- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Leader of Haiti’s 400 Mawozo gang, which kidnapped American missionaries, is flown to U.S.
Updated May 03, 2022 5:34 PM
The leader of an infamous gang behind an ongoing armed conflict with another gang in Haiti was flown by federal agents from Port-au-Prince to the United States on Tuesday in connection with last year’s kidnapping of 16 American missionaries.
Haiti National Police confirmed that Germine Joly, better known as Yonyon, was sent to the U.S. aboard a special FBI flight following a request from the U.S. on April 22. Police did not say where he was being taken and the FBI did not immediately respond to request for comment, but a source told the Miami Herald that Joly was being flown to Washington, D.C.
Joly is considered to be the leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, which has been involved in an ongoing armed conflict that has led to the deaths of at least 20 civilians over the past nine days and forced hundreds of Haitians from their home in the area east of Port-au-Prince.
Until his transfer Tuesday, Joly had been held at the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. From behind bars, he ran 400 Mawozo using his cell phone and negotiated the release of hostages while also trying to negotiate his freedom. Known for its mass abductions, the gang was behind the kidnapping last year of a group of Roman Catholic clergy, including French citizens, and then later a group of 17 American and Canadian missionaries with Ohio-based charity Christian Aid Ministries.
Some of the U.S. missionaries were held for as long as two months before finally being released after an undisclosed ransom amount was paid. During their captivity, the gang asked for $17 million and its second-in-command, Wilson Joseph, known as Lanmò Sanjou, threatened on social media to “put a bullet” in the missionaries if the gang’s demand for $1 million per hostage wasn’t met.
As the missionaries were being held hostage, federal agents arrested three Florida residents on federal charges for allegedly smuggling firearms in barrels from South Florida to 400 Mawozo. The criminal complaint unsealed in late October said that Eliande Tunis, Jocelyn Dor and Walder St. Louis filled orders for weapons such as AK-47s and AR-15 for two unnamed 400 Mawozo leaders. Tunis is a U.S. citizen, while Dor and St. Louis are Haitian nationals.
Prosecutors claim that Tunis lived in Florida and “is a member of 400 Mawozo.” The complaint says that on Oct. 9, , Tunis sent an audio file to “co-conspirator 1 on WhatsApp in Creole saying ‘We are snakes. We slither to get where we are going. They would be shocked to see Mawozo invade Miami.’”
The FBI criminal complaint for all three defendants doesn’t identify Joly by name but says co-conspirator 1 “is a Haitian national and a leader of 400 Mawozo” who is “incarcerated, but still serves as a leader in the organization and directs operations from prison using an unmonitored cellular phone.” That individual is believed to be Joly.
The complaint also speaks of another individual, though not by name. He is described as serving as a leader and appearing on “videos posted on social media, stated his name and declared himself as the leader of 400 Mawozo.” That individual is believed to be “Lanmò Sanjou,” which means “death doesn’t know which day its coming.”
The 400 Mawozo gang is believed to be behind the recent kidnapping of a Dominican diplomat and U.S. citizen, Carlos Guillén Tatis, who went missing on Friday while traveling through the gang’s stronghold in Croix-des-Bouquets on his way to the border.
Sources familiar with Joly’s activities said much of the ransom money collected by his gang went directly to him, which he in turn used to purchase arms and keep police officers and lawyers on his payroll. After the arrest of the three Floridians, he grew increasingly concern about his possible extradition, sources told the Miami Herald.
The ongoing armed conflict may have sped up Joly’s extradition. For weeks, rumors had circulated of a planned prison break involving the National Penitentiary, and concerns grew that Joly might meet the same fate as Arnel Joseph, another notorious gang leader the FBI had targeted. Joseph was was shot by police last February while traveling on a motorcycle in the town of L’Estère after a deadly prison break of the Croix-des-Bouquets Civil Prison.
In a statement on its Facebook page, Haiti police said Joly is being prosecuted via an international warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for conspiracy and violation of the U.S. Export and Contraband Control Reform Act, importation of weapons of war and kidnapping of American citizens.
Joly’s arrest is likely to spread panic among Haitian gangs, because it offers U.S. law enforcement and State Department officials the opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of 400 Mawozo, which controls one of the largest territories in Haiti. Following the release of the American missionaries, the gang had splintered, with Joly controlling one group and reportedly launching an attack while he was in prison to show he was still in charge.
“With the transfers of Yonyon to the U.S., we can learn a lot about how the gang functions and the people connected to them and giving them guns,” said Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist in Haiti.
In their statement Tuesday, Haiti police described Joly as “the leader of the criminal organization called ‘400 Mawozo’ involved in several criminal acts including assassination, kidnapping, vehicle theft, destruction of private property and arson, etc.”
Joly was taken by federal agents nine days after his gang launched an attack against a rival gang, Chen Mechan, in the lowland east of metropolitan Port-au-Prince. The armed conflict has killed at least 20 civilians and led to several torched homes. Hundreds of people have had to flee the combat area.
During the conflict, Lanmò Sanjou released a voice note saying he had been warned by a Haitian official of an attempt to kill Joly and that he would kill “thousands” if anything were to happen to the gang leader.
Joly was first arrested in Haiti in 2014 after authorities accused him of armed robbery, membership in a gang and kidnapping.
Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 3, 2022 5:06 PM.
Special Advisor for the Summit of the Americas Christopher Dodd Travel to Barbados
Special Advisor for the Summit of the Americas Christopher Dodd traveled to Bridgetown, Barbados, April 19-20 to meet with Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders to discuss regional priorities in advance of the Ninth Summit of the Americas this June in Los Angeles, California.
Senator Dodd engaged with CARICOM leaders in-person and virtually. The Senator spoke with Heads of Government from The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Discussion focused on such topics as energy security, climate change, disaster preparedness, and economic recovery. CARICOM leaders acknowledged the importance of incorporating Caribbean voices and addressing these issues at the upcoming Summit of the Americas.
The Summit of the Americas, the only meeting that brings together the leaders of North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean, will play a central role in shaping the future of the hemisphere. The region’s governments, civil society, and private sector will work to develop a shared vision built around the theme for this year’s meeting, “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future.”
For press inquiries, contact
Cayes-Jacmel rara band involved in deadly crash wins contest
BY THE HAITIAN TIMES APR. 27, 2022
Rara band revelers at the 10th edition of Festi Rara on April 15, 2022. Photo credit: Jacmel Info
By Jean-Paul Saint-Fleur
CAYES-JACMEL, Haiti — Three days after six fans of a rara band died in a vehicle crash, the band learned that it won the musical competition the victims attended just before the wreck.
“We’re happy that we won,” said Nesly Jeudy, the treasurer of Inosan Rara band. “Unfortunately, we can’t celebrate that victory, we’re in mourning now.”
The Festi Rara contest took place Apr. 15. The day after, coming from a parade, the Mack truck carrying revelers back to Jacmel crashed and overturned, killing six people, and injuring 72 others.
Festi Rara is the biggest rara contest in Cayes-Jacmel and has taken place on Holy Friday for the past 10 years. With the fatal crash taking precedence, the winner was not announced until Apr. 19.
Inosan received 15,000 gourdes, about USD $137, as part of the prize money from Festi Rara. The band planned to split the amount as well as other money they raised with relatives of those who died.
“It’s a gesture to show that we’re with the family,” Jeudy said. “We will never forget them. We would do more if we had more.”
Nyvia Diclair, mother of victim Francisco Raymonde, received 10,000 gourdes as a contribution from the band.
“Despite myself, I took the envelope,” Diclair said. “No one purposely killed my son, it was an accident and the child I loved so much died.”
Another family rejected the envelope because its members are angry with the rara band leaders, Jeudy said.
To celebrate the bittersweet victory, Inosan planned to also gather fans for a big parade.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify information that was mistranslated.
National Center of Haitian Apostolate
THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 1st, 2022)
Ac 5: 27-31 + 40-41; Ps 30; Rev 5: 11-14; Jn 21: 1-19
Msgr. Pierre André Pierre
The stunning event of Christ’s Resurrection has taken place. Everybody is stunned. The Apostles are puzzled. On the one hand, having seen the Risen Lord with their own eyes, they joyfully proclaimed the miraculous event. But at the same time, persecuted by the Pharisees and the Jewish courts, they felt like giving up and going back to their old trade.
In today’s Gospel, we see Peter and his friends spending the whole night fishing yet catching nothing. At dawn, Jesus appears on the lakeshore. He shouts to them: Cast your net on the right side. Surprise! The nest is filled to the breaking point. A first lesson was taught. “Without me, you can do nothing.”
Another key teaching will soon follow: Peter is asked 3 times Do you love me more than these. At his successive positive answers, Jesus tells him “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” Jesus then announced Peter’s future martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel concluding with the call “Follow me!” These words are directed to Peter personally not to the other apostles.
We find here a key verse assigning a pivotal and undeniable role to Peter as the official leader of the Apostles. The Pope in Rome is the successor of Peter. His mission is the preserve the unity of the Church. The twelve Apostles and their successors will have to bring Jesus’s Salvation to the whole world, but they must remain united under One Head. Otherwise, the One Church Jesus founded will be marred by division, confusion, and rivalry. Peter received the key of the Kingdom to lead the Church (Mt 16:19). Let’s hold fast to Jesus’s Message of Unity and Love. Let us adhere firmly to the community of the body of Christ.
Chaos, gang violence again erupt in Haiti. Even human rights advocates are targets
Tue, April 26, 2022
Violence is again erupting in Haiti, where armed clashes between warring violent gangs are once more forcing residents to flee their homes under a hail of bullets.
How dangerous are things right now? The head of the country’s disarmament commission narrowly escaped harm Tuesday morning along with his driver when their car was hit with a spray of gunfire.
A United Nations helicopter was reportedly hit with a bullet while parked on a runway in Port-au-Prince. A photo of the damage was making the rounds on social media. The helicopter is used to ferry U.N. workers to remote locations in the country.
Covid-19, Ukraine affecting food security in the Caribbean, new report says
The state of siege on the eastern edge of the capital began around 4 a.m. Sunday, say residents, and has stalled everything from public transportation to the operation of street markets between Croix-des-Missions and Bon Repos, seven miles northeast of the capital and not far from the sprawling encampment where victims of the 2010 earthquake sought refuge after the disaster.
“We are practically paralyzed here,” said a local resident and pastor named Steeve, who declined to give his last name, and was marking his third day in the village of Caradeux separated from his family in Tabarre because of the shootings. “We cannot do anything.”
It is unclear how many people have died or have been shot since the violence broke out — neither police nor members of the government have made any official statements, and the Haiti National Police spokesman did not respond to a phone call.
Human rights groups contacted by the Miami Herald say “it’s impossible” to know at the moment how many casualties there have been, and they are still trying to understand what’s behind the violence.
The violence is the latest chapter of chaos in a politically unstable and volatile Haiti where for days, long lines have been forming at fueling stations because of empty tanks; and security issues over the weekend led to U.S. airlines delaying takeoff after they were informed there was a temporary shortage of jet fuel at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport and they would need to bring their own.
In one instance, an American Airlines flight was forced to refuel in neighboring Santo Domingo before heading back to Miami.
Late Tuesday, the ministry of communications, addressing the panic being caused by low fuel stocks in the country, announced that new deliveries are scheduled to arrive in the country by the end of the week and the government has not taken any decision to increase the price of fuel.
By 7:30 p.m., the shooting had resumed in the area. The intense sound of high-powered rifles could be heard shooting nonstop in the Santo 17 neighborhood as terrorized residents were forced to spend another day without access to food or water.
“Haiti is blocked,” said Pierre Espérance, a leading human rights defender, who said his National Human Rights Defense Network counted several dozen residents including babies at a public park in the Clercine neighborhood who were forced to leave their homes because of the shooting. “We are in a situation where the only thing you can think about is your security. Not schooling, not anything else. There is no living here. The insecurity situation has paralyzed the country. ... If you don’t have a need to go out in Haiti, you don’t go out.”
Last week, a group of U.S. lawmakers including Reps. Gregory W. Meeks and Michael McCaul, chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a letter condemning death threats against Esperance and the staff of his National Human Rights Defense Network.
The threats against Esperance were in retaliation for his work, the letter said, and “are extremely alarming.”
“Any further attempts to silence, intimidate, harass, threaten, or cause harm to Mr. Esperance or RNDDH staff are intolerable,” the letter said. “We call on the Haitian authorities to investigate any threats made against Mr. Esperance and take all necessary steps to ensure his safety and the safety of his colleagues.”
In addition to Esperance, the outspoken head of a disarmament commission appointed by the late President Jovenel Moïse, Jean Rebel Dorcenat, said Tuesday that he had “a serious threat” hanging over his head. His car was shot up by unknown individuals in the morning, he said, adding that he and his driver were unharmed. Dorcenat has long claimed that as part of his job, he compiled a list of individuals involved in arms and ammunition trafficking in the country. However, he has never made the names public.
Residents in the neighborhoods currently under gang attack have described the violence as “shocking” and “scary.” It is fanning fears, they say, that the sprawling area of Croix-des-Bouquets, Santo and La Plaine, which connects the capital to the Central Plateau and the border with the neighboring Dominican Republic, could become Haiti’s next No Man’s Land after Martissant, the gang-ridden neighborhood to the south.
Since June, armed groups have forced the displacement of over 20,000 Haitians from their homes in Martissant and surrounding communities, and cut off Port-au-Prince from four regional departments in the south, including those devastated by last year’s deadly earthquake. .
In the cases where people have been able to cross, they’ve had to pay gangs for passage, which still offers no guarantees against violence.
Should Croix-des-Bouquets fall completely into the hands of gangs, it would leave Port-au-Prince with just one access, its northern entrance, to the rest of the country. And even there, there are no guarantees, with gang clashes near the seaport and airport also turning deadly at times.
At the center of the current violence are two gangs: One is known as Chen Mechan, which translates to “Mean Dog,” and the other is 400 Mawozo, the notorious armed group that was behindand a group ofr. The gangs are said to be fighting over territory after 400 Mawozo tried to install one of its leaders in the other gang’s territory.
A voice note circulating on social media has warned the Haitian police to stay out of the fight.
Last week, both U.S. and French diplomats told the Herald that in the coming months. Haiti’s partners have committed to embedding foreign police advisers in the force and creating anti-gang and SWAT units. Haitians, however, have warned that strengthening the police will require more than the creation of anti-gang units, but also a thorough cleaning to remove corrupt cops with ties to gang leaders.
Esperance said while police officers are implicated in that they have close ties to gang members, the Haitian authorities need to remove the power from the gangs by cracking down on the illegal importation of arms and ammunition at the country’s seaports, especially the main port in Port-au-Prince.
Until then, residents like Steeve, 40, say they are being held hostage to the violence.
“That is our biggest worry,” he said, wondering out loud if he will be able to find a motorcycle to take him to go see his four traumatized kids and wife in nearby Tabarre, the same Port-au-Prince suburb where the U.S. Embassy is located. He knows people who have been shot, Steeve said, and his brother’s house was hit with a bullet.
“The people today have no refuge,” Steeve said. “Nowhere is safe in Haiti.”
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
A small plane crashed on a major road in Haiti capital, killing at least seven people
Updated April 21, 2022
A single-engine airplane crashed in Haiti Wednesday along a major road on the southern outskirts of the capital, leaving at least seven people dead, including the pilot, who later succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
Dr. Jerry Chandler, who heads Haiti’s Office of Civil Protection, said his first responders were on the scene.
The privately owned Cessna 207 was headed to the port city of Jacmel in the southeast when it crashed around 4 p.m. near a police station along the Carrefour Road in Port-au-Prince. The airplane had not too long before taken off from the Port-au-Prince domestic airport, which was about eight miles away.
Jean Elie Fortune was on a minibus coming from Jacmel, he said, when he and the other passengers saw the aircraft spinning before plunging from the sky. It was unclear how many people may have been on board as well as the total number of dead including casualties on the ground.
“I counted six dead bodies,” Fortune told the Miami Herald.
The flight’s manifest had four passengers and a pilot, according to a source. Chandler said there were conflicting reports about who may or may not have survived the crash and his team was carrying out an investigation. Jude Edouard Pierre, the mayor of Carrefour, said at least three of the dead were passengers onboard the aircraft. Two others were injured and taken to a local hospital along with the pilot, he said, when the airplane hit their vehicle as it came crashing down out of the sky.
After initially surviving the crash, the Dominican pilot, whom Pierre identified as Amando Gutierrez, died of his injuries at a local hospital, several sources confirmed, bringing the death toll to at least seven.
Videos of the crash scene showed that when the aircraft hit the ground the engine was still running, which indicates that it may not have been total engine failure, according to a pilot. Images showed the six-seater broken into pieces, strewn across the roadway.
This is the second fatal airplane crash of a Jacmel-bound aircraft in months.
In July, two American missionaries were among six people killed when their single-engine airplane crashed in the commune of Léogâne in the locality of Mathurin, a section of Beauséjour.
Since last June when armed clashes between warring gangs caused the forced displacement of thousands of Haitians from their homes at the southern entrance of Port-au-Prince, Haitians have had to seek other routes to get to the southern regions of the country. As a result charter aircraft have been in high demand to help take passengers to areas cut off by gangs.
As a result of the increased dependence on private aircraft and the high costs of tickets, residents in the southwestern city of Les Cayes last week took to the streets in a violent protest, which led some demonstrators to tear apart and then burned a plane used by a Florida-based charity.
The eight-seat Piper Navajo Chieftain aircraft belonged to Agape Flights, which is based in Venice, Florida. The destruction led other charter operators to cancel all flights throughout Haiti the following day, and the largest domestic operator to temporarily halt flights to Les Cayes. Planes are operating again.
The spelling of the pilot’s first name is Amando Gutierrez, according to a photo of his ID. A previous version had his name misspelled as Armando.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 5:46 PM.
National Center of Haitian Apostolate
Act 5: 12-16; Ps 118; Rev 1: 9-11a +12-13+17-19; Jn 20: 29-31
Msgr. Pierre André Pierre
This Sunday forcefully proclaims the great mystery of Divine Mercy. God is love. Jesus came into this world out of pity for us who go astray in acts of violence, and hatred and wade excessively in the most disgusting selfishness.
This Sunday is called “Divine Mercy Sunday” at the request of Pope John Paul II at the Canonization ceremony of St Faustina Kowalska in Rome on April 30, 2000. The saintly Pope wanted to forcefully call to the attention of the modern world the great mystery of God’s infinite love for us. For this, he resorted to the special revelations received by St Faustina of Poland in the thirties. In a vision, she saw Jesus with two rays shining forth from the open wound on his side: a white ray symbolizing the healing river of grace flowing from the Risen Lord and a red ray signifying the blood of mercy pouring out from His Heart.
We are urged by the Word of God to believe more intensely in three key teachings:
First: God’s love for each one of us is infinite;
Second: Jesus' death on the Cross is above all an act of mercy;
Third: We too must be Ministers of MERCY in the midst of this cruel world.
Without recourse to the merciful Heart of JESUS, Peace will remain inaccessible to our hearts, to our families, to our societies, and even to the world. We have understood nothing of the Gospel of Jesus and his Cross until we have grasped that what is primordial in the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus is mercy. of God the Father dazzling like the sun in the incredible mercy of Jesus dying for us at Calvary.
Jesus is like a MODEL who teaches us to be above all ambassadors of his Mercy. We betray JESUS when we act without love, without mercy.
Mercy is a GIFT from heaven. It is a grace that is obtained by the prayer of faith. Learn to recite the Rosary of Mercy. Jesus loves you without measure. Why wait any longer? Throw yourself into his arms! In the midst of this cruel world, be a witness to Love!
Society needs your testimony to take a step on the path to peace!
Special prayers are attached to this feast day especially the chaplet of mercy. Using an ordinary rosary, instead of the “Hail Mary” recited on each bead, the believer is called to say:
“Through His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” At the end of the decade, we say: “Most Holy Father I offer you the heart and the blood, the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation and that of the whole world.”
St. Faustina heard from Jesus that as long as we fail to have recourse to his mercy, world peace will not be achieved. Grow in your unshakable trust in God’s infinite mercy and grow in mercy in all your deeds. Pray incessantly for the grace of MERCY in all your relationships.
Protest planned on Haitian Labor Day to increase minimum wage
BY THE HAITIAN TIMES APR. 22, 2022
Textile workers protesting for better pay in Port-au-Prince in February 2022. Photo credit: Pensa Latina
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Two unions representing factory workers and security guards plan to hold a two-day protest on May 1, Haiti’s Agricultural and Labor Day in Haiti, and May 2 to demand a minimum wage increase.
“May 1 in Haiti is not a commemoration for Labor Day, but of unemployment,” said Jean Wilgens Charles, head of Esklav Revolte or Rebelious Slave. “We call out on all citizens to protest against the high cost of living, hunger, misery and insecurity.”
During a news conference Apr. 21 at the offices of ESPM-BO workers rights group, organizers said the protest will start at 9:00 a.m. at the National Society of Industrial Park (SONAPI) and march via Airport Road to the National Old Age Insurance Office (ONA).
Demonstrators will also go to the prime minister’s office through Delmas 48 to chide him for not keeping his promises to provide social assistance and debit cards to workers.
In February, thousands of workers took to the streets to demand a minimum wage of 1,500 Gourdes, about USD $13, a day. They said the increase is necessary to cope with inflation and afford basic necessities that have become so expensive since fuel prices increased.
The Haitian government increased the minimum wage to 685 Gourdes, about $6, for subcontractors, but the unions insist on the higher amount.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Massive Haitian infiltration
DOMINICAN-TODAY - The participation of illegal Haitians in jobs in the country has been increasing.
There are no areas that have not been affected by this phenomenon.
From traditional, such as the sugar industry, agriculture, and construction, they have extended their presence to public transportation, street sales, domestic service, security companies, hotels, and an endless number of informal trades.
Although there is a regulation in the Labor Code (article 135) that establishes a quota of 20 percent of the jobs in formal companies for legal foreigners, this is not complied with.
And precisely, this is a challenge that President Luis Abinader promised to face when he proclaimed that jobs, primarily, should be for Dominicans.
In support of this legal predicament, the National Confederation of Transportation Organizations (CONATRA) has ordered its unions, federations, and companies not to allow illegal Haitians to be employed on their routes, much less to allow them to use them.
CONATRA is exercising an attribute that should be observed by the rest of the formal companies in the country if we genuinely want to reestablish the value that the migration law and the Labor Code itself have to regulate the entrance and permanence of foreigners on our soil.
It is a restorative measure since numerous cases have been reported of Haitian drivers or motoconchistas, primarily illegal, operating public transportation routes in rented or purchased vehicles without documents.
This massive presence of illegal Haitians is stirring up the spirits of many Dominicans and entities of society, who frequently protest against the misconduct or involvement of these immigrants in criminal acts in the face of the apparent negligence of the authorities responsible for enforcing the laws.
We cannot allow society to become fed up with this problem and then opt for drastic solutions if the authorities continue to be incapable of achieving it by the simple means of the law and the will of those in power.
Migrants from Africa and Haiti clash again in Mexico
James3 days ago
A migrant was beaten this Wednesday (April 6) by another migrant of a different nationality, leaving her unconscious, which caused a confrontation between foreigners from Africa and Haiti in the city of Tapachula, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
The woman, presumably of African origin and who was beaten, fainted and they tried to revive her, but minutes later she recovered, picked up stones and tried on several occasions to break the security fence of the National Guard to throw the rocks at the Haitians who were behind the riot squads they had hit.
The extracontinentals attacked the migration elements using the metal fences that serve as protection and to divide the lines of migrants when they arrive to carry out procedures.
Likewise, in response to their anger, they threw stones at the Haitians who were sheltering to avoid further incidents.
For more than 5 minutes, the Africans and Haitians threw stones at each other, causing chaos and uncertainty among the people who circulated in the area.
Falua, of African origin, denounced that undocumented immigrants from Haiti are selling entrance passes to the offices for 1,000 pesos, when the documents are free.
“The Haitians are working with the immigration agents,” he said in an interview with Efe.
This is the first confrontation recorded between migrants from Africa and Haiti less than 48 hours after the reopening of the migratory regularization offices in Tapachula.
The region is experiencing a record flow of migrants to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30.
Mexico deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit of the country’s Ministry of the Interior.
In addition, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) received a record 131,448 refugee applications in 2021.
HAITIAN WOMAN KILLS HER TWO CHILDREN
‘I don’t want them anymore,’ mother told Miami cops. They found her kids, 3 and 5, dead.
MIAMI HERALD
Updated April 13, 2022 7:59 PM
Odette Joassaint called 911 repeatedly, sounding agitated and incoherent, unable to explain why she was calling. It became horribly clear when Miami police officers arrived. “Come get them, I don’t want them anymore,” she told officers, according to a police report.
When police rushed inside her Little River apartment Tuesday night, they found Joassaint’s own children — Jeffrey and Laural Belval, just 3 and 5 years old — hog-tied and strangled. The heart-breaking discovery shook even veteran officers and homicide detectives.
By Wednesday, Joassaint, 41, had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and had been ordered held without bond in her first appearance in Miami-Dade Court. Joassaint, who wore a padded gown designed to prevent suicide, said nothing during the brief proceeding.
But according to Miami police reports she told detectives hours after the killings Tuesday night that she had been struggling financially and her “kids were suffering and that they would suffer less if they were dead,” according to a police report.
Frantzy Belval, the father of both children but estranged from Joassaint, painted a picture of an unstable mother who had not worked for a year, and had been begging to move back in with him. He said he’d consistently refused.
“I told her, ‘You are crazy. You create too much problems,’” Belval said in an interview with the Miami Herald..
The grieving Belval said the children lived with Joassaint full time, although they would normally visit him once a week on Saturdays. “They loved me so much,” he said. “Every week, I buy clothes for the kids.”
Public records show that Joassaint’s life had been in turmoil.
She’d gone through a series of nasty domestic spats with Belval. Each parent had been jailed at least once on allegations of domestic violence, and over the years they’d come to the attention of Florida’s child welfare agency, the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The exact scope of the agency’s involvement with the family was not clear on Wednesday. DCF, citing a confidentiality law, declined to provide more information on the family.
“The events that unfolded yesterday in this home are devastating. The Department is working closely with law enforcement to uncover the circumstances that caused the tragic and untimely death of these two children,” the agency said in a statement. “We have launched a full investigation and will provide updates regularly and publicly.”
It was Joassaint’s own 911 call that brought Miami police to her apartment home on the 100 block of Northeast 75th Street.
“She was having a mental crisis and was irate,” said Miami Police Spokesman Michael Vega, describing the disturbing call. The scene inside the Little River apartment was gut-wrenching: two kids, laying in bed face-down on a bed, hands, feet and necks bound together. According to the police report, Joassaint said she strangled each child with a red ribbon. Officers and Miami Fire Rescue tried desperately to resuscitate the children.
During hours of questioning, the distraught Jossaint ultimately confessed, police said. An appointed public defender could not be reached for comment.
The children’s father told The Herald that Joassaint had lost custody of a third child, a 14-year-old girl, a claim that could not immediately be verified.
The couple had come to the attention of police and state child-welfare authorities in the past. In March, Belval said, the police were called to her apartment when they got into an argument in front of the children. No one was arrested.
In 2017, Joassaint was arrested for misdemeanor battery in Homestead after police said she got into a heated argument with Belval over money. She’d bitten Belval, leaving teeth marks on his arm, and was “the primary aggressor,” according to a police report. Prosecutors wound up dropping the case.
Two years later, when Joassaint was pregnant with their youngest, Belval was arrested in North Miami Beach on a charge of aggravated battery. He was accused of striking Joassaint — who sported a swollen eye and small cut on her lip — during an argument over her being on the phone too long.
Joassaint, however, refused to give a statement to the police. Prosecutors did not press the charge.
She did, however, go to family court to get a restraining order, alleging multiple instances of abuse. Among the allegations: that he threatened to pour boiling water on her, and “brandished” his gun and threatened to shoot her.
A permanent injunction was issued, but later withdrawn after Joassaint wrote the court saying they wished to “reconcile for our children’s well being.”
Her petition also noted that the DCF “[has] gotten involved in the past.”
This story was originally published in the Miami Herald April 13, 2022 9:49 AM.
Opinion: Haiti needs Washington’s help to exit its quagmire
Editorial Board | April 10, 2022
The Washington Post
Haiti passed a grim milestone in February, when the traditional presidential inauguration day came and went with no president taking the oath of office, no realistic prospect of presidential elections, and no established consensus on how to restore some semblance of functioning democracy in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. Meanwhile, the Biden administration props up an interim prime minister whose writ, so far as it runs, is to preside over a government with no claim to legitimacy.
That prime minister, Ariel Henry, was named to the job by President Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated two days later, before Mr. Henry could be sworn in. On Feb. 7, Moïse’s term expired. Mr. Henry has said he will organize elections this year, but that promise is empty, given how far-fetched it is that balloting could be staged amid rampant insecurity and the current power vacuum.
A potentially hopeful sign was the emergence last year of a coalition of civic organizations that proposes installing an interim government for two years, after which elections would be held. The coalition, which calls itself the Montana Accord, after a hotel in the capital where it meets, consists of political parties, faith groups, professional associations, human rights organizations and trade unions.
However broad-based, the coalition has no more constitutional legitimacy than does Mr. Henry. Moreover, its plan to run the country with a prime minister plus a five-member council exercising presidential powers is unwieldy, to say the least. Even if it assumed power by some unforeseeable means, there is no credible prospect that it would establish control over the nearly 15,000-member police force, which is rife with corruption. Without that, chances are nil that it could stabilize Haiti, mount elections and resuscitate the economy.
The country of more than 11 million has just a handful of elected officials, the terms of scores of others having expired in the absence of elections. Mr. Henry took office largely on the strength of support from a U.S.-led group of ambassadors. But the government and national institutions are in shambles.
Moreover, Mr. Henry’s commitment to bring Moïse’s killers to justice has proved not just hollow but suspicious after a report that he was in contact with a key suspect before and just after the assassination. Although signs point to the involvement of drug-trafficking figures in the president’s killing, most of the kingpins who have been implicated remain at liberty. Haiti’s own authorities have made no meaningful progress in the murder investigation. Meanwhile, according to The Post, U.S. prosecutors, who allege that the killing was partly planned in the United States, have charged two suspects and are seeking the extradition of a third.
The Biden administration has ruled out sending troops, instead paying lip service to finding a Haitian-led exit from the crisis. If there is such a way out — a big if — it might consist in a consensus between the Montana Accord coalition and Mr. Henry’s own forces. Forging such an agreement should be high on the Biden administration’s agenda. But there is little sign Washington is paying attention to events in the impoverished country — despite its long history of devolving into crises that then become impossible to ignore.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
US HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS IN HAITI
HSI expands permanent presence in Haiti to combat transnational crime, help bring security through ongoing partnership
PORT-AU-PRINCE — On Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officially opened a permanent HSI office at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, expanding HSI’s international presence around the world.
The permanent positions in Haiti are intended to further strengthen country relations to combat gang related crimes, bring criminals to justice, and protect public safety.
HSI Executive Associate Director (EAD) Steve Francis joined Charge d’Affairs Kenneth Merten and Deputy Chief of Mission Nicole Theriot for a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the new office.
HSI Port-au-Prince will develop and foster relationships with host government law enforcement partners to exchange information, coordinate, and support investigations, and facilitate enforcement actions and prosecutions to deter the ability of transnational criminal organizations and gangs to smuggle contraband with a nexus to Haiti and the United States. HSI Port-au-Prince will work with its counterparts in Haiti to identify and target sources of supply and illuminate and disrupt transportation and smuggling routes.
HSI Port-au-Prince has begun working towards the establishment of a Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit in Haiti by building relationships with the host country law enforcement and customs organizations. HSI’s TCIUs comprise trained and vetted foreign law enforcement officials who work closely alongside HSI to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in transnational criminal activity. These units facilitate information exchange and rapid bilateral investigation of many of the violations of law within HSI’s investigative purview.
“For more than 15 years, HSI has worked alongside international law enforcement agencies around the world, to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in transnational criminal activity,” said Francis. “As partners, and most importantly allies, we are united in our resolve to support Haiti as they seek ways to prevent further gang violence and restore safety for Haitian citizens.”
In the last year, HSI has deployed multiple special agents to Haiti in support of Operation CITADEL. Operation CITADEL acts as a force multiplier and is designed to strengthen law enforcement, customs, and immigration enforcement capabilities of host nations, while supporting HSI investigations. Operation CITADEL focuses on identifying and disrupting transnational criminal organizations by targeting the mechanisms used to move migrants, illicit funds, and contraband throughout the Caribbean and South and Central America.
In 2019, HSI established the Caribbean Firearms Initiative (CFI) to counter firearms trafficking in the region. Through CFI, HSI works with host nation partners to identify unknown networks and facilitators involved in U.S.-origin firearms smuggling and its associated violence. The CFI has and will continue to facilitate operational support to HSI domestic offices and actively seek opportunities for international cooperation when firearms are identified and seized in route to the Caribbean.
HSI’s International Operations Division develops and supports investigations, initiatives, and operations conducted or supported by HSI attaché offices and builds relationships with foreign law enforcement partners to support domestic cases, combat transnational criminal organizations, and prevent terrorist activities. While doing this, International Operations protects the nation’s borders by conducting international law enforcement operations and partnering with foreign and domestic counterparts to detect, deter, and dismantle transnational criminal organizations that threaten the U.S. and host nation’s national security.
In FY21, HSI arrested 34,974 criminals and seized more than $973 million in criminally derived currency, dealing a significant blow to the bad actors seeking to profit from their crimes.
“HSI’s investigative breadth, deep technical experience, and operational agility enables us to be a helpful and supportive partner in preventing gang related crime and weapons smuggling within the Caribbean region,” said Francis.
HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move.
HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
A convicted Haitian drug trafficker is brought to U.S. to face new narcotics charges
Updated April 07, 2022
Jean Eliobert Jasme, in handcuffs, stands in the middle of this photo with DEA and Haitian National Police officers in Port-au-Prince Thursday before his transfer to the United States on new cocaine smuggling charges. Haiti social media
A convicted Haitian cocaine smuggler who had assisted a U.S. investigation of drug trafficking in the administration of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been brought once again to the United States to face new narcotics charges.
This time, Jean Eliobert Jasme, who was taken into custody Thursday, is facing narcotics charges in federal court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He’s accused of conspiring with two Haitian police officers to smuggle cocaine from Colombia through Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas into the United States.
Over his lifetime, Jasme, 59, has gained a notorious reputation in the U.S. war on drugs.
Jasme was expelled by Aristide in 2003, the year before the president’s ouster. The following year, Jasme pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to two counts of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, following charges in separate indictments out of Miami and Brooklyn.
Calling Jasme “one of the top-level traffickers in Haiti,” a federal prosecutor linked him to Colombian suppliers, Haitian distributors and several boatloads of cocaine seized on the Miami River in 2000. The prosecutor also tied him to cocaine seized at Miami International Airport.
Although reluctant at first to assist U.S. authorities, Jasme later became a central witness in the federal government’s mission to slow the flow of cocaine from Colombia via Haiti to South Florida. Jasme contributed to at least 17 prosecutions of Haitian government officials, senior police officers and other cocaine smugglers — with all but one ending in convictions.
He was rewarded by prosecutors for his cooperation in 2009 when a federal judge cut his 20-year prison sentence in half.
But Jasme did not leave the drug trade, according to new charges filed by federal prosecutors in Milwaukee.
Jasme was arrested by Haitian National Police on Oct. 28, 2020, with 83 kilograms of cocaine in Gressier, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. He was jailed and later released.
Then last month, Jasme, also known as “Eddy One,” was arrested in a sting operation in Petionville by the Haitian National Police’s anti-drug trafficking unit. His arrest was considered significant in light of his high-level ties to previous Haitian government officials over the years and his stature in the Colombian cocaine trafficking trade.
Jasme’s extradition was signed off by Haiti’s justice minister, the Miami Herald confirmed. Two Haitian police officers also charged in his indictment — Ysa Dieudonne and Alex Mompremier — face extradition to the United States as well. Federal court records suggest the officers are fugitives.
The signed paperwork paved the way for Jasme’s transfer to the United States on Thursday. Jasme was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration. A photo circulating on social media showed him smiling on the tarmac alongside DEA agents.
It remains to be seen whether Jasme will reprise his role as a federal informant.
More than a decade ago, prosecutors lauded Jasme for providing incriminating information on a variety of trafficking suspects with ties to the Aristide government, but they stopped short of naming the former president as one of them.
At the time, however, Jasme’s attorney, Paul Petruzzi, said that his client “cooperated” against the former president, who was forced from power and fled to South Africa in February 2004. He later returned to Haiti.
”It’s no secret that Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been under investigation for drug trafficking and money laundering,” Petruzzi said in 2009.
But federal authorities were never able to prove allegations that Aristide was paid millions of dollars by Haitian traffickers to allow them to use the country as a hub for shipping Colombian cocaine to the United States. Aristide, through his attorney in Miami, always denied any wrongdoing.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 6:04 PM.
Haitian government honors Dr. Paul Farmer on World Health Day
BY THE HAITIAN TIMES APR. 08, 2022
The Haitian TimesJan. 29, 2020
Didi B. Farmer (middle) posing for a picture with a plaque given in honor of her late husband Dr. Paul Farmer on World Health Day on April 7, 2022; Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry stands on Farmer's right. Photo via Ariel Henry's Twitter account
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry honored Dr. Paul Farmeron World Health Day to recognize the late medical anthropologist and infectious disease specialist’s impact on Haiti.
“This shows our gratitude to this eminent doctor whose charitable works continue to benefit thousands of our compatriots,” Henry tweeted after giving a plaque to Didi B. Farmer, the doctor’s widow.
Farmer helped found Partners in Health / Zanmi Lasante hospital, the country’s largest healthcare provider outside of the Haitian government located in Cange, a remote village in Mirebalais. He was known for his decades of extensive work in Haiti dating back to the 1980s when he was a medical student at Harvard.
Farmer died of a sudden cardiac event in his sleep in Rwanda Feb. 21.World Health Day has been celebrated annually on April 7th by the World’s Health Organization (WHO) since 1948. This year’s theme is “our planet, our health.” This year WHO will focus on urgent actions needed to keep humans and the planet healthy and foster a movement to create societies focused on well-being, the organization said on its website.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Money transfer tax lawsuit : allegations against Haitian rulers
BY THE HAITIAN TIMES APR. 01, 2022
The lawsuit against Haiti’s last three presidents and remittances and phone companies — Celestin v. Caribbean Air Mail — has been winding its way through the courts since 2018. In 2021, a district court dismissed it on the grounds that United States courts cannot render another country’s laws invalid. On Thursday, a federal panel of three judges weighed in, saying the case may proceed.
The Haitian Times dug through a https://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/f0d10ad9-f15c-4d8f-821a-1fbf3891ed1e/1/hilite/">29-page ruling on the lawsuit from the United States Court of Appeals and the Celestin v. Martelly detailed lawsuit to provide a recap. Below are 15 major allegations and legal developments to know about based on that review.
1. Defendants— Haitian government officials and multinational corporations—conspired to fix the prices of remittances and telephone calls from the United States to Haiti. The defendants allegedly agreed to produce official instruments, including a Presidential Order and two Circulars of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) to disguise their agreement as a tax for domestic education programs.
2. Martelly allegedly orchestrated a far-reaching price-fixing agreement with the Corporate Defendants before becoming President in 2011. The “mechanism” for implementing the agreement was a Presidential Order and two Circulars of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti that Martelly would issue after taking office.
3. The Presidential Order set a “floor price for all incoming international call[s]” at $0.23 per minute and required that $0.05 per minute be “turned over to the Government.” Similarly, the Circulars “memorialized” Defendants’ agreement to add a $1.50 fee to remittances of food and money sent to Haiti from certain countries, including the United States.
4. Under both the Presidential Order and the Circulars, the Corporate Defendants and Natcom collected these surcharges as a condition of eligibility to provide services.
5. Martelly represented to the public that these policies would raise revenues to support a Haitian compulsory education program. But in fact, Plaintiffs say, no such program existed.
6. Rather, just months after publication of the Presidential Order, “it was discovered that [$26] million in the new National Fund for Education was missing.” Plaintiffs assert that each Corporate Defendant retained a portion of the fees it collected rather than transmitting the full amount to the Haitian treasury.
7. Martelly, and successors Jocelerme Privert and Jovenel Moise, during their respective terms, profited personally from the fees as well, according to the suit.
8. For example, according to one accusation, Martelly used the transfer tax money for a beach house.
9. Furthermore, the Presidential Order and Circulars ran afoul of Haitian law because “only the parliament may raise taxes and fees for the benefit of the state.” As part of the scheme, Plaintiffs allege, Defendants told customers that these fees were in fact collected pursuant to a “lawful tax” for education.
10.A district court in 2021 granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss all claims based on (1) the act of state doctrine and (2) in the alternative, as to some Defendants, forum non conveniens.
11.A federal panel of judges on March 31 chose to REVERSE the district court’s dismissal of the antitrust claim under the act of state doctrine and VACATE the dismissal of the fifteen state-law claims for reanalysis under the proper standard. it also REMANDED the case for further proceedings.
12.We may give the Presidential Order and Circulars their full purported legal effect and still conclude that Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged illegal price-fixing under the Sherman Act.
13.Plaintiffs’ antitrust claim depends not on “whether the alleged acts are valid, but whether they occurred” in a way that gives rise to liability.
14.The plaintiffs are listed as: Odilon S. Celestin, Widimir Romelien, Goldie Lamothe-Alexandre, Vincent Marazita
Local airline, charters in Haiti suspend flights after protesters burn airplane
Updated March 29, 2022
Domestic and charter airline operators have temporarily halted local flight service in Haiti after protesters in the southwestern city of Les Cayes on Tuesday tore apart and then burned a plane used by a Florida-based charity.
The eight-seat Piper Navajo Chieftain aircraft belonged to Agape Flights, which is based in Venice, Florida, a spokeswoman for Agape Flights told the Miami Herald.
“For 42 years we’ve been flying to Haiti and we have weekly mission flights carrying cargo, mail and humanitarian aid to missionary families throughout Haiti,” she said. “It is devastating but we are just thankful that the team is safe.”
On its web page the group announced that for the safety of its affiliated missionaries and staff, this week’s flight has been canceled.
The violence unfolded during a day of protests in Haiti against rising insecurity with demonstrators calling for an end to kidnappings. While mostly peaceful in the capital, they turned violent in Les Cayes, where protesters gained access to the airport and attacked the plane, which had arrived Sunday with a team of humanitarian aid workers helping in the region’s recovery from last August’s devastating magnitude 7.2 earthquake that left over 2,000 dead.
Haiti police said that at least one protester died and five others were injured, including four police officers who were attacked with rocks. Police spokesman Garry Desrosiers confirmed that a plane in the southeastern city of Jacmel was also burned Tuesday, but it was “not the same situation as Les Cayes.” The plane had crash-landed in November under mysterious circumstances and was abandoned.
“It had already been vandalized and a group of people threw something in it,” he said.
In response to the incident, the country’s leading domestic carrier, Sunrise Airways, temporarily halted all flights to Les Cayes. Soon after, Mission Aviation Fellowship announced it was grounding all charter flights throughout Haiti for Wednesday.
Sunrise Airways Director Philippe Bayard told the Miami Herald that for now only flights to Les Cayes will be canceled.
“We’ve stopped the flights and are seeing what kind of security they are implementing at the airport because we cannot put at risk the people who are working with us, the passengers or the airplane,” Bayard said. “I know they are doing an evaluation to see how much damage they did at the airport and after that, we will make a decision.”
He called Tuesday’s violence in Les Cayes “sad” and “unacceptable.”
“It’s a missionary group that has come to do good in a country and they burned the airplane. Is this something that is acceptable?” Bayard said. “Regardless of the reasons why people were protesting, is the destruction they did here justifiable? It’s something that is lamentable.”
Tuesday marked the 35th anniversary of Haiti’s 1987 Constitution. Amid growing discontent over a surge in kidnappings and gang criminality, Haitians have taken to circulating a petition demanding that Prime Minister Ariel Henry do something to address the problems. Condemning the incident in Les Cayes, Henry said in a tweet that he has ordered authorities to track down those behind the violence.
Les Cayes now becomes the latest big city to be without scheduled air service in Haiti, where armed gangs have made traveling the country’s national roads to large cities outside of the capital a dangerous undertaking.
Since June, more than 20,000 Haitians have been forced from their homes in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Martissant at the southern entrance of the capital, which serves as the gateway to five different regional areas including those struck by the August 14 earthquake. Gangs are attacking public buses and carjacking motorists and holding them for ransom.
The violence on the roads has led to full domestic flights and an increased demand for private charters. In Les Cayes, demonstrators have accused airline owners and the government of profiteering from the insecurity in Martissant.
“A business cannot exist on a road that is closed and an area that is isolated,” said Bayard. “Insecurity with chaos and disorder has never been good for anyone.”
Bayard said Les Cayes has long been in need of regular air service, and after starting it a year ago, demand began to increase after the earthquake. The air service also allowed aid to pour in quickly after the earthquake. While customers come for air travel because of the insecurity in Martissant, he said, there are also fewer people traveling because they don’t want to go to Port-au-Prince because of the security issues.
Richard Hervé Fourcand, a former senator who lives in Les Cayes and provided his personal aircraft to take injured earthquake victims to safety, said “activists went too far” on Tuesday.
He called the protesters’ argument against the local air carriers “exaggerated.” He acknowledged that the situation in Martissant is increasingly becoming unbearable and affecting the recovery of the south. “Everything is expensive,” he said. “You have to pay four gangs just to get one container through.”
Agape Flights, the spokeswoman said, is focused on getting their team members safely back home rather than future plans.
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 8:28 PM.
Humanitarian missions continue to Haiti despite plane set on fire by protestors
Staff was not injured in the incident
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Staff from Agape, the Sarasota-based missionary group is speaking out after one of their planes helping with humanitarian aid in Haiti was burned by protesters.
"You're instantly hurt and devastated and as the day goes on you realize, you know what, no one on our team was harmed in all this," said Abby Duncan the communications manager for Agape.
Duncan said their group flew into Haiti on Sunday to do earthquake relief, and when the fire happened they were helping rebuild a church in a remote village.
They weren't injured in the fire, but the organization is working to bring them back.
"The aircraft is a tool. It's a very useful tool. It's our ministry but we're so thankful that our team is safe," said Duncan. "The aircraft can be replaced but lives cannot."
Agape has been flying to Haiti for 42 years and takes weekly flights to Haiti, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and serves about 300 missionary families.
Haiti remains a nation in turmoil.
This incident follows peaceful protests in other parts of the nation calling for the government to address gang violence and kidnappings.
Agape staff said demonstrators may have mistaken their aircraft for a politician's plane.
"When they see a private aircraft, they think that those are people profiting from their misfortune and Agape's plane happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, they didn't realize it was a nonprofit's plane," said Duncan.
"I was shocked, we've been in that airport many times last fall after the earthquake hit, it's getting unsettling," said Joe Karavensh the president/pilot of Missionary Flights International (MFI), a Chrisitan-based non-profit organization. "I actually flew yesterday (Tuesday) and I hadn't heard about it until I landed here."
MFI was founded over 50 years ago and provides transportation for about 550 different Christian organizations, mostly working in Haiti but also working in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.
Karavensh said they are in and out of Haiti twice a week from the
Treasure Coast bringing in about 3,000-4,000 people a year doing short-term mission projects as well as a quarter-million pounds of baggage and cargo to help with churches, hospitals, clinics, schools and more.
"We don't want to risk having any incidents happening. Even if we're on the flight and we fly over the airport, we generally do a visual looking down where we come around and land and if it looks like there's a crowd of people or something that's not normal, we'll bypass it. That's our precautions right now on our plane," said Karavensh.
WPTV reporter Joel Lopez asked Karavensh:
"Your volunteers, were there any concerns after this news especially with the flight being so close to when the events happened?"
"We contacted all the ones that are traveling tomorrow and, at this point, I understand that they're all aware of what happened but they're all still ready to go," said Karavensh.
WPTV reporter Joel Lopez asked Karavensh:
"Your volunteers, were there any concerns after this news especially with the flight being so close to when the events happened?"
"We contacted all the ones that are traveling tomorrow and, at this point, I understand that they're all aware of what happened but they're all still ready to go," said Karavensh.
The non-profit said some 10 volunteers and supplies are flying into Haiti Thursday morning.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada announces judicial appointment in province of Québec
29 Mar 2022
The Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointment under the judicial application process established in 2016. This process emphasizes transparency, merit, and the diversity of the Canadian population, and will continue to ensure the appointment of jurists who meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity.
Marie-Hélène Dubé, Senior Partner at Goldwater, Dubé in Montréal, is appointed a puisne Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Justice Dubé replaces Justice J. Mainville (Montréal), who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective November 21, 2021.
Quote
“I wish Justice Dubé every success in her new role. I know she will serve the people of Québec well as a member of the Superior Court.”
-The Hon. David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Biography
Justice Marie-Hélène Dubé graduated from the Université de Montréal and was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1991.
Justice Dubé began her career with the firm Goldwater, Dubé, where she gained a great deal of experience in family and civil litigation, including cases involving constitutional law, which led to frequent appearances before the Superior Court of Quebec and the Quebec Court of Appeal and, on two occasions, before the Supreme Court of Canada. She also practised as a mediator in family law matters. She has been actively involved with the Bar of Quebec, where she was part of a group of experts in family law, and in with the Bar of Montreal as a member of the committee on ethno-cultural diversity.
Justice Dubé’s commitment to the legal community has also been evident in her many efforts in mentoring and training young lawyers. In this capacity, she recently collaborated with the École du Barreau du Québec to develop training on the right to equality in legal practice, as well as with the Quebec section of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers. Justice Dubé has also presented at conferences and written various articles, notably as co-author of the section on the maintenance obligations of former spouses in the publication JurisClasseur – Personnes et Famille. In the course of her career, she has provided pro bono legal services to improve access to justice in the context of matters of public interest.
Justice Dubé is fluent in French, English, and Haitian Creole. She raised her three children in a Montreal neighbourhood known for its great social mix.
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) may be of a point-in-time nature, edited for clarity, style and length. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s).View in full here.