Sophia Martelly in Texas
On Saturday, by invitation from the George W. Bush Institute, Haitian First Lady Sophia Martelly left the country and headed to Dallas, Texas to participate in the "Global Women Network/Women Initiative" summit which was scheduled to take place on September 22nd of this year.
This summit was created for first ladies and women leaders, and aimed at addressing women’s issues worldwide. It was also designed to promote the role of First Ladies as an answer to these problems in their respective countries.
During this occasion, Sophia Martelly was to meet with a panel of representatives of organizations who work to improve women’s lives in the areas of economics, education and health.
During her stay, Mrs. Martelly will also travel to the United Nations in New York, to participate in two high-level activities for the wives of the heads of state and government regarding education for sustainable development and women’s challenges.
The OAS wants to initiate negotiations between the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and the leaders of political parties demanding the departure of the CEP and the cancelation of the elections of August 9th
The Organization of American States (OAS) wants to take the initiative of starting negotiations between the electoral council as well as candidates and political parties from the opposition. An electoral crisis persists in Haiti since the publication of the preliminary results of the ballot of August 9th, 2015.
An envoy of the hemispherical organization was expected in Port au Prince recently. Gerardo de Lcaza, the Director of the Department for the Cooperation and the Electoral Observation, tried to bring closer the positions of the political actors and the electoral advisers regarding the pursuit of the electoral process. He had working sessions with the leaders of the political parties which are demanding the resignation of the president of the CEP, Pierre Louis Opont, and the cancellation of the first round of the general election.
The definitive results of the first round of the general election, which were disrupted by violence, have not been published more than a month after the elections.
Officially the General Secretary of the OAS, Luiz Almagro, supports having the first round of the presidential election on October 25th of this year.
On a different note, the OAS advised that the head of the Electoral Observation Mission, former Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorim, was scheduled to take a preliminary evaluation trip to Haiti on September 21. The OAS’s Observation Mission recently transmitted to Haiti the an electoral authorities recommendations regarding the progress of voting operations. These recommendations are to contribute to the strengthening of the electoral machine before holding the first round of the presidential election.
Haiti Border Crisis Grows as Dominican Republic Expels 'Migrants'
New York Times, ANSE-à-PITRE, Haiti — Every morning, Gustavo Adolfo wakes up in a migrant shelter in Haiti, treks across a field of burnt brush where men make charcoal, and crosses a river into the Dominican Republic, a country he left in fear three months ago.
With a machete strapped to his waist, Adolfo is joined by others each day in a desperate effort to make a living. They cross the border into the wealthier Dominican Republic under constant threat of arrest or expulsion.
"I can make 200 pesos ($4.50) a day working in the fields there," said the middle-aged Haitian as he swatted away a swarm of mosquitoes.
Dominican officials last month began implementing a controversial immigration program targeting Haitian migrants and Dominican-born people of Haitian descent.
The program centers on round-ups and deportations that have triggered concerns about a slow-growing border migration crisis in the poorest country in the Americas.
So far about 1,500 people have been deported at a pace of 50 to 100 per day, according to relief officials with access to records supplied by the Dominican government. The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the number of deportees.
Thousands more have fled the Dominican Republic out of fear of arrest or harassment, scared by neighbors, bosses, coworkers and police or immigration officials.
More than 27 percent of those crossing into Haiti say they were born in the Dominican Republic, according to Amnesty International. But they lack documents to prove residency or citizenship, and many are undocumented immigrants who say they have lived most of their lives on the Dominican side of the border.
The Dominican Republic, which has a population of about 10 million, has long complained of illegal migration of Haitians, even as it benefits from a steady source of cheap labor for construction, agriculture and domestic work.
The Dominican government declined repeated requests for comment on its immigration crackdown. But the issue touches a centuries-old xenophobic nerve in the country, stemming from its occupation by Haiti in the early 19th century.
Four informal settlements have sprung up in southern Haiti for people affected by the deportations. They now house between 2,500 and 3,000 people, according to the Jesuit Refugee Service.
The Haitian government began a relocation program at one settlement camp, Tête à l’Eau, last month. But the program, including $30 in assistance for deportees, was suspended due to a lack of funds, according to Frantz Pierre-Louis, a top regional Haitian government representative.
A United Nations human rights official in Haiti, Gustavo Gallón, this week urged the government to establish health facilities and deliver drinking water to the camps.
"The conditions are horrible there, I don't know how people are living," he said.
The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti is seeking $6.9 million in emergency assistance for the country but it is unclear how much of it would be used to improve conditions in the migrant camps.
Camp residents complain they lack basic essentials and receive little or no help from the Haitian government.
"People come all the time and take our information but they never give us anything! We need food," yelled Manuel Amadice, a rail-thin man in his 50s wearing worn flip-flops.
Amadice left Haiti as a child but said he lacked the required documents to apply for residency in his adopted homeland.
The migrant crisis stems from a 2013 constitutional change that stripped citizenship away from the Dominican-born children of foreign parents - mostly of Haitian origin. The ruling was applied retroactively to 1929, sparking an international outcry that it would leave thousands stateless.
Under a separate law all "migrants" were required to apply for temporary residency by deadline of June 17, or face deportation.
Dominican officials have said 78,000 out of 289,000 applicants for residency were denied. It remains unclear how many of those may face expulsion.
"I was born in the Dominican Republic and my mom died when I was 7. I never had a birth certificate," said Pablito Felix Ramirez, a resident of one settlement camp called Parc Cadeau.
Ramirez, 24, who fixes motorcycles at his cardboard and stick shack, said he is legally Dominican, but the Dominican government sees him as Haitian.
He has no family in Haiti and added that he had been unable to get a Haitian identity card or birth certificate, making him a man without a country.
"Wherever I can make 50 pesos ($1), I'm happy," Ramirez said.
(Editing by David Adams and Tom Brown)
Cuban and American doctors lavish care at a hospital of Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince, September 16th, 2015 - (AHP) - Such a collaboration has not taken place since decades.
American doctors who were in Haiti within the framework of the humanitarian mission of the hospital ship USNS Comfort, worked last Thursday with Cuban doctors to supply care to Haitian patients at a private hospital in the capital, said the spokesman of the American embassy, Karl Adam.
This historic initiative which occurred in Haiti, is part of the framework of the warming of relations between both countries, after they were broken in 1961.
Last Thursday the Ambassador of Cuba, Ricardo Garcia Napoles and a group of Cuban doctors joined officials from the American embassy in Tabarre to the Saint Luc Hospital, which will benefit from this collaboration.
The Cuban and American doctors got together then started to look after the sick.
The latter received general, pediatric care, dental, ophthalmological and orthopedic treatment.
Two days earlier, American doctors from the Comfort had visited The Renaissance Clinic, where Cuban doctors work in the district of the Belle Air.
Earlier, Ambassador Napoles and a group of Cuban doctors participated in the ceremony marking the arrival of the USNS Comfort at the Admiral Killick Naval Base in Bizoton, said the spokesman of the U. S. Embassy.
The initiative between the Americans and Cuban doctors marks a new stage in the resumption of the relations between both countries, introduced on December 17th by the American president, Barack Obama, and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro.
President Obama maintains Haiti on Black List
Obama maintains Haiti on his "black list" of drug trafficking for 2016
In a memorandum signed by U. S. President Barack Obama, for the Secretary of State, regarding the presidential determination on the major transit of drugs or the main producing countries of illicit drugs for the 2016 fiscal year, it states, "… I undersigned to identify the following countries as countries that are major transit countries for drugs and/or main producing countries of illicit drugs: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.
The presence of a country on the list is not a reflection of its government’s efforts to fight drugs or its level of cooperation with the United States.
Seven nations in Central America and four of the Caribbean are included in the determination
