- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
HAITIANS IN AFRICA
The Failure of Categories: Haitians in the United Nations Organization in the Congo, 1960 – 1964
Article in Journal of Haitian Studies · August 2014 DOI: 10.1353/jhs.2014.0001
Regine Jackson
Agnes Scott College
The United Nations and its specialized agencies began recruitment efforts to replace European administrators of African bureaucracies as early as 1958. After the Democratic Republic of Congo achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960, the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld launched the most extensive and prominent among these efforts: the United Nations Organization in the Congo or ONUC (Organisation des National Unies au Congo).4 For four years, the Civilian Operations Program recruited
French-speaking professionals and technicians from all over the world to help establish the country’s infrastructure and to supplement the small Congolese leadership class. Hundreds of Haitians—teachers, professors, engineers, and doctors—went to Africa as part of the ONUC program. By 1962, Haitian émigrés constituted the second largest contingent of UN staff experts working in the Congo.5 Maurice Dartigue was Chief of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Africa Division. Dr. Athemas Bellerive directed the World Health Organization (WHO) medical team that included several Haitian doctors (see Figure 1). And in 1963, ONUC’s military force was commanded by Max H. Dorsinville.6
A relatively large number of Haitians participated in the UN programs in Benin and Cameroon, as well as in the Congo. Some Haitians spent career lifetimes with their families there. Yet what is known about the experiences of the estimated 7,500 Haitians in African countries amounts to undocumented fragments that have accumulated over time and are repeated in literature and various commentaries.
The historiography of post–World War II pan-Africanism focuses primarily on Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa as sites of resistance and black internationalist activism. As Martin and West note, referring to Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic and The Practice of Diaspora by Brent Hayes Edwards, “That literature, even in its more recent diasporic and Black Atlantic variations, displays a consistent Afro-Saxon bias.”7 When Haiti is mentioned at all, it is frozen in time in 1804; in popular and scholarly perception, Haiti’s impact on the world is effectively limited to the Haitian Revolution. The connections between Haiti and Africa—and the relationships between Haitian and African peoples—are imagined as largely symbolic, with no attention to the ways Haitian émigrés took tangible, self-determined action on behalf of African sovereignty.8
Equally troubling, Africa only enters the scholarship on Haitian migration in the work of epidemiologists. Here, the “Haitian hypothesis” proliferates, alleging that Haitian people brought AIDS to the United States in the 1970s after returning from Africa.9 The overall effect of these accounts is that Africa is written out of the Haitian diaspora and vice versa. More familiar narratives of migration to North America, Western Europe, and the nearby Caribbean dominate the scholarship, which naturalizes certain sites as destinations for Haitian migrants and for transnational political activity.10
The gaps in the historical record suggest a muting, if not complete erasure, of accounts that do not fit within the dominant discursive framework. The growing body of scholarship on the postcolonial period demonstrates that questions about the future of Africa animated blacks in the diaspora, who exhibited their support for the cause of African independence and development in a variety of ways. However, Haiti emerges as the “exceptional” case, somehow outside other transnational pan-Africanist movements, and Haitian migrants are locked within the mythic tropes of exile and refugee. In the current scholarly context, the idea that Haitians exercised some agency in their migration to Africa is unimaginable.
Based on a case study of Haitians in the ONUC, I propose that new interpretive frames are needed to see migration to postcolonial Africa as part of a long tradition of Haitian internationalism. As categories of analysis, “exile” and “brain drain” neglect important dimensions of migrant subjectivities. Even the term “expatriate” is baggage-laden, connoting not only whiteness but also lavish lifestyles, hedonistic pleasures, and social irresponsibility.11 I examine what is remembered about these Haitian émigrés: the common stories that circulate in the various commentaries and available accounts of the events surrounding their migration. My analysis is informed as much by what has been preserved in the archives and our collective memories as by what is missing. I make two interrelated observations: 1) the idea that Haitians saw postcolonial Africa as a space of possibility is notably absent in both official histories and personal accounts; and 2) certain interpretations of Haitian migration to the Congo seem to challenge the very logic of powerful discursive frames. I argue that this “failure of categories”—a phrase borrowed from Michel- Rolph Trouillot’s now-classic text Silencing the Past—narrows our ability to imagine how Haitians contributed to the project of mid-twentieth-century black internationalism as well as our modes of theorizing the Haitian diaspora.12 What is perhaps most significant about the story of Haitians in the ONUC, however, is how it impacts the production of Haitian history.
The research presented here is part of an ongoing collaborative study.13 In what follows, I juxtapose official historical accounts of the “Congo experiment” with autobiographical memories, oral histories, and written testimonials from Haitian nationals who lived in the Congo for at least one year during the 1960s. The sample is made up of men who were recruited to participate in the ONUC as well as their wives and adult children, born and/or raised in the Congo; the latter are especially privileged here. In the larger project, interviews with Haitian émigrés of the period who did not participate in the program and instead migrated to the United
The Failure of Categories: Haitians in the United Nations Organization in the Congo 37 States, or with those who stayed in Haiti, provide much-needed context for understanding local perceptions of the ONUC.
The principal archival sources I consulted are housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The Papers of Maurice Dartigue, former Haitian Minister of Education, Agriculture, and Labor, were a primary focus. Dartigue went into exile in the United States after the overthrow of President Élie Lescot in 1946.14 He settled the same year in New York and began a career at the United Nations as a senior specialist in education in the Trusteeship department. He joined UNESCO in 1956, supervised the Major Latin American Project (LAMP), and was appointed Chief of UNESCO’s Africa Division in 1962. Dartigue worked with UNESCO to hire hundreds of Haitians to serve as professional and technical experts in newly independent African nations such as Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria. He also directed several educational and teacher-training programs in Africa until his retirement in 1971.
The Dartigue Papers attest to his important role as an advocate for Haitian migrants. They include correspondence with Haitians seeking employment opportunities outside of Haiti, as well as exchanges with Haitian presidents Paul Magloire and François Duvalier about the recruitment of Haitian professionals for projects in Africa. UN staff lists and various memoranda between Dartigue and the UN office in Paris also show him recommending Haitian nationals for posts in the Congo.15
In addition, I have conducted preliminary examinations of the records in the Council on African Affairs Collection. These include photocopies of several publications—such as the Council’s newsletter “Spotlight on Africa”—and the Printed Matter Series (1931–71) of the Ralph Bunche Papers, relating to Bunche’s career at the United Nations. Finally, the Association of Former World Health Organization Staff (AFSM) helped me to track Haitian doctors and their families who had been in the Congo in the 1960s. Archived copies of the AFSM’s quarterly newsletter, which provides news, information, and other features with the aim of promoting contacts among WHO retired staff, were a valuable resource as well. The association also collects the memoirs written by member authors in order to share valuable information about events and activities in the history of global health. Additional archival materials held in the private homes of key informants (Raoul Peck, John Dartigue, Raymond Dusseck, and others) helped fill gaps in textual, photographic, and other types of records.
Although this project aims primarily to address silences in the historical record, I am also interested in tracking the consumption of the categories used to construct individual and collective memories of Haitians in the
38 Regine O. Jackson
Congo. My concern is not only with the categories themselves, but also with the ways they structure (that is, how they both enable and disable) conceptual and empirical work.
Biden has deported nearly as many Haitians in his first year as the last three presidents – combined
February 18, 2022
Biden has expelled nearly as many Haitians in 12 months (20,200+) as were deported during the previous 20 years (21,900) under three different presidents. Indeed, Biden’s administration has likely expelled far more: In addition to these official removal numbers, another estimated 8,000 Haitians were expelled back into Mexico in September of 2021, voluntarily according to DHS Secretary Mayorkas, but in circumstances that make that characterization suspect.
The numbers
Through the end of January 2022, the Biden administration expelled 19,189 Haitians via flights to Port au Prince and Cap Haitian according to the International Organization on Migration. There have been an additional ten flights from February 1st to February 18th – bringing the estimated total number of people expelled to 20,200 and growing. For regular reporting on flights, see Witness at the Border.
Another 8,000 Haitians “volunteered” to return back to Mexico in September of 2021 according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, speaking during a press conference about the situation in the Del Rio sector. The degree to which people voluntarily went back into Mexico must be weighed against what they were facing – certain detention and deportation to Haiti. In addition, the entire fiasco that occurred at the Del Rio crossing was an abomination of human rights violations. There has been an internal DHS investigation into Border Patrol attacks on Haitian migrants and a lawsuitbrought by the Haitian Bridge Alliance and other organizations concerning the overall poor treatment of Haitians by US immigration authorities in Del Rio.
The Trump administration expelled 6,150 Haitians. Just over 2,800 of those removals occurred early in 2017, following the Obama administration’s decision to expand deportations to Haiti in October of 2016. Indeed, of the 5,567 Haitians expelled in FY 2017, 2,737 were expelled by the Obama administration between October 2016 to January 2017. Most of the rest expelled that year occurred in February to April, and more accurately reflect an Obama policy. Trump announced his intention to suspend Temporary Protected Status for Haiti in late 2017 – but that suspension was tied up in courts throughout his presidency.
The Obama administration expelled 6,670 Haitians over an 8 year period. As noted above 40% of those removals occurred in the first 4 months of FY 2017. Temporary Protected Status was re-designated for Haiti by the Obama administration in 2011 – a year after the massive earthquake that wrecked Port au Prince in January of 2010. Despite TPS being in place and the country in shambles, deportations continued for new arrivals and so called “criminal deportees” who did not qualify for TPS. The deportations were condemned by the United Nations and others. A detailed report on these removals was published in 2015 jointly by the law clinics at the Universities of Miami and Chicago.
In 2016 the massive increase in deportations was the result of an increase in arrivals of Haitians near San Diego, and was intended then (as today) as a deterrent. The Haitians arriving in San Diego were mostly leaving Brazil where many had relocated after the 2010 earthquake. From 2010 to 2015 Brazil admitted tens of thousands of Haitians in a drive for workers to help prepare for the Olympics and World Cup. Starting in 2015, Brazil fell into a recession, and the situation for Haitians deteriorated quickly. Many tried to come to the United States in 2015 and 2016. They were mostly blocked at the border, as the Obama administration instituted its “metering” system, which forced Haitians to wait in Mexico for their number to be called. Some are still waiting.
The Bush administration deported 9,100 Haitians – during a time that included an increase in removals following the 9/11/2001 attacks and an increase in border militarization more generally. The Bush years also covered the 2004 coup d’etat in Haiti, following which the US Coast Guard interdicted and returned hundreds of Haitians caught at sea – though nothing like the number that had been interdicted in the 1990s. Those numbers are not included here or in any other year, as the people interdicted in this manner rarely make it to the United States.
Take Action to Stop Removals:
We need to tell Biden to halt the expulsion of Haitians. At least 85% of these expulsions have taken place using Title 42 policies – a faux public health order issued under the Trump Administration permitting the Department of Homeland Security to expel people without any possibility of asylum screening. So, not only has Biden removed far more Haitians, but he has shut many out of the possibility to apply for asylum in the process and at a time of great distress in Haiti.
This week members of the House and Senate called on the administration to halt the removals, writing:
Haiti is in the midst of a deteriorating political, climate, and economic crisis. In fact, Haitians now face the compounding challenge of increasing food insecurity, malnutrition, waterborne disease epidemics, and high vulnerability to natural hazards, all of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. … Haiti simply cannot safely accept the repatriation of its nationals, which is why we are so deeply concerned with the large-scale removals and expulsions of individuals back to Haiti. To that end, we are concerned that the Administration’s use of the Title 42 authority is depriving legitimate asylum seekers the opportunity to pursue their claims, contrary to our obligations under international and domestic law.
See who signed the letter – and thank your Representative and/or Senator if they did!
We need to keep up the pressure: the message is halt all removals to Haiti given the current humanitarian crisis, and end Title 42 expulsion for everyone!
Send a message to Congress asking them to speak out against this policy by clicking here.
Sources:
- Removals under the Biden administration, from International Organization on Migration.
- October 2020 to January 2021, the end of FY 2020 and start of Biden’s term, is estimated based flight reports, The Biden administration has not yet issued the ICE Annual Report for FY 2021.
- FY 2020 ICE Annual Report
- Fiscal years 2003-2019 Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
- FY 2001 to FY 2002: Immigration and Naturalization Services statistics accessed at Year Book of Immigration Statistics 2002
ICE removals
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Former Haiti senator had his U.S. visa canceled. Here is why | Miami Herald 1/28/22, 10:03 AM
An ex-Haiti senator had his U.S. visa
canceled while transiting through
Miami. Here is why
By Antonio Maria Delgado and January 28, 2022 9:37 AM
Former Haitian senator and presumed current presidential candidate Jean- Charles Moïse prides himself on being an opposition leader and leftist ideologue, one who has no problem flaunting his relationships with some of Latin America’s most controversial leaders in the face of the United States.
Now his questionable contacts may have cost him his U.S. visa.
Multiple sources have cited a visit with the reputed head of a Venezuelan drug cartel, and others as the basis for a decision by U.S. authorities Monday to revoke the firebrand Haitian politician’s U.S. visa and ban him from the United States for five years.
Moïse, who did not respond to several phone calls and requests from the Miami Herald for comment, confirmed the sanctions during several press conferences this week as he accused the United States of attacking his dignity and dared authorities to come clean about what led to the harsh decision.
Although he shares the same last name as assassinated Haitian President Jovanel Moïse, it remains a bit of a mystery whether the two are related.
The saga of Jean-Charles Moïse, who is more popularly known as Moïse Jean-Charles, began Monday when he arrived in Miami with members of a Haitian delegation that had accompanied him over the weekend to Nigeria.
As they were transiting through Miami International Airport, the ex-lawmaker was approached by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and taken into what he described as a frigidly cold room for questioning. There, he was interrogated about the visit to Nigeria, and about a visit with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, he said.
Sources familiar with the incident told the Herald that while he was being detained Moïse’s smart phone was checked by agents after he attempted to keep it from them. During the check, they found “questionable contacts” and photos of him with key members of the Venezuelan regime.
Other sources familiar with Moïse’s visits to Venezuela said during at least one of those trips, he met with the regime’s No. 2 man, Diosdado Cabello, the reputed head of a Venezuelan drug cartel. Cabello and Maduro both face drug trafficking charges in the United States, and have bounties on their heads of $10 million and $15 million, respectively.
Moïse, 54, was returned to Haiti Tuesday morning on an American Airlines flight. A photo of him boarding the flight, wearing a mask a gray suit and red shirt and looking visibly shaken, went viral almost immediately. A CPB officer is in the background of the image.
Upon arriving at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Moïse told waiting reporters that he had been detained by U.S immigration agents and had his mouth swabbed for DNA before being deported from the United States and having his U.S. visa canceled along with the issuance of a five- year ban. He received the sanctions, he said, because he had refused to discuss the Nigeria visit and a November 2021 visit with Maduro.
Speaking about the matter further at a Wednesday press conference, he accused U.S. immigration agents of violating his human rights, humiliating him and threatening him with prison because of his refusal to cooperate during the eight hours and 15 minutes he was detained inside a freezing room.
A presumed presidential candidate in Haiti’s yet-to-be-scheduled general elections, he is now using his treatment to rally support and win favor among anti-American elements in Haiti.
“Why is it that other leaders have spoken to Maduro and they have never approached them demanding to know what they discussed?” Moïse said.
A CBP spokesperson, citing privacy rules, declined to tell the Herald why the Haitian politician was deported and provided a list of more than 60 reasons on why someone holding a U.S. visa may be denied entry into the U.S.
Any traveling visitor, U.S. citizen or permanent resident can be subjected to a secondary inspection upon entering the United States. It can be random or the result of prior information by CBP agents.
In the case of Moïse, he was flagged. Asked for his telephone, he initially presented a non-smart, analog phone. Agents later tracked down his traveling companions and retrieved his smart phone. As they went through it, his photos and contacts did not help his cause.
Among them was a photo with Carolys Helena Pérez González, a former Venezuelan minister for Women and Gender Equality in Maduro’s government who often functions as a troubleshooter and link between the Venezuelan regime and its contacts in Haiti. According to a source, Pérez arranged a June meeting in Caracas between Moïse and Cabello.
Moïse, who often promotes his trips on social media, had not publicly disclosed the meeting but a photo shared with the Herald shows the two men smiling and grabbing each others firsts. Another photo shows the two men with Pérez standing in front of a Venezuelan flag.
According to his Twitter timeline, Jean-Charles Moïse was in Venezuela the week of June 21, about two weeks before the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, whom he publicly regarded as a political nemesis, to attend a
celebration of “200 Years of the Carabobo Battle,” which sealed Venezuela’s independence.
The United States believes that both Cabello and Maduro run the so-called Suns Cartel, an organization that involves high-ranking regime officials and that controls drug trafficking in Venezuela. In March of 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Maduro, Cabello and 13 other government officials of drug trafficking and placed large bounties on their heads.
Venezuela, long a diplomatic foe of the United States, has increasingly become seen as a pit stop for U.S.-bound drug shipments coming out of Colombia, oftentimes winding their way through Haiti or the Dominican Republic.
“Appearing in a photo with Diosdado Cabello is the Venezuelan equivalent of being photographed with “El Chapo” Guzmán,” said a U.S. intelligence source monitoring activities in Venezuela, referencing the violent Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán now serving life in a U.S. federal prison.
In his Wednesday press conference, the ex-lawmaker, who has adopted the red and Black Haitian flag of the Duvalier dictatorship regime and is known for waving a Russian flag during protests, accused the United States of menacing him.
While his traveling companions were allowed to go on to Haiti, he was held back and taken to a room where he was “trembling” in the cold. He said officers offered him to make a deal, he said.
“They told me that If I collaborate there are sanctions they were going to take against me that they will no longer take,” he said. “They said if I were to tell them what I was discussing with Maduro in the month of November 2021,
I won’t have any problems. If I tell them what I was discussing with the Africans, I won’t have any problems. But if I don’t say, there are four sanctions they will take against me.”
He then listed the four sanctions, which included the cancellation of his visa, a five-year ban from the United States, deportation and prison.
“I made the choice of prison; I made the choice of cutting my visa; I made the choice for them to deport us; I made the choice for them to humiliate us,” he told journalists, adding that he had retained a battery of lawyers to sue the United States to defend his dignity
Then he demanded that U.S. authorities “tell us what is hiding behind this.”
“It’s not Moïse Jean-Charles who they have done this to. They have done this to the Haitian people,” he said.
Michael Wilner, Washington Bureau senior national security correspondent, contributed to this report.
Haitians stranded at Chilean airport for weeks, waiting for refugee hearings
BY THE HAITIAN TIMES JAN. 24, 2022
View of Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, where a group of Haitians have been stranded for weeks. Photo Christer T Johansson/Wikipedia
A group of Haitian asylum seekers have been stranded for weeks at the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago de Chile, waiting for Chilean authorities to allow them into the country, according to the Spanish-language news outlet Ambito.
The group of 23 Haitians intend to request refugee status. However, Chilean authorities consider them to be tourists and have asked for their visas. Haiti’s consulate in Santiago does not appear to be handling this type of request, according to Rodolfo Noriega, president of the Committee of Peruvian Refugees in Chile.
It is unclear if the Haitian group was coming from Haiti directly or other countries nor for how many weeks the asylum seekers have been at the airport.
Through a video posted on Twitter Jan. 23, one of the Haitian asylum seekers at the airport asks the Chilean government to allow them. Holding a handwritten sign that says “Seeking Refuge,” the man made his plea in Spanish to the authorities.
“Our country is going through difficult times,” said the speaker, who is not identified in the video. “That’s why we come here, to ask for refuge.”
CHINEESE POTION LIKE A NATURAL VACCIN AGAINST ANY VIRUS
To boost your immune system in order to protect yourself and yours from any retrovirus with the use of the following vegetables providing your body with a lot of Sulfur, Nitric Occide Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphorus etc ( which disappeared from pharmaceutical products for the last 65 years ) is recommended by the Chinese pharmacopeia. --- Use 1 glass+ of mineral or alkaline water for each of the following vegetables – Blend them separately and boil for 15 minutes.
When cold, absorb 3 tr4 table spoonful daily for 4 to 5 weeks as IMMUNATARY protection against any bad germs or retroviruses ( the potion is enough for 2 people )
WATERCRESS …………………………………………………………………… 1 PACK
ONION 2 MEDIUM
BEET ( to peel and slice ) 2 MEDIUM
GARLIC 6 oz. of peeled garlic
CABBAGE a small one to cut into pieces and blend 1 SMALL ONCE
TURNIP to peel and slice 2 MEDIUM ONE
Cut each of the above nutrients into pieces and blend separately with 1 glass each of Alkaline or mineral water and blend them separately.
Then pour the contents into a large container and boil for 15 minutes. When cold, absorb the potion every day as recommended., which will be acting and killing retroviruses like insecticide against teaches.
Gerard Jeanty
Media Advisory
Haiti’s human rights record to be examined by Universal Periodic Review
GENEVA (26 January 2022) – Haiti’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Monday, 31 January 2022 in a meeting that will be webcast live.
Haiti is one of the States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its 40th session taking place from 24 January to 3 February *, which marks the end of the UPR third cycle. Haiti’s first and second UPR reviews took place in October 2011 and November 2016, respectively.
The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.
The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Haiti on 31 January can be found here.
Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva [NB: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting will be held using a combination of in-person and remote participation, and media representatives are encouraged to follow the proceedings on webcast.
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Monday, 31 January 2022 (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)
The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles. During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.
The delegation of Haiti will be led by Mr. Berto Dorcé, Minister of Justice and Public Security.
The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Haiti are: Qatar, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Netherlands.
The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org
The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Haiti will be posted on the UPR Extranet.
The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Haiti at 16.30 on 3 February. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.
* The UPR 40th session was originally scheduled to be held in November 2021, although was postponed due to COVID-19 measures.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez, HRC Media Officer, at
To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr
UN Human Rights Council, follow us on social media: Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram
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- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
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
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
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
Federal Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Racist and Abusive Treatment of Haitian Migrants in Del Rio, Texas
December 20, 2021
CONTACTS:
Taisha Santil, Haitian Bridge Alliance:
Tasha Moro, Justice Action Center:
Alex Mensing, Innovation Law Lab:
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
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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