Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 28 octobre 2021

As Haiti reels from crises, U.S. policy decisions are called into question

Los Angeles Time

Joe Mozingo

Dessalines Day is a point of pride in Haiti, a time to commemorate the revolutionary hero who defeated Napoleon’s troops, abolished slavery and in 1804 established the first free Black republic.

But this year the Oct. 17 holiday played out like political theater of all the woes afflicting the nation.

The acting prime minister was headed to speak at the monument marking the spot where Jean-Jacques Dessalines was assassinated just outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, but his convoy was turned back by gunfire.

In the absence of a government delegation, a police-officer-turned-gang-leader seized control of the ceremonies. Flanked by masked men with assault rifles, Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the name "Barbecue," strode to the monument in the white suit and collar of palace officialdom and roused the crowd.

“Today the time has come where they have the ports and the tax offices,” he shouted. “They are all millionaires. We are sleeping with pigs. This is how the system is.”

Like dozens of gang bosses in Haiti, Cherizier is a product of the country's fractious politics, and as has been the case for more than a century, those politics are deeply entwined with U.S. policy.

Since U.S. Marines first occupied Haiti in 1915, Washington has put its thumb on the balance of power, supporting the brutal Duvalier dictatorships dating to the 1950s and more recently propping up center-right presidents with little popular support.

The latest round of violent upheaval in Haiti is inextricably linked to Jovenel Moise, who won the presidency in 2016 in flawed elections and then proceeded to strip away institutions, rule by decree and — even after constitutional experts said his term had expired — remain in power until he was assassinated in July.

Along the way, he enjoyed the support of both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Gangs that were connected to Moise have continued to operate with impunity, often using government vehicles; robbery, rape and kidnapping for ransom have reached epidemic levels.

Who was the murdered sculptor, Anderson Bélony?

Jean Anderson Bellony, born March 13, 1970, grew up in the village of Noailles in Croix-des-Bouquets.

At the age of fifteen, Michel Brutus introduced him to sculpture. He has notably participated in several group exhibitions at the Georges Liautaud Community Museum and at the French Institute of Haiti.

In August 2014, one of his sculptures was presented at MUPANAH on the occasion of the "Rencontres" exhibition. Bellony inherited a voodoo sanctuary which was restored by the AfricAméricA Foundation, as part of the Prince Claus Foundation's Cultural Emergency Response Program (CER) in 2009.

Bellony is more assembly practical than cut iron. He collects the utensils of everyday life, bowls, basins, chamber pots, cutlery, which he associates with elements of cut iron or of natural origin such as bones, wood. What characterizes his work is the use of abandoned enamelled objects which he resuscitates with great humor.

Barbara Prézeau Stephenson
AICA SC

Extract from the exhibition catalog "Nway Kanpe! "

Haiti gang leader threatens to kill American missionary hostages

Officials have said 400 Mawozo gang is demanding $1m per hostage in ransom to release 17 members of missionary group.

 [Odelyn Joseph/AP]

The leader of the Haitian gang suspected of kidnapping 17 members of a missionary group from the United States has threatened to kill the hostages if his demands are not met.

Wilson Joseph, leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, issued the ultimatum in a video posted on social media on Thursday.

“I swear by thunder that if I don’t get what I’m asking for, I will put a bullet in the heads of these Americans,” Joseph said in the video.

Earlier this week, Haitian officials said the gang is demanding $1m in ransom per person to free the hostages.

Speaking in front of the coffins of gang members apparently killed by the police, Joseph threatened Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the chief of National Police Leon Charles in the video,

“You guys make me cry. I cry water. But I’m going to make you guys cry blood,” he said.

Al Jazeera correspondent Manuel Rapalo said protests in the capital Port-au-Prince against the deteriorating security situation in Haiti continued for the fifth day on Thursday.

Haitian workers went on a general strike on October 18 to protest worsening insecurity and gang violence after the abduction of the Christian missionaries.

“The concern now, especially after this video was published, is that tensions are going to continue to escalate; there’s fear that violence could worsen on the streets,” Rapalo said.

The hostages were abducted after leaving an orphanage outside Port-au-Prince on October 16. Sixteen of the abductees are Americans and one is Canadian. Five of them are children, including an eight-month-old infant.

Christian Aid Ministries, the Ohio-based missionary group whose members were kidnapped, called for a day of fasting and prayers for the hostages on Thursday, urging people to pray for the abductees as well as the kidnappers.

“Pray for the kidnappers, that they would experience the love of Jesus and turn to him, and we see that as their ultimate need,” said Weston Showalter, a spokesperson for the group.

“We also ask for prayer for government leaders and authorities as they relate to the case and work toward the release of the hostages.”

Reporting from Millersburg, Ohio, Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, said the kidnappings have been “stressful” for people associated with the missionary group.

“The people we’ve talked to have all expressed deep concern for those missionaries, particularly after the threat that was given by the leader of that kidnapping group,” Hendren said.

One of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti has been suffering from periodic natural disasters, gang violence and a longstanding political crisis made worse by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July.

The country has seen a surge in kidnappings during the past weeks. Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights (CARDH), a Haitian NGO, said on Wednesday that at least 119 people were kidnapped by criminal gangs in Haiti during the first half of October, following 117 cases in September.

“Citizens do not trust the Haitian national police and this poses a problem because we cannot have an efficient police force if the population does not collaborate,” Gedeon Jean, CARDH director, told AFP earlier this week.

The US government has promised to work with Haitian authorities to free the American hostages.

“We have in the administration been relentlessly focused on this, including sending a team to Haiti from the State Department; working very closely with the FBI, which is the lead in these kinds of matters; in constant communication with the Haitian National Police, the church that the missionaries belong to, as well as to the Haitian Government,”  Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

“And we will do everything that we can to help resolve the situation.”

Opinion: We can no longer ignore Haiti’s descent into chaos

Editorial Board

October 18, 2021 at 4:17 p.m. EDT

The Washington Post

Haiti’s spiraling mayhem, florid lawlessness and humanitarian meltdown were predictable following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July. In a country already crippled by governmental dysfunction, the vacuum of political legitimacy and authority after that murder left a breeding ground for anarchy.

The mess was largely ignored by the Biden administration, which has been preoccupied with other crises, until the kidnapping Saturday of 17 missionaries — a Canadian and 16 Americans, including five children — near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Now the maelstrom in the hemisphere’s poorest nation is no longer ignorable.

Kidnapping is so prevalent that predatory gangs which routinely seize individuals and groups for ransom are now said to control half of Port-au-Prince. One of the more notorious of them, 400 Mawozo, is responsible for the missionaries’ kidnapping; earlier this year it grabbed five priests and two nuns and demanded $1 million for their release. They were eventually freed.

Haiti’s outmatched police are bystanders to the spreading pandemonium, and the government, which includes no elected officials, is window dressing. The fate of the missionaries is anyone’s guess, but no one should assume that their seizure is an aberration, or that Haiti’s dissolution will not generate further agonies for its own citizens and those of other nations. Those agonies will include desperate migrants at the United States’ border, such as the thousands who camped under a bridge in South Texas last month, seeking a foothold in this country.

There are no easy answers to fixing Haiti, nor even to what “fixing” it might mean. Some advocates insist that the key to rescuing Haiti lies in its civil society, the country’s vibrant network of nongovernmental social, educational, health and other organizations that provide what passes for a social safety net and a counterbalance to chaos. The truth is that those multifarious groups, for all their important work, are as splintered as the rest of Haitian society and just as powerless to arrest the country’s disintegration.

Those who called for international intervention following Mr. Moïse’s killing, including this page, have been criticized for overlooking the checkered history of such attempts in the past, including the U.S. Marine Corps’s 19-year occupation of Haiti a century ago, and the United Nations-authorized insertion of U.S. troops by the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s. In this century, a U.N. stabilization force was deployed in Haiti for 13 years, until 2017.

Those interventions were problematic. In the most recent instance, U.N. soldiers sent to Haiti from Nepal were the conduit for what became one of the world’s most severe cholera epidemics, and other U.N. troops fathered hundreds or more babies born to penniless local women and girls, amid credible allegations of rape and sexual exploitation.

Yet for all its unintended consequences, outside intervention could also establish a modicum of stability and order that would represent a major humanitarian improvement on the status quo, and with it, the prospect of lives saved and livelihoods enabled. In the cost-benefit analysis that would attend any fresh intervention, policymakers must be alert to the risks, but also to the enormous peril of continuing to do nothing.

AID TO HAITI SENT BY SEA TO BYPASS RISING GANG VIOLENCE

The Guardian

WFP carried out 18 voyages this month from Port-au-Prince to Miragoane, bypassing violent neighborhoods

The World Food Programme (WFP) is now using seafaring barges to ship supplies to earthquake victims in southern Haiti, after escalating gang violence made overland journeys unsafe for aid convoys.

Since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southern peninsula in August, thousands of survivors have been sporadically cut off from Port-au-Prince, the capital, by roadblocks set up by warring gangs, leading relief workers to employ novel workarounds, including shifting aid to barges and helicopter airlifts.

“A recent upsurge in gang violence, including kidnappings, is impacting relief operations,” said Fernando Hiraldo, the acting UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti on Thursday. “Violence, looting, road blockades and the persistent presence of armed gangs all pose obstacles to humanitarian access, a situation which is further complicated by very serious fuel shortages and the reduced supply of goods.”

The WFP – the world’s largest humanitarian organization – has carried out 18 voyages this month from Port-au-Prince to Miragoane, a coastal commune 62 miles away, bypassing violent neighborhoods on the outskirts of the capital.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 20 octobre 2021

 
American Missionaries Kidnapped in Haiti, Officials Say

Published Oct. 16, 2021Updated Oct. 17, 2021

A neighborhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. By some estimates, gangs now control roughly half of the city. Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

As many as 17 Christian missionaries from the United States and their family members, including children, were kidnapped on Saturday by a gang in Port-au-Prince as they were leaving an orphanage, according to Haitian security officials.

Details of the kidnapping remained unclear, but local officials said the missionaries were abducted from a bus headed to the airport to drop off some members of the group before continuing to another destination in Haiti.

Haiti has been in a state of political upheaval for years, and kidnappings of the rich and poor alike are alarmingly common. But even in a country accustomed to widespread lawlessness, the abduction of such a large group of Americans shocked officials for its brazenness.

Violence is surging across the capital, Port-au-Prince. By some estimates, gangs now control roughly half of the city. On Monday, gangs shot at a school bus in Port-au-Prince, injuring at least five people, including students, while another public bus was hijacked by a gang as well.

Security has broken down as the country’s politics have disintegrated. Demonstrators furious at widespread corruption demanded the ouster of President Jovenel Moïse two years ago, effectively paralyzing the country. The standoff prevented the sick from getting treatment in hospitals, children from attending school, workers from going to the rare jobs available and even stopped electricity from flowing in parts of the country.

Since then, gangs have become only more assertive. They operate at will, kidnapping children on their way to school and pastors in the middle of delivering their services.

The nation’s political turmoil intensified further after Mr. Moïse was assassinatedin his home in July, a killing that remains unsolved. The few remaining officials in the country soon began fighting for control of the government, and the factionalism has continued for months, with officials accusing one another of taking part in the conspiracy to kill the president.

The kidnapping of the American missionaries happened only a day after the United Nations Security Council extended its mission in Haiti by nine months in a unanimous vote on Friday. Many Haitians have been calling for the United States to send troops to stabilize the situation, but the Biden administration has been reluctant to commit boots on the ground.

A State Department spokesman had no comment on the abductions in Haiti on Saturday night.

Parts of the Haitian capital, including where the kidnappings occurred, are so dangerous that many residents have fled, leaving once-bustling streets nearly abandoned. Many of the streets have been surrendered to the gangs, with few pedestrians venturing out even during the day. 

Gangs have kidnapped even poor street vendors, and when they find little to nothing in their wallets, gang members sometimes demand that they sell off items in their homes, like radios and refrigerators. Earlier this year, a classroom of students got together to raise money to pay the ransom of a fellow student.

Haiti - UN : The mandate of BINUH renewed but reduced by China
16/10/2021 10:49:45

Friday, October 15, 2021 at midnight the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) expired and was to be renewed by the UN Security Council.The United States, which generally manages the Haitian file at the United Nations, has proposed a one-year renewal, but the adoption of a resolution to this effect did not go as planned, due to complications Thursday in the negotiations with China.From a diplomatic source, during these closed-door negotiations, the Chinese were very critical affirming that the UN had done nothing in Haiti, deplores "investments at a loss" during all these years with the money of the great powers, especially from China. Beijing called for a renewal of the UN mandate for only 6 months, leaving the possibility of China using its veto on the one-year renewal proposed by the US. Other aspect that may justify the position of China but not mentioned publicly, is the recognition of Taiwan by HaitiFinally on Friday around 6:00 p.m., a compomis was found, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2600 (2021), presented by Mexico and the United States extending the mandate of BINUH until July 15 2022 (9 months) and asked the Secretary General to assess his tenure after 6 monthsIn this text, the Council encouraged close collaboration and coordination between the Office, the United Nations country team in Haiti, regional organizations and international financial institutions with a view to assisting the Government in assuming the responsibility of achieving long-term stability of the country, sustainable development and economic self-sufficiency.United States Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield to the United Nations "Now is not the time for the Security Council to walk away from Haiti,” but rather to ensure that Haiti gets the assistance and support it needs alongside Haitian-led efforts to address its long-standing challenges."Mexican Ambassador to the UN Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez said that "The mandate renewal will give certainty to the Office and enable Member States to assess the Secretary-General’s conclusions with a view to making, in due course, the necessary changes to make the Office’s mandate more effective."For his part, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun to the UN declared "it behoves the international community to give Haiti more tailored support. Haiti’s leaders must halt their power struggles, shoulder their responsibilities, take the country out of chaos and put it on the path of orderly development. The renewal of the Office’s mandate is an opportunity to discuss how to help Haiti more effectively [...]" adding "thanks to the joint efforts of China, the Russian Federation and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, substantial improvements to the draft were achieved. Working from the Secretary-General’s review, the Council will be able to update the Office’s mandate in light of changing circumstances to better help the Haitian people" recalling "Haiti cannot achieve stability without self-reliance."HL/ HaitiLibre

US Embassy – Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya in visit

PRESS RELEASE

Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy,
and Human Rights Uzra Zeya Visits Haiti October 12–13On October 12-13, Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Uzra Zeya traveled to Haiti in her first official visit as Under Secretary of State to underscore the United States’ commitment to the people of Haiti and supporting Haitian-led solutions to challenges facing the country. Under Secretary Zeya was accompanied by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary James Walsh from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.During the visit, Under Secretary Zeya met with Prime Minister Ariel Henry to discuss the safe and humane repatriation of Haitians, the importance of inclusive dialogue with civil society and political actors leading to free and fair elections, COVID-19 prevention, and accountability for President Moïse’s assassination. She also met with key stakeholders from the government, civil society, and non-governmental organizations including representatives from the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the Organization of American States, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and UNICEF to discuss actions that will increase security, combat corruption, and strengthen democratic governance.Civil society representatives, the National Committee for the Fight Against Human Trafficking, and other interlocutors provided invaluable perspectives on how the United States could forge a path forward to Haitian-led consensus agreement leading to free and fair elections as soon as technically feasible, in respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and support Haitian efforts to combat trafficking in persons.Under Secretary Zeya met with Acting Director General for the Haitian National Police Leon Charles at the Haitian National Police Academy underscoring the United States commitment to assisting Haiti strengthen its capacity to provide security for all people in Haiti.  She also met with Minister of Interior and Acting Minister of Justice Liszt Quitel and highlighted the United States’ recent commitment of an additional $15 million to help reduce gang violence and improve corrections infrastructure.The United States is committed to supporting Haitian-led solutions to increasing security for all people in Haiti, ensuring accountability for human rights violations, restoring democratic institutions through free and fair elections, and supporting the Haitian government in receiving Haitian returnees. The United States is a steadfast partner to Haiti, and the Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to supporting the Haitian people during this challenging time.

Food insecurity

Nearly a million people are at risk of starving to death this winter in Haiti, according to a September 9 estimate of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In the south of Haiti, at the epicentre of the August 14 earthquake, 980,000 people are expected to suffer from severe food insecurity between September and February 2022, including 320,000 during the current emergency phase. 

The FAO is trying to raise US$20 million as part of a rescue effort. This money will help rebuild damaged infrastructure including irrigation canals, fruit processing factories, dairies, fish outlets, distribution of seeds, agricultural equipment and livestock, before the start of the next agricultural season in October.

In the other departments of North, Centre and West Haiti, the situation is no different. International and national agencies had already issued food shortage alerts since last year. 

According to the June 2021 report of the World Food Program (WFP), the country has one of the highest levels of chronic food insecurity in the world with more than half of its total population chronically food insecure and 22% of children chronically malnourished. Underlying drivers of this situation include extreme poverty and frequent natural disasters. 

On the 2020 Climate Risk Index, Haiti is also third among the countries most affected by severe weather events.

On February 26, five memoranda of understanding were signed to strengthen resilience and improve the food and nutritional security of the Haitian population. These include projects that will be financed by FAO’s own funds in the amount of US$2.15 million within the framework of the activities of its Technical Cooperation Program.

FAO representative José Luis Fernández, declared at the time that “the problem of hunger and food insecurity constitutes a major challenge that the Government and development actors must face.” He also pointed out that extreme weather events, socio-political unrest and structural weaknesses have contributed to the deterioration of the livelihoods of the most vulnerable.

A document published by the FEWS (Famine Early Warning System Network) on the situation in Haiti, noted that the exchange rate against the US$ has appreciated considerably since December 2020 reaching around 75 gourdes per US$ on the formal market and up to 95 gourdes on the informal market. 

This occurred despite the injection of US$12 million in the banking sector in January.

This situation has led to an increase in the prices of both imported and local products. Food price increases also remain above the five-year average of over 40%.

Restrictive measures to fight COVID-19, including closure of the land border on both sides of the Haitian/Dominican border, have also had negative impacts on the availability of a number of food products in Haiti. These include flour, edible oil, condiments, eggs, and sugar. There have also been heavy limitations on trade between the two countries. 

Food security conditions continue to suffer from the residual effects of the decapitalisation of farms, the socio-political crisis, and measures attached to the pandemic.

The new wave of COVID-19 affecting the major world economies, in particular the United States, the Dominican Republic, Chile, and Brazil, is further amplifying the economic recession in these two countries. This is already having a negative impact on the rate of flow and volume of migrant remittances to Haiti and, resultantly, the purchasing power of households.

Currently, following the earthquake in southern Haiti, the percentage of the Haitian population requiring food assistance has increased from 10% to 50%, with a concentration in the south of the country. This requires increased levels of food aid, including seeds and livestock aid. 

The 7.2 August 14 earthquake followed shortly after by Tropical Storm Grace significantly affected food production and habitats in the departments of Sud, Grande Anse and Nippes. 

The following impacts were recorded: 2,207 dead, 137,000 houses destroyed and significant damage to plantations in many areas, seriously affecting upcoming harvests. 

Stocks have been destroyed, and trade in food products halted, in the process reducing the quantity of local products available in public markets and considerably increasing the prices of available products.

In addition, the activities of many small and micro businesses have been suspended. For example, the manufacture and sale of charcoal, small trades and other entrepreneurial activities have been seriously affected. 

Additionally, public transport to certain localities where the earthquake caused landslides and cracks in the roadway, has remained a serious issue.

Reseau Citadelle - Cyrus Sibert via groups.io reseaucitadelle=Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 14 octobre 2021

 They flee their home because of gang violence

Gang violence is forcing thousands of families to flee their homes in Port-au-Prince. However, some run only to encounter brutality inside the various camps scattered throughout the capital.

A whole village surrounds her, but the little girl feels alone in the Saint-Yves camp, in Delmas 5. Her days are short. Far too short to delay the night, and with it the repeated nightmare of sexual abuse.

“I cannot speak because my rapist lives in the camp,” murmurs the minor exhausted by the nocturnal rapes, and the constant death threats.

There are more than 1,100 citizens scattered all over the hard cement of the courtyard, and throughout the rooms under construction, without interior doors, of the Saint-Yves Presbyterian Church, which has been transformed into a refugee camp for those fleeing the fury of the gangs since June 14th.

“There are several cases of abuse, especially of vulnerable children,” reports Jules Riclais, member of the West Departmental Coordination for Civil Protection.

The occupants of this camp come mainly from Delmas 2. Everyone harbors a chilling story, proof of the worsening security situation in recent months, well before the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

“The bandits set fire to my house in Delmas 2, and asked me to empty the place,” shares a lady in her fifties. The tornado of violence released on this territory controlled by Jimmy Chérizier, nicknamed Barbecue, took the lives of her two children.

And the situation is getting worse. According to a report released June 14th by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), nearly 20,000 people are on the list of displaced people in the metropolitan area. 15,500 of them fled their homes beginning on June 1st, the start date of a bloody clash between the gangs of the Martissant area.

Hervé Télémaque: A Hopscotch of the Mind

Since the late 1950s, Hervé Télémaque has created an expansive body of work with a unique and playful visual vocabulary, featuring abstract gestures, cartoon-like imagery, and mixed media compositions. Through paintings, drawings, collages, objects and assemblages, he brings together striking combinations of historical and literary references with those of consumer and popular culture. Incorporating images and experiences from his daily life, the artist’s extensive body of work consistently draws connections between the realms of interior consciousness, social experience and the complex relationships between image and language.

Born in 1937 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Télémaque left for New York in 1957 entering an art scene dominated by Abstract Expressionism. In 1961, he moved permanently to Paris, associating with the Surrealists and later co-founding the Narrative Figuration movement in France with art critic Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and artist Bernard Rancillac. A reaction against the dominant trend towards Abstract art and the developing movement of Pop art in North America, Télémaque’s Narrative Figuration often results in works with a Pop sensibility that incorporate consumer objects and signs. The artist then inflects these images with an astute criticality, producing work in dialogue with current events, such as the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, US intervention in the Dominican Republic, and contemporary French politics. 

A vehement commitment to highlighting the histories and contemporary resonances of racism, imperialism and colonialism remains a constant throughout his career, with works that intimate the insidious ways that these structures continue to permeate our everyday lives. In later works, Télémaque refers more directly to his Haitian heritage and experience as part of the Caribbean diaspora.

This exhibition is Télémaque’s first institutional show in the UK. It brings together works made from the late 1950s until the present day, highlighting the enduring themes of the artist’s work through his multi-faceted practice. Rather than taking a chronological approach, A Hopscotch of the Mind proposes a non-linear exploration of Télémaque’s visual vocabulary, encouraging viewers to jump between media and periods, forming their own associations between the disparate fragments of his idiosyncratic narration.

WITH DANIEL FOOT THE USA HAS THE POSSIBILITY TO RECALIBRATE ITS POLICY IN HAITI

AYIBOPOST

RALPH THOMASSAINT JOSEPH

No official in Haiti can claim to be more powerful than Daniel Foote right now. The special envoy of President Joe Biden on the Haitian crisis can decide who can be president or prime minister of the country. His presence eclipses that of Helen La Lime, representative of the U.N.’s bureau in Haiti (BINUH), who had been acting as proconsul before Foote’s appearance on the scene. If outside interference wore the costume of diplomacy in the old days, today, it’s clear that the U.S. is openly controlling power in Haiti. Here’s the problem: A complete meltdown of the country’s institutions, notably during the past eleven years.

History will not forget that elite squads of the national police force, trained and supported by the U.S., lost face, as well as six officers when confronting a group of bandits in the Village de Dieu shantytown, nor could this same police force prevent the assassination of the most protected man in the country, President Jovenel Moise.

Some will say that when you’re trying to identify the cause of the permanent crisis in Haiti, it’s easy to point the finger at outsiders, especially the United States. To understand consequences from their root causes, it would be unhealthy not to attribute the U.S. the full measure of its responsibility for this debacle. To pretend otherwise would be to deny an important truth, which would please many American politicians.

Forbes magazine reports that the war in Afghanistan cost the U.S. $300 million every day for twenty years. Around $83 billion dollars were spent to train and arm the Afghan army. This same army didn’t stand up to the assaults of the Taliban after the U.S. announced its retreat from the country. When he had to justify the reasons for this American debacle, Joe Biden pointed the finger at the Afghanis.

“We gave them every opportunity to create their own destiny,” he said on August 16, 2021. “What we could not give them was the will to fight for that outcome.” This has a bit of a feeling of déjà vu for us in Haiti.

After the 2010 earthquake, the international community seemed to offer this same opportunity to Haiti. Billions of dollars were spent in the name of Haitians for the reconstruction of the country, but no results of those investments were visible. Former American president Bill Clinton directed the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti which channeled hundreds of millions of dollars of aid and promises of aid.

After the disaster of the 2010 earthquake, Haiti wasn’t ready to organize elections that same year. But, in spite of the dozens of thousands dead and more than a million homeless under tents, the international community—as usual—decided elections should be organized anyway. So it is that Michel Martelly was designated, president. USAID financed his supporters during the electoral campaign. The French ambassador at the time, Didier Lebret, showed his true colors publicly, wearing the pink and white bracelet of Martelly’s party.

Michel Martelly ran a government that was among the most corrupt in the history of the country. More than 64% of the Petrocaribe funds were spent during his administration. The party he created, PHTK (Parti Haitien Tet Kale), prioritized policies of the dismantlement of public institutions and gangsterization of the country. When Martelly’s little dog Jovenel Moise followed him to the presidency, Moise doubled down on his master’s impunity and corruption. As a result, hundreds of Haitians were massacred in opposition neighborhoods; hundreds more were kidnapped, hundreds were raped.

Beginning in 2018, Haitians turned out in the streets for the country’s biggest demonstrations ever. Young people took to the streets in considerable numbers to denounce corruption and demand accounting for the Petrocaribe monies. Their Petrocaribe movement was also a useful pretext for hundreds of thousands of average Haitians to demonstrate their concern about the dangerous dysfunction of the state. A Petrocaribe trial would have great symbolic value.

Eleven years later, the U.S. has sent its special envoy into the midst of an unprecedented crisis in Haiti. Since the upheavals of 2018, the country has fallen into a cycle of instability that has its character. There were the Petrocaribe demonstrations, the Peyilok strikes, the street law of the gangs, the kidnappings, and the massacres in targeted neighborhoods.

Daniel Foote has now come to collect the debris of a regime that was put into place in Haiti with U.S. support in 2011. In 2017, the Banque de la Republique d’Haiti has stopped publishing its annual report that gives an idea of the country’s economy, a report regularly issued since 1998, even after the earthquake in 2010.

In May 2011, when Michel Martelly became president, the National food security council reported that the cost of the food basket was 837 HG per person per month. In April 2021, the cost of the basket had risen to 2112 HG. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars were being siphoned off by the powers that be, and corruption scandals were ubiquitous. After 11 years. The general hospital is not rebuilt, nor the presidential palace, nor the parliament. Gangs have multiplied, and along with them, violent crime.

When the youth of Haiti went out into the streets to demonstrate against corruption, the U.S. did not support them. Because of their involvement, some of them lost jobs and the support of their friends. Several Petrochallengers, as they are called, had to leave the country because of threats against them. The assassination of Antoinette Duclaire, a young, outspoken rights activist, was understood as a message to those who publicly stood up against corruption. No one has been arrested for her killing. Today, such impunity is so profound that even the president of the Republic has become its victim, with even the security team he selected incapable to enlighten us about his murder.

There is undoubtedly an overwhelming popular mandate against corruption. But can we remake the country with these old figures still trying to run it?

On the one hand, there is Joseph Lambert. “I think, and I insist, that an experienced political personality is necessary to conduct the ship into port,” said Lambert on September 1. Twice a senator and president of the Senate, Lambert was always there when the ship of state was adrift. He typifies the blasé political class that reduces governing into a simple sharing of small privileges.

Then there is Laurent Lamothe, whose name in Haiti is forever automatically linked to the Petrocaribe scandal. Yet, meanwhile, he puts himself forth in the international media as “an acceptable voice” to discuss the country’s crisis and, indeed, to provide solutions.

Besides the pandemic, Biden’s first year has been marked by two great crises, the immigration crisis the debacle in Afghanistan.

To curb the flux of migrants crossing Mexico’s border into the U.S., the Biden administration has decided to attack the problem at its source. This means resolving the problem in the migrants’ country of origin, where all the conditions force them to leave to seek a better situation elsewhere. Biden delegated this work to vice-president Kamala Harris, who has targeted corruption as the crux of the problem. During her visit to Guatemala, Harris spoke about the need to fight corruption and establish justice systems.

“Most people don’t want to leave their homeland, the place where they grew up, the place where their language is spoken, the culture they know. Most people don’t want to leave the country where their grandmother lived. And when they do leave, generally it’s for one of the following two reasons: They are fleeing some violence, or, should they remain, they will not be able to satisfy the basic needs of their families,” Harris said.

During the last eleven years, tens of thousands of Haitians, especially young people, have fled the country to go to Brazil to Chile. Thousands are now together at Mexico’s northern border, hoping to get into the U.S. After the 2010 earthquake, their despair mainly was economic. Today, that poverty is not coupled to the gang violence in Haiti’s streets, which is pushing tens of thousands more to leave their homes and get out of the country. How will the U.S. react when thousands of boat people arrive on the coast because of gang violence that’s fed by the Haitian powers that be and by Haiti’s private sector?

To reform American policy in Haiti means correcting the mistakes made in 2011. Unfortunately, the power of the Martelly/Moise/Henry PHTK regime is a pure product of the Democratic administration of Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

So many of those who took to the streets to denounce corruption have now left the country. With kidnappings and rapes increasing, thousands of professionals have already left. The country is now open to the political mafia and the predatory elite to devour the entrails of those who have not yet decided to leave. Although the state is dead, the vultures of the traditional political class are nonetheless fighting over this rotting cadaver. SO many want to become president by demanding that we find out how a president could have been assassinated in his bedroom without a single security agent receiving a scratch or firing a shot.

If we’re going to reconsider U.S. policy in Haiti, we have to consider the actors’ liabilities. So many among them who now present themselves as future leaders are the same ones who participated in the demolition of the country over the past thirty years and more.

The original version of this article was published in French. The English translation is from Amy Wilentz.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 6 octobre 2021

 
Panama government warns thousands more migrants coming for border

Samuel Chamberlain

Haitian migrants are seen crossing the jungle of the Darien Gap in Colombia heading to Panama. AFP via Getty Images

Panama’s foreign minister warned Wednesday that up to 60,000 migrants, many of them of Haitian origin, are making their way through the Central American country toward the US-Mexico border — threatening the Biden administration with a fresh illegal immigration crisis.

Erika Mouynes claimed in an interview with Axios that her government had notified the White House of the most recent migration surge, which culminated in more than 15,000 people gathering under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas and waiting to be picked up by border authorities earlier this month. 

“We’ve engaged with every single authority that we can think of, that we can come across, to say, ‘Please, let’s pay attention to this,'” said Mouynes, who called on Washington to coordinate with other countries in the region on a plan to deal with the issue.

“We all have a role to play in this issue, and the regional approach is the correct approach,” she said. “It is impossible for Panama to solve it on its own.”

Panama’s foreign minister warned that up to 60,000 migrants could be headed toward the US-Mexico border.AFP via Getty Images

Mouynes met Monday and Tuesday in Washington with members of Congress as well as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. One lawmaker, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), told Fox News Wednesday that Mouynes had described how her country has seen “over 80,000 Haitian immigrants, Haitian evacuees, crossing from South America, through Panama, headed to the United States [this year].”

“This is all happening because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refuse to enforce the law,” Cruz added, “and have essentially said anyone who wants to come to America, they’re gonna resettle them, they’re gonna give them benefits, they’re gonna let ’em stay, and it’s resulting in a public health crisis and a humanitarian crisis.”

Erika Mouynes claimed her government had notified the White House of the most recent migration surge. AFP via Getty Images

Axios, quoting estimates from the Panamanian government, reported that nearly 27,000 migrants are expected to pass through the hazardous jungles of the Darien Gap region in this month alone — more than made the trip in all of 2019. 

“Let’s recognize that they all are heading toward the US,” Mouynes said.

Most of the migrants left Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake for economic opportunity in South America. As jobs there have dried up, their hopes have focused on the US.

Mouynes told Axios that Panama has started a migrant quota system in partnership with its two immediate neighbors, Columbia and Costa Rica. However, she added, other South American countries need to set up similar systems in order to keep migration numbers manageable. 

Mayorkas revealed earlier this week that 13,000 Haitian migrants from the most recent surge will have their cases heard by an immigration judge — 10,000 of whom have been released into the United States. 

Sen. Ted Cruz said that Mouynes claimed Panama has seen over 80,000 Haitian immigrants crossing from South America, through Panama, headed to the United States.REUTERS

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), another 8,000 had returned “voluntarily” to Mexico, while an additional 4,000 were being processed for expulsion or removal by DHS. Nearly 4,000 more were sent back to Haiti on a series of deportation flights. 

President Biden famously handed off responsibility for the border issue to Vice President Kamala Harris, who embarked on a much-touted trip to Mexico and Guatemala in early June in an effort to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration. 

However, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), pronounced last week that Harris’ tour had done nothing to fix the problem.

IMMIGRATION / Fanm News and Update

Family Action Network Movement's Executive Director, Marleine Bastien and Florida Immigrant Coalition Co-Executive Director, Tessa Painson joined a special delegation of Haitian leaders/stakeholders invited by the Department of Homeland Security to assess the conditions of Haitian refugees seeking asylum in Del Rio, Texas.

Security Council Session on the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH)

4 October 2021

Statement of Special Representative Helen La Lime

Mr. President, distinguished members of the Council,

1. It is an honor to once more provide you with an update on the situation in Haiti, which is currently undergoing one of the most fraught periods of its recent history. Already reeling from the ghastly assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on 7 July, the country was struck on 14 August by a devastating earthquake which affected over 800,000 people in its southwestern peninsula. These two events have led long awaited national and local elections to be further postponed. Meanwhile, insecurity has become rampant in Port-au-Prince, as kidnappings are once again on the rise and gangs have extended their control over large swaths of the city. In addition, thousands of migrants who had sought better living conditions in neighboring countries are being repatriated. For most observers, it is difficult to envision an end to the country’s seemingly never-ending crises which have pushed the resilience of the Haitian people to the brink.

Distinguished members,

1. Since assuming office on 20 July, Prime Minister Ariel Henry has spared no effort to reach a political agreement with the various factions of the Haitian polity. Adopting an inclusive and consensual approach, he has sought to create minimal conditions for the holding of legislative, local and presidential elections, and thus steer a country in the midst of a profound governance crisis towards the regular functioning of its democratic institutions. In a positive step, actors from across the political spectrum and civil society organizations, including former opposition and ruling coalition groups, adhered to such an agreement on 11 September. The pact captures key demands expressed by national stakeholders, such as the formation of a new Provisional Electoral Council and the inclusion of the diaspora. It also foresees the holding of elections no later than the second half of 2022.

1. One can only hope that Haitian political and civil society leaders will continue to work together to findcommon ground around a common project that will contribute to fostering a more appeased climate in which decisive action can be taken and essential reforms enacted

1. To be sure, many points of convergence exist. For instance, there is a large national consensus on the need to reform the 1987 Haitian constitution, a charter widely viewed as contributing to the recurrent political and institutional instability. The draft Constitution submitted by the Independent Consultative Committee to the Prime Minister on 8 September should provide a basis for further constructive and inclusive debate on ways to reshape the Haitian political system.

1. Likewise, the reestablishment of security, especially in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, must be prioritized by Haitian authorities. Since June, a significant and sudden increase in gang violence has caused the displacement of some 19,000 people from the communes of Cité-Soleil, Croix-des-Bouquets, Delmas and the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of Martissant. The control that gangs exercise around strategic entry and exit points of the capital has had a detrimental impact on Haiti’s economy and the movement of people and goods. Applying the recommendations of a team of UN police experts deployed from May to July following a request from the late President, the Haitian National Police has sought to improve the effectiveness of its anti-gang operations by adopting a more balanced approach to prevention and repression, relying on increased police presence in problematic areas, and improving its intelligence-gathering mechanisms.

1. Yet, an over-stretched and under resourced force alone cannot stem this worrisome rise in crime. Haiti’s main security institution will not be able to achieve sustainable results unless its capacities are strengthened, and government services are brought back to the impoverished neighborhoods that serve as fertile ground for armed gangs. Therefore, in addition to sustaining its efforts to reform the police with the support of the United Nations and bilateral partners, the Government must implement a more holistic approach to addressing gang violence, within the framework of the national strategy for community violence reduction which was developed with UN support and endorsed on 5 July.

Mr. President,

1. Haitian citizens have unanimously condemned President Moïse’s gruesome death and called for a thorough investigation into his assassination – one which follows due process and the rule of law. For the shroud of impunity which has long enveloped Haiti to begin lifting, and for justice to prevail in this as well as several emblematic cases, judicial actors must be allowed to work independently, in an appeased environment, with reassurance that they will be protected while undertaking the delicate task of identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators.

1. The Haitian judicial system also continues to contend with the protracted challenge of pre-trial detention which affects 82 percent of the country’s prison inmates, among the highest such rates in the world. National authorities must redouble their efforts to urgently address this issue, in close consultation with all judicial stakeholders. Furthermore, it is imperative that the process to review the new penal and criminal procedural codes continue as, once promulgated, they will be critical to combatting pre-trial detention as well as harmonizing Haitian law with regional and international human right standards.

Distinguished members of the Council,

1. The 14 August earthquake has added a new layer of complexity to an already dire humanitarian situation. In the face of the most recent catastrophe to befall the country, the United Nations reiterates its support to the Government and people of Haiti, and salutes the active national leadership and coordination of the post-disaster response and recovery. 

1. Even as relief operations are still ongoing, early recovery and the restoration of livelihoods must be strongly supported in the areas affected by the earthquake. It is a race against time to ensure that children can return to school, that farmers do not miss the next planting season, and that people currently living in spontaneous displacement camps return to their homes as quickly as possible. We must ensure that Haiti does not become a forgotten crisis. I urge all Member States to contribute to the $187.3 million Flash Appeal launched on 25 August to respond to the needs of those affected by the earthquake as well as the $235.6 million 2021-2022 Humanitarian Response Plan, both of which are currently only about one third funded. Moreover, in the long term, the reconstruction process will need the full engagement of the Government of Haiti as well as the international community, to ensure a greener, resilient, and more inclusive recovery.

1. Similarly, while the United Nations and partners have worked closely with the Government of Haiti to ensure it responds effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic, greater cooperation will be required to sustain and scale up testing capabilities as well as to promote public health and social measures. With only some 60,000 vaccines administered to date and less than one per cent of the country’s eligible population inoculated, increasing vaccine uptake in the coming weeks and months will prove vital to protecting Haiti and its most vulnerable populations from COVID-19 and the threat of more transmissible variants.

Mr. President,

1. The situation in which Haiti currently finds itself can only be characterized as bleak. Nevertheless, there exist encouraging signs that only reinforce my conviction that, through urgent, determined and concerted action, Haiti’s citizens can address the deep structural challenges, as well as the governance and development deficits, which feed their country’s instability, insecurity, and ever-growing humanitarian needs. Along with the United Nations, the entire international community must continue to steadfastly stand alongside the Haitian people and their government as they endeavor to forge a path towards stability, security and sustainable development.

Thank you.

…

What I saw in the border patrol images: African American/Haitian shared history

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE OCT. 01, 2021

The Haitian Times

By Garry Pierre-Pierre

Growing up in Elizabeth, NJ,  I and the handful of Haitian kids who lived there would sometimes get into schoolyard spats with our African American classmates. In the heat of the moment, the African Americans kids would call us “Frenchy” because of our surnames and accents. We would shoot back, “I’m not French, I’m Haitian.” 

It would go on like this for a while, with the typical harmless things kids do. Then, we came to realize that these taunts were out of envy and nothing more. “Say something in French,” they would ask. We would say something banal, and we all would laugh. 

When I first saw African Americans, I actually thought they were Haitians. In my innocence, I thought every Black person was Haitian. I remember saying to my mom that I didn’t know there were so many “Haitians” in New York.

At that time, most of the Haitians who had migrated to the U.S were middle class, but we lived in mostly poor Black communities — meaning that language was not our only division. So Haitian parents warned their children not to play or associate with “Ti Americain noir,” Creole for “little Black Americans,” whom they saw as criminals in waiting. That was the mainstream propaganda and trope, and Haitian parents fell for it like other immigrants have for generations before and since. 

I’m glad to say that my mom was not such a parent. Liberal to the core, she welcomed my friends. Derrick Taylor, who passed away recently, was one of my best friends. A funny, irreverent, great guy. Derrick loved lambi, our conch dish, and my mom would oblige him with a heaping plate when he came over. 

What most Haitian parents didn’t understand was that the reason they lived in the poor communities is that a system placed them there, whether or not they had money. It’s called structural and systemic racism. 

After I graduated from Elizabeth High School, I should have taken a gap year before going to college, but of course, such a concept was foreign to me. Instead, I went to Rutgers, then Kean College. I didn’t do much academically, but that year was not all lost. I learned about the Civil Rights Movement and discovered Malcom X and Martin Luther King. I immersed myself in Black American life through books.

I felt buoyed by that history, like I had found my intellectual compass. I settled my choice down to three Historically Black Colleges and Universities down — Howard, North Carolina A&T and Morehouse. One day I ran into Derrick while he was home from school and told him of my plan. 

“Homeboy, you have to come to FAMU,” he said referring to The Florida A&M University. “That’s where I am, you have to.” 

I followed him there and that experience changed my life. Our shared cultures and challenges are more intertwined than either of us had realized. 

A viral view of anti-Blackness

This reality has come to the fore with the latest crisis facing Haitians. We all saw it: U.S. Customs & Border Patrol agents treating Haitians seeking asylum the way that slave catchers of yore chased down African American runaways fleeing plantations. We all watched the agents, high on their horses, use the reins as whips to make sure these Haitian people, these Black people, didn’t come here. 

It took a minute to sink in, even as the images went viral, but soon the Congressional Black Caucus, civil rights leaders and Black journalists pushed back hard. They united around Haitians because they didn’t see us as “Haitians,” but as the lost cousins that were dropped off at an earlier port during that peculiar institution we call chattel slavery. 

It is about time that we Haitians come to the realization that we are Black Americans, just with a different accent. Heck, there are millions of us in Louisiana. All you have to do is watch an LSU game on any given Saturday and you will see Black people with French surnames. 

New Orleans is the only place in America where people don’t wonder about my name and accent. I’m one of them. 

Back at FAMU, I had met some students from Louisiana and one had invited me there and his mom told me about Marie Laveau, the famous Vodou priestess, and other luminaries that came from Haiti. When I ventured into the deep swamp towns and hamlets, I heard a Creole akin to that in Cap Haitien, a different accent.

At FAMU, after the freshman year, few people lived on campus. We lived in apartment buildings where the majority of the dwellers attended the school and these places became de facto dorms. 

We would congregate at each other’ places, watch BET, and talk about the problems facing Blacks in America and how we would solve them when we became professionals. They would pepper me with questions about Haiti and its revolution. 

At that time, the sheen had been wiped off the Haiti of my youth. In the early 1980’s, a wave of Haitian refugees coming by boat was top of the news in South Florida and nationally. I would try my best to explain the reality in Haiti, although back then I didn’t follow Haiti all that much. I reverted to the history for contextual background.

I’m still in touch with a cadre of these classmates to this day and we are on a chat group where we share the latest news of who has passed away and the trials and tribulations of our children. That is how I found out that Derrick had died. 

Joint histories coming to light 

I was one of a handful of Haitian students in the “Yard” as FAMU’s campus was known and was popular partly because I was a reporter at the FAMUAN, the school’s newspaper, eventually becoming its editor in chief. 

These days, things are different. I was invited to speak by the Dean of the School of Journalism, where I was pleasantly surprised to see that Haitians were no longer a small minority of the student body. There is a Haitian Student Association in Tallahassee that includes students who attend FAMU, Florida State and Tallahassee Community College.

I spoke about my time at FAMU and campus life in the early 1980’s. The students

were mostly from South Florida, presumably children of the refugees who were arriving while I was in school. 

They were fully integrated on campus life. They were part of the frat scene and were part of the larger Black family. Instead of being from Louisiana, their parents came from Haiti, and they had embraced the culture. 

During our conversation, I asked them why they felt they started a Haitian club, considering the campus was majority Black and there was a Caribbean student club dating before when I was in school. I was told that while they identified with all of them, there was something special about being Haitian because of the country’s history. They wanted to preserve it and celebrate it.

I flashed a smile because I knew exactly what they meant. It’s time for this generation, who has embraced their African American and Caribbean cousins, moored solidly in their “Haitianity,” to coin a word, to rise. They, more than anybody, understand this moment. It is their moment to show the world where Black unity can take us. 

The time for petty division is over. Haitians, Black Americans, Caribbean Americans and now continental Africans must realize that they are not competitors. We are collaborators facing an ever-rising tide of white nationalism in the world bent on pushing us back and holding us down. 

If we can gain that unity, we can make the Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) coalition into a broader movement for social change, along with like-minded whites who support our cause.