Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 27 Janvier 2022

 Readers help maternity hospital in Haiti reopen its doors with a new generator

MIAMI HERALD

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

Pregnant women and newborns in desperate need of neonatal care in Haiti’s southern region once again have a place to go for medical care. The Sainte Croix Hospital in Léogâne, which closed its doors last week after a violent gang hijacked its new $38,000 generator while it was being delivered, is accepting patients once more, thanks to the generosity of Miami Herald readers. “Tomorrow, bright and early, we will start receiving patients,” the Rev. Jn Michelin St. Louis, director of the hospital, said Thursday after inspecting the installation and function of a new 125-kilowatt generator that was delivered earlier in the day. “We were really sad about having to close the hospital. But thanks to the collaboration of a lot of people, we’ve been able to transform the sadness into joy.”

On Jan. 12, gangs from an hour east in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Martissant heisted the hospital’s delivery truck along with its two drivers and the new — and not yet paid for — generator, forcing the hospital leadership to close its doors. Nurses and doctors were forced to use the flashlights on their cellphones. The hospital can’t rely on the electrical grid because of Haiti’s continual blackouts. It was the latest crisis to hit the hospital, which over the past three years has been skating from one crisis to the next because of gangs that have cut off access to the capital.

The stolen generator meant the hospital had no electricity to run its equipment, and management on Jan. 13 stopped accepting new patients while discharging others. By Wednesday all of the beds were empty except for four in the neonatal ward. Too sick to go home, the babies were forced to remain after the hospital couldn’t find any other facility capable of taking them. Two small solar panels, not enough to power up the entire facility, kept the lights on in the room. After the Herald wrote about the latest tragedy to hit the 90-bed hospital, which receives patients from five regional departments in the country because of its specialized maternity and neonatal care, readers reached out to help. Some like Rachel Sawyer made a donation directly to the U.S.-based 501(c)(3) charity, Medical Benevolence Foundation, that supports the facility’s operations, while others contacted MBF directly. One donor, a husband and wife who wish to remain anonymous, reached out to the Port-au-Prince supplier through another Haiti charity and offered to pay off the stolen generator’s debt. “I gave birth to my son in 2020 and I was so incredibly grateful for the care I received. It really struck me that so many people don’t have access to quality healthcare, including even basic maternity care,” said Sawyer, 38, who lives in Chicago. “Every mom deserves that for her and her child.”

Canada contributes $50-million at start of regional summit to discuss Haiti’s future

Mike Blanchfield

Canada is committing an additional $50 million in humanitarian aid to help embattled, poverty-racked Haiti, International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan said Friday.

Sajjan announced the new funding at the start of an online meeting convened by Canada to help the Caribbean nation, which has been roiled by unrest since the summer, when President Jovenel Moise was killed in a shooting at his house that also injured his wife.

“In line with our feminist international assistance policy, it means focusing on the empowerment of Haitian women and girls,” Sajjan said in opening remarks of the online meeting where he was joined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly.

“These projects will support security, health, economic growth, and humanitarian assistance for the people of Haiti,” Sajjan added.

The new spending will include $12 million for humanitarian services and food security for people still feeling the effects of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last August, one month after the country was rocked by the assassination of its president.

Haiti’s National Police Academy will receive another $15 million to help “support for professional and inclusive policing,” said Sajjan.

“These projects aim to increase the participation of women in policing and increase integrity. Because we all know that when women are involved, it improves peace and security.”

In opening remarks, Trudeau spoke about the need to improve security in the Caribbean nation.

“In order to address Haiti’s humanitarian needs, we must also address the challenging security situation. The increase in violence is only worsening the already precarious humanitarian situation,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau and Joly stressed the importance of bolstering Haiti’s police in the face of rising violence and corruption.

“Clashes between armed gangs are making an already precarious humanitarian situation worse. They’re making the delivery of aid to the most vulnerable populations more difficult,” Joly said.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was also scheduled to speak at the virtual summit.

Joly is convening the online event while she is in the midst of a three-country European trip to talk with leaders there about the Russian military buildup on the Ukraine border.

The U.S. State Department said Thursday it was looking forward to a productive meeting with Central American leaders and Joly on the future of Haiti. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman represented the U.S. at the meeting.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said Los Angeles would play host this June to the Summit of the Americas, where leaders from across the two continents and the Caribbean gather every three years to talk about shared priorities.

The causes of – and potential solutions to – irregular migration will be a priority item on the agenda.

Migrants from Haiti and a number of Central American countries have been regularly moving northward, putting pressure on the southern border of the United States and creating widespread instability in the Western Hemisphere.

“Canada will host a ministerial meeting and we look forward to a strong commitment from countries, both within the Americas and around the world, in support of the Haitian people,” said Brian Nichols, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, on Thursday.

Nichols was briefing reporters on Biden’s priorities for the Summit of the Americas, which is taking place in the U.S. for the first time since the inaugural event in Miami in 1994.

“As we approach the summit, I expect that we will continue efforts among the nations of our hemisphere, as well as partners from around the world, to support those nations in the Americas that need more help, and Haiti’s obviously very much among them,” he said.

“I hope that the Haitian people will come together around a unified way forward that will put that nation back on the path to democracy and economic growth.”

Friday’s summit included representatives of the United Nations, the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, the International Organisation of la Francophonie and the Organization of American States for what Global Affairs Canada describes as an attempt to co-ordinate security efforts and foster political stability and sustainable development.

Joly also confirmed Thursday that her counterpart from France, Jean-Yves Le Drian, would be in attendance, and that the pair “agreed on the importance of international collaboration to address the challenges faced by Haiti and Haitians particularly with respect to security issues.”

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HAITIAN TIMES

Cherfilus-McCormick wins Florida seat, becomes second Haitian-American elected to Congress

BY ONZ CHÉRY JAN. 12, 2022

More by Onz Chéry

FORT LAUDERDALE — Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick became the second Haitian-American elected to the United States House of Representatives after defeating Jason Mariner in the special election for Florida 20th Congressional District. She won the race Tuesday in a much-expected landslide victory. 

"This is a huge moment — to be the only Haitian-American in Congress,” Cherfilus-McCormick said during an election watch party that drew about 50 people at Smitty's restaurant in Fort Lauderdale.

“Haiti, right now, we have to figure out how to stabilize,” Cherfilus-McCormick added. “So the first thing we need to do is a fact-finding mission and also include the Haitian diaspora."

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 5 Janvier 2022

 Miami Herald: Hostage release is proof the US cavalry is not coming to Haiti

(Miami Herald) Whether or not 12 captured North American missionaries escaped or were intentionally let go by their Haitian captors after a hefty ransom was allegedly paid is up for discussion days after their release.

But one thing appears to be clear: the cavalry, namely the U.S. government, did not rescue the American and Canadian missionaries kidnapped two months ago by a powerful Haitian gang. Hard to believe.

In fact, the abduction and now the return home of the hostages says plenty about U.S.-Haiti relations: There is a lack of respect brewing.

Here’s proof: the release of the missionaries seems to have surprised the FBI agents, who had been in Haiti since the abduction offering guidance to Haitian authorities as the gang negotiated with relatives of those held captives.

The missionaries were found wandering on a mountain with no obvious help from the outside.

More telling is the abduction of the American citizens in the group in the first place. American victims have always been off-limits to Haitian gangs, and it appears that is no longer the case.

The U.S. government is obviously losing its slim diplomatic hold on the troubled island. But does it care? Maybe not. Already influential gangs have steadily taken over new sections of the capital after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July. They appear to be becoming the de facto government, aggravating Haiti’s already acute economic crisis and giving more fuel to Haiti’s political crisis.

Haiti’s government has asked for U.S. military assistance or some time of U.S. or UN intervention. The request was rejected in Washington, which has since said its recruiting other countries like France, the United Kingdom and Canada to help.

Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere, recently implied to journalists that Haiti’s problems do not require outside intervention.

“I think there’s broad agreement that the security situation in Haiti is a policing challenge, and it’s not a military challenge,” Nichols told reporters.

Great. As we said, the cavalry is not coming to Haiti.

— Miami Herald

The American Occupation (1915-34)

(NYTimes, Dec. 19 - 2021) The politics of slavery and racial prejudice were key factors in early American hostility to Haiti. After the Haitian Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and many in Congress feared that the newly founded Black republic would spread slave revolts in the United States.

For decades, the United States refused to formally recognize Haiti’s independence from France, and at times tried to annex Haitian territory and conduct diplomacy through threats.

It was against this backdrop that Haiti became increasingly unstable. The country went through seven presidents between 1911 and 1915, all either assassinated or removed from power. Haiti was heavily in debt, and Citibank — then the National City Bank of New York — and other American banks confiscated much of Haiti’s gold reserve during that period with the help of U.S. Marines.

Roger L. Farnham, who managed National City Bank’s assets in Haiti, then lobbied President Woodrow Wilson for a military intervention to stabilize the country and force the Haitian government to pay its debts, convincing the president that France or Germany might invade if America did not.

The military occupation that followed remains one of the darkest chapters of American policy in the Caribbean. The United States installed a puppet regime that rewrote Haiti’s constitution and gave America control over the country’s finances. Forced labor was used for construction and other work to repay debts. Thousands were killed by U.S. Marines.

The occupation ended in 1934 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy. As the last Marines departed Haiti, riots broke out in Port-au-Prince, the capital. Bridges were destroyed, telephone lines were cut and the new president declared martial law and suspended the constitution. The United States did not completely relinquish control of Haiti’s finances until 1947.

US-Haiti and Favored Candidates

At crucial moments in Haiti’s democratic era, the United States has intervened to pick winners and losers — fearful of political instability and surges of Haitian migration.

After Mr. Aristide was ousted in 1991, the U.S. military reinstalled him. He resigned in disgrace less than a decade later, but only after American diplomats urged him to do so. According to reports from that time, the George W. Bush administration had undermined Mr. Aristide’s government in the years before his resignation

François Pierre-Louis is a political science professor at Queens College in New York who served in Mr. Aristide’s cabinet and advised former Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis. Haitians are often suspicious of American involvement in their affairs, he said, but still take signals from U.S. officials seriously because of the country’s long history of influence over Haitian politics.

For example, after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, American and other international diplomats pressured Haiti to hold elections that year despite the devastation. The vote was disastrously mismanaged, and international observers and many Haitians considered the results illegitimate.

Responding to the allegations of voter fraud, American diplomats insisted that one candidate in the second round of the presidential election be replaced with a candidate who received fewer votes — at one point threatening to halt aidover the dispute. Hillary Clinton, then the secretary of state, confronted then-President René Préval about putting Michel Martelly, America’s preferred candidate, on the ballot. Mr. Martelly won that election in a landslide.

A direct line of succession can be traced from that election to Haiti’s current crisis.

Mr. Martelly endorsed Jovenel Moïse as his successor. Mr. Moïse, who was elected in 2016, ruled by decree and turned to authoritarian tactics with the tacit approval of the Trump and Biden administrations.

Mr. Moïse appointed Ariel Henry as acting prime minister earlier this year. Then on July 7, Mr. Moïse was assassinated.

Mr. Henry has been accused of being linked to the assassination plot, and political infighting that had quieted after international diplomats endorsed his claim to power has reignited. Mr. Martelly, who had clashed with Mr. Moïse over business interests, is considering another run for the presidency.

Robert Maguire, a Haiti scholar and retired professor of international affairs at George Washington University, said the instinct in Washington to back members of Haiti’s political elite who appeared allied with U.S. interests was an old one, with a history of failure.

Another approach could have more success, according to Mr. Maguire and other scholars, Democratic lawmakers and a former U.S. envoy for Haiti policy. They say the United States should support a grass-roots commission of civic leaders, who are drafting plans for a new provisional government in Haiti.

That process, however, could take years.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 29 Décembre 2021

 Federal Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Racist and Abusive Treatment of Haitian Migrants in Del Rio, Texas

December 20, 2021

CONTACTS:

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Federal Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Racist and Abusive Treatment of Haitian Migrants in Del Rio, Texas Asylum Seekers and Haitian Bridge Alliance Seek Accountability from U.S. Government for Atrocious Civil Rights Abuses Against Black Asylum Seekers

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Alleging physical abuse, racial discrimination, denial of basic necessities and medical treatment, and a complete failure to process asylum claims, Haitian Bridge Alliance, 11 Haitian asylum seekers, Justice Action Center, and Innovation Law Lab brought suit against the Biden administration today. The federal class action lawsuit alleges the U.S. government violated Haitian asylum seekers’ statutory and constitutional rights when they were held in an encampment in Del Rio, Texas, in mid-September 2021.

Plaintiffs seek not only accountability for the government’s racist abuse in Del Rio, but also the return of the thousands of Haitians expelled by the Biden administration from the Del Rio encampment since September, so they may pursue their asylum claims in the United States. The lawsuit also underscores the unlawfulness of the Title 42 policy, invoked by the Trump administration and embraced by President Biden, which uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to close the border to asylum seekers.

“The stories I heard coming out of the Del Rio encampment will forever haunt me: mothers with newborns denied basic necessities such as shelter and medical care, children being fed nothing or only bread, and outright derision and discrimination from U.S. authorities,” said Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. “The world watched as Black asylum seekers were abused and dehumanized by men on horseback. As a Black Haitian-American woman descendant of enslaved people in the Americas, I can not disconnect this treatment of Black bodies in Del Rio from the historical treatment of Black bodies in the United States. Instead of providing asylum seekers and refugees the legal protection afforded under the law, the U.S. government treated them with contempt, anti-Black prejudice and summarily expelled them without any due process after they suffered and bore witness to CBP abuse in Del Rio. Immigration is a Black issue.”

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Mirard Joseph. Joseph had crossed the Rio Grande to deliver food to his family, who had not eaten in days. Joseph and his family had made the arduous journey to the United States from Chile to seek safety after fleeing the threat of violence in Haiti. He and multiple other plaintiffs recounted horrific treatment both in the encampments and in the centers in which they were detained before being expelled from the United States or returning to Mexico. “This was the most  painful and humiliating experience of my life,” he said.

“I’m struck that a country I believe could provide safety and protection for me  would absolutely humiliate me and others this way,” said plaintiff “Paul Doe”. “By deporting me and other asylum seekers, President Biden has condemned us to death.”

“The world was witness to the abusive treatment that our plaintiffs and others faced in Del Rio—to date, there has been no accountability,” said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center. “These asylum seekers fled extreme political instability, kidnappings, and more, all in the hopes of building a safe and stable future for themselves and their families. Instead, they were subjected to degradation, physical abuse, malnutrition, and a swift ejection from a nation that claims to welcome those in need. We’re proud to support Haitian Bridge Alliance and others to ensure that the government is held accountable for its heinous actions.”

Despite a much-overdue conversation about institutional racism in society at large, anti-Blackness and racism within the immigration system remain relatively underdiscussed. This is slowly changing: federal district courts have recently acknowledged the discriminatory intent behind some of the cornerstones of U.S. immigration law.

The United States’ own history with Haiti is similarly poorly understood. Anti-Haitian sentiment from the federal government was on display as recently as 1990, when the federal government recommended that Haitians be prohibited from donating blood. In 2018, then-president Donald Trump referred to Haiti and other countries as “sh*tholes.” Today, Black immigrants make up a disproportionate number of deportees.

“The US immigration system has punished Black migrants and the people of Haiti time and time again,” said Tess Hellgren, Deputy Legal Director of Innovation Law Lab. “With this lawsuit, we say no to white supremacy in the immigration system. We say no to the violence, the discrimination, the expulsion and the cruelty. We stand with Haitian Bridge Alliance and the Haitian people harmed by US immigration enforcement.

The complaint is available here. Attorneys on the case include: Nicole Phillips from Haitian Bridge Alliance, Jane Bentrott, Daniel Tully, Karen Tumlin, Esther Sung, and Lauren Wilfong from Justice Action Center; and Tess Hellgren and Stephen Manning from Innovation Law Lab.

UPDATE: Listen to the 12/21/21 press conference here, with speakers: Taisha Saintil, Guerline Jozef, and Nicole Phillips (Haitian Bridge Alliance), individual plaintiffs “Esther” and “Jacques”, Karen Tumlin (Justice Action Center), Tess Hellgren (Innovation Law Lab). Transcript is forthcoming.

Michelle Karshan

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More than 5,000 flights canceled on Christmas weekend

New York (CNN Business) — Airlines have canceled thousands of flights on Christmas weekend, including over a thousand US domestic flights, as staff and crew call out sick during the Omicron surge. 

Globally, airlines have canceled about 5,700 flights on Christmas Eve day, Christmas and the day after Christmas, according to FlightAware. That includes about 1,700 flights within, into or out of the United States.

Operational snags at airlines are coming as millions are still flying in spite of rising coronavirus cases. The TSA says it screened 2.19 million people at airports across the country on Thursday, the highest figure since the uptick in holiday travel started a week ago.

Over a thousand US flights canceled

On Thursday, United Airlines (UAL) said it had to "cancel some flights" because of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

"The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation," said a United memo obtained by CNN.

United canceled 201 flights on Friday, representing 10% of its total schedule, and 238 flights on Saturday, representing 12% of its schedule, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

United said it is "notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport," according to a company statement. "We're sorry for the disruption and are working hard to rebook as many people as possible and get them on their way for the holidays."

Later Thursday night, Delta Air Lines (DAL) also canceled flights. The airline canceled 173 Christmas Eve flights, according to FlightAware.

Delta said the cancellations are due to multiple issues including the Omicron variant.

"We apologize to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans," Delta said in a statement. "Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight."

Additionally, JetBlue (JBLU) canceled 80 flights, or about 7% of its overall schedule, on the day before Christmas.

Alaska Airlines said in a statement that it canceled 17 flights because of Omicron Thursday and more cancellations are possible on Christmas Eve. The airline canceled 11 flights Friday.

Thousands of international flights canceled

China Eastern has canceled 474 flights, or 22% of its operation, according to FlightAware. Similarly, Air China canceled about 190 flights, or 15% of its schedule.

Air India, Shenzhen Airlines, Lion Air and Wings Air all canceled dozens of flights as well. 

Andy Rose, Sharif Paget, Ramishah Maruf, Eric Levenson and Carma Hassan contributed to this report

Haiti receives J&J COVID-19 vaccine linked to blood clots

BY ONZ CHÉRY DEC. 20, 2021

The Haitian TimesJul. 06, 2021

The United States has donated 108,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Haiti via COVAX, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti announced Sunday, three days after U.S. public health experts recommended that people take other COVID-19 vaccines when possible.

It is unclear whether the J&J vaccine was already on its way to Haiti before a panel of experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said mRNA vaccines, like the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are preferred. The CDC recommendation also emphasizes the J&J vaccine is effective, with more benefits than risks, it usually takes weeks for such vaccine donations to be arranged.

However, scores of Haitians swiftly reacted to the U.S. Embassy announcement, taking to social media to condemn the move.

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Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 23 Décembre 2021

 American Missionaries Released

Ex-Hostages Doing Well, Have Left Haiti, Mission Agency Says

All the former hostages from a U_S_-based missionary group kidnapped in Haiti have been flown out of the country after a two-month ordeal and are “doing reasonably well.”.

By Associated Press

|

Dec. 17, 2021, at 7:16 p.m.

By PETER SMITH and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press

All the former hostages from a U.S.-based missionary group kidnapped in Haiti have been flown out of the country after a two-month ordeal, the leader of their Ohio-based missions organization said Friday, as he also extended an offer of forgiveness to their captors.

David Troyer, general director of Christian Aid Ministries, said in a video statement that a U.S.-flagged plane left the Caribbean nation Thursday afternoon carrying the last 12 kidnapped missionaries, hours after they were freed earlier in the day.

“Everyone including the 10-month-old baby, the 3-year-old boy and the 6-year-old boy seem to be doing reasonably well,” Troyer said.

The last releases came two months to the day after the group of 16 Americans and one Canadian — including five children — were kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang, which initially demanded millions of dollars in ransom. The other five had been freed earlier.

Troyer did not comment on the circumstances of the release, such as whether ransom was paid or a rescue effort was involved, but expressed thanks to “the U.S. government and all others who assisted in the safe return of our hostages.”

“Thank you for understanding our desire to pursue nonviolent approaches," he added, without elaboration.

Based in Berlin, Ohio, Christian Aid Ministries, or CAM, is supported and staffed by conservative Anabaptists, a range of Mennonite, Amish and related groups whose hallmarks include nonresistance to evil, plain dress and separation from mainstream society.

In keeping with Anabaptist teaching, which puts a premium on forgiveness, Troyer offered conciliatory words to the captors.

“A word to the kidnappers: We do not know all of the challenges you face. We do believe that violence and oppression of others can never be justified. You caused our hostages and their families a lot of suffering,” he said. “However, Jesus taught us by word and by his own example that the power of forgiving love is stronger than the hate of violent force. Therefore, we extend forgiveness to you.”

Troyer said the hostages had “prayed for their captors and told them about God’s love and their need to repent.”

The missionaries were abducted Oct. 16 shortly after visiting an orphanage in Ganthier, in the Croix-des-Bouquets area, where they verified it had received aid from CAM and played with the children, Troyer said.

“As they became aware of what was happening at the time of capture, the group began singing the chorus, ‘The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them,’” Troyer said, quoting from the biblical book of Psalms. “This song became a favorite of theirs, and they sang it many times throughout their days of captivity.”

The hostages remained together as a group throughout, he said, in prayer, in song and encouraging each other.

Troyer said CAM workers were aware of dangers in Haiti, where gang activity and kidnappings have been on the rise.

But the organization often works in such perilous places precisely because “that is usually where the biggest needs are,” he added.

CAM hopes to continue working in Haiti, Troyer said, while acknowledging that it will need to bolster security protocols and “better instruct our people about the dangers involved.”

Authorities have said 400 Mawozo was demanding $1 million per person in ransom, although it wasn’t clear if that included the children. The gang’s leader had threatened to kill the hostages unless his demands were met.

Also Friday, a meeting including representatives of 14 countries, various international organizations and Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry produced broad commitments to address security and the political and economic situation in the impoverished Caribbean nation, according to a top U.S. diplomat.

Brian A. Nichols, assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said on a conference call that the U.S. government plans to send experts to train the Haitian National Police SWAT team.

In another pledge, Japan promised $3 million in aid including for the construction of police housing and facilities.

Nichols said there was discussion of some nations potentially deploying police to Haiti for activities such as training or mentoring local officers, though that would require more discussion first. He said there was broad agreement that the security situation in the country is a policing challenge, not a military one.

Nichols did not provide details on how the hostages were freed, citing respect for their privacy. Asked about rumors that a ransom was paid, he declined to comment other than to say “the United States government does not pay ransom for hostages.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Haiti: NYT's history of US influence

From: Michael Tarr <Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.>
Date: Sun, Dec 19, 2021 at 10:09 AM
Subject: Haiti: NYT's history of US influence
To: 

The New York Times, December 19, 2021
A Bloody History Of U.S. Influence Hangs Over Haiti.
American policy decisions are vital to understanding Haiti’s political instability, and why it remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
By Chris CameronIn September 1994, the United States was on the verge of invading Haiti.Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country’s first democratically elected president, had been deposed in a military coup three years earlier. Haiti had descended into chaos. Gangs and paramilitaries terrorized the population — taking hostages, assassinating dissidents and burning crops. International embargoes had strangled the economy, and tens of thousands of people were trying to emigrate to America.But just days before the first U.S. troops would land in Haiti, Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a senator on the Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke against a military intervention. He argued that the United States had more pressing crises — including ethnic cleansing in Bosnia — and that Haiti was not especially important to American interests.“I think it’s probably not wise,” Mr. Biden said of the planned invasion in an interview with television host Charlie Rose.He added: “If Haiti — a God-awful thing to say — if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interest. ”Despite Mr. Biden’s apprehension, the invasion went forward and the Haitian military junta surrendered within hours. Mr. Aristide was soon restored to power, and the Clinton administration began deporting thousands of Haitians.Nearly a decade later, Haiti’s constitutional order would collapse again,
prompting another U.S. military intervention, more migrants and more deportations. As rebels threatened to invade the capital in 2004, Mr. Aristide resigned under pressure from U.S. officials. A provisional government was formed with American backing.The violence and unrest continued.That cycle of crisis and U.S. intervention in Haiti — punctuated by periods of relative calm but little improvement in the lives of most people — has persisted to this day. Since July, a presidential assassination, an earthquake and a tropical storm have deepened the turmoil.Mr. Biden, now president, is overseeing yet another intervention in Haiti’s political affairs, one that his critics say is following an old Washington playbook: backing Haitian leaders accused of authoritarian rule, either because they advance American interests or because U.S. officials fear the instability of a transition of power.Making sense of American policy in Haiti over the decades — driven at times by economic interests, Cold War strategy and migration concerns — is vital to understanding Haiti’s political instability, and why it remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, even after an infusion of more than $5 billion in U.S. aid in the last decade alone.A bloody history of American influence looms large, and a century of U.S. efforts to stabilize and develop the country have ultimately ended in failure.The American Occupation (1915-34)The politics of slavery and racial prejudice were key factors in early American hostility to Haiti. After the Haitian Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and many in Congress feared that the newly founded Black republic would spread slave revolts in the United States.For decades, the United States refused to formally recognize Haiti’s independence from France, and at times tried to annex Haitian territory and conduct diplomacy through threats.It was against this backdrop that Haiti became increasingly unstable. The country went through seven presidents between 1911 and 1915, all either assassinated or removed from power. Haiti was heavily in debt, and Citibank — then the National City Bank of New York — and other American banks confiscated much of Haiti’s gold reserves during that period with the help of U.S. Marines.Roger L. Farnham, who managed National City Bank’s assets in Haiti, then lobbied President Woodrow Wilson for a military intervention to stabilize the country and force the Haitian government to pay its debts, convincing the president that France or Germany might invade if America did not.The military occupation that followed remains one of the darkest chapters of American policy in the Caribbean. The United States installed a puppet regime that rewrote Haiti’s constitution and gave America control over the country’s finances. Forced labor was used for construction and other work to repay debts. Thousands were killed by U.S. Marines.The occupation ended in 1934 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy. As the last Marines departed Haiti, riots broke out in Port-au-Prince, the capital. Bridges were destroyed, telephone lines were cut and the new president declared martial law and suspended the constitution. The United States did not completely relinquish control of Haiti’s finances until 1947.The Duvalier DynastyThe ruthless dictator François Duvalier took power in 1957, as Fidel Castro led a revolution in Cuba and as U.S. interests in the region were becoming increasingly focused on limiting the influence of the Soviet Union.Duvalier, like many other dictators in the Caribbean and Latin America, recognized that he could secure American support if he presented his government as anti-communist. U.S. officials privately described Duvalier as “the worst dictator in the hemisphere,” while deeming him preferable to the perceived risk of a communist Haiti.When the United States suspended aid programs because of atrocities committed soon after Duvalier took office, the Haitian leader hired public relations firms, including one run by Roosevelt’s youngest son, to repair the relationship.Duvalier — and later his son Jean-Claude — ultimately enjoyed significant American support in the form of aid (much of it embezzled by the family), training for Haitian paramilitary forceswho would go on to commit atrocities and even a Marine deployment in 1959 despite the protests of American diplomats in Haiti.By 1961, the United States was sending Duvalier $13 million in aid a year — equivalent to half of Haiti’s national budget.Even after the United States had tired of Duvalier’s brutality and unstable leadership, President John F. Kennedy demurred on a plot to remove him and mandate free elections. When Duvalier died nearly a decade later, the United States supported the succession of his son. By 1986, the United States had spent an estimated $900 million supporting the Duvalier dynasty as Haiti plunged deeper into poverty and corruption.Favored CandidatesAt crucial moments in Haiti’s democratic era, the United States has intervened to pick winners and losers — fearful of political instability and surges of Haitian migration.After Mr. Aristide was ousted in 1991, the U.S. military reinstalled him. He resigned in disgrace less than a decade later, but only after American diplomats urged him to do so. According to reports from that time, the George W. Bush administration had undermined Mr. Aristide’s government in the years before his resignationFrançois Pierre-Louis is a political science professor at Queens College in New York who served in Mr. Aristide’s cabinet and advised former Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis. Haitians are often suspicious of American involvement in their affairs, he said, but still take signals from U.S. officials seriously because of the country’s long history of influence over Haitian politics.For example, after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, American and other international diplomats pressured Haiti to hold elections that year despite the devastation. The vote was disastrously mismanaged, and international observers and many Haitians considered the results illegitimate.Responding to the allegations of voter fraud, American diplomats insisted that one candidate in the second round of the presidential election be replaced with a candidate who received fewer votes — at one point threatening to halt aid over the dispute. Hillary Clinton, then the secretary of state, confronted then-President René Préval about putting Michel Martelly, America’s preferred candidate, on the ballot. Mr. Martelly won that election in a landslide.A direct line of succession can be traced from that election to Haiti’s current crisis.Mr. Martelly endorsed Jovenel Moïse as his successor. Mr. Moïse, who was elected in 2016, ruled by decree and turned to authoritarian tactics with the tacit approval of the Trump and Biden administrations.Mr. Moïse appointed Ariel Henry as acting prime minister earlier this year. Then on July 7, Mr. Moïse was assassinated.Mr. Henry has been accused of being linked to the assassination plot, and political infighting that had quieted after international diplomats endorsed his claim to power has reignited. Mr. Martelly, who had clashed with Mr. Moïse over business interests, is considering another run for the presidency.Robert Maguire, a Haiti scholar and retired professor of international affairs at George Washington University, said the instinct in Washington to back members of Haiti’s political elite who appeared allied with U.S. interests was an old one, with a history of failure.Another approach could have more success, according to Mr. Maguire and other scholars, Democratic lawmakers and a former U.S. envoy for Haiti policy. They say the United States should support a grass-roots commission of civic leaders, who are drafting plans for a new provisional government in Haiti.That process, however, could take years.Chris Cameron is based in the Washington bureau. @ChrisCameronNYT

Opinion: Drug trafficking and an assassination have deepened Haiti’s chaos

Editorial Board

Moïse was elevated from obscurity to the presidency mainly by his predecessor, former president Michel Martelly — himself suspected of close ties to some of Haiti’s biggest trafficking kingpins. According to the Times account, Moïse was compiling a dossier of traffickers’ names that he planned to share with the U.S. government. Among the most prominent names was Mr. Martelly’s brother-in-law, who retained enormous influence over Moïse’s government. Moïse was shot to death in his bedroom by a team of Colombian mercenaries who, according to the Times and its sources, were searching for that list of names.

Mr. Martelly, barred by Haiti’s constitution from seeking a third consecutive presidential term, is now living in Miami; he is widely regarded as planning another bid for the presidency. One question that arises from the Times report is how, given the allegations of corruption and trafficking ties against him, he retains a visa enabling him to live in the United States and, for that matter, why he has not been arrested.

Haiti is a long-standing narco-state whose police and government institutions have often been in cahoots with traffickers. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, it is a major trans-shipment point for cocaine, heroin and other contraband headed to the United States from South America.

It has been a focal point of intense efforts, and intense frustration, for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, whose investigative efforts have often been stymied by the top-to-bottom corruption in Haiti’s government and security apparatus. The DEA itself has come under suspicion that some of its personnel in Haiti might have been co-opted by traffickers.

Among the targets of past DEA investigations is Dimitri Hérard, who was detained in connection with Moïse’s murder. Mr. Hérard, formerly a key security official forMr. Martelly, was also a close associate of Mr. Martelly’s brother-in-law, Charles Saint-Rémy, widely suspected of being a trafficking kingpin. It was Mr. Hérard who was in charge of the presidential security detail that stood aside on the night of the assassination, allowing the hit men unfettered access to Moïse’s home.

Impunity is the rule in Haiti, not the exception; hardly anyone in the country has been convicted of trafficking offenses, and top officials, including the current justice minister, have been implicated in protecting traffickers from anti-corruption investigations.

Haiti is now in chaos, its government unelected, its streets controlled by criminal gangs and its economy in shambles. In other words, it is a paradise for drug traffickers. The Biden administration, by averting its gaze, enables the pandemonium that has enveloped the country. Americans might imagine that Haiti’s problems are not of their concern, but those troubles have a way of washing up on American shores, as refugees — and as contraband.

Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom.