Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 10 juillet 2019

 Death of historian Michel Hector

Haitian historian Michel Hector, who was also a university professor, died on the evening of Friday, July 5 in his private residence in Nérettes (Petion-Ville). Hector was recently in Cuba for medical treatment. He was 86 years-old.

In a note, the Ministry of Culture says to be "saddened" by the death of the historian Michel Hector.

"[...] He was a generous and rigorous researcher and university professor, extremely loved by his students. A simple man, of a rare humility, sometimes profound but always accessible [...]."

Also reacting on the news of his death, Gary Bodeau, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies said "A Mapou fell! Teacher Michel Hector left a huge void in the intellectual landscape, an inestimable loss for the university community. His contribution to the knowledge of popular movements is immeasurable. That his soul rests in peace!"

Michel Hector, was a historian and professor at the State University of Haiti. He served as Director of the Center for Sociological and Historical Research, President of the Haitian Society of History and Geography and of the Committee of the Bicentenary of the Independence of Haiti (in 2009).

Michel Hector, wrote several socio-historical works in collaboration with the sociologist, Laennec Hurbon. He is also the author of several books including, "Genesis of the Haitian State" (1804-1859) published by Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris, 2009). In 2016, he received the "Jean Price-Mars Medal" for his various works in the field of research in human and social sciences.

Credit: HaitiLibre

The Haitian passport increasingly limited in the world!

In the latest “Henley Passport Index 2019” report released on July 2, 2019, which ranked 106 countries globally based on the freedom of movement of their citizens, Japanese and Singapore passports occupy the top 2 places allowing their citizens to travel to 189 visa-free destinations around the world.

The Haitian passport occupies 95th place out of 106 countries, a decrease of 6 places compared to 2018 (89th) and 10 places compared to 2017 (85th). The Haitian passport allows travel in 2019 to 49 destinations but only in 3 countries without a visa. In the Caribbean: Barbados and Dominica and in South America: Bolivia. The Haitian passport is the most limited in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The French Embassy is recommending caution to French citizens living in Haiti

As a result of a planned two days of anti-government protests scheduled for Saturday July 6 and Sunday July 7 2019, the Embassy of France in Haiti urged French nationals living in the country to exercise caution. The French diplomatic representation in Haiti advises its citizens to avoid traveling during these two days and to build up water and food reserves.

Truthout, June 29, 2019
Washington Meddling in Haiti Neglected by US Press
By Jane Regan, FAIR

Tens of thousands marching in the streets nationwide to denounce government corruption, reports of police and gang violence and murder and a downwardly spiraling economy. Calls for the government to step down.

If this were Venezuela, as recent FAIR analyses pointed out, elite media journalists and commentators would be all over the story. After all, they’ve been endorsing Washington’s blatant and repeated imperialist designs and interventions in that country for over a decade.

But this is not Venezuela. It’s Haiti.

Not that Washington has always opposed regime change in the world’s first black republic. A decade ago, presidents Bush père et fils approved and backed coup d’états twice, in 1991 and 2004, against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a left-wing populist chosen in the country’s first free elections. As with Iran and Venezuela, those were what The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill (2/20/19) called “Regime Change We Can Believe In.”

But unlike Aristide, and unlike Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, President Jovenel Moïse is Washington’s “man in Port-au-Prince.” He was hand-picked by Michael “Sweet Mickey” Martelly, the previous Washington-approved president, and had pledged to follow his “Haiti Is Open for Business” neoliberal policies.

Is that why corporate media are not calling for the replacement of the Haitian government? In any case, they’re doing very little to inform US audiences of the increasingly dire crisis in that country, caused in no small part by the two Aristide-overthrows and a series of harmful US-imposed “free trade” policies starting back in the 1980s.

No matter that tens of thousands are in the streets. Moïse stays.

Even though the 2016 Haitian elections were largely discredited, and only 21 percent of the population even bothered to vote—“the lowest participation rate for a national election in the Western Hemisphere since 1945,” according to a report from the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti—the US government has consistently backed Moïse.

Even though the US State Department warns travelers of “crime, civil unrest and kidnapping”; even though Moïse has been accused by his own government auditors of benefiting from an “embezzlement scheme” in connection with the Venezuelan Petrocaribe program, which financed billions of dollars worth of post-earthquake projects; even though the economy continues to deteriorate, with many public institutions closed for over a week and state employees going unpaid for over a month; even though the UN says the country is experiencing a “humanitarian crisis”; even though violence and lawlessness are on the rise (a recent UN report implies police were present at the “La Saline massacre,” which involved the murder and dismemberment of at least 26 people and two gang rapes in one of the capital’s poor neighborhoods), and even though the massive protests against the Petrocaribe corruption scandal are more than mere demonstrations—they are an “uprising.”

To give them credit, a few corporate media outlets—like the Miami Herald (6/4/19) and NPR (6/11/19)—have done some good stories on the protests and the scandal, as well as on the La Saline massacre.

But most news outlets don’t even run AP stories, and aside from some opinion pieces, reporting has not dug too deep.

Worse, the Miami Herald’s June 19 story on a “fact-finding” delegation from the Organization of American States (OAS) did far more damage than just sticking to the shallows. Reporter Jacqueline Charles acted as an information conveyor belt for empire when she cited an unnamed OAS “official” who was doing more than “find facts.”

The article—headlined “OAS Tells Haiti Opposition to Back Off”—quoted the anonymous official seven times, giving the opposition and protest movement its marching orders. “If you don’t like Moïse, the solution is to beat him at the ballot box,” Charles quoted the official. “We are not going to ask him to resign.”

That’s funny; not long ago, the OAS did ask a president to resign.

On January 19, the body voted to “not recognize” Maduro as president of Venezuela, saying that his election had been faulty, and that it was concerned

about the worsening political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela resulting from the breakdown of democratic order and serious human rights violations.

That laundry list could if anything be applied more easily to Haiti. But the message the OAS sent to Haiti through the Miami Herald was the opposite.

But was that really a message from the OAS? Or was it from the hemisphere’s hegemon?

At least one of the organization’s ambassadors, Sir Ronald Sanders of Antigua, penned a statement over the weekend to denounce the delegation, saying it was not official and lacked a formal mandate from the body. He noted that it represented an increasing “pattern of ignoring established procedures and authority.”

Unsurprisingly, the visitors—who met with the president behind closed doors, and then left without giving any official statement—were led by US Ambassador Carlos Trujillo. Score one for empire?

By the time the letter from the Antiguan ambassador hit a few Haitian media outlets, the Miami Herald’s “scoop”—or more accurately water-carrying—had been translated and circulated throughout the country.

Haitian and foreign readers and viewers would be so much better served if corporate media could follow the advice of its own codes of ethics, like the one from the Society for Professional Journalists which says, “seek the truth and report it,” “do no harm”—and “consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity.”

Jane Regan is a multimedia journalist and scholar who has worked in and on Haiti for almost three decades. She is currently working with a multimedia, multi-language ‘reconstruction watch’ partnership in Haiti called Ayiti Kale Je-Haiti Grassroots Watch-Haiti Veedor. The partners are AlterPresse, Sosyete Animasyon Kominikasyon Sosyal-SAKS, Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominoté Ayisyen-REFRAKA, the network of women community radio journalists, and a group of community radio stations.

Haitian Football Federation President Yves Jean-Bart: “We have shown that we can compete with the best in the area”

Haitian Times - Haitian Football Federation President Yves Jean-Bart spoke Wednesday on the overall performance of The Grenadiers following Tuesday’s 1-0 loss in extra time to Mexico in the Gold Cup semifinal. 

“it is not surprising to see Haiti grow in football in the region,” he states, adding later that they have been progressing since 2013 through playing great matches against Spain and Italy and putting on good performances in the 2015 Gold Cup and qualifying for the 2016 Copa America tournament.

President attends the 40th Regular Meeting of Caricom 

Haitian Times - President Jovenel Moïse attended the 40th Ordinary Meeting of the Caricom Conference of Heads of State and Government in Saint Lucia Wednesday to discuss preparations for the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting. 

Moïse was accompanied by Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond and met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. 

Joao Gilberto, the father of the Brazilian bossa nova, died

Brazilian singer Joao Gilberto the last survivor of the fathers of the bossa nova, a syncopated rhythm of Brazilian music died in in his home Rio de Janeiro. He was 88 years-old.

With Joao Gilberto, the pianist-composer Tom Jobim and the poet-diplomat Vinicius de Moraes, the nova bossa song “Chega de Saudade” burst onto the airwaves in the summer of 1958. It became an international hit and launched the bossa nova movement.

Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music, which was developed and popularized in the 1950s and 1960s and is today one of the best-known Brazilian music styles abroad. The phrase bossa nova means literally "new trend" or "new wave".

Gilberto was a giant of bossa nova, and is often credited with helping develop the sound of the genre that brought Brazilian music to the world.

The musician's famous collaboration with the American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz, "Getz/Gilberto," won album of the year at the Grammy Awards in 1965. It's still only one of a few jazz albums to do so, according to Columbia University's Department of Music, which awarded Gilberto an honorary doctorate of music in May 2017.

In the mid-1960s, less than a decade after the movement started, the music was pretty much silenced by a military dictatorship that clamped down an all outside political and cultural influences. Gilberto, who had moved to the United States after recording Getz/Gilberto, remained until 1980. Upon his return to Brazil he was heralded for his contributions and recorded with many of the younger musicians who had been part of the Tropicalia movement that incorporated rock and psychedelia into the subversive music aimed at the dictatorship.

Gilberto continued to perform well into the 21st century and has been recognized by every generation since his debut as a Brazilian musical pioneer.

Credit: Agence France-Presse, CNN and NPR

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 16 juillet 2019

 With Miami expecting deportations, some tips on your rights if ICE knocks on the door

Miami is facing mass deportations as early as this Sunday, sources told the Miami Herald.

The deportation efforts, originally planned for late June, were delayed after media reports revealed the plans for mass deportations in major cities, including Miami.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement effort will focus on people “who have been issued final deportation orders by federal judges yet remain at large in the country,” a Trump administration official confirmed. Agents will also ask household members for their immigration documents when making arrests.

Here are some frequently asked questions about ICE detainment:

WHAT HAPPENS IF IMMIGRATION KNOCKS ON YOUR DOOR

The Florida Immigrant Coalition released the following recommendations if an immigration agent knocks on your door.

▪ Don’t open the door.

▪ Ask to see the judicial warrant, which can be slid under your door. It must have your correct name and address and be signed by a judge. If the document does not have that information, say that you do not authorize their entrance and that you will call your attorney.

▪ Remain silent until you speak with your attorney.

▪ DO NOT provide any information on your background, place of birth or when/how you came to the United States.

▪ DO NOT sign any document that you don’t understand.

Experts recommend you do not lie about your place of birth, how you got into the country or about whether or not you’re a U.S. citizen.

WHAT IF I’M A NATURALIZED IMMIGRANT? A PERMANENT RESIDENT?

Naturalized immigrants or permanent residents can tell ICE their citizenship status, but if they cannot immediately provide documents to prove it, they may be detained. Experts recommend they keep relevant documents with them, such as a permanent residence card or green card. If you don’t have them, stay calm and silent.

HOW TO FIND SOMEONE DETAINED BY ICE

Immigrants held in an ICE detention facility may be located using the agency’s Online Detainee Locator System. Friends, relatives and attorneys can also telephone any Enforcement and Removal Operations field office.

The online searches can be done by A-number, the nine-digit number starting with the letter A assigned to each foreigner during any immigration procedure, or by biographical information, which requires the name and surname of the immigrant detained as well as the detainee’s country and date of birth.

From Little Havana to Little Haiti, migrants' fear of Trump's raids is felt in Miami

Hundreds protest in Homestead, advocates work to keep migrants informed

By Christian De La Rosa - Reporter, Glenna Milberg - Reporter, Andrea Torres - Digital Reporter/Producer

"Right now there would be more than 20 people waiting here, but it's empty because everybody is scared," Ortega said. "Nobody wants to go out."

President Donald Trump's warning that a nationwide immigration enforcement operation is set to begin on Sunday has sparked fear in areas of Miami-Dade County, targeting thousands of migrants with final deportation orders.

"They are going to take people out and they are going to bring them back to their countries or they are going to take criminals out and put them in prisons," Trump told reporters on Friday.

The order will also apply to migrant families whose cases were fast-tracked by judges and Venezuelans who have found refuge in South Florida. In an attempt to protect asylum seekers, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday.

Immigration advocates are working to raise awareness about immigrants' rights and organized protests Friday. Hundreds of protesters met outside of a detention center in Miami-Dade County's city of Homestead.

Jorge Marrero said he just wants the nightmare to end. He owns a nail salon in Little Havana and his business is suffering.

"Some of my clients don't want to go out and about," Marrero said in Spanish.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez wants residents to remember that Miami Police Department officers will not be getting involved in the federal operation.

"We don't get involved in immigration enforcement," Suarez said.

Advocates are asking migrants to find out if they have an order of removal by calling an automated information line at 1-800-898-7180. If the case isn't in that database, they are directing migrants to immigration attorneys.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition is offering migrants help and guidance at 1-888-600-5762. They are advising migrants to avoid opening their doors to immigration agents and to keep and memorize an immigration attorney's phone number.

For more information from advocates, text the word "protection" to 313131.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 24 juillet 2019

‘I am alarmed,’ U.N. Secretary General says about 2018 Haiti massacre

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

The secretary general of the United Nations said Wednesday he is “alarmed” by the findings of his human-rights investigators on a 2018 massacre in a Haiti slum, as well as the lack of any judicial action against the accused, including two former Haiti National Police officers and a current government official.

“The allegations of complicity by at least two police officers and a representative of the State call for authorities to act swiftly to bring to justice those who are responsible for the crimes,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in his first public comments about a U.N.-issued report on the November 2018 massacre in Port-au-Prince’s La Saline neighborhood.

Haiti-based human rights organizations have put the death toll in La Saline as high as 71. U.N. investigators , who acknowledged that their probe was not exhaustive, say at least 26 people, including a 10-month-old and 72-year-old, were killed. The killings took place over two days and were “a well-planned operation” carried out by five different gangs, the U.N. said. 

Witnesses reported that a Haitian government official, the appointed delegate for the West region, was seen in the company of police officers and gang members during the attack. One of those police officers had previously been implicated in another massacre in the Grande Ravine slum of Port-au-Prince a year earlier. As in La Saline, no legal proceedings have been initiated to date in relation to the Grande Ravine killings.

‘If Haiti gives me a government, we can work together toward a better future’ | Opinion

BY JOVENEL MOISE

JULY 12, 2019 08:11 PM, UPDATED JULY 12, 2019 08:11 PM

The past few weeks have been some of the most difficult of my presidency. Haitians are no strangers to political instability. Politics is etched into daily life in Haiti — debated in the street and daubed on walls across the country. Political differences are healthy and inherently Haitian. But the current instability comes with a cost we cannot afford to pay.

It has plunged Haiti into a state of gridlock. With a minority in Parliament refusing to vote on the appointment of a government, last year’s budget sat gathering dust, and no easy solution is in sight. So many people require urgent attention: According to the National Council for Food Security, there are approximately 7 million living in poverty, 3 million of whom live in extreme poverty; 350,000 Haitian children do not attend school; and 100,000 children under 5 are malnourished. Haitians have understandably taken to the street demanding answers to pressing questions — and demanding action.

It’s right for the public to hold me, as president, accountable for this country’s governance. I hold myself accountable as well. I was elected by the people with a mandate to improve Haitians’ lives. Each day that our politicians spend fighting among themselves at the expense of the issues that matter to the people — opportunity, safety, rule of law and good governance — is one day too many. I accept my responsibility for that. It is time others do, too.

I am working day and night to fix the current crisis. That has meant trying everything possible to bring together groups for dialogue to find a path forward, no matter how acrimonious the disagreements. It has also meant answering questions that the Haitian people have for me.

The PetroCaribe corruption crisis has plagued our country. Anger is palpable and entirely understandable. For my part, I took to the airwaves to directly answer allegations made against me in a report about PetroCaribe funds. Before running for office, I was a banana farmer and then a successful agricultural entrepreneur in northern Haiti. In 2014, my company was contracted to renovate a road that had fallen into disrepair. The report incorrectly alleges that the work was not done, and that the funds were therefore stolen. That is patently untrue — Agritrans renovated three kilometres of unmetalled road, 85 percent of the total, despite being paid just 35 percent of the total due, or 15 million gourdes. I invite any interested observers to travel to the road and drive along it today.

I have addressed this subject directly and on several occasions. I hope Haitians will see the accusations for what they are: a tool to further the cynical political and financial interests of a small group of people who have been abusing weaknesses in our system for a long time. The PetroCaribe wrongdoing is a decade-old problem, and genuine justice is long overdue. In this hyper-partisan, fractious environment, honesty and justice are distant goals. That is why I am working with the Organization of American States to assemble a team of independent international financial experts for a commission that will work around our broken politics to deliver a fair, credible, objective audit so that Haitian judges can pursue accountability for anyone found to have committed crimes and stolen from the Haitian people.

Appointing this commission is the only way for Haiti’s political system to return to the business of governing. And our first order of business must be to appoint a new government. I have certainly done my part, making compromises in the formation of my own cabinet. Numerous members of the opposition will receive cabinet posts under my proposals. I am ready to go, we need to get moving. There are no excuses left.

The appointment of a government will unlock billions of dollars in development funding that currently sits waiting for our empty parliament to act, earmarked for our electrical grid, agricultural projects and the health and education of the Haitian people. These monies form part of a Citizen’s Development Plan secured from our allies in the United States, Taiwan, Europe, and international financial institutions — it must not be sacrificed on the altar of politics. This is the cost of political gridlock.

While this development plan is crucial and stands to affect Haitians across the country, gaining access to those funds is not the end of the road. We need to think farther ahead. We need to break the cycle of political chaos, thinking past the upcoming parliamentary elections in October and past the end of my administration.

This will be a primary goal of the government I form. I will serve until the end of my term in 2022, then leave office. But without serious, sober reform and commitment to changing who we are truly working for and how we are working for it, the next president — and the president thereafter — will be condemned to face the same challenges that I and those who preceded me have faced. And the people and our country will wind up with nothing.

Working closely with international partners, we will need to design and legislate effective reforms for transparency that have real teeth and give Haitians a sense of accountability and trust in elected officials. We will need to de-politicize and strengthen our electoral commission — to inspire genuine confidence ahead of October’s parliamentary elections. To pass these and other measures, we will need to work together across party lines. Nothing meaningful can be done alone, and I pledge to work with all sectors and parties in Haiti.

We all must be willing. This is difficult and important work that needs to begin immediately. Our country and our people deserve to have hope. They deserve a democratic system that works and a government that gets things done.

The people are waiting.

Jovenel Moise is the president of Haiti.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article232622617.html#storylink=cpy

Few Signs of Immigration Raids Outside of New York City | Newsmax.com 

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said efforts to deport families with orders to leave the country will continue after an upcoming national sweep that President Donald Trump said would start Sunday.

But just after noon on Sunday, there were few reports or signs that the raids were being conducted.

Immigration attorneys and advocates around the country said they had not heard any reports of ICE activity.

"We've not heard anything," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on MSNBC on Sunday morning.

Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, would not confirm that the raids had even started.

"I can't speak to operational specifics and won't," he said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was getting reports that a nationwide crackdown on immigrants facing deportation is already underway in his city.

The sweeps were expected to start Sunday, but de Blasio tweeted on Saturday that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had already taken action in New York.

The mayor said ICE agents did not succeed in rounding up any residents of Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood and Harlem.

Immigrants who've been given orders to leave the country are government targets in at least 10 cities.

Advocates are coaching them on their rights, including instructions not to respond if agents knock on the door unless shown a warrant signed by a judge.

De Blasio has said his city would not cooperate with ICE.

A group of Chicago aldermen and activists were patrolling the city on bike to look for immigration authorities detaining people as part of broader federal immigration sweeps.

Roughly 65 people were  taking part in Sunday's bike patrol, which is focusing on the immigrant-heavy neighborhood of Albany Park on the city's northwest side.

Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez said the idea is to keep people informed. She said bikers would ride in shifts, possibly for several days.

She said an attorney is also available to help people who do get detained.

The Wall Street Journal reported that ICE agents went to residences in the Harlem section of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. The agents were rejected by people at the residences because they didn’t have warrants, but plan to return to Sunset Park tomorrow, the Journal reported.

Elsewhere, however, immigration experts said they were seeing few if any signs of a massive dragnet.

The Miami Herald reported that South Florida advocacy groups redirected their efforts from helping detainees to spreading information and awareness of immigrant rights.

"At the ICE central processing facility in Miramar, all was quiet. No agents were seen entering or leaving the building before sunrise, and only a single RV was stationed inside the fenced-in center," the Herald reported.

"Also quiet were hot lines set up by attorneys and others who had been anticipating the removal of thousands of immigrants with deportation orders. They had not received any calls from immigrants or their families seeking help Sunday morning."

Immigration sources told the Herald that it’s possible that ICE agents had not acquired the warrants necessary to carry out the removals.

Matthew Albence, the agency's acting director, said targets were on an "accelerated docket" of immigration court cases for predominantly Central Americans who recently arrived at the U.S. border in unprecedented numbers. Similar operations occurred in 2016 under President Barack Obama and in 2017 under Trump.

"This family operation is nothing new," Albence told The Associated Press. "It's part of our day-to-day operations. We're trying to surge some additional resources to deal with this glut of cases that came out of the accelerated docket, but after this operation is over, these cases are still going to be viable cases that we'll be out there investigating and pursuing."

The operation will target people with final deportation orders on 10 major court dockets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami. Albence said that doesn't mean arrests will be limited to certain areas. Authorities will go where their investigations lead, even if it's five states away from where the case is filed.

Trump said authorities were "focused on criminals as much as we can before we do anything else."

"It starts on Sunday and they're going to take people out and they're going to bring them back to their countries or they're going to take criminals out, put them in prison, or put them in prison in the countries they came from."

The operation further inflamed the political debate over immigration as Trump appeals to his base with a pledge to crack down on migrants and Democrats cast the president and his administration as inhumane for going after families.

The Obama-era family operation in 2016 resulted in about 10% of those targeted being arrested, and the 2017 effort had a lower arrest rate, Albence said. Other operations that have targeted people with criminal arrest records have yielded arrests rates of about 30%, aided by access to law enforcement databases.

"If you have an individual that's been arrested for a criminal violation, you're going to have much more of an investigative footprint," Albence said.

Administration officials have said they are targeting about 2,000 people, which would yield about 200 arrests based on previous crackdowns. Trump has said on Twitter that his agents plan to arrest millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

It is highly unusual to announce an enforcement sting before it begins. The president postponed the effort once before after a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but immigration officials said it was also due in part to law enforcement concerns over officer safety because details had leaked.

But they're pressing ahead with this one, even though the president and other administration officials have discussed the long-planned family operation for months.

"Nothing to be secret about," Trump said. "If the word gets out, it gets out because hundreds of people know about it."

The operation will target entire families that have been ordered removed, but some family may be separated if some members are in the country legally. Albence gave a hypothetical example of a father and child in the U.S. illegally but a mother who isn't

"If the mother wants to return voluntarily on her own with the family, she'll have an opportunity to do so," he said.

Families may be temporarily housed in hotels until they can be transferred to a detention center or deported. Marriott said it would not allow ICE to use its hotels for holding immigrants.

If ICE runs out of space, it may be forced to separate some family members, Albence said. The government has limited space in its family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania.

"If hotels or other places do not want to allow us to utilize that, it's almost forcing us into a situation where we're going to have to take one of the parents and put them in custody and separate them from the rest of their families," he said.

Meanwhile, activists ramped up efforts to prepare by circulating information about hotlines and planning public demonstrations. Vigils outside of detention centers and hundreds of other locations nationwide were set for Friday evening, to be followed by protests Saturday.

Haiti’s government is hurting for cash. It just hired yet another lobbyist in D.C.

“Haiti should be focused on domestic problems to provide medicines to hospitals, potable water to its population and education to its youth,” said Gary Bodeau, the president of the Lower Chamber of Deputies. “That amount of money could be used in a more efficient way, not to satisfy lobbyists to promote a political agenda.”

The country’s designated prime minister still can’t get confirmed. Civil servants and diplomats in its foreign embassies aren’t getting paid. And hospital staffs are dealing with rolling blackouts and a dire shortage of blood .

Despite the ongoing turmoil, however, Haitian officials appear to once again be more concerned about their image in Washington.

According to forms filed with the U.S. Justice Department, the international law firm Dentons US LLP is now working for Haiti, the third lobbying shop on the cash-strapped government’s payroll. The global public relations firm Mercury, hired back in February 2018 to soften Haiti’s image after President Donald Trump reportedly derided the country as a “shithole” during a White House meeting, remains active. So does Johanna LeBlanc, a consultant hired by the country’s Washington embassy in March.

Mercury, which has helped Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and other government ministers land opinion pieces in major U.S. dailies including the Miami Herald, said it was to be paid $4,690 a month in a 2018 filing until December, and then continue on a month-to-month basis thereafter. 

In her March 2019 filing, LeBlanc said she was being paid $5,000 a month until September to interact with “U.S. government officials and public entities in order to promote the interests of the State of Haiti and its citizens in the United States.”

Dentons, meanwhile, is charging a flat rate of $25,000 per month for 12 months, for what it describes as legal advice on various matters and lobbying. The firm’s principal contact, David Tafuri, did not respond to a Miami Herald inquiry about the scope of its work on behalf of the Haitian government.

Haiti Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond, who is listed as Dentons’ contact in the June 28 filing, would not provide specifics on what the international firm will be tasked with, and why the country needs a third firm to lobby for its interests. (A fourth firm is also registered, but it has been contracted by the Association of Haiti Industries to set up meetings for government ministers in order to push for extension of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act.) 

“A state has the right to contract the service of a firm at the same time identifying the kind of service it is seeking,” said Edmond, referring to the ongoing contract with Mercury, which he said the government is currently “reconsidering.”

“We are not dissatisfied [with] Mercury. I must admit they have been very helpful. But we wanted to assess Dentons’ work. We just contracted them so we are on [a] trial period,” added the minister, who in a June letter to Haiti’s diplomatic missions abroad acknowledged that the country was having financial difficulties and “it has been some time since you have received your pay.”

While it is not unusual for countries to hire lobbyists, the latest decision raises questions about Haiti’s priorities at a time when hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid are stalled because there is no functioning government to vote on a budget, and the Parliament has refused to even vote on an accord to receive a $150 million low-interest loan from the Republic of Taiwan to revamp the capital’s electrical grid. 

Recently, the finance minister announced that tax revenues had fallen by more than 35 percent due to the ongoing protests and instability, and the World Bank predicted a 0.4 percent annual growth rate for Haiti — far less than the 2.8 percent forecast.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 31 juillet 2019

 Skepticism geared toward new government

Sociopolitical sectors are expressing skepticism at the formation of new Prime Minister Fritz William Michel’s cabinet. The majority of the people making up the cabinet are of unknown personalities according to senator Pierre François Sildor who asks to wait to see which direction Michel’s general policy statement will go at the time of voting. 

“What means will the new government use to solve the big challenges of the hour: the expensive life, the insecurity, the environment, the return to school and the socio-economic situation,” Sildor said.

“Haiti en Folie” festival takes over Montreal

Thousands of festival-goers attended Montréal’s Place des Festivals on Monday to attend the opening show of the Festival en Folie organized as part of Juste pour Rire, which runs through July 28. Musicians Emeline Michel and James Germain kicked off the festivities that commemorate the 215 years of Haitian independence and the 60 years of presence of Haitians in Quebec. Also involved the festival includes DJ’s Rock Steady, Buzz and Sweet Larock and on Friday, a tribute will be paid to the singer Cornelia “Ti Corn” Schutt, born in Haiti to German parents and raised in Cap-Haitien.

Artists struggle to save Haiti museum after 2010 earthquake

DÁnica Coto | APJuly 19

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Franck Louissaint sighed and frowned as he stepped onto his patio and flung aside shower curtains protecting a painting by a former voodoo priest who became a renowned Haitian artist.

The painting from the 1960s once depicted a seemingly joyous voodoo spirit known as a loa, but it warped into something that looked like a three-dimensional satellite image of mountains after it was damaged by rubble and waterlogged when a 2010 earthquake hit the museum where it was displayed.

“It’s like the skin of a crocodile!” exclaimed Louissaint, an artist who expects seven more months of work to fully restore the painting by Robert Saint-Brice.

It is one of dozens of well-known paintings that artists are still trying to rescue nearly a decade after the magnitude 7.0 quake killed an estimated 300,000 people or more and struck countless buildings, including the Museum of Haitian Art of St. Pierre College — one of the country’s top institutions. More than 600 other watercolors and paintings by prominent artists are still in storage and in danger of decaying as a small group of artists struggles to restore the damaged works.

While life has begun anew for much of Haiti since the quake, the museum has been shuttered for nine years and only recently opened a tiny room to display a small quantity of art.

On a recent day, 91-year-old museum president Louis Du Bois walked briskly through the building, pointing out the damaged roof and walls as he occasionally put on his glasses to inspect certain paintings.

“We have to reopen to the public,” he said. “All the great artists are here.”

The quake also devastated other public spaces dedicated to art across Haiti, with $30 million in losses reported at the Museum d’Art Nader, which had one of the world’s most extensive collections of Haitian art.

But the Museum of Haitian Art is one of the few worldwide to host Haitian paintings from the 20th century. The museum, which previously drew 9,000 visitors a year, was established in the 1970s by art lovers to commemorate U.S. painter DeWitt Peters and is tucked into the southeast corner of Port-au-Prince’s historic area. It features mostly donated artwork.

Fewer than a dozen paintings are currently on display, including one titled “Marriage of Interest” by Rigaud Benoit, who is considered a master of Haitian painting, and “Tower of Babel” by Préfète Duffaut, whose work was collected by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Both men also painted murals inside a cathedral in Port-au-Prince that was flattened by the earthquake.

The museum’s oldest painting dates to 1945 and is by seminal Haitian artist Hector Hyppolite.

The Smithsonian Institution has helped the museum restore some paintings, as has the Louvre, which also donated 1,000 copies of a catalog illustrating all of Hyppolite’s paintings so local officials could sell them to help generate money.

But the museum still has blank, white walls, with hundreds of works stacked in a narrow storage area exposed to heat, humidity and other dangers. They are taken out only for the occasional cleaning while the more than 30 earthquake-damaged works are being restored.

Among those needing attention is a 1960s lush jungle scene by Jean-Claude Toussaint, which is nearly ripped in half and also slashed diagonally. The painting remains rolled up with yellowed masking tape that has lost its stickiness.

Du Bois estimates that the museum needs $50,000 to reopen, noting the roof must be fixed and the electricity repaired before additional paintings can be displayed.

For now, he and others are relying solely on the restoration efforts of artists such as Erntz Jeudy of nearby Quisqueya University.

Jeudy recently sat in front of a 71-by-79-inch (180-by-200-centimeter) painting by Miami-based artist Edouard Duval Carrié titled “The Republican Army of Santo Domingo,” which was stripped down to blank canvas in certain areas.

“This means a lot to me because it’s the restoration of a very rich heritage,” he said. “It’s great to be able to work and transmit this to future generations.”

It’s a feeling familiar for Louissaint, who works up to 10 hours at a time to restore Brice’s painting. He said it makes him proud to have permission to touch such artwork.

“It’s the story of the old Haiti,” he said. “It starts to live again.”

Soles With Soul: Donna Karan and Kenneth Cole Are Collaborating With Artisans in Haiti on Summer Sandals

Donna Karan and Kenneth Cole: two iconic names in the New York fashion industry; a combined 70 years of experience between them; never collaborated! Until today, that is. (Let’s chalk it up to collaborations being a 2010s thing.)

Like most great ideas, this one started with a personal story: Three years ago, Karan purchased a pair of leather sandals with a plush rubber sole from Cole’s Gentle Souls line (which fuses performance technology with natural materials), and they instantly became her summer signature. “Everyone was constantly asking where I got my sandals,” she says. “They are seriously the most comfortable shoes in the entire world—they are beyond comfortable. I can’t even explain it!” That got her thinking about the leather sandals she was producing in Haiti through her label, Urban Zen, which sparked another thought: What if she could get these crazy-comfy, foamy soles into the hands of the artisans and create something totally new and modern?

She called up Cole, who has also been working in Haiti for nearly a decade, to discuss a potential partnership. (Another point of similarity between the two designers: Both immediately went to Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake and have aided health care, education, and cultural preservation initiatives ever since.) Cole and his team had been working with a group of artisans making shoes out of local materials, “but they were a little stiff and uncomfortable,” he admits. So Karan connected his team with Pascale Théard, a longtime Urban Zen partner and highly skilled local workshop owner. In January, Cole and Karan flew down to her shop in Port-au-Prince and finalized 10 designs, all of which merge Cole’s comfy soles with traditional Haitian leather-working.

The finished products are equal parts Cole and Karan: gladiator sandals with cushioned soles, fringed and embroidered leather uppers, and braided straps that wrap around the ankle. “You know when you try on a shoe and go, Oh, my gosh! It’s that kind of feeling when you put these on,” Karan says. “I always say, if you can’t sleep in it and go out in it, I don’t want it. [I want] things that go from day to night, with an artisanal hand, with a story, with a meaning, with a soul. I always say it’s never about me—it’s about we and who we work with.”

Following a low-key launch party in the Hamptons over the weekend, the shoes are arriving in Cole’s store on the Bowery, at Urban Zen in Sag Harbor and New York City’s West Village, and on both designers’ websites today, with prices starting at $325. “Hopefully it becomes an ongoing sustainable business,” Cole says. “If nothing else, it shines a light on a culture that deserves to be celebrated. We’re making these in very limited quantities to start. We want them to be a vehicle for telling the story of this community.”

Haiti's Notorious Gang Leader Arnel Joseph Arrested

WASHINGTON/PORT-AU-PRINCE - A wounded Arnel Joseph was lying on a stretcher, ready to be wheeled into an operating room at the Bonne Fin hospital of Les Cayes, a Caribbean seaport located in Haiti's southern region, when members of a special unit of the National Police Force's (PNH) swooped in to arrest him.

"We've captured Arnel!" the officers shouted angrily, then they fired their weapons into the air, in a video seen by VOA Creole.

The alleged gang leader, considered to be one of the country's most dangerous and wanted fugitives, was awaiting surgery on his wounded leg, when he was found and captured, according to National Police Chief Michel Ange Gedeon. The leg was wounded during a fire fight with rival gang leader Ti Sourit, Arnel told reporters as they snapped photos and recorded video of him after his arrest.

Police Chief Gédeon tweeted the news to a stunned nation. 

"The gang leader Arnel Joseph (who) the national police force spent months trying to locate has been apprehended Monday at the Hopital Bonne Fin (Cayes). Thank you to our police officers and to the people of Haiti."

The police had been tracking him for months and suspected he was hiding out in the lush seaside of Artibonite in the agricultural region of the country.

Gedeon said the arrest "had been an obsession for the 15,000 police officers of the institution," during an interview with radio station Magik9 Tuesday morning.

In 2018, PNH had offered a $27,000 reward (2 million gourdes) for any information leading to Arnel's arrest.

Post arrest photos go viral 

Photos of the tall, thin young man in his 20s, lying naked on a dirt surface as people shouted questions at him quickly went viral on Haitian social media Monday night. In one photo obtained by VOA Creole, the tan Timberland-style boot of a police officer wearing camouflage pants can be seen pressing down on his chest. Arnel looks up in bewilderment.

The image sparked questions about whether human rights activists and MINUJUSTH, The United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti would investigate the circumstances of Arnel's arrest and his treatment by police afterward.  The special unit had decided to move in on Arnel before the surgical procedure, rather than waiting until after it was over to swoop in.  

MINUJUSTH's stated mission is "strengthening Haiti's rule of law institutions, developing the Haitian National Police, and promoting and protecting human rights."  

Who is Arnel Joseph?

The 20-something Arnel had been arrested and sentenced to six years in jail  in 2011 for the murder of several policemen. He was released in May of 2017.   Haiti's penal code is based on the French judicial system. It is unclear how his sentence was determined. 

Arnel is accused of terrorizing residents of the Village de Dieu slum of the capital, and more recently of robbing trucks loaded with merchandise, raping, kidnapping and attacking motorists on National Highway #1, which links the capital and cities to the north.

In a conversation with journalists posted on YouTube, he said he considers himself to be a "representative" of the Village de Dieu slum of the capital, Port-au-Prince. "Our revolution is the Haitian people's revolution," he said.

Links to lawmakers

In April, the discovery of of 24 mobile calls between Arnel and Senator Garcia Delva roiled the nation.  Senator Delva, who represents the Artibonite agricultural department of the country where the alleged gang leader had been hiding out, denied any wrongdoing.

"I only have one position on this," he told reporters. "If the commission finds that I, in my conversations with Arnel, ever agreed to associate myself with his (illegal) activities then I agree and accept to pay the consequences. For once, this country needs justice."

When journalists pressed him about why he was in contact with the gang leader in the first place, Delva responded that he "talks to everyone."

"Everyone knows my number, I've never changed it - so everyone calls me - anyone can call me. Anyway, I don't think I'm the only one who converses with him," Delva said.   The senator refused to divulge what they discussed and alleged that prominent Haitian businessman and opposition leader Reginald Boulos recognizes Arnel as a community leader. He said Boulos confirmed that in a conversation with a local radio station.

How the phone calls were tracked remains unclear.

Senator Senatus told reporters the commission (Senate Commission for Justice, Security and Defense) had received information that led to them asking the National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL) to provide information about the calls made to and from Senator Delva's phone.  But Jean David Rodney, the institution's executive director, denied ever receiving such a request in an interview with Haiti Libre newspaper. He said CONATEL has "no direct relationship with the Senate."

Former Senate leader Youri Latortue, who also represents the Artibonite region in the Senate, echoed his colleague Delva's claims about other prominent politicians being linked to the gang leader.

"I think there are a lot of other names on the list of connections to Arnel," Latortue told VOA Creole. "For example there's Vladimir Jean-Louis "Ti Vlad" who does security work for (former president Michel) Martelly - he's on the list too. We have to investigate the links between what they said exists (between) - the president and the thugs - because some people say it was the president who brought Arnel to Port au Prince.

Those allegations remain unsubstantiated.

Conditions to turn himself in to law enforcement

Prior to his arrest on Monday, Arnel expressed a willingness to turn himself in if the government met certain conditions. 

His conditions were: finishing potable water projects, building roads, boosting agriculture and providing electricity to the population.

What's next?

Arnel's capture put an end to years of living on the lam, but the police investigation into his criminal activities continues, according to Carl-Henry Boucher, the administrative director of the national police force.

On social media, reaction to the arrest was mixed.

"Good Job" @michaljoseph9341 commented on VOA Creole's Instagram page.

User @albandywedson questioned why the police waited until he sought treatment to arrest him.

And @benaldo_paul was skeptical of justice really being served, commenting "jomo (President Jovenel Moise) and the honorable garcia delva will have him released."