by singer Lenny Kravitz who also announced donations on social networks.
It must be remembered that the search continues to find missing persons including many Haitians.
At the same time, Haitians continue to complain about the treatment they have been receiving since Dorian. «Since this morning, I have had only one cup of tea» complains Blondel Vincent, a Bahamian of Haitian origin. “I don’t know what to say and what to do. I need help,” he added.
Hurricane Dorian: Trump Administration Reportedly Won’t Extend Temporary Protected Status To Bahamians
WASHINGTON, HAITIAN TIMES – The Trump administration reportedly will not grant temporary protected status to Bahamians impacted by Hurricane Dorian, according to CNN and NBC.
Temporary protected status would allow Bahamians to work and live in the United States until it is safe enough for them to return. As CNN explained: “TPS applies to people who would face extreme hardship if forced to return to homelands devastated by armed conflict or natural disasters, therefore the protections are limited to people already in the United States.”
TPS has been granted after other natural disasters , including for Haitians following the devastating earthquake in 2010.
The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus criticized the administration. “There are thousands of Bahamian families who deserve the full unquestioning and unwavering support of the United States government during this difficult time,” Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., said in a statement, adding This is a matter of life or death and this President is failing to lead.”
The reported development follows days of confusion as top federal officials have offered conflicting statements regarding Bahamians seeking refuge in the U.S. and the documentation they may be required to have.
Bahamas government denies reports it discouraged Dorian aid to shattered Abaco Islands
Death toll rises to at least 50 in the Bahamas
Hurricane death toll rises in the Bahamas; Ellison Barber reports.
The Bahamian government has denied allegations that officials are rejecting or stalling aid for the Abaco Islands in a bid to pressure remaining residents to evacuate.
Three sources working with nonprofits told Fox News on Tuesday that Bahamian officials encouraged them to hold off on delivering items like generators and water filtration systems to the Abaco Islands, which were devastated by Hurricane Dorian last week.
A spokesman for the Bahama’s emergency management agency, NEMA, told Fox News the claims are inaccurate.
Island of 50,000 People in the Bahamas Is 70% Under Water
An island in the Bahamas that’s home to 50,000 people is 70% under water after Hurricane Dorian battered it with record force for two days, according to the government.
There are “still many outstanding rescue missions,” on the island of Grand Bahama, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Kevin Peter Turnquest said, in reply to written questions. “It’s not looking good as we expect catastrophic damage.”
Seaports and airports in Grand Bahama and the nearby Abaco Islands are flooded or damaged, complicating the task of rescuing people cut off by flood waters.
The National Emergency Management Agency sent out an “urgent plea” for owners of equipment such as flatbeds, jet skis, small boats, trucks and buses to assemble at a shopping mall on Grand Bahama to help with the rescue operation.
The U.S. Coast Guard and British Royal Navy sent ships to assist.
Unprecedented
The storm is now traveling northwest away from the archipelago at nearly 5 miles per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said at 2 p.m. New York time.
It could potentially hit the East Coast of the U.S.
At least five people died in the storm, but National Security Minister Marvin Dames said this figure is likely to rise, and will include some children, according to a report in the Nassau Guardian, a local newspaper.
Humanitarian aid organizations estimate 13,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed in the Bahamas, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands between them have about 2,250 of the 17,500 hotel rooms in the Bahamas, Resort Capital Partners, a real estate investment advisory firm that covers the region, said in reply to emailed questions.
The severity of the storm impact on Grand Bahama and Abaco over the last two days may be the greatest ever experienced by any populated area in the Atlantic basin, according to Ryan Truchelut, president of Weather Tiger in Tallahassee, Florida.
MICHAEL JORDAN PLEDGES $1M FOR HURRICANE RELIEF IN BAHAMAS
The spokesman admitted the distribution of aid to all of the islands has not been as consistent as people wish. However, he said that was partly due to the fact that most vehicles were destroyed by the storm.
Food and supplies were still flooding into Marsh Harbour Airport in the Abaco Islands, but for the most part, no locals were there to use them.
Fox News was told that rescues in the Abaco Islands are largely completed, as are most evacuations. Military aircraft are now flying supplies to the smaller surrounding cays, where more residents have chosen not to evacuate.
In Marsh Harbour, neighborhoods with names like “Pigeon Pea” and “da Mudd” are empty. All that appears to be left are piles of rubble and the bodies buried underneath them. On a nearby dock, pallets of emergency ready meals sat untouched for most the afternoon.
Supreme Court allows Trump Administration to enforce toughest restrictions yet on Asylum requests
A lawsuit to stop the new policy is still working its way through the lower court.
By Pete Williams
The U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday gave the Trump administration permission to enforce its toughest restriction yet on asylum seekers at the southern border, even though a lawsuit to stop the new policy is still working its way through the lower courts.
As a result, the government can now refuse to consider a request for asylum from anyone who failed to apply for it in another country after leaving home but before coming here. The order means, for instance, that migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador cannot seek asylum in the U.S. if they didn't first ask for it in Mexico.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, saying the court acted too quickly and should allow the case to work its way through the normal judicial process.
The administration said the new restriction is needed to respond to "an unprecedented surge" of people who enter the country illegally and seek asylum if they're caught. But officials said only a small fraction of them are eventually found to be qualified. "The rule thus screens out asylum seekers who declined to request protection at their first opportunity," said Solicitor General Noel Francisco. He said it allows immigration officials to concentrate on the asylum seekers who most need protection.
Immigration courts now face a backlog of 436,000 asylum requests. But given how few are actually granted, it's reasonable to ask whether those applicants "genuinely fear persecution or torture, or are simply economic migrants," Francisco said.
After the new policy was announced in July, a federal judge in California blocked its enforcement, ruling that it would violate existing immigration law and was improperly rushed into effect. The Justice Department took the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, but also asked the Supreme Court to let the government carry out the restrictions while the case is on appeal.
An earlier move by the Trump administration to restrict asylum remains blocked by the courts. It would have denied the protection to anyone who did not enter the US through a legal port of entry.
Dissenting from Wednesday's order, Justices Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ginsburg, said the new asylum policy "seeks to upend longstanding practices regarding refugees who seek shelter from persecution. Although this Nation has long kept its doors open to refugees—and although the stakes for asylum seekers could not be higher—the Government implemented its rule without first providing the public notice and inviting the public input generally required by law."
Activists break everything in the Haitian Senate to prevent Prime Minister’s policy presentation
Dozens of angry campaigners stormed the meeting room last Wednesday night to discuss the Prime Minister Fritz William Michel’s policy statement even as he and his cabinet members were in the Diplomatic Hall of Parliament.
The incident occurred after a day of high tension in the city center and around the parliament, where there were violent protests. It all started towards the end of the morning when a few dozen protesters, most of them armed, positioned themselves around the Legislative Palace despite an important security device deployed by the Haitian National Police.
Some of these gunmen who pretended to be political activists along with some opposition senators even managed to enter Parliament. By mid-day, the protesters were going to set fire to a bus carrying agents from the intervention and law enforcement agency (Cimo). Attempts by the police and the fire department to extinguish the fire have been in vain.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haitian senator fires gun, wounding news photographer and security agent
September 23, 2019 10:47 AM
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. By
A photojournalist with the Associated Press was among two people wounded Monday in Haiti when a Haitian senator fired his gun in the yard of the Haitian senate, according to local reports.
Journalist Dieu Nalio Chery was covering Monday’s 8 a.m. Senate ratification vote for named Haitian Prime Minister Fritz William Michel and his government along with other journalists when several shots were fired.
Sen. Patrice Dumont told Port-au-Prince radio station Vision2000 that the shots were fired by fellow senator Ralph Fethiere. Dumont said it was not intentional and that the shot wounded a journalist and security agent assigned to the parliament.
The Miami Herald confirmed that the photojournalist is Chery, whose work often graces the paper’s pages.
A video being circulated shows individuals following another senator to his car, calling him “thief,” “thief” when suddenly several shots are heard.
Before the shooting incident Sen. President Carl Murat Cantave had complained on another radio program that the scene had turned chaotic. He accused Haiti National Police from preventing individuals he described as “thugs” from accessing the Senate yard. He says they had been invited by opposition senators intent on preventing the ratification vote.
This was Michel’s second attempt at getting confirmed by the Senate after passing the Lower House. He has been shrouded in corruption allegations including selling goats to the government through a company he controlled while working as chief of staff to the finance minister. He has denied he had a conflict of interest.
Appointed Prime Minister not eligible to hold this position, says civil society group
Fritz William Michel was appointed Prime Minister by a presidential decree on July 22, replacing Jean Michel Lapin. The latter had resigned the same day having realized his inability to pass the ratification stage in Parliament particularly because he was part of the resigning government, and in his government there were several former ministers, whom were considered instigators.
The day after his appointment, Michel was identified in a case related a Twitter feed in which he analyzed the socio-political situation of the country in general and made hateful and derogatory remarks towards Haitian journalists, and women among others.
If the explanation of “fake news” that Michel gave seemed to have calmed the situation at first, today the corruption scandals in which Michel he is embroiled has caught the attention of the press once again, as well as that of the collective Together Against Corruption (ECC).
Gasoline distribution resumes in Port-au-Prince
Some gas stations in Port-au-Prince resumed the distribution of petroleum products on Thursday although nothing has changed in stations where motorists and motorcyclists continue jostling for supplies.
The rush in gas stations may prolong the gasoline crisis according to Secretary of State for Communications, Eddy Jackson Alexis as he kept himself from using the word fuel shortage to describe the situation.
Boulos denounces huge loans from parliamentarians
Entrepreneur and politician Réginald Boulos reveals that many senators, MPs and entrepreneurs have taken large loans at ONA. He urges the director of ONA to publish the list of all personalities who have not made any payments on their loan.
Boulos admitted that his company, Safari Motors had signed an agreement with ONA under the administration of Jocelerme Privert. However, he pointed out that several parliamentarians had obtained loans above the 700 million gourdes of his company. He claims to have paid more than $17 million to ONA under the contract.
Information retrieved from the Haitian Times
Feds ask appeals court to reverse TPS ruling so administration can deport Haitians
September 19, 2019 07:25 PM, Updated September 20, 2019 01:21 PM
Immigration activists and community leaders in Miami on June 14, 2019, called for Florida’s Republican Senators to support a comprehensive bill that would allow immigrants with temporary status to apply for U.S. citizenship. By
The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a New York federal judge’s decision earlier this year that blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for tens of thousands of Haitians.
In a 71-page brief filed Thursday on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, DOJ lawyers argue that U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz of the Eastern District of New York erred when he issued a nationwide temporary injunction that prevented Homeland Security from taking steps to force Haitian TPS holders to return to Haiti. .
In his April ruling, Kuntz said 50,000 to 60,000 Haitians and their U.S.-born children would suffer “irreparable harm” if TPS ended and they were forced to return to a country that is unsafe. He also said that Elaine Duke, the secretary of Homeland Security at the time, was politically motivated in her decision.
“Clearly political motivations influenced Secretary Duke’s decision to terminate TPS for Haiti,” Kuntz said. “A TPS termination should not be a political decision made to carry out political motivations. Ultimately, the potential political ramifications should not have factored into the decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS.”
Government lawyers said Kuntz was wrong on his assessment of Duke, and any influence or input from the White House in her decision “provide no bases for setting aside that decision,” they argue.
“After obtaining extensive discovery, plaintiffs have identified no evidence indicating that Secretary Duke harbored discriminatory animus against “non-white immigrants,” government lawyers told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. “On the contrary, the record reflects that the Secretary carefully considered the TPS termination decision after consulting with relevant government stakeholders and fully explained her decision to terminate TPS for Haiti.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, which include 10 Haitians, a Haitian newspaper and the Miami-based Family Action Network Movement, argued that Duke’s decision to end TPS for Haitians was arbitrary, discriminatory and rooted in President Donald Trump’s “racially discriminatory attitude toward all brown and black people.”
Ira Kurzban, who is among several lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case, said “based on what the government has submitted, we have a substantial chance or prevailing in the case. I think the evidence and the law supports the Haitians’ plaintiffs and Kuntz’s position that the government violated the administrative procedure act and the Constitution in terminating TPS.”
The New York lawsuit was the first of five TPS-related lawsuits to go to trial. Prior to Kuntz’s injunction, a federal judge in California in October 2018 granted a temporary injunction blocking the administration from deporting Haitian TPS holders and others as their termination deadlines approached.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen granted the temporary injunction as part of a California lawsuit filed by lawyers on behalf of TPS recipients from Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Sudan who have U.S.-born children.
Since the inception of the TPS program, the U.S. has designated 21 countries and the province of Kosovo for TPS. Since 2016, a dozen countries have lost the designation, which is given as a result of war or natural disaster.
Haitians in the Bahamas seek more protection after Hurricane Dorian aid groups, news cameras leave
Maria SacchettiNASSAU, Bahamas —
She fled Haiti after a violent earthquake destroyed her home for the promise of a better life in the Bahamas.
But Lavita Altima and thousands of others from her country landed in fragile seaside shantytowns on the Abaco Islands. They worked as gardeners, housemaids and cooks in houses, hotels and resorts — until Hurricane Dorian’s ferocious winds and rains swept away their homes.
“I would like for somebody to help me and my baby,” said Altima, 39, as her 2-year-old son, Berkley, played inside a Haitian church in Nassau. “I don’t have any place to go and nobody here.”
Haitians are the largest minority group in this nation of 400,000 people. By some estimates, they make up as much as one-fifth of the population. The country has long relied on their labor — and debated whether and how to grant them citizenship.
Many remain undocumented and vulnerable: Dorian flattened shantytowns such as the Mudd and the Peas on Great Abaco Island, killing dozens and leaving thousands homeless.
In the wake of Dorian, the Bahamian government has suspended deportations of victims from the Abacos and Grand Bahama. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis has declared that all services will be provided to all victims.
“The prime minister himself has stated that there is to be no discrimination against any nationality,” Carl Smith, spokesman for the Bahamian National Emergency Management Agency, said at a briefing Thursday. “There is no discrimination.”
But Haitians and their advocates say they have suffered a history of discrimination here and fear they will be targeted for more abuse once the aid groups and news cameras leave. They and the Haitian government are asking for more protection.
“They don’t like Haitians in this country,” said Julie Oliboice, 28, who was born in Haiti but said she is a naturalized citizen of the Bahamas. “They don’t want to help the Haitians.”
The U.S. State Department has noted “widespread” claims of discrimination, including reports of forced labor, allegations of government extortion and warrantless arrests.
Haitians grew from less than 4 percent of the population in 1970 to nearly 12 percent in 2010, according to the government. Some researchers say the number is probably larger. Thousands are estimated to be here illegally, and thousands more are stateless: They were born here but don’t have citizenship. The Bahamas does not grant birthright citizenship to the children of noncitizens.
Some Haitians said they were turned away this week from the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium, one of the largest shelters, but others received meals and airbeds, the Haitian Embassy confirmed. Soldiers at the shelter said it was full. Officials did not allow reporters in.
Laurie Ferguson, a 46-year-old Bahamian, stood outside the shelter this week in a yellow vest. She had volunteered to help.
“I don’t see any form of discrimination,” she said. “If there was discrimination, I wouldn’t be here.”
Dorval Darlier, charge d’affaires at the embassy, said Haitians were being treated well at the shelters. He was compiling lists of hurricane victims in hopes the Bahamian government would grant them amnesty, allowing allow them to stay in the Bahamas to work and to help rebuild.
“I cannot tell them how to govern their country,” he said. “Of course they need Haitians. They need the Haitian labor. The Haitians participate in the construction of this great country.”
The Bahamian government, still in the midst of disaster relief, has not yet responded to the Haitian request.
The debate in the Bahamas has echoes in the United States and other countries where Haitians have sought refuge from poverty, repression and political turmoil.
Advocates for immigrants have urged the Bahamas not to expel Haitians in the wake of Dorian and the United States not to deport Bahamians.
Paul Justin, pastor at Solid Rock Baptist Church, a sea-green chapel in a Nassau neighborhood much like the ones destroyed on Abaco, took donated clothes to Haitians in shelters and at church members’ houses.
At a little white house in Nassau, he found four cousins, all men, who had been sleeping on a church volunteer’s floor. They said they hoped contractors would hire them to help rebuild Abaco. They said work permits were costly and hard to get before the storm, and Haitians are often paid little.
“Even though we have the same color as them, they treat us very differently,” said Rockens Elie, 25, an undocumented laborer who lived on Abaco.
On Fifth Avenue in Nassau, Justin found a family of eight who lived under a mango tree in the Mudd. They were sleeping on a friend’s living room floor.
Sainvernio D’Haiti, 38, a construction worker who has lived in the Bahamas since 1993, recently fell from a two-story roof and cannot work.
His niece, Theresa, 18, is the only family member born in the Bahamas. She speaks English with a Bahamian accent but is considered Haitian.
Theresa D’Haiti said she cannot afford college here. She said she has applied for citizenship but has not heard back.
Justin, the pastor, tried to comfort them. “I know that you’re traumatized,” he said. “Remember you have life. There is hope.”
At the Solid Rock church hall, Thamika Petit-Jean, a 13-year-old girl born in the Bahamas, looked frustrated and bored. Before the storm, she lived with her Haitian mother and 15-year-old twin sisters in Murphy Town. Now they are homeless, and her mother appears lost.
“She doesn’t know what to do,” the girl said.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haiti Gripped by Violent Protests Amid Calls for President’s Ouster
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/world/americas/haiti-protests-moise.html
(Site ezilidanto) Mr. Moïse has not been seen publicly since Wednesday morning, when he issued a prerecorded address appealing for calm and offering to form a unity government in the aftermath of several failed attempts to appoint a new prime minister, who would be his fourth nominee in just over two years.
MEXICO CITY — Burned-out cars, makeshift barricades and shuttered businesses signaled a week of unrest in Haiti, where protesters are demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse and more violent protests are feared.
Streets, schools and banks were closed throughout the country, bringing the economy to a standstill. Shortages of oil, power and food abound. The nation’s currency is in free fall, and allegations of corruption linked to Mr. Moïse have brought the nation to a crisis point.
“To me it is obvious: The president, particularly, doesn’t govern anything at all right now,” said Fritz Jean, a former prime minister and past governor of Haiti’s Central Bank. “In fact, we are in a state of vacancy right now.”
The message was roundly rejected by the political opposition and by Haitians on the street, who responded with spontaneous violent protests on Wednesday that culminated in demonstrations around the country. The resulting damage — burned and looted businesses, blockaded streets, cars set ablaze — has left Haitians fearing the worst.
On Saturday, André Michel, a leader of the opposition, called for the country to remain shut down “until the resignation of Jovenel Moïse. No gifts will be given here.”
“Those who are guarding the barricades blocking streets need to remain,” he said during a talk show on Saturday.
The government is without a confirmed prime minister. Inflation is nearly 20 percent, growth is expected to be a paltry 1.5 percent, and the government has not voted on a budget in two years. The Haitian gourde, the nation’s currency, has fallen dramatically in the past five years.
“If he doesn’t leave the country without conditions, we will resort to looting,” a protester, Cadet Jean Donis, said of the president.
The current round of confrontation began with Mr. Moïse’s attempts in July 2018 to end fuel subsidies, a move encouraged by the International Monetary Fund. Though Haiti was in desperate need of cash, its people, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, revolted.
The government canceled the plans hours later, but violent protests persisted, leaving at least seven dead. Fueling the discontent, in no small part, were corruption allegations that have long dogged the nation, most recently alleging misuse of billions in aid that flowed into the country after the 2010 earthquake.
The fuel subsidy crisis precipitated the resignation of Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant in July 2018. Mr. Moïse then named a new prime minister, Jean-Henry Céant, a well-known lawyer and former presidential rival, to form a unity government. Six months later, Mr. Céant was fired.
New problems surfaced months later, when Mr. Moïse was hit directly with corruption allegations after a Haitian court published a wide-ranging report on the nation’s mismanagement of a Venezuelan oil subsidy program.
The report noted that two companies controlled by Mr. Moïse before he took office received the same government contract to build the same road in northwest Haiti.
Though Mr. Moïse has denied the allegations, the report further outraged anti-corruption organizations and his opponents.
A campaign spread widely on social media, calling for transparency and an accounting of how the money was spent. Protests connected to the campaign engulfed the nation in October and November of last year, bringing more violence and death.
Since then, opposition senators have blocked Mr. Moïse’s next two choices for prime minister. The most recent hearing took place on Monday, and ended in chaos when a governing party senator, Jean-Marie Ralph Féthière, pulled out his gun and opened fire in the Parliament yard, wounding a photographer for The Associated Press and a bodyguard.
In the past week, oil tankers have delivered fuel to the country, but the turmoil has made it difficult to resupply distributors.
The cycle of economic and political turmoil has sapped the nation and left it in a state of gridlock. The most recent events, and in particular Friday’s protests, have left Haiti reeling.
“We are telling the people who live in the Cité Soleil area and the Haitian population to rise up to overthrow this government,” Francois Pericat, a protester, told The Associated Press on Friday, referring to a poor and densely populated part of the capital, Port-au-Prince. “President Jovenel Moise is not doing anything for us, just killing us.”
Haiti's President Cancels UN Speech
By Sandra Lemaire, Jean Robert Philippe
September 24, 2019 09:24 AM
Matiado Vilme and Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report
WASHINGTON / NEW YORK / PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's President, Jovenel Moise, will not travel to the United States as planned Tuesday (September, 24th), to speak before the United Nations General Assembly. The president issued a statement late Monday announcing that Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond would lead Haiti's delegation to the U.N. and speak before the general assembly on behalf of the nation.
The cancellation comes after news of a postponement of his departure for New York, and on the heels of a chaotic, violent day at the Haitian Senate that saw two people wounded when a Senator fired his gun ahead of a vote to confirm the prime minister designate. An AP photojournalist and a parliament security guard were wounded during the incident.
People run as Haiti's Senator Jean Marie Ralph Fethiere holds a gun in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 23, 2019.
Corruption allegations
President Moise and some members of his government are mired in controversy and corruption allegations.
On Sunday, opposition Senator Youri Latortue accused him of "misappropriating" Haitian passport revenue collected by the Embassy in Washington to finance his trip to the U.N.
"Minister Bocchit withdrew $298,000 US dollars from a government bank account for President Jovenel's trip. He took an additional $60,000 from the New York Consulate account. That's a total of $348,000 U.S. dollars. Plus the Haitian money they withdrew," the senator alleged.
Senator Latortue said that money should have been used instead to help the victims of a mass flood in the southern town of Petit Goave on Saturday, which killed several people including children and damaged homes.
He also alleged that the large sum of money was not needed because the U.N. finances the trips of the leaders of member countries and their hotel stays for U.N. General Assembly.
But Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond refuted the allegation in an exclusive interview with VOA Creole at the United Nations.
"If Senator Latortue felt there were irregularities, he knows there are institutions in place which can deal with such matters. In addition, Senator Latortue was an advisor to a president of the republic, he is well aware of the rules and regulations the chief of state must abide by. So he therefor knows that the Haitian Embassy in Washington is in charge of planning the President's visit to speak at the UNGA. And since he was also adviser to the former prime minister of Haiti - he knows these rules well," Edmond said.
Responding to the assertion that the U.N. finances leaders' trips to speak at the UNGA, the foreign minister said " This is false. There are 193 member nations, each delegation is responsible for the expenses of its members."
Edmond quipped that the senator should verify his information before making such accusations.
Demonstrators chant anti-government slogans during a protest against fuel shortages and to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moise, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 20, 2019.
Mass protests
During mass protests on September 20, where thousands took to the streets of Port-au-Prince to demand the president's resignation, several protesters told VOA Creole that President Jovenel Moise shouldn't be making any speeches at the U.N.
"Jovenel will not represent us at the United Nations!" a protester from the Cite Soleil slum of the capital who was in the streets after the shooting incident at the parliament said. "International community, United States, please take him off our hands."
That sentiment has been echoed by members of the oppostion as well.
A group of protesters blocked a road near the national palace Monday with a white box truck, then painted red graffiti saying "Jovenel we're waiting for the keys".
‘This was supposed to be our emergency flight out of here.’ Haiti closes international airport
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 01:03 PM, UPDATED 1 HOUR 14 MINUTES AGO
Hundreds of U.S.-bound passengers stranded in Haiti after smoke was smelled inside Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport on Tuesday. COURTESY OF DARA KAY COHEN
As if things weren’t bad enough in Haiti, where residents woke up Tuesday to find banks, most schools and other businesses closed after a day of tension in Port-au-Prince and other major cities, now international travelers cannot fly out of the country.
Ernst Renaud, the director of operations at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, told the Miami Herald that the airport is closed until 6 a.m. Wednesday after workers were unable to get rid of the smell of smoke due to electrical sparks in the departure lounge.
“We are taking the decision to protect passengers,” Renaud said. He added that domestic flights, which use a different terminal, are not affected.
Asked whether passengers, who had been waiting since 6 a.m. to fly out of Port-au-Prince, had been informed, Renaud said it wasn’t his job but that of the individual airlines to do so. By 12:30 p.m. some still had no done so.
Hundreds of U.S.-bound passengers stranded in Haiti after smoke was smelled inside Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport on Tuesday. Dara Kay Cohen
Passengers arriving at the airport to take flights out early Tuesday found crime-scene investigators with cameras wearing white coats and blue latex gloves at the airport. As the large crowd formed at the entrance, there was no electricity inside the airport.
“There was every type of police unit you can imagine, and some of them were heavily armed,” said Dara Kay Cohen, a Fort Lauderdale-bound passenger. Cohen, a researcher into gangs and vigilantism at Harvard University, said they didn’t see any firefighters but there were ambulances.
“The only information we’ve been able to find is through our own cell phone,” she said around noon before Cuba-bound passengers were informed in Spanish that the airport was closed.
Cohen, who had spent 10 days in Haiti and wasn’t scheduled to leave until Saturday, said she and a fellow researcher decided to reschedule their departure for Tuesday after crowds marched into Petionville on Monday, throwing rocks, burning cars and setting a business on fire after looting it.
In protest of the deteriorating situation, which occurred after a senator shot two people, including a journalist, in the yard of the Haitian Senate on Monday, a number of private businesses announced their closure for Tuesday and Wednesday. In a press note, the banking association asked all commercial banks to remain closed to protect their employees.
“This was supposed to be our emergency flight out of here,” Cohen said.
A source told the Herald the problem was an electrical fire in the departure lounge area, which workers were attempting to clean up. However, after hours, the smell persisted.
The website for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City showed JetBlue’s 11:06 p.m. flight from JFK to Port-au-Prince was delayed to 6:43 p.m.
Two outbound JetBlue flights, one from JFK and the other from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, were diverted after take off Tuesday morning.
Businesses, Schools Closed as Haiti's Capital Reels from Political Chaos
By Sandra Lemaire, Matiado Vilme
September 24, 2019 02:58 PM
WASHINGTON / PORT-AU-PRINCE - Businesses and schools were closed Tuesday in Port-au-Prince as Haiti's private sector protests the insecurity and chaos that has overwhelmed the nation.
Meanwhile, AP photojournalist Dieu Nalio Chery is recovering from a bullet wound in his jaw that he sustained when a Haitian ruling party senator fired his gun in the parliament yard. A parliament security guard also sustained a bullet wound in the stomach. He is recovering after being treated at a nearby hospital.
Senator Ralph Fethiere pulled out his gun and fired when opposition supporters began yelling at him and approached him aggressively as he was getting into his vehicle.
Ruling party Senator Ralph Fethiere fires his gun outside parliament in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 23, 2019.
The senator, one of two ruling party lawmakers who were photographed with guns in hand Monday as members of the Senate gathered for a confirmation vote on Prime Minister designate Fritz William Michel, was not arrested. He issued a statement condemning the incident and defended his actions, claiming he was the victim.
"(I) vehemently blame certain ill-intentioned armed individuals who did not hesitate to open the door of (my) vehicle to physically aggress (me). The impact of the bullets on (my) car were duly noted by an officer of justice," the statement said.
In an interview with local radio station, Senate Leader Carl Murat Cantave said he too was hit by supporters of opposition lawmakers at the parliament.
"Violence has no place in Haiti's political process," a spokesperson with the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs told VOA, "even as we recognize the importance of forming a government to address Haiti's urgent priorities."
Looting, attacks
The condemnation follows a day of looting and attacks after angry protesters took to the streets, reacting to news of the Senate shooting. The Banque de L'Union Haitienne (BUH) in the upscale suburb of Juvena was looted of rice, corn meal and other items stored on its upper level floors, then later set on fire.
Haiti's sports minister-designate told reporters she was carjacked as she left the Karibe hotel, also in Juvena, where Michel and members of his cabinet gathered to await news about the Senate vote. She was unharmed after leaving her car to the assailants and returning to the hotel.
Haiti has struggled to end chaos since March of this year, when Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant was forced to resign in a no-confidence vote.
President Jovenel Moise's current choice for the prime minister position is accused of corruption, prompting attempts by the opposition to block his confirmation vote by vandalizing parliament. While the lower chamber of deputies approved Michel's nomination on Sept. 3, the Senate has tried and failed five times to approve him.
Some observers question if the country's current leaders are fit to lead.
Jovenel Moise, who at first delayed a trip to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, canceled his visit late Monday. He said Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond would represent Haiti at the UNGA and deliver the speech in his stead.