Haiti News

Speech by Bruno Rodríguez Parilla, Cuban minister of foreign affairs, at the Haiti donors meeting  3/31/2010 Granma: "The international community has a tremendous debt with Haiti where, after three centuries of colonialism, the first social revolution on the American continent took place, an act of boldness that the colonial powers punished with close to 200 years of military dictatorships and plunder. Its noble and hardworking people are now the poorest in the Western hemisphere."

HAITI: Looking More and More Like a War Zone  3/30/2010 Narco News: "On an empty road in Cite Militaire, an industrial zone across from the slums of Cite Soleil, a group of women are gathered around a single white sack of U.S. rice. The rice was handed out Monday morning at a food distribution by the Christian relief group World Vision. According to witnesses, during the distribution U.N. peacekeeping troops sprayed tear gas on the crowd. "Haitians know that's the way they act with us. They treat us like animals," said Lourette Elris, as she divided the rice amongst the women. "They gave us the food, we were on our way home, then the troops threw tear gas at us. We finished receiving the food, we weren't disorderly."

El Sur haitiano también existe  3/4/2010 Granma

Haiti: A tale of two disasters  3/4/2010 SF Bay View: "The Haiti Emergency Relief Fund (HERF), the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the SF Bay View were able to send a medical team consisting of one doctor (myself) and three nurses. Three media trained personnel were also a part of the team. The HERF medical team provided a modest amount of medical aid in two locations within the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. We served in a tent city in the Delmas area of the capital and at a curb-side clinic in the slum area of Cite Soleil. It was in these two locations that we found a very different level of resources and engagement by international relief workers and foreign missionaries."

Mercenaries Circling Haiti  3/3/2010 Counterpunch

Haiti: la labor “humanitaria” de la USAID  3/1/2010 Kaos en la Red: "Analizando los miles de millones de que se han invertido para el “desarrollo” de Haití cabe preguntarse cómo es posible que invirtiendo tanto dinero ese país sigue ocupando uno de los lugares más bajos en la lista de países pobres. La esencia está en que ese dinero entró y con la misma salió de la mano de empresas extranjeras, ONG´s y políticos haitianos corruptos. Los fondos no han tenido como finalidad mejorar al pueblo haitiano sino garantizar los intereses geoestrátegicos norteamericanos en la región."

Haiti-Séisme : Crise humanitaire majeure / Les dernières données - Un mois et demi après  2/27/2010 AlterPress: "La Direction de la Protection Civile (DCP) estime que 222.517 personnes sont mortes suite au tremblement de terre du 12 Janvier. Le président René Préval pense que le nombre de morts est susceptible d’atteindre les 300.000, tenant compte des cadavres que renferment encore les décombres. - Le nombre de personnes qui ont quitté Port-au-Prince pour la province est passé à 597.801, soit une augmentation de plus de 80.000, particulièrement vers la Grande Anse et le Sud ou des arrivées de 21,000 personnes et 63,000 personnes ont respectivement été enregistrées. Environ 160.000 ont laissé la région métropolitaine pour la zone frontalière avec la République Dominicaine."

Haiti-Earthquake : Human rights concerns  2/26/2010 AlterPress: "Only 23,000 proper tents have been distributed, according to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance. At least 1.2 million people are homeless."

Haïti-Séisme : Décentraliser, refonder le pays, pas seulement reconstruire..., dixit Préval  2/24/2010 AlterPress: "Il ne s’agira pas de reconstruire, mais de refonder le pays. Un pays plus juste, un pays décentralisé, qui ne se contente pas de concentrer toutes ses ressources sur Port-au-Prince où vivent les élites économiques et politiques » a-t-il, en effet, déclaré le dimanche 21 février lors du 1er sommet des chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement du Mexique et des Etats membres de la communauté économique caribéenne (Caricom)."

Apprendre la leçon des colonisés!  2/24/2010 Haïti Liberté: "Bien sûr, le président Sarkozy, sans expliquer clairement la culpabilité de son pays dans le grand drame haïtien, ses responsabilités passées et présentes, s’est fait le conseiller avisé qui, à la faveur de ce grand naufrage, dit reconnaître la nécessité de la décentralisation dans une Haiti dans laquelle les ressources doivent être profi tables à tous. Voilà que le président parle de développement endogène dans un pays où l’impérialisme impose ses lois du talion, ses lois qui écrasent les plus faibles et renforcent les plus puissants. Offrant une aide de 326 millions d’euros, peut-être Sarkozy croit-il répondre à la fameuse revendication historique, à savoir : Restitution-Réparation. Restitution des 150 millions de francs arrachés d’Haiti pour « réparer les torts faits aux colons par l’indépendance » et la Réparation pour les deux siècles au cours desquels la France métropolitaine a jeté des milliers de Nègres dans l’enfer colonial de Saint-Domingue, où ils ont travaillé comme des bêtes de somme, pour la gloire et l’enrichissement de ladite métropole. Est-ce vrai que la France, hier colonialiste, aujourd’hui néo-colonialiste, voudrait bien qu’un pays de Nègres, Haiti, brise les structures fermées et aliénantes de l’assistanat pour construire une économie digne de l’homme et de tout homme ? La prétendue aide de 326 millions d’Euros et des possibilités pour que des cadres de l’administration publique haïtienne aillent se perfectionner à l’Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), les promesses faites d’accueillir 700 étudiants dans des universités antillaises et autres, ne peuvent compenser les torts faits par la France à Haiti avant, pendant et après l’indépendance."

Angry demonstrators demand Sarkozy to pay up and return Aristide to Haiti  2/18/2010 Haiti Action Net: "Thousands of supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide took to the streets on Wednesday as French president Nicolas Sarkozy toured the earthquake ravaged capital of Port au Prince. Holding pictures of the ousted president aloft they chanted for France to pay more then 21 billion dollars in restitution and reparations and to return Aristide as Sarkozy's helicopter landed near Haiti's quake damaged national palace. Their demands stem from a long held dispute over compensation a nascent Haiti was forced to pay French slave owners in exchange for recognition of their independence and France's role in ousting Aristide in 2004."

A Million Homeless in Haiti  2/15/2010 Counterpunch: "Despite the fact that over a million people remained homeless in Haiti one month after the earthquake, the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Ken Merten, is quoted at a State Department briefing on February 12, saying “In terms of humanitarian aid delivery…frankly, it’s working really well, and I believe that this will be something that people will be able to look back on in the future as a model for how we’ve been able to sort ourselves out as donors on the ground and responding to an earthquake.”

Dominican Probed In Missionary Case Admits Prior Charges  2/15/2010 WSJ: "Mr. Puello also said he was the same person being investigated by police in El Salvador in connection with an alleged sex-trafficking ring broken up last year, in which women and girls from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere were lured into prostitution, Salvadoran authorities said. The El Salvador police have been trying to determine if the man they want, Jorge Torres Orellana, is the same person as Mr. Puello."

HAITI: Local Leaders Shut Out of Military-Run Relief Efforts  2/13/2010 IPS

Protesters clash with police following rain in Haiti  2/11/2010 Haiti Action Net: "At 4:30 am as the rain began to fall a collective wail could be heard rising from the makeshift camps of those left homeless due to a massive earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12. Cries of helplessness and misery quickly turned into shouts of anger and invectives against Haitian president Rene Preval as thousands then took to the streets in several spontaneous street demonstrations. Throughout one of the largest marches that headed towards the United Nations headquarters located near the airport protesters also sang, “If Aristide was here he would be soaked along with us.”

Régis Debray en Bolivie et en Haïti  2/11/2010 VoltaireNet: Un compte rendu sur les maneuvres entreprit par la France de Debray et Villepin pour faire chuter Aristide.

Haïti : Les plans du FMI ont été meurtriers  2/10/2010 Haiti Progres

Media Disinformation regarding Emergency Relief in Haiti by Danny Schechter  2/7/2010 Global Research: "We have gone from hearing reports of massive casualties and social needs to a focus on 10 Americans being indicted for child snatching. Once again we have become the story just as the misnamed “We are the World” is revived. It may be another example of what Ishmael Reed calls “fading to white,” a play on the Fade to Black phrase that TV insiders use to end every recorded show. In a sense, the indictment of the American missionaries by the Haitian government—which has not yet included a charge for child trafficking---is a reassertion at its authorities when we are hearing voices on CNN and in policy circles faulting the devastated government for not doing enough. Not only are they still there, and reasserting but they are launching a high-profile case against Americans, something symbolically important for a retaining the support of Haitians who are furious (but not very vocal for obvious reasons given their situation) with the US response. This case gives them a high profile way of challenging the aid effort."

G-7 Forgives Haiti Bilateral Debt,Calls For Multilateral Debt Relief  2/6/2010 Dow Jones: "Finance ministers from the world's seven leading industrialized countries on Saturday suggested quick financial relief could be en route for earthquake-devastated Haiti. At a press conference after two days of meetings in this Arctic town, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he and his G-7 colleagues would forgive bilateral loans extended to poverty-stricken Haiti, which estimates it could have lost 200,000 residents in the major earthquake that hit last month. Flaherty also called for Haiti's multilateral debt to be forgiven as soon as possible. "Debt should not be an additional burden," as the country aims to recover from the quake, he said. Haiti currently owes international creditors about $890 million. About 30% of that debt was extended through bilateral agreements while the remaining 70% is from the Inter-American Development Bank and other multilateral creditors."

Chavez Writes Off Haiti’s Oil Debt to Venezuela  2/6/2010 Latin American herald Tribune: “Haiti has no debt with Venezuela, just the opposite: Venezuela has a historical debt with that nation, with that people for whom we feel not pity but rather admiration, and we share their faith, their hope,” Chavez said after the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, or ALBA. He also announced that ALBA has decided on a comprehensive plan that includes an immediate donation of $20 million to Haiti’s health sector, and a fund that, Chavez said, will be at least $100 million “for starters.”"

Haiti, Still Starving 23 Days Later  2/5/2010 Counterpunch: "You can walk down many of the streets of Port au Prince and see absolutely no evidence that the world community has helped Haiti. Twenty three days after the earthquake jolted Haiti and killed over 200,000 people, as many as a million people have still not received any international food assistance. On February 4, the UN World Food Program reported they had given at least some food, mostly 55 pound bags of rice, to over a million people. The UN acknowledges that it still needs to reach another one million people. The 55 pounds of rice are expected to provide a two week food ration for a family. Beans and cooking oil are scheduled to come later."

Democracy Now Interview with Bill Quigley  2/5/2010 Democracy Now

Haitians will defend their sovereignty  2/1/2010 Real News: "Well, I'm very thankful for so many people around the world giving money to Haiti, but many people, many Haitians on the ground, are not receiving the aid. And I don't really know how to explain this, because I do have families—from my own side and my wife's relatives—they are in zones that were severely hit by the earthquake, but they have not seen aid coming."

The US game in Latin America  1/29/2010 Guardian: "When I write about US foreign policy in places such as Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who find it difficult to believe that the US government would care enough about these countries to try and control or topple their governments. These are small, poor countries with little in the way of resources or markets. Why should Washington policymakers care who runs them? Unfortunately they do care. A lot. They care enough about Haiti to have overthrown the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide not once, but twice. The first time, in 1991, it was done covertly. We only found out after the fact that the people who led the coup were paid by the US Central Intelligence Agency. And then Emmanuel Constant, the leader of the most notorious death squad there – which killed thousands of Aristide's supporters after the coup – told CBS News that he, too, was funded by the CIA."

Video: Mistrusting of Their Government and UN, Haitians Place Their Hopes In US Troops, Aristide  1/29/2010 Media Hacker

On the Ground in Port au Prince - Haitians are Helping Haitians  1/28/2010 Counterpunch: "Though helicopters thunder through the skies, actual relief of food and water and shelter remains mimimal to non-existent in most neighborhoods. Haitians are helping Haitians. Young men have organized into teams to guard communities of homeless families. Women care for their own children as well as others now orphaned."

In Grand Goave, Relief Efforts Frustrate Haitian Neighborhood Leaders  1/28/2010 Media Hacker: “They have made many promises, but we don’t see the action yet,” Salam said, referring to the international community. “We have a lot of people suffering. There is an expectation that help will come.”

In Grand Goave, Relief Efforts Frustrate Haitian Neighborhood Leaders  1/28/2010 MediaHacker: "An analysis by the Associated Press on Wednesday found that 33 cents of every dollar towards emergency aid in Haiti goes to military aid, more than three times the nine cents spent on food. Residents of Grand Goave said there is a network of seven neighbourhood leaders for each section of the city that has not been tapped in the relief effort. Friends are pooling resources to purchase rice when possible, but family after family living outside the rubble of their homes told IPS they have received no assistance."

Traffickers targeting Haiti's children, human organs, PM says  1/27/2010 CNN: "There is organ trafficking for children and other persons also, because they need all types of organs," Bellerive said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour."

Fear Slows Aid Efforts in Haiti  1/27/2010 Counterpunch: "One friend showed me the map, used by all of the larger NGOs where Port au Prince is divided into security zones, yellow, orange, red. Red zones are restricted, in the orange zones all of the car windows must be rolled up and they cannot be visited past certain times of day, even in the yellow zones aid workers are often not permitted to walk through the streets and spend much of their time in Haiti riding through the city from one office to another in organizational vehicles. The creation of these security zones has been like the building of a wall, a wall reinforced by language barriers and fear rather than iron rods, a wall that, unlike many of the buildings in Port au Prince, did not crumble during the earthquake. Fear, much like violence, is self perpetuating. When aid workers enter communities radiating fear it is offensive, the perceived disinterest in communicating with the poor majority is offensive, driving through impoverished communities with windows rolled up and armed security guards is offensive and, ironically, all of these extra security measures actually increase the level of risk for aid workers. As I said, this wall of fear is not a new phenomenon and it has had very serious implications for the distribution of the millions of dollars of aid that have been flowing into the country for the past 10 days. Despite the good intentions of the many aid workers swarming around the UN base, much of the aid coming through the larger organizations is still blocked in storage, waiting for the required UN and US military escorts that are seen as essential for distribution, meanwhile people in the camps are suffering and their tolerance is waning."

Plan of Death in Haiti  1/27/2010 Counterpunch: "The Obama team has not shifted the century-long U.S. policy vis-a-vis Haiti. Promotion of tourism and sweatshops, increase in debt and rural flight: all this will continue. A $100 million in aid is minuscule, almost insulting. It was Obama’s first tranche for Haiti. More will come, but with substantial conditions, more along the plan of death. These are inevitable, and they will set the stage for further suffering."

U. S. Fear of Democracy in Haiti - Security Kills  1/27/2010 Counterpunch: "Doctor Evan Lyon, of Partners in Health, a medical aid group famous for its heroic efforts in Haiti, referred to "misinformation and rumours … and racism" concerning security issues. "We’ve been circulating throughout the city until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning every night, evacuating patients, moving materials. There’s no UN guards. There’s no U.S. military presence. There’s no Haitian police presence. And there’s also no violence. There is no insecurity." To understand the United States government’s obsession with “security concerns,” we must look at the recent history of Washington’s involvement there."

IMF chief in U-turn as Venezuela cancels Haiti debt  1/27/2010 Morning Star, UK: "International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has made a U-turn on the US-dominated financial institution's attempt to burden earthquake-devastated Haiti with another $100 million (£61.7m) of debt. Mr Strauss-Kahn declared that he now supported efforts to "delete all the Haitian debt, including our new loan," following criticism from leaders such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who announced his own country's immediate cancellation of a $295m (£182m) debt on Monday."

Haiti-Séisme : Chavez estime que trop de marines accompagnent la mission « humanitaire » nord-américaine  1/26/2010 AlterPress: "Elle est tellement ‘humanitaire’ qu’elle a amené une grande quantité de marines, pas précisément entraînés pour des opérations de sauvetage. Ce sont des troupes entraînées pour envahir, pour tuer", ajoute-t-il. Selon le président vénézuélien, "les troupes nord-américaines contrôlent aujourd’hui le territoire haïtien. Ils ont pris le Palais du Gouvernement et le Palais Législatif et ils contrôlent l’aéroport international selon leur bon vouloir." Pendant qu’un groupe de nations souveraines luttent pour renforcer l’aide humanitaire, le Commando Sud s’occupe d’augmenter la présence militaire de l’empire », insiste Chavez… Cependant, considère le chef d’État vénézuélien, "en ces jours funestes, le peuple haïtien a démontré son courage et sa dignité. On l’observe dans l’exemple des bataillons de secouristes haïtiens qui se sont spontanément formés et qui ont participé à de nombreuses opérations de sauvetage pour dégager des blessés"

Haiti-Séisme : La Norvège appui l’intervention des médecins cubains  1/26/2010 AlterPress: "La Norvège à mis à la disposition de Cuba cinq millions de couronnes (environ 885 000 dollars) pour soutenir le travail réalisé par les médecins cubains dans ce pays, indique la presse cubaine. Selon l’accord paraphé le 24 janvier, les fonds seront destinés à l’acquisition et à l’envoi de médicaments et d’autres matériels qui seront utilisés par la brigade Médicale Cubaine qui offre actuellement ses services aux victimes du séisme du 12 janvier."

Israeli hospital in Haiti ends operations  1/26/2010 Ynet: "sraeli team preparing to go home: After performing 316 surgeries and delivering 16 babies, IDF field hospital in Haiti closes its doors Monday as doctors bid patients farewell; Haitian government says quake death toll reaches 150,000 … Meanwhile, local gangs are continuing the looting in the capital, while Haitians in more remote regions are trying to revert to their routine." [Had to get that dig in about looting!]

Statement on Haiti  1/25/2010 Adoptees of Color Roundtable

La Katrina d’Haïti  1/25/2010 AlterPress: "Comme les quatre cyclones qui ravageaient Haïti en automne 2008, ou encore Katrina, le cyclone qui frappait les États-Unis en été 2005, le séisme du 12 janvier a démontré l’ampleur que peuvent prendre les désastres naturels quand ils se combinent avec la négligence, l’incompétence, la corruption et la mauvaise foi des humains… C’est la différence entre un État fonctionnel comme celui de Cuba qui affrontait à peu près les mêmes cyclones qu’Haïti en 2008 avec considérablement moindres dégâts, et l’État dysfonctionnel d’Haïti, historiquement au service de la bourgeoisie prédatrice, qui ne s’est jamais souscrit à la notion de l’État comme protecteur du bien-être général et des moins privilégiés."

Haiti orphans at risk from traffickers -government, UNICEF  1/25/2010 Reuters: "A police unit tasked with protecting minors has sent officers to the border but officials said that like every other Haitian institution, the unit was hit hard by the earthquake that killed at least 120,000 people and probably many more. "We are very concerned that there are increasing reports that children are being picked up and trafficked out of the country," said Kent Page, a spokesman for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF). But he had no details of specific cases. Authorities also fear that legitimate aid groups may have flown earthquake orphans out of the country for adoption before efforts to find their parents had been exhausted. As a result, the Haitian government last week halted these types of adoptions. "There is no question that either NGOs (non-governmental organizations) or institutions of any kind can take children off the streets (for adoption) and say that they are orphans," said Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, expressing his fears that this might be happening. There are no reliable estimates of the number of parentless and lost children at risk in Haiti's quake-shattered capital Port-au-Prince. Hungry, homeless minors fending for themselves in the city are a common sight."

Chávez: “No vamos a permitir que los gringos se apoderen de Haití”  1/24/2010 Aporrea: "El primer mandatario enfatizó que “los nuestros arriesgan su vida mientras los gringos están en su barco mientras llegan los pacientes. “CNN puede mostrar imágenes de los médicos venezolanos, están en el terreno, entre el dolor vacunando, ahora vienen las epidemias”.

Securing Disaster in Haiti  1/24/2010 Haiti Cuba Venezuela Analysis: "Nine days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, it’s now clear that the initial phase of the US-led relief operation has conformed to the three fundamental tendencies that have shaped the more general course of the island’s recent history.[1] It has adopted military priorities and strategies. It has sidelined Haiti’s own leaders and government, and ignored the needs of the majority of its people. And it has proceeded in ways that reinforce the already harrowing gap between rich and poor. All three tendencies aren’t just connected, they are mutually reinforcing."

VIVA CUBA! Cuban Doctors Treating the People of Haiti  1/24/2010 Haiti Cuba Venezuela Analysis: See pics - "Since the earthquake, Cuba has sent an additional 100 doctors and last year students at LASM sent a letter to Raul pleading to have the “honor” to go to Haiti to help. Cuba’s humanitarian assistance to the world began just a few years after the revolution when a Cuban boat dropped a load of arms to assist in the Algerian independence struggle. The boat returned with 76 injured Algerian guerillas along with 20 children from a refugee camp. During Guinea-Bissau’s war of independence from the Portuguese, Cuban ships regularly picked up the injured, which included many children, mostly orphans, and took them to Cuba for medical care and schooling. And since then, over 56,000 Cubans have worked in Africa as doctors, teachers, engineers, sports trainers and skilled workers. It has been said many times that “when Africa called, Cuba answered.” Now we must add, when Haiti called, Cuba answered a long time ago and continues its service to the people of Haiti."

ALBA insta a ONU a encargarse de coordinación en Haití y evalúa fondo de reconstrucción  1/24/2010 Telesur: "Los cancilleres de la Alianza Bolivariana para los pueblos de América (ALBA) acordaron este domingo instar a la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) a encargarse de la coordinación de la ayuda internacional que es enviada hacia Haití, ya que la fuerte presencia militar de Estados Unidos no es un mecanismo efectivo para enfrentar la crisis tras el terremoto del pasado 12 de enero."

Man Rescued Alive After Haiti Calls Off Searches  1/24/2010 Wall Street Journal

A Thorn in the Side of the U.S. Military in Haiti  1/23/2010 Counterpunch: "Now, in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, Telesur has joined al-Jazeera in providing critical coverage of events. Moving on from the MINUSTAH mission, Telesur has focused in laser-like on United States’ misplaced priorities in the Caribbean island nation. While most Americans watch the mainstream media and bask in a wave of self-congratulation, Telesur has painted a darker picture of the U.S. response."

Wyclef Jean foundation hires new accountants after rapper acknowledges mistakes  1/23/2010 CP

Did Mining and Oil Drilling Trigger Earthquake?  1/23/2010 Haiti Cuba Venezuela Analysis: "Human-triggered quakes are usually minor, but not always. A 1967 quake in western India that killed about 200 people was linked to the nearby Koyna Dam."

AUDIO: No help forthcoming for Haitian journalists determined to keep broadcasting  1/23/2010 mediahacker: "Here’s my story for yesterday’s Free Speech Radio News newscast, about Haitian radio broadcasters doing their best to stay on the air in the quake’s aftermath without any outside support. MP3. Video later."

Growth of aid and the decline of humanitarianism  1/23/2010 The Lancet: "Picture the situation in Haiti: families living on top of sewage-contaminated rubbish dumps, with no reliable sources of food and water and virtually no access to health care. This scenario depicts the situation in Haiti before the earthquake that catapulted this impoverished and conflict-ridden country into the international headlines."

Wyclef Jean's Yele Charity Not The Only One With Dirt  1/22/2010 ABC: "The financial misconduct at Jean's Yele charity has thrown some nasty light on Haiti's relief efforts. Jean has not admitted to wrongdoing, but the group's most recent tax filing shows some financial imprudence. Yele, also known as the Wyclef Jean Foundation, raised more than $2 million after the earthquake through text messages, after Jean called on fans to donate $5 by texting "Yele" to 501501. Most of the criticism against Jean has focused on what's considered dubious spending, and records show that in 2007, the most recent year for which a filing is available, Yele earned $79,126 but spent $569,050. Critics also point to the close connections between Jean's business and charity ventures, pointing out a $250,000 payment made to buy airtime on a Haitian television station owned by the Grammy award- winner and his business partner."

Prices in Haiti on the Rise While the Population Starves  1/22/2010 Alternet

Haiti-Séisme: De la discrimination dans les opérations de secours?  1/22/2010 Alterpresse: "Le premier choc reçu a été le 15 janvier dans l’aéroport international Toussaint Louverture, où un citoyen noir a été, selon lui, abandonné sur la piste sans aucune aide. « Il y a avait cette personne brûlée à 80%, abandonnée sur la piste sans aucune aide et ils ne sont pas allés la sortir, alors qu’il y avait deux personnes blanches à l’intérieur de l’aéroport, légèrement blessées seulement, avec trois docteurs à leurs côtés et des pansements sur la tête », affirme-t-il. Camilo Monroy soutient que les secouristes ont reçu l’ordre de vérifier si les cadavres rencontrés étaient blancs ou noirs, sans pouvoir identifier l’origine de cet ordre."

El Pentágono está en Haití  1/22/2010 Cuba Debate: "Los militares estadounidenses ordenaron ayer el desalojo inmediato de todos los periodistas internacionales de la zona de acampada dentro del aeropuerto donde los reporteros compartían espacio con los cooperantes. El miércoles a las cinco de la tarde, hora haitiana, un soldado se acercó tienda por tienda a comunicar a los medios de comunicación que a las cinco de la mañana del día siguiente todo el mundo tenía que estar fuera… El secretario de Estado para Iberoamérica, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, visitó por la noche el campamento español para comunicarles que el Gobierno haitiano había dejado el control del aeropuerto a EEUU y que la Armada estadounidense necesitaba todas las instalaciones… El edificio de la televisión de Haití también fue tomado por un grupo de soldados estadounidenses. Además, la presencia de los soldados con sus enormes vehículos militares ha empeorado aún más el tráfico. Circular 200 metros en coche en algunos tramos puede llevar más de una hora. Ayer, en una de las glorietas de la ciudad, la policía haitiana, cascos azules de Naciones Unidas, soldados de EEUU y un ciudadano occidental con la estética de miembro de Blackwater daban direcciones contradictorias entre sí a los desesperados conductores… Al margen del despliegue militar, Unicef denunció ayer el “descontrol absoluto” en la salida de 140 menores del país después del terremoto. Julie Bergeron, jefa de protección de Unicef, afirmó a Público que han enviado personal al aeropuerto para impedir la salida de niños sin papeles."

Security “Red Zones” in Haiti Preventing Large Aid Groups from Effectively Distributing Aid  1/22/2010 Democracy Now: "What I’ve been witnessing here is that the aid actually arrived fairly quickly. So, very quickly, they had ships there with supplies, medical supplies, water. As I understand, there’s thousands of tons of food that are available. But the problem that they’re having is distribution of the aid."

Looting - is it really a matter of black and white?  1/22/2010 Independent, UK

Did mining and oil drilling behind UN/US guns trigger the Haiti earthquake?  1/22/2010 Salon: by Marguerite Laurent

Media ordered from airport  1/22/2010 Straits Times, Singapore: "The Inter American Press Association earlier called on the US military to rescind what it said was an order turfing reporters out of an area that has become the focal point for the arrival of aid to the country. Media workers had for the last 10 days had regular access to Port-au-Prince airport but must now 'vacate these areas so that normal airport regulations can be established,' said the Haiti Joint Information Center, which presents news from Haitian and US authorities. The Haitian Ministry of Transportation has also asked the US military, providing security at the airport, to make sure media groups remove camps and equipment from the terminal and tarmac."

Cuba Aids Haiti Relief  1/22/2010 Voice of America: "President Barack Obama has pledged $100 million in aid to the ruined island nation, part of one of the largest international relief efforts in history. The bilateral cooperation between the U.S. and Cuba reflects our overwhelming concern for the welfare of the Haitian people. We will continue to look for areas where cooperation between our 2 nations can support Haitian relief."

Haitians dying by the thousands as US escalates military intervention  1/22/2010 World Socialist: "Thousands of Haitians are dying every day for lack of medical care and supplies, according to a leading humanitarian aid group. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced that it is expanding the US military presence in the country, maintaining Washington’s priority of troops over humanitarian aid. The US-based medical aid group Partners in Health has warned that as many as 20,000 Haitians may be dying daily due to infections such as gangrene and sepsis that have set in, as the majority of the injured receive no medical care or are treated in facilities that lack the most basic supplies."

Private companies look to Haiti for opportunities  1/22/2010 YouTube: with Wayne Madsen - "Private companies are looking to Haiti for upcoming job opportunities. These organizations are offering a range of services, from rapid housing construction to emergency relief shelters and even transportation. After the 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, several companies posted websites for future clients. Private organizations in Afghanistan and Iraq are also seeing dollar signs in the catastrophe. RTs Lauren Lyster talked with investigation journalist, Wayne Madsen about this issue facing Haiti."

Cuba stands by the Haitian People  1/21/2010 Cuban Embassy, Botswana: "The Cuban doctors began to offer their services immediately after the earthquake. It was the most important health care assistance received by Haitian people in the first 72 hours. On 13 January, over 60 health staff joined those in to Port au Prince, including specialists from the Henry Reeve Contingent with experienced in emergencies when similar disasters occurred in Asia and Latin America countries. Until Thursday 14 January the Cuban Medical Brigade had assisted 1 987 patients and performed 111 surgeries, at health centers in Port au Prince: Field Hospital Annex, Hospital La Renaissance, Ofatma Hospital, Diagnostic Health Centers of Grand Goave and Integral Diagnostic Center Mirebalais, the latter two located on the outskirts of the capital."

Bottled Water Supplies in Port-au-Prince Airport Being Distributed…to US Embassy  1/21/2010 Democracy Now: "AMY GOODMAN: Everywhere we have traveled, people have asked, “Where is the aid?” Well, a lot of it appears to be here, right here at the Port-au-Prince airport. People ask for water. They ask for food. And we see many, many pallets, thousands of bottles of water. We see some being loaded now onto a truck. But people are asking, “Where is it? Why isn’t it coming to us faster?” Most people haven’t gotten it at all. Let’s see where this water is going. So, where is the water going? HAITIAN WORKER: US embassy."

A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario Was Envisaged by the US Military One Day Before the Earthquake  1/21/2010 Global Research: "A Haiti disaster relief scenario had been envisaged at the headquarters of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in Miami one day prior to the earthquake. The holding of pre-disaster simulations pertained to the impacts of a hurricane in Haiti. They were held on January 11. (Bob Brewin, Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts (1/15/10) -- GovExec.com, complete text of article is contained in Annex) "

Haiti Earthquake: US Ships Blockade Coast to Thwart Exodus to America  1/21/2010 Global Research: "In response to America's closed door, Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's President, has offered Haitian descendants of African slaves the chance to resettle in "the land of their ancestors" and offered them plots of land. "Africa should offer Haitians the chance to return home. It is their right," he said."

Help Haiti, No Military – Since Earthquake Cuban Docs Treated 10,000 People  1/21/2010 Haiti Cuba Venezuela Analysis

Haitians: 'To those in power, we are not considered victims'  1/21/2010 Independent, UK: "We don't have doctors, we don't have food, we don't have water," said Louis Jean Jaris, a 29-year-old resident. "The aid comes to Haiti, but it goes elsewhere. In Cité Soleil we are all victims, just like everyone else, but compared to the rest of the country, we are a low priority. To the people in power, we are not considered to be victims."

Stop treating these people like savages  1/21/2010 Independent, UK

Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations plane with relief aid for Haiti stranded in Caracas  1/21/2010 ITAR TASS: "Russia’s Charges d’Affaires in Venezuela Vladimir Tokmakov told Itar-Tass that the IL-76 plane was being grounded in Caracas because the U.S. air traffic controllers, who are in control of the Port –au-Prince airport, were constantly delaying permission to fly into the Haitian capital. The U.S. air traffic controllers are claiming the delay is caused by excessive workload of the Port-au-Prince airport. At the same time, U.S. planes are easily landing in the Haitian capital, the Russian diplomat went on to say… The Il-76 aircraft is carrying medical supplies, food and other essentials for the victims of the devastating earthquake. It’s also supposed to deliver five tons of drinking water for Russian rescuers who continue working in Haiti."

Haiti reporters hassled by Sanford airport director  1/21/2010 Orlando Sentinel: "A Los Angeles Times reporter says Larry Dale, president of Orlando Sanford International Airport, "bullied" and threatened to handcuff her and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal as they passed through the airport on their way home from Haiti. Tina Susman, who works for the Times, said she and Dionne Searcey of the Journal arrived at the airport Tuesday aboard a cargo plane with evacuees from Haiti, where they had been reporting on the aftermath of the earthquake… Susman, a national correspondent who was Baghdad bureau chief for two years and spent 11 years covering Africa, said Dale insinuated that she and Searcey could be stowaways or terrorists with fake credentials. She said he shouted at her to sit down and be quiet."

U.S. Private Security Firms Head to Haiti  1/21/2010 Pro Publica: "A trade group representing military contractors and private security firms, the International Peace Operations Association, has launched a Web site [3] for prospective clients, listing member companies offering their services in Haiti. Among them is Triple Canopy, a large private security firm that has operated under multi-million dollar contracts in Iraq. Others are already in Haiti, like HART Security which is currently "providing security services to the media."

Earthquake in Haiti: Under Aristide, Haitians were prepared for disaster  1/21/2010 SF Bay View: "Haiti is not that big. Haiti is the size of the state of Maryland. And with helicopters flying all over the place, yet nobody right there even in Port au Prince – people are not being told. Of course, various communities are not being approached. They are not seeing anybody come by to check and assess the damage or their needs. People are thirsty. People are hungry. And it’s incredible what’s going on, and that’s criminal."

Venezuela steps up aid effort to Haiti, questions U.S. military deployment  1/21/2010 SF Bay View: "Haiti “needs doctors, tents, rescue teams and machinery … Now, who said soldiers, rifles and machine guns are necessary?” he [Chavez] asked."

What Haiti Is Owed  1/21/2010 The Nation: "In the nineteenth century the French forced Haiti into paying reparations of some 150 million francs to French slave owners. It took Haitians 122 years, but in 1947 they were finally able to pay off what remained of this debt. Yet this came at the enormous cost of its development: at one point the Haitian government was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments. In the 1990s the Clinton administration and international lenders like the World Bank, IMF and the Inter-American Development Bank pressured Haiti into structural adjustment policies that opened the country up to imports and to the privatization of state-run industries and public infrastructure like the telephone, education and healthcare systems. The dire state of affairs that preceded the earthquake--poverty, deforestation, food shortages, broken schools and malnutrition--is this history's legacy. It's a kind of hell, perhaps, but a man-made one. Last year, much of Haiti's debt was forgiven, but some $1 billion remains. The biggest loan holders--the World Bank, the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank, Venezuela and Taiwan--should forgive Haiti's outstanding debt, and any new aid should be dispersed as grants, not loans."

Emergency Earthquake Appeal: Support Cuban-Trained Haitian Doctors  1/21/2010 The Social Medicine Portal: "We have received an appeal from our friends at MEDICC who are providing support to Haitian doctors in Haiti who have been trained in Cuba. This is a particularly important effort since it strengthens the local medical infrastructure; these Haitian doctors will remain in place long after the disaster relief ends. And it also breaks with the mainly paternalistic (and subtly racist) presentation of Haitians as the passive recipients of help provided by outside agents."

The US Navy has anchored one of its secret prisons in Haitian waters  1/21/2010 Voltairenet: "Having denied it for a long time, the Pentagon eventually acknowledged that the USS Bataan had in fact been used as a prison in December 2001, but that it recovered its normal functions as of January 2002, an allegation which is contested by numerous specialists who claim that it continued to operate as a prison off shore."

Haiti’s Tragedy Could Provide an Opportunity for Improved US-Cuban Relations Through Disaster Relief Collaboration  1/20/2010 COHA

Haiti needs water, not occupation  1/20/2010 Guardian, UK: "On Sunday, Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Programme, said: "There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount for a country like Haiti ... But most flights are for the US military." Yet Lieutenant General PK Keen, deputy commander of the US Southern Command, reports that there is less violence in Haiti now than there was before the earthquake hit. Dr Evan Lyon, of Partners in Health, a medical aid group famous for its heroic efforts in Haiti, referred to "misinformation and rumours … and racism" concerning security issues."

Haïti ruinée et occupée!  1/20/2010 Haiti Liberté

Passing by the corporate news censors: disinformation regarding escaped Haitian prisoners  1/20/2010 Marguerite Laurent: "The Haitian Lawyer's Association is one of the "faux" representatives of the Haitians in the United States, particularly in southern Florida. It participates in forums with the likes of Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Bahlart (R-FL and right-wing Cuban gusano) and the CIA-connected World Vision."

Plane full of medicine turned away while health workers strain to treat patients in Port-Au-Prince  1/20/2010 mediahacker: with transcript

Soldiers in Haiti told to stop handing out food  1/20/2010 Military Times: "Food handouts were shut off Tuesday to thousands of people at a tent city here when the main U.S. aid agency said the Army should not be distributing the packages. It was not known whether the action reflected a high-level policy decision at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or confusion in a city where dozens of entities are involved in aid efforts."

Emergency earthquake appeal: Support Cuban-trained Haitian doctors  1/20/2010 Progresso Weekly: "While U.S. law does not allow Cuban doctors in Haiti to receive these essential medical materials -- the U.S. embargo taking its toll post-disaster -- MEDICC and Global Links will ensure distribution to the young Haitian physicians working in public hospitals and clinics alongside the Cuban team, seeing hundreds of patients daily."

French aid group MSF accuses US over Haiti delays  1/20/2010 Reuters

Haiti rejects Dominican Republic troops-envoys  1/20/2010 Reuters: [Haitians remember the Dominicans under Trujillo massacred 30,000 of their citizens in 1937.]

Anti-Semitic video against Israel team in Haiti  1/20/2010 Ynet: "According to him, he is taking action "to promote positive change among Afro-Americans and in Africa. I am not a politician. I do a talk show and journalism and volunteer for a few non-profit organizations." And what of the Israeli aid currently being provided in Haiti? "It is good that the IDF and others are helping there, but everywhere there is death, there are exploiters. There needs to be transparency in Haiti."

The First Responders - The Blackout on Cuban Aid to Haiti  1/19/2010 Counterpunch: "The Christian Science Monitor, in a second article, quoted Laurence Korb, former assistant secretary of defense and now based at the Center for American Progress, as saying that the US, which is leading the relief efforts in Haiti, should “consider tapping the expertise of neighboring Cuba,” which he noted, “has some of the best doctors in the world--we should see about flying them in.” As for the rest of the US corporate media, they simply ignored Cuba. In fact, left unmentioned was the reality that Cuba already had nearly 400 doctors, EMTs and other medical personnel posted to Haiti to help with the day-to-day health needs of this poorest nation in the Americas, and that those professionals were the first to respond to the disaster, setting up a hospital right next to the main hospital in Port-au-Prince which collapsed in the earthquake, as well as a second tent-hospital elsewhere in the stricken city."

Exporting Misery to Haiti: How Pigs, Rice and US Policy Undermined the Haitian Economy  1/19/2010 Honduras Oye

The Obama administration's killing of Haiti through a military occupation  1/19/2010 Marguerite Laurent

Tell CNN to stop hyping fears of violence in Haiti. For shame.  1/19/2010 Media Hackers: "They started pushing the violence meme the day after the earthquake. I was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer that evening via Skype. Part way through the interview, they cut to their correspondent for a live chat from the airport. He spoke briefly with Mario Andreso, the chief of Haiti’s national police, who warned of out-of-control violence from all the prisoners who escaped the penitentiary the day of the quake. The CNN reporter repeated the claims uncritically. When they came back to me, I began to explain that I had walked through the remains of the jail (here’s the video). That many of the prisoners were reportedly shot dead by police as they tried to escape. And that I had not seen or heard of violence so far. The prison was a hellish place, with almost no medical facilities. Did it contain some genuine thugs? Yes. But it also contained many political prisoners and people who never received a fair trial from Haiti’s flawed courts. These are simple facts that CNN is too happy to overlook. I was quickly interrupted by Blitzer and they went to commercial break."

US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti  1/19/2010 The Nation: "We saw this type of Iraq-style disaster profiteering in New Orleans, and you can expect to see a lot more of this in Haiti over the coming days, weeks and months. Private security companies are seeing big dollar signs in Haiti thanks in no small part to the media hype about "looters." After Katrina, the number of private security companies registered (and unregistered) multiplied overnight. Banks, wealthy individuals, the US government all hired private security. I even encountered Israeli mercenaries operating an armed checkpoint outside of an elite gated community in New Orleans. They worked for a company called Instinctive Shooting International."

Haiti earthquake relief is stifled by chaos in Port-au-Prince  1/19/2010 WaPo

CIA Contractor Now Flying Spy Drone Over Haiti (Updated Again)  1/19/2010 Wired: "A controversial CIA contractor has found new work in Haiti, flying drones on disaster recovery duty. When last we heard from Evergreen International Aviation, the Oregon-based firm was offering to post sentries at local voting centers during the 2008 election, ”detaining troublemakers” and making sure voters “do not get out of control.”

US Security Company Offers to Perform “High Threat Terminations” and to Confront “Worker Unrest” in Haiti  1/18/2010 Aletho News

Haiti Aid Delays: Bottleneck At US-Controlled Airport  1/18/2010 AP: "French, Brazilian and other officials have complained about the U.S.-run airport's refusal to allow their supply planes to land. A World Food Program official has told The New York Times that the Americans' priorities were out of sync, allowing too many U.S. military flights and too few aid deliveries."

Disaster Profiteering: US 'Security' Companies Offer 'Services' in Haiti  1/18/2010 Common Dreams: "What is unfolding in Haiti seems to be part of what Naomi Klein has labeled the “Shock Doctrine.” Indeed, on the Heritage Foundation blog, opportunity was being found in the crisis with a post titled: “Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S.” “In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region,” wrote Heritage fellow Jim Roberts in a post that was subsequently altered to tone down the shock doctrine language. The title was later changed to: “Things to Remember While Helping Haiti.”

US Military Tightens Grip On Hait  1/18/2010 Countercurrents: "Amid the humanitarian tragedy following the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, Washington has concentrated on establishing indefinite military control of the country. Fearing mass protests and riots by desperate Haitians against inadequate rescue efforts, US logistical efforts are focused on massing tens of thousands of troops for use against the population."

The Rescue Operation's Priorities in Haiti  1/18/2010 Counterpunch: By NELSON P. VALDÉS - "The United Nations and the US authorities on the ground, are telling those who directly want to deliver help not to do so because they might be attacked by “hungry mobs.” [9] Two cargo planes from Doctors Without Borders have been forced to land in the Dominican Republic because the shipments have to be accompanied within Port au Prince by US military escort, according to the US command. [10] One American on the ground summed up the situation: "For the aid to work and the teams of search and rescue workers to be able to do their job there is going to need to be a major effort of all people to lay down their own fear and personal need and allow the help to get to the worst off. Pray that people will think of others as best they can and that relief will begin to get to the places it is needed most." [11] Such fears, created and nurtured in colonial times, have been reproduced for over two hundred years. Alexander Hamilton and José Martí recognized the humanity of the former black slaves turned revolutionaries and told us to put our fears aside. As Linda Polman writes in The Times of London class and racial fear by the rescue teams is costing the lives of thousands in Haiti. [12]"

After Haiti's earthquake - Growing deadlier  1/18/2010 Economist: "Yet the majority of victims did not perish during the 35-second tremor. Ted Constan of Partners in Health, an American NGO, says that some 200,000 people were probably injured or trapped but not killed by the quake. He estimates that an additional 25,000 of them have died on each day that has passed since the tremor, as a result of treatable ailments such as bleeding, dehydration, suffocation and infection."

Who Was The First Hospital Responder for the January 12th Haiti Earthquake? The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Medical Corps Delegation  1/18/2010 Expert Click: "Israel flew 2 giant planes in Thursday night Jan.14th, - self-sustained, meaning they had a full operating theater set up by Saturday - the only hospital in Haiti. The Israeli military team of 250 is working flat out in the city's Antoine Izmery soccer field, in 2 fully-equipped operating rooms, intensive care units, children and maternity wards, laboratories, an X-ray facility and a pharmacy, plus 50 metric tons of aid. One-third of the medical team of 40 doctors, 20 paramedics and 25 nurses plus technical staff are reservists who volunteered for the Haiti disaster relief team. They are treating 500 patients a day. Israel had the first mobile hospital on the ground in Haiti after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake Tuesday January 12th. They also brought units from Israel's Search-and-Rescue Team and the Oketz Unit dogs, trained in locating trapped persons. They have already rescued a 52 year-old Haitian, a 69-year old Frenchman and a Danish man in the capital Port-au-Prince."

Clash over Haiti aid flights  1/18/2010 Financial Times: "MSF said an aircraft carrying a surgical hospital was denied permission to land on Saturday and re-routed to Santo Domingo in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Other planes had suffered the same fate, even after guarantees from the UN and the US defence department. Jets carrying VIPs such as US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, have been able to land. "You have to question what's the priority," said Marie-Noëlle Rodrigue, deputy head of operations at MSF in France. Speaking at Port-au-Prince airport, Alain Joyandet, the French minister for cooperation, said he had lodged an official protest via the US embassy in the Haitian capital."

Disaster Profiteers Swarm on Haiti as on NOLA  1/18/2010 Gather: "Meanwhile, over on the dark side of the aid aisle, Jeremy Scahill reports that IPOA in Haiti is following Blackwater's lead from Katrina. As noted in 2005 by The Nation, Blackwater beat most governmental agencies to the scene in New Orleans after the city was ravaged by the hurricane where they did work such as "securing neighborhoods" and "confronting criminals" while armed with flak jackets and assault rifles. Though they claimed to be operating under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security, their motives and duties were certainly questionable and questioned, especially considering the $70 million price tag."

Progress Report on Coordinated Rapid Response to Haiti Earthquake  1/18/2010 Konbit Pou AyitiKonbit Pou Ayiti: "We have made substantial progress this weekend on finalizing logistics to get supplies and critical medical teams into Haiti and now have three points of entry to Haiti: direct to Jacmel via boat from the Dominican Republic, direct to Port-au-Prince over land from the DR, and to points north of PAP and the capital via Cap-Haitian and Santiago, DR (crossing at Dajabon-Ounaminthe). This report includes progress made on transporting teams and supplies into Haiti, the latest summary assessment for Jacmel from the UN in PAP and details of our headquarters and operations in Santo Domingo."

Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux  1/18/2010 Op Ed News: by Cynthia McKinney - "Therefore, we note here the writings of Ms. Marguerite Laurent, whom I met in her capacity as attorney for ousted President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ms. Laurent reminds us of Haiti's offshore oil and other mineral riches and recent revivial of an old idea to use Haiti and an oil refinery to be built there as a transshipment terminal for U.S. supertankers. Ms. Laurent, also known as Ezili Danto of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), writes: "There is evidence that the United States found oil in Haiti decades ago and due to the geopolitical circumstances and big business interests of that era made the decision to keep Haitian oil in reserve for when Middle Eastern oil had dried up. This is detailed by Dr. Georges Michel in an article dated March 27, 2004 outlining the history of oil explorations and oil reserves in Haiti and in the research of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin."

Profiting From Haiti’s Crisis  1/18/2010 Toward Freedom

Haitian President Préval largely absent in quake's aftermath  1/18/2010 WaPo

Disputes emerge over Haiti aid control  1/17/2010 Al Jazeera: [Endless armored vehicles and guns…]

Clinton, Bush on Haiti Relief Fund  1/17/2010 CBS: [Bringing in that Katrina expertise.]

Medical Worker Outside of Port-Au-Prince: We Are Waiting For Patients That Have Yet To Arrive  1/17/2010 Democracy Now

The Haitian People Have Mobilized, While Foreign Aid Efforts Continue to Stall  1/17/2010 Democracy Now

US accused of annexing airport as squabbling hinders aid effort in Haiti  1/17/2010 Guardian, UK

Haïti-Séisme: La ville des Cayes débordée  1/17/2010 Haiti Press Network: "98 % des blessés de l’hôpital général de la 3e ville du pays sont venus de la Capitale, rapporte le correspondant d’une radio. Et c’est presque la même situation dans les autres centres hospitaliers de la métropole du département du Sud. Là aussi, il commence à manquer des médicaments, du matériel mais aussi des bras. Les médecins appellent à l’aide, pourtant même à Port-au-Prince ces soins manquent où ce matin trois personnes du troisième âge ont succombé à leurs blessures dans un centre d’hébergement qui en logeaient 78."

HAITI MEDICAl Emergency, Jamaican doctors on duty  1/17/2010 Jamaica Gleaner: "The Jamaican soldiers, camped next to the German contingent at the airport, up to yesterday were still in the process of making the area habitable as they dug in for what appears to be a long haul. Engineers most of them, the soldiers have been playing their part in the rescue effort even while setting up their base. "Bodies are rotting, eyes are falling out, skins are peeling, and yes, there are children out there," Lieutenant Kanien Smith said, explaining what they saw on the streets of Port-au-Prince. He said further that there had been a great deal of activity over the past days to clear the city centre, but things were moving slowly along the outskirts."

Caricom blocked from landing in Haiti  1/17/2010 Jamaica Observer: "On Friday afternoon, the US State Department confirmed signing two Memoranda of Understanding with the Government of Haiti that made "official that the United States is in charge of all inbound and outbound flights and aid offloading". Further, according to the agreements signed, US medical personnel "now have the authority to operate on Haitian citizens and otherwise render medical assistance without having to wait for licences from Haiti's Government". Prior to the US taking control of Haiti's airport, a batch of some 30 Cuban doctors had left Havana, following the earthquake, to join more than 300 of their colleagues who have been working there for more than a year."

Nobody is Coordinating the Aid - Report from Port-au-Prince  1/17/2010 Konbit Pou Ayiti: "I spent the first half of the day in the airport, full of airplanes and helicopters and dozens of journalists. One journalist who had worked in Iraq told me it was like another Green Zone. The military was taken over by the US military, which insists that planes are arriving as fast as possible, although countries such as Brazil, Russia and France have complained they haven't been able to land planes, as well as non governmental organizations."

Haiti: Coping with the aftermath  1/17/2010 LA Times: Many pics, including one of "looter" arrested for stealing milk…

“The International Community Must Let President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Return to Haiti”  1/17/2010 NarcoNews: "At the collapsed parliament building in downtown Port-Au-Prince, another bulldozer retrieved the bodies of politicians laying in the street. Supporters of Haiti’s most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, dragged the stiff and dripping body of a high-profile party organizer named Bob Moliere into a wheelbarrow. The bulldozer drove 200 yards to a grassy area on the sea and dumped his body in a four-foot-deep grave dug minutes earlier. Marianne Moliere, now a widow, looked out at the dipping sun with tears streaming down her face. “There is no life for me because Bob was everything to me. I lost everything. Everything is destroyed,” she said. “I’m sleeping in the street now because I’m homeless. But when I get some water, I share with others. Or if some one gives some spaghetti, I share with my family and others.”

Getting Help to Haiti  1/17/2010 NarcoNews: "What I Have Learned about Haiti from Authentic Journalist Reed Lindsay, and What We Can Do to Help at this Hour of Need"

Video Footage of Immediate Aftermath of Earthquake in Port au Prince, Haiti  1/17/2010 NarcoNews

Haiti in Ink and Tears: A Literary Sampler  1/17/2010 NYT: Haitian voices on the aftermath.

Chavez says U.S. occupying Haiti in name of aid  1/17/2010 Reuters: "Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the United States of using the earthquake in Haiti as a pretext to occupy the devastated Caribbean country and offered to send fuel from his OPEC nation."

The right testicle of hell: History of a Haitian holocaust - Blackwater before drinking water  1/17/2010 SF Bay View: by Greg Palast - "Gates wouldn’t send in food and water because, he said, there was no “structure … to provide security.” For Gates, appointed by Bush and allowed to hang around by Obama, it’s security first. That was his lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water."

Why the U.S. owes Haiti billions: The briefest history  1/17/2010 SF Bay View: "Why does the U.S. owe Haiti billions? Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell stated his foreign policy view as the “Pottery Barn rule.” That is, “If you break it, you own it.” The U.S. has worked to break Haiti for over 200 years. We owe Haiti. Not charity. We owe Haiti as a matter of justice. Reparations. And not the $100 million promised by President Obama either – that is Powerball money. The U.S. owes Haiti Billions – with a big B."

CARICOM BLOCKED ...as US takes control of airport  1/17/2010 T&T Express: "THE CARIBBEAN Community’s emergency aid mission to Haiti, comprising Heads of Government and leading technical officials, failed to secure permission Friday to land at that devasted country’s aiport, now under the control of the United States. Consequently, the Caricom ’assessment mission’, that was to determine priority humanitarian needs resulting from the mind-boggling earthquake disaster of Haiti last Tuesday, had to travel back from Jamaica to their respective home destinations.. On Friday afternoon the US State Department confirmed signing two ’Memoranda of Understanding’ with the Government of Haiti that made ’official that the United Stateas is in charge of all inbound and outbound flights and aid off-loading...’"

Wyclef's Skipping Records - Star's charity repeatedly dissolved after failing to file reports  1/17/2010 The Smoking Gun: "As TSG reported yesterday, the Jean foundation's records delinquency extended to the filing of its tax returns--and could make a prospective donor question whether the organizationally challenged foundation is a wise choice for disaster relief contributions. In August 2009, the group filed overdue tax returns for 2005, 2006, and 2007, documents showing that Jean and fellow board member Jerry Duplessis paid themselves at least $410,000 for services provided to the foundation. Duplessis, a bass player who has toured with Jean, co-owns a New York City recording studio with the performer, as well as a Haiti-based production company."

Jacmel, Haiti: Ciné Institute videos of disaster  1/17/2010 Vimeo: Students posting videos here.

Patients overwhelm medical teams at Haiti clinics  1/17/2010 WaPo

Daniel Ortega: EEUU está aprovechando tragedia de Haití para instalarse en el Caribe  1/16/2010 Aporrea: ""No tiene ninguna lógica que tropas norteamericanas estén desembarcando en Haití. Si lo que Haití está pidiendo es ayuda humanitaria, no está pidiendo tropas. Sería una locura que todos empecemos a enviar tropas a Haití", advirtió el mandatario."

Caricom gets moving on Haiti  1/16/2010 Jamaica Observer: "A Caribbean Community (Caricom) team yesterday flew to Port-au-Prince to get a first-hand view of the devastation in the Haitian capital, as the regional body begins to formulate a relief plan to help the neighbouring territory ravished by Tuesday's massive earthquake. The team -- Caricom Chairman and Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerritt, Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson, Secretary General Edwin Carrington, Archbishop of the West Indies Rev John Holder, and representatives of the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) -- was scheduled to meet with Haitian Government officials to finalise plans for the regional relief efforts."

No, Mister! You Cannot Share My Pain!  1/16/2010 Jamaica Observer: "The French demanded [in the early 19th century], essentially, that the Haitians pay France an amount equivalent to 90 per cent of the entire Haitian budget for the foreseeable future. When this commitment proved too arduous to honour, the City Bank offered the Haitians a 'debt exchange", paying off the French in exchange for a lower-interest, longer-term debt. The terms may have seemed better but were just as usurious and it was not paid off until 1947."

Alertan sobre capitalismo del desastre en Haití  1/16/2010 Jiribilla: “Debemos tener totalmente claro que esta tragedia —que es en parte natural y en parte no— no debe, bajo ninguna circunstancia, usarse para endeudar aún más a Haití o impulsar políticas corporativistas impopulares en favor de nuestras empresas, dijo Naomi Klein, según informa Democracy Now."

Course contre la mort dans le chaos de Port-au-Prince  1/16/2010 Le Monde: "Alice Anaya, une infirmière cubaine, ausculte doucement le petit Samaël, en état de choc. Elle nettoie ses paupières, collées par le plâtre et lui fait une injonction d'analgésique. "Il est déshydraté, un médecin viendra l'examiner", dit-elle avant de retourner prodiguer les premiers soins à une longue file de blessés. L'équipe cubaine est arrivée dès mardi soir, quelques heures après le séisme, et attend un chirurgien. Dans un bloc opératoire de fortune, sous une bâche, un médecin ampute un blessé. "Il nous manque des antibiotiques, du sérum pour hydrater les patients, des pansements, des seringues", énumère l'infirmière."

Updated on Coordinated Rapid Response  1/16/2010 Rightsbasedhaiti

Shades of Katrina: No help for Haitians who need it most  1/16/2010 SF Bay View: "According to CNN tonight (Jan. 15), “for security reasons,” the U.N. required all doctors and nurses to leave one small Port-au-Prince hospital, full of badly wounded Haitians, some today post-surgery. And CNN showed the doctors and nurses in trucks being driven away abandoning patients to … no care at all. No U.N. security left to guard the desperately ill or, better yet, guarding the hospital with doctors and nurses inside helping their patients. What in hell might have been the security threat that 3,000 (seemingly absent in helping dig buried people out) U.N. soldiers stationed in Port-au-Prince couldn’t handle? “Security” is the U.N. Haiti mandate, after all. Fear of poor Black people … so sadly reminiscent of the response to Katrina, and so lacking in actual evidence."

Singing and praying at night in Port-au-Prince  1/16/2010 SF Bay View: "A Haitian American journalism student told us he’d seen Haitian police and a few of the 9,000 members of MINUSTAH – the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti – directing traffic and picking up bodies in other areas of the city. But the only organized response the rest of us saw yesterday was what looked like a white MINUSTAH helicopter flying high above the city about an hour after the first shock, apparently surveying the damage. At about 4 o’clock this morning I saw a United Nations truck filled with soldiers on the street outside. They only stopped long enough for the singers to open a path for them. After that I saw no sign that there was a Haitian government or an “international peacekeeping force” – no police taking the injured to the few clinics still standing, no MINUSTAH soldiers arranging shelters for the people praying in the streets. Earlier in the night I was listening to the singing with a young Haitian American at the hotel. “Haitians are different,” he said. “People in other countries wouldn’t do this,” he said, referring to the singing. “It’s a sense of community.”"

The Haitian tragedy and mainstream media response  1/16/2010 SF Bay View: by Kiilu Nyasha - "I cannot remain silent in the face of so much racism and disinformation streaming over the mainstream media regarding the ongoing Haitian tragedy."

The media called: Earthquake victims still await help, I say  1/16/2010 SF Bay View: by Marguerite Laurent (Ezili Dantò) - "China, Venezuela, Cuba relief teams got there before the world’s richest country and number one superpower. The U.S., with a base next door to Haiti in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, got there two days later, mostly after everyone had died under the rubble baking in the hot tropical sun, trapped inside concrete and metal tombs that used to be homes, schools or businesses. On Thursday, Jan. 15, 2010, the U.S. military began landing in Haiti. It’s Saturday and they haven’t started any rescue. No. Survivors in the capital are still waiting for the basics: water, food, medicine. Up to 10,000 U.S. troops are expected in Haiti by next week. Soldiers kill, are not humanitarian rescuers, are not policemen. Obama sent Haiti military soldiers. The military is not about providing humanitarian relief. No. It’s about domination, conquest and submission. That’s what soldiers are trained to do. They took over the airport the day after they arrived. Privatized it. The Haitians manning the damaged control tower fought the privatization… When the U.S. military got to Haiti, all those Haitians who had WALKED from Cap Haitian in the North or up from the South, from all points they walked for hours under the hot sun to get to Port au Prince and to help their countrymen were also ignored, pushed aside like trash. But it was these Haitians and neighbors in Port au Prince who were less injured who RESCUED, gave EMERGENCY relief. The people who could be saved, got saved mostly by HAITIANS frantically using their bare hands to dig through the rubble, lift pulverized concrete in the immediate 48 hours after the earthquake. They worked in the dark on Tuesday night, all day Wednesday in areas that they believed people could be trapped. Did what they could to save themselves as they have been doing since 1503 when the white settlers’ “New World” began."

U.S. and Cuba should work together to help Haiti  1/15/2010 CNN: "Shortly after, in October 2005, the Reeves Brigade was dispatched to help provide much-needed medical relief after the devastating Kashmir earthquake that tore through the Himalayan mountain region along Pakistan and Kashmir. The United States and Europe each sent teams of doctors to Pakistan, each with one base camp deployed for a month. The Cubans deployed seven major base camps and 30 field hospitals in the fundamentalist Islamic region of Pakistan, a nation with which Cuba did not have diplomatic relations at the time. Today, the Cubans and Pakistanis have embassies in each other's capitals. Bruno Rodriguez, the new foreign minister of Cuba, who was then the deputy, headed the mission and lived in Pakistan's rugged mountains for that full year. The Cuban medical teams reportedly worked constructively and positively with personnel from the U.S. and Europe -- and this kind of collaboration, even if informal, could be the kind of confidence-building narrative to move U.S.-Cuba relations out of the gridlock they have been in for decades."

The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?  1/15/2010 Global Research: "The main actors in America's "humanitarian operation" are the Department of Defense, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (See USAID Speeches: On-The-Record Briefing on the Situation in Haiti, 01/13/10). USAID has also been entrusted in channelling food aid to Haiti, which is distributed by the World Food Program. (See USAID Press Release: USAID to Provide Emergency Food Aid for Haiti Earthquake Victims, January 13, 2010) The military component of the US mission, however, tends to overshadow the civilian functions of rescuing a desperate and impoverished population. The overall humanitarian operation is not being led by civilian governmental agencies such as FEMA or USAID, but by the Pentagon."

Desolation and Death  1/15/2010 Granma: "Haitian Prime Minister Jean Max-Berllerive said that one of the reasons for the high number of fatalities caused by the January 12 earthquake is the serious degree of poverty, which forces many families to live in precarious housing and extremely crowded conditions."

Reflections of Fidel - The lesson of Haiti  1/15/2010 Granma: "In the field of healthcare and other areas, Cuba – despite being a poor and blockaded country – has been cooperating with the Haitian people for many years. Around 400 doctors and healthcare experts are offering their services free of charge to the Haitian people. Our doctors are working every day in 227 of the country’s 337 communes. On the other hand, at least 400 young Haitians have trained as doctors in our homeland. They will now work with the reinforcement brigade which traveled there yesterday to save lives in this critical situation. Thus, without any special effort being made, up to 1,000 doctors and healthcare experts can be mobilized, almost all of whom are already there willing to cooperate with any other state that wishes to save the lives of the Haitian people and rehabilitate the injured."

"War is a Racket": Citibank owned the Haitian Treasury & central bank 1910-1947  1/15/2010 Hannah Bell: "The story begins in 1910, when a U.S. State Department-National City Bank of New York (now called Citibank) consortium bought the Banque National d'Haïti--Haiti's only commercial bank and its national treasury--in effect transferring Haiti's debts to the Americans.(1) Five years later, President Woodrow Wilson ordered troops to occupy the country in order to keep tabs on "our" investment. From 1915 to 1934, the U.S. Marines imposed harsh military occupation, murdered Haitians patriots and diverted 40 percent of Haiti's gross domestic product to U.S. bankers.(2) Haitians were banned from government jobs. Ambitious Haitians were shunted into the puppet military, setting the stage for a half-century of U.S.-backed military dictatorship. The U.S. kept control of Haiti's finances until 1947... Still--why should Haitians complain? Sure, we stole 40 percent of Haiti's national wealth for 32 years. But we let them keep 60 percent."

To Increase Help for Haiti, Obama Should Let U.S-Cuba Cooperation Take Flight  1/15/2010 Huffington Post: "According to Spanish press reports, this contingent is already providing emergency medical care across Haiti for patients that Cuban doctors had already been treating for many years. Immediately following the earthquake, these doctors opened up two make-shift clinics in their residences because local hospitals were destroyed. Cuban doctors then moved to reopen the "Social Security" hospital and started operating on the injured. A day ago, the Cubans reopened the national hospital and started to treat people. Their work could form the foundation for broad Cuban-U.S. cooperation. First, as U.S. AID and military teams roll into Haiti, the U.S. government should make it clear that our personnel should cooperate, coordinate, and work with the Cuban medical personnel in Haiti. They know Haiti, they've been providing health care in Haiti since 1998, and they have been running a highly effective medical response since the earthquake occurred."

Henry Reeve Cuban Medical Brigade Serving in Haiti  1/15/2010 Juventud Rebelde: "Despite repeated aftershocks following the 7.2 earthquake that shook Haiti on Tuesday, a 60-member relief team of Cuban healthcare professionals is already providing medical assistance in that country. The team is part of the Henry Reeve emergency medical brigade, a contingent of Cuban doctors specializing in disaster situations and epidemics created by Fidel Castro to bring professional assistance to peoples in need in any corner of the world. In a catastrophe report published by the Cubadebate website, Cuban radio correspondent Isidro Fardales reports that this group of specialists brings the total number of Cuban doctors working in Haiti to 300, many of whom were sent to Puerto Principe in the aftermath of the earthquake."

‘We should be there, in Haiti’: Statement by Dr. Jean-Bertand Aristide  1/15/2010 SF Bay View: "Dr. Aristide is Haiti’s first democratically elected president and remains the beloved and preferred leader of the vast majority of Haitian people. He was kidnapped and forced into exile by the U.S. military on Feb. 29, 2004, and has been living in South Africa with his wife and two young daughters. This statement was previously posted at HaitiAnalysis.com. Watch Dr. Aristide deliver it on Democracy Now!"

Too little too late for Haiti? Six sobering points  1/15/2010 SF Bay View

Wyclef's Skipping Records - Star's charity repeatedly dissolved after failing to file reports  1/15/2010 The Smoking Gun: "Musician Wyclef Jean's charitable foundation--now the recipient of many donations big and small in the wake of the Haiti earthquake--has repeatedly had its corporate status dissolved for failing to file required state disclosure reports, records show. As seen below, the Florida Division of Corporations has, on four separate occasions over the past five years, sanctioned the Yele Haiti Foundation (the charity was incorporated in Florida in 1998 as the Wyclef Jean Foundation, but formally changed its name two months ago)."

U.S. troops in Haiti to prevent Aristide's return  1/15/2010 Wayne Madsen Report

Ten Things the US Can and Should Do for Haiti  1/14/2010 Black Agenda Report: "Do not allow US military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Hungry Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions have already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief – but do not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the people."

The Incapacitation of Haiti: Before and After the Quake  1/14/2010 Counterpunch: "While everyone should support the current outpouring of aid to help Haiti, no one should do so with political blinders on. As Engler said: Aid in Haiti has always been used to further imperial interests. This is obvious when you look at how the U.S. and Canada treated the Aristide government in contrast to the coup regime. The U.S. and Canada starved Aristide of almost all aid. But then after the coup, they opened a floodgate of money to back some of the most reactionary forces in Haitian society. We should therefore agitate against any attempt by the U.S. and other powers to use this crisis to further impose their program on a prostrate country. We should also be wary of the role of international NGOs. While many NGOs are trying to address the crisis, the U.S. and other governments are funneling aid to them in order to undermine Haitians' democratic right to self-determination. The international NGOs are unaccountable to either the Haitian state or Haitian population. So the aid funneled through them further weakens what little hold Haitians have on their own society."

Cuba increases aid to Haiti  1/14/2010 Granma: "He said they had been able to confirm the status of all those working "within the city of Port-au-Prince. Only two of them received very slight injuries, and the others have confirmed that they are all right." "We are verifying the situation and gathering complete information about cooperative workers in other parts of the country. We have been able to locate the majority of them and they are fine," he assured. The minister added that victims have been receiving medical attention from the Cuban brigade since the earthquake struck. He noted that "they are now working in two campaign hospitals in our medical personnel’s accommodation facilities." He said that plans are underway to more emergency aid to the sister Caribbean nation, consisting of "a quantity of medicine and heath materials. An additional number of doctors are to travel there.""

Haiti's plight can bind US and Cuba  1/14/2010 Guardian, UK: "Moving beyond the cold war stasis in US-Cuba relations is a priority of Barack Obama's administration, and the devastation in Haiti provides a platform to provide relief for a desperate nearby nation and build collaboration between Cuba and the US. Many great American voices from Brent Scowcroft and George Shultz to Jackson Browne and Bill Richardson have argued that the US-Cuba embargo makes no sense as foreign policy, that the right of Americans to travel anywhere in the world should not be suspended in the case of Cuba, that Cuba's exports of doctors rather than arms should be more than enough reason to strike Cuba off America's watch list of state sponsors of terror."

WHAT CAN YOU DO: Conscious Disaster relief with human rights and dignity  1/14/2010 Marguerite Laurent

Haiti's earthquake in the context of decades of forced poverty  1/14/2010 Norman Girvan: "One possible bright side to this disaster, as we saw after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, might be that civil society, in the face of government inability to respond to such a major disaster in the first few days, can come through and realize that communities are able to organize themselves, without the help (or interference) of a corrupt or inept government and the international institutions that support it. In Mexico, this set the stage for a flowering of community, neighbourhood, regional and national organizations which eventually played a major role in the overthrow of a 70 year old institutionalized governing party."

Henry Reeve Cuban Medical Brigade in Haiti  1/14/2010 PL: "The medical brigade, which has experience in China, Pakistan, Guatemala, Indonesia and Bolivia, joined the rest of the health staff that was located there, which is helping citizens since the beginning of the tragedy. Cuban authorities sent medicines, saline solutions and blood serum, food and provisions as part of the solidarity aid."

Haiti Devastated by Largest Earthquake in 200 Years, Thousands Feared Dead  1/13/2010 Democracy Now

Allow Aristide to return to Haiti now  1/13/2010 Haiti Action

An Urgent Appeal from the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund  1/13/2010 Haiti Action: "Since its inception in March 2004, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund has given concrete aid to Haiti’s grassroots democratic movement as they attempted to survive the brutal coup and to rebuild shattered development projects. We urge you to contribute generously, not only for this immediate crisis, but in order to support the long-run development of human rights, sustainable agriculture and economic justice in Haiti."

Robertson's "true story": Haiti "swore a pact to the devil" to get "free from the French" and "ever since, they have been cursed"  1/13/2010 Media Matters

Indicted death squad leader holds campaign meeting in Haiti  12/23/2009 Haiti Action: "Haitian activists in Port au Prince are accusing the Obama administration of turning a blind-eye to the political activities of alleged criminal bosses in Haiti while backing a ruling to exclude the widely popular Fanmi Lavalas party. The party of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, known as Fanmi Lavalas, was barred by current Haitian president Rene Preval's handpicked election council from participating in parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 2010. The accusations made against the Obama administration by community leaders in Haiti stems from a recent meeting of the Front for National Reconstruction (FRN) held at a hotel in downtown Port au Prince on Dec. 19. The FRN gathering of former paramilitary commanders who helped oust former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a bloody takeover in 2004 was officiated by their party leader Guy Philippe. He was indicted on Nov. 22, 2005 for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and money laundering. Lawyers contacted in Miami confirmed that the indictment is still open and that Philippe remains on a wanted list of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of the United States."

Rep. Waters blasts Haiti's President, says upcoming election is a setback for democracy  12/23/2009 Haiti Action: "US Congresswoman Maxine Waters blasted Haiti President René Préval this morning in a letter condemning the recent decision of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to exclude more than a dozen political parties from the Parliamentary elections scheduled for February and March 2010. Her letter criticizes the unconstitutional CEP — handpicked by Préval — and the violation of the right of Haitian citizens to vote in free and fair elections."

Haiti’s largest political party banned from election process  12/15/2009 Open Salon: "The last elections, in April/June of 2009, where the Fanmi Lavalas political party was excluded, saw a turnout of from 3% to 11% in Haiti, depending on who you talk to. Still, that the majority of Haitians are EXCLUDED from participating in elections is of no great concern to key stakeholders like UN Envoy Bill Clinton, George Soros, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama."

It's not All about That!: Wyclef Jean is fronting in Haiti  12/10/2009 Haiti Action Net: posted in 2004: "Wyclef Jean has entered the dismal political reality of Haiti, a direct result of Bush administration policy in overthrowing a democratically elected government, by echoing the U.S.-installed government's position recently that ousted president Jean-Bertrand-Aristide is responsible for the latest round of violence. Wyclef is quoted in Reuters, "Those guys really believe in Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They are not going to stop unless Aristide says the word". TRANSLATED: Aristide is behind the violence and all he has to do is give the word and the violence would end tomorrow."

TRAVESTY in Haiti : A true account of Christian missions, orphanages, fraud, food aid and drug trafficking  12/10/2009 Marguerite Laurent

AP misrepresents reality of Lavalas exclusion in Haiti elections  11/27/2009 Haiti Action: "AP falsely equivocates the disqualification of Preval's LESPWA party with the second banning of Lavalas from participation in the electoral process. They fail to provide any background or analysis of Preval withdrawing his support for LESPWA a month earlier and since sponsoring a new coalition called INITE. The new Preval-backed INITE coalition was on the accepted list of political parties and organizations allowed to participate in the next parliamentary elections scheduled for early 2010."

The Caribbean and Latin America at the Rendezvous of History  10/19/2009 Stabroek News: "The occupation of Haiti and the Bolivarian Alliance open a new window on to the historical landscape of the Caribbean and continental America. To understand the deeper significance of recent events we must go back 200 years, to early 19th century Haiti. In spring 1806 Francisco de Miranda – a man second in importance only to Símon Bolívar in the history of Latin American independence – arrived in Haiti, seeking support for an uprising against Spain. In Haiti he procured ships and found time to sketch the national flag of the future republic of Venezuela. The new flag was first hoisted in the Haitian city of Jacmel on March 12, 1806, a date still celebrated as “National Flag Day” in Venezuela."

SOROS Focuses on Security in Haiti's Cité Soleil Slum  8/21/2009 Haiti Action: "A recent piece written by Ruxandra Guidi for the Soros funded America's Quarterly clearly represents the perspective of MINUSTAH and USAID. It's bias is clear early on, "Shortly after Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in 2004 (under pressure from the U.S. and Canada due to a sharp rise in organized violence)." Only those who supported Aristide being taken out of his bed in the middle of the night and forced onto a plane and exile abroad continue to falsely repeat the unproven assertion of a "sharp rise in organized violence." It's a familiar narrative that is uncritically recycled and designed to justify the ouster of Haiti's democratically president on Feb. 29, 2004."

The Bwa Kay Iman uprising against slavery  8/11/2009 Jafrik Ayiti: "The following prayer has been attributed to Boukman officiating at the Bwa Kay Iman ceremony: "The god who created the earth; who created the sun that gives us light. The god who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds; who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer. The white man's god asks him to commit crimes. But the god within us wants to do good. Our god, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It's He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It's He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white men's god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that speaks in all our hearts."

Lavalas and Haiti's Student Union Unite  7/27/2009 Counterpunch

Second vote boycott in Haiti succeeds  6/24/2009 SF Bay View: "What if they held an election and nobody came? For Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), that is no longer a hypothetical question. It is exactly what happened on Sunday, June 21, when the CEP tried to hold run-offs for 12 of 30 Haitian Senate seats. Polling stations around Haiti had even fewer voters than they had on April 19, when Haitians massively boycotted the election’s first round by respecting the Lavalas Family party’s call for “Operation Closed Doors, Empty Streets.” The CEP had disqualified the party, Haiti’s largest, on arbitrary and unjustified technicalities (see Haïti Liberté, Vol. 2, No. 40, 4/22/2009). The CEP claimed there was 11 percent participation in the April 19 vote. Most Haitians scoff at that figure, estimating participation at closer to 1 percent."

Haiti’s voters support Lavalas, boycott election  6/22/2009 SF Bay View

A funeral and a boycott: ‘The struggle continues’ in Haiti  6/20/2009 SF Bay View: "The procession and demonstration were suddenly interrupted by gunfire that could be heard from around the corner. Witnesses report that Brazilian soldiers with the U.N. military mission opened fire after attempting to arrest one of the mourners. The U.N. has since denied the shooting and claims that the victim had been killed by either a rock thrown by the crowd or a blunt instrument. Eyewitnesses on the scene have countered that the U.N. is trying to cover up the affair as it promises to heighten tensions before Sunday’s elections."

Cynthia McKinney Reports From Haiti  4/22/2009 Pan-African News Wire

What is Canada Doing in Haiti?  4/20/2009 Global Research: "Two days after the coup, in an interview given to journalists Kevin Pina and Andrea Nicastro, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune declared: “The resignation of the President is not constitutional because he did that under duress and threat. The chief of the Supreme Court was brought here into my office by representatives of the international community. I was not invited or present when he was sworn in”.[28] In sharp contrast to the CIDA-funded reports produced by NCHR-Haiti, the above statement goes a long way to explain the true motivations behind the illegal incarceration and torment suffered by Haiti’s constitutional Prime Minister during the post-coup period when “Haitian” justice and prison systems effectively fell under Canadian control. While Mr. Neptune was being punished in jail for his refusal to condone the coup, Paul Martin went to Haiti in November 2004. This was the first ever official visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to Haiti. During his visit, Martin, who dubs himself a proud champion of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, was quoted by Agence France Press as saying that “there are no political prisoners in Haiti.”[29] Haiti’s Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune, was eventually freed under René Préval’s presidency. His release occurred after all risk was effectively cleared that dozens of illegally incarcerated top leaders of Fanmi Lavalas would register and win the foreign controlled elections of 2006."

UN tells Aristide party to fight in Haiti election  3/14/2009 AP: "A U.N. Security Council delegation praised the party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Saturday for fighting to overturn the disqualification of its Senate candidates, saying it could help avert a potentially dangerous crisis. Haiti's provisional electoral council has barred Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party from participating in next month's Senate elections for largely technical reasons, angering supporters who have threatened to sabotage the vote. Observers fear the council's decision could lead to violence."

Desire to reconnect rekindles Vodou among younger Haitian-Americans  2/6/2009 Sun Sentinel

Haiti policy statement for President Obama and Congress by Marguerite Laurent, Esq., president, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network  1/27/2009 SF Bay View

What Is Washington's Role in Haiti's Food Crisis?  7/7/2008 Alternet

Haitian recipients of USAID/IRI/NED/EU to destabilize, starve democracy and foment violence and Coup D'etat, mostly under the guise of "democracy or justice and peace enhancement programs  6/1/2008 Marguerite Laurent: "The subcontracted Haitians below have sold the nation to foreigners and their NGOs in exchange for visas, jobs and a few "trickle down" dollars."

International coalition rallies for Haiti  4/25/2008 McClatchy: "Alarmed that Haiti's hard-won stability could be swept away by the food crisis, a broad coalition of international donors and countries is rallying to assist President René Préval with emergency grants and soft loans. On Thursday, an international delegation led by the head of the Organization of American States and top officials from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina traveled to Haiti to meet with Préval, who is attempting to form a new government after his prime minister was forced out following riots over rising food prices."

A Policy of Heartlessness - Losing Haiti  4/17/2008 Counterpunch: "MINUSTAH, the UN mission in Haiti, was put in place to defend the U.S.-backed coup regime which ousted the democratically-elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. After the coup, thousands of pro-Aristide dissidents were killed, raped or forced into exile, thousands more jailed without charge. Last August, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visited the sprawling seaside slum of Cite Soleil and boasted, "In an operation lasting six weeks, amid fierce firefights, UN forces took control of the slum." He told reporters, "I am convinced that Haiti is at a turning point. Long the poorest country in the western hemisphere, seemingly forever mired in political turmoil, it at long last has a golden chance to begin to rebuild itself. With the help of the international community - and the UN in particular - it can." Ban Ki Moon went on to warn against the UN leaving "too soon" and pushed for a renewed mandate for MINUSTAH. But Brazilian soldier Tailon Ruppenthal is less starry eyed about MINUSTAH. In a recent memoir of his tour of duty, Rupenthal writes, "After a few months even getting out of bed is hard. You remember that you will cross paths with all those people who are starving but there's nothing you can do." The Brazilian, who now suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, concludes, "we are losing the real war: against poverty Only the fight against poverty will bring peace. When will they see that?"

Letter from Port-Au-Prince - The Food Riots in Haiti  4/16/2008 Counterpunch: "The American Embassy has been silent. The mass media has been talking about food riots around the world and saying thats what's going on in Haiti, but the reality is, though a Coup d'Etat has been avoided, the Alexis government has fallen. The Embassy doesn't always wish to understand Haiti. Its not their fault. You can't blame people for being incompetent, you can only blame their bosses for failing to identify their incompetence for whatever personal political agenda."

Is starvation contagious?  4/13/2008 Jamaica Observer: "Few people, much less their governments, appear to be concerned about what is happening in Haiti, next to Cuba our nearest neighbour and, in historical terms, the people who paved the way for our freedom from slavery and implemented for the first time anywhere in the world, the idea of universal human rights."

UN council deplores Haiti violence, calls for aid  4/8/2008 Reuters

Marguerite Laurent  3/20/2008 MargeriteLaurent.com: "...Members of the elite are now contemplating a sort of 'final solution' that amounts to little less than a strategy of open warfare - the use of foreign and domestic troops to kill off the poorest of the poor, pure and simple"

Alternatives International and the “Massacre” that Wasn’t North American and European Nonprofits Promote Elitist, Revisionist Vision of 2004 Haiti Coup Aftermath  2/29/2008 NarcoNews: "NGOs contributed greatly to the destabilization campaign prior to the coup, [1] leading to a human rights catastrophe in which thousands who supported Aristide’s deposed government and lived in Haiti’s poorest slums were murdered. It isn’t surprising that a report produced by Alternatives and FRIDE would depict the work of UN troops in Haiti as benevolent, but it is surprising that the report descended into flagrant bigotry and slander."

Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment - Peter Hallward Untangles the Truth About Haiti From a Web of Lies  2/19/2008 Global Research

Rally and rolling fast call for liberation of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine  12/26/2007 Amnesty International

Amnesty International breaks its silence: Issues statement on Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine  12/25/2007 NarcoNews: "Amnesty International finally broke its silence and released an official statement regarding leading human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine who has been missing for four months in Haiti, and was the subject of Joe Emersberger's recent story here. "Human rights activists have been trying to convince them for months," Emersberger's fellow HaitiAnalysis researcher and publisher Jeb Sprague tells Narco News. "But now just a few days after the Narco News piece they actually finally do something.""

Haiti: Leading Human Rights Activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine Missing for Four Months  12/13/2007 NarcoNews: "A former member of Amnesty’s U.S. national board, Mike Levy, recently observed “I am disappointed that AI has failed to respond to Mr. Pierre-Antoine’s abduction. AI is clearly aware of his high profile as one of Haiti’s leading human rights activists and that he has received threats in the past in connection with his work.” An AI official in the USA told the website HaitiAnalysis that only Amnesty’s UK office can issue a statement of concern about Lovinsky Pierre Antoine’s case. In early November Amnesty’s UK office said it was considering making a public statement about Pierre Antoine’s disappearance but the group has yet to issue any public statement. Meanwhile, HRW, while having found time and energy over the past two years to defend Venezuelans from legal reprisals for participating in the coup d’état that briefly ousted their country’s elected president Hugo Chávez in April of 2002, has had nothing to say about the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine."

Did He Jump or Was He Pushed? Aristide and the 2004 Coup in Haiti  12/7/2007 Haiti Analysis

With Help From Cuba, Haiti Tries A Switch To Compact Fluorescent Lights  11/28/2007 Haiti Analysis

An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President  11/11/2007 Randall Robinson: Robinson site has information about book tours, interviews, reviews. To obtain a copy of Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President see Amazon.com.

Report Back From Haiti: Building Democracy from the Grassroots  11/10/2007 Malcolm X Grassroots Movement: "This summer, members of the Haiti Action Committee, along with Dr. Akinyele Umoja of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, traveled to Haiti. We met with grassroots activists, political prisoners and human rights workers. We heard the continuing calls for the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We saw close-up the resistance to the U.S./U.N. occupation."

New UN envoy sees long Haiti mission  11/9/2007 AP: "Hedi Annabi, in his first interview since assuming control of a 7,800-member U.N. force and hundreds of international staff in Haiti, told The Associated Press that the U.N. mission has made great strides, but will not seek to leave the volatile country anytime soon. "The security situation is extremely fragile. And if we were to downsize dramatically there would be a vacuum that would be immediately backfilled by the same people that were there when we got started," said Annabi, sitting in his office in the hills above Port-au-Prince. When asked how long that might take, Annabi said: "You don't create a security force, a police force, in two or three years. ... It takes 10, 15, 20 years.""

Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti sex scandal  11/3/2007 afp: "More than 110 Sri Lankan peacekeepers serving with the UN mission in Haiti are to be sent back home over charges that they sexually exploited people, including minors, in the impoverished nation, the United Nations said on Friday. It was the latest in a series of such scandals to besmirch the world body. The accused from Sri Lanka’s 950-strong contingent in the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) “will be repatriated on disciplinary grounds on Saturday,” UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement. Nick Birnback, a spokesman for the UN department of peacekeeping operations (DPKO), said 111 soldiers and three officers would be sent home, updating an earlier figure of 108 given by Montas… This was part of a “zero tolerance” policy regarding sexual misconduct, including a “non-fraternization” rule that bars UN peacekeepers from having sex with locals. The policy was adopted after revelations in December 2004 that peacekeepers in DRC were involved in the sexual abuse of 13-year-old girls in exchange for eggs, milk or cash sums as low as one dollar."

Disappearing Democracy in Haiti  11/1/2007 GNN: "Three years after their elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown by a band of U.S.-trained adventurers, Haitians continue to deal with the consequences. Violence persists, both within desperately impoverished communities and directed at those who resist the UN-supported government, with frequent raids being undertaken by UN forces on opposition strongholds like Port au Prince’s Cite Soleil. Thousands have died since Aristide was deposed, mostly under the two-year dictatorship of Gerard Latortue. A study published by The Lancet reported in 2006 that in the 22 months after Aristide’s removal, over 8,000 people died violently with over 35,000 women and girls being raped. The whole country was essentially raped, with the connivance of the UN mandated MINUSTAH security forces, leaving a trail of fear, resentment, psychological scars and, with the police now staffed by many ex-participants in the 1991 coup (which also targeted Aristide), a budding police state. It’s been quite an intervention, and it’s completely off the rails."

One Lavalas official freed in Haiti, second remains missing  10/31/2007 HIP: "An official with ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas political movement was released this morning after being held for three days by unknown captors. Dr. Maryse Narcisse was taken at gunpoint on Saturday from in front of her home and was the second high-profile figure of the Lavalas movement abducted in the past three months. Mr. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was last seen on the evening of August 12 after meeting with a US human rights delegation visiting Haiti. He was abducted following his announcement of his intention to file as a Lavalas candidate in the next round of parliamentary elections in Haiti. He has not been heard from since."

Haiti: Abduction of Leaders of Largest Political Party Raise Fears  10/29/2007 Global Research: "An official with ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas political movement was abducted at gunpoint Saturday, October 27, 2007. Dr. Maryse Narcisse acted as spokesperson for exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and belongs to the five-member Executive Committee for Fanmi Lavalas. She was taken at gunpoint in front of her home in the area of Petion-Ville in Haiti's capital early Saturday evening. Narcisse is the second high-profile figure of the Lavalas movement abducted in the past three months. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was last seen on the evening of Sunday, August 12, 2007 after meeting with a US human rights delegation visiting Haiti. He has not been heard from since. Mr. Pierre-Antoine was abducted shortly after he had announced his intention to file as a Lavalas candidate for the next round of parliamentary elections in Haiti."

Haiti: The Kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide  10/23/2007 The Dominion: [scroll down the Dominion's page for text] "A key piece of evidence presented in the book is the statement Robinson took from Aristide's helicopter pilot, Frantz Gabriel, in 2005. Other than President Aristide, his wife, and Haitian security personnel at the President's home, Gabriel was the only eyewitness to Aristide's abduction on the morning of February 29th, 2004. Canada's ambassador to Haiti, Claude Boucher, has stated publicly that there was no coup d'état in Haiti and that the Haitian President left of his own accord. Colin Powell, who was US Secretary of State at the time of Aristide's removal, has made similar denials. According to the CBC, Powell called "allegations of a coup d'etat and kidnapping 'baseless and absurd,' saying Aristide asked for American assistance to leave Haiti." "He came back to us and said it was his decision, based on what the security people were also telling him about the deteriorating situation, that he should leave," Powell told the press." [Article contains extensive testimony from the pilot. To obtain a copy of Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President see Amazon.com.]

Randall Robinson on Haiti's Tortured Past, Troubling Present  10/18/2007 WaPo: "In his latest work, Robinson offers a passionate retelling of the history of Haiti and the circumstances surrounding the rise and fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Using history, eyewitness accounts and his own role as a monitor for parliamentary elections, Robinson has created a worthy account, in his trademark incensed style, of how American and European policies have harmed, rather than helped, Haiti… Haiti's successful slave revolt will always be an affront to Western countries, he believes, but should be an inspiration to Africans and African Americans. "Haitians have a culture that slaves once bled to defend. . . . For this, Haitians are reviled by a white world that the rest of us broken souls have long since succumbed to imitate," he writes. But Robinson is most appalled at the way Aristide and his wife (he resigned from the priesthood in 1994) were removed from the country in 2004. By far the most gripping and enlightening sections of the book are ones in which Robinson, relying on interviews with Aristide's helicopter pilot, Frantz Gabriel, describes how U.S. troops whisked Aristide out of the country. Gabriel arrived at the president's house at 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 29, after getting a call from security guard who sensed that something strange was happening and told him to come. When he got there, he found the president alone, but soon U.S. officials pulled into the driveway. One walked into the living room and told Aristide, "I'm the one that has to announce to you that you've got to go." The Aristides were driven to the airport in a convoy of 10 white Suburbans; they boarded a plane and, after some uncertainty as to where they would be taken, were flown to the Central African Republic. Robinson spoke to Aristide nearly daily after the forced exit and traveled to Africa along with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to find out what had happened." To obtain a copy of Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President see Amazon.com

NED Publishes 2007 Grants and Experts Go Wild for US-Democracy  9/16/2007 Free Haiti

The power of history: Haiti by Mumia Abu-Jamal  8/29/2007 SF Bay View

MINUSTAH Hospitality  8/15/2007 Free Haiti: "Evel Fanfan (a committed and well known human rights organizer of AUMOHD who has been threatened on numerous occasions) was nearby. He observed that this was a common practice for the UN troops. MINUSTAH regularly harasses Haitian journalists and poor people, forcing them to allow a MINUSTAH soldier with a camera to take a close-up photo of their face, a form of data collection for UNOPS intelligence, he explained. Two young Haitian journalists from Cite Soleil told me that MINUSTAH tightly censors those journalists they allow into UN gatherings in Port-au-Prince."

Real reason for Haiti raid  7/29/2007 HIP: "There were new suggestions this week that a raid 10 days ago by Haiti's police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration may have been an attempt to silence one of the leaders of a 2004 coup that toppled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide - a coup many believe was orchestrated by the United States. Guy Philippe, the target of the raid, avoided capture and is now in hiding. He has since been heard on Haitian radio claiming his attempted arrest was for political reasons. Between his alleged drug affiliations and human rights abuses, Philippe has few friends in the government of current Haitian President Rene Preval or in the United States. But according to a report this week by Kevin Pina, writing for the Haiti Information Project, there may be another explanation for the DEA grab. According to Pina, on May 27, after the arrest of Wilfort Ferdinand, another coup participant, Philippe went on Haitian radio and "began to name names of business and political leaders who backed the paramilitary insurgency against Aristide's government by providing arms, ammunition and logistical support." "High on (Philippe's) list," Pina continued, "was Andy Apaid, the leader of the civil society organization called the Group 184." Seven weeks after Philippe's radio broadcast, the DEA went after him."

MINUSTAH Intimidates Journalist on World Press Freedom Day  5/8/2007 Haitian Analysis

U.S. denies threat on Haitian aid, visas  12/8/2006 AP: "The U.S. Embassy on Friday denied that Haiti's government was threatened with the suspension of aid and travel visas if it tried to block the United States from deporting convicted Haitian criminals back to their homeland. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Shaila B. Manyam told The Associated Press that Haitian officials were only informed that U.S. law allows the blocking of visas for officials from any country that refuses to accept its citizens after they have been convicted of crimes… In an appearance Thursday before the Haitian legislature, Alexis criticized the long-standing U.S. policy of deporting newly released Haitian convicts, blaming them for killings and kidnappings in the impoverished Caribbean nation. He also said the U.S. planned to increase the number of criminals deported back to Haiti each month from 25 to 100. Alexis told legislators he was warned that Haitians officials who don't cooperate risked a suspension in U.S. aid and loss of travel privileges to the United States."

Shots Fired at Anti - U.N. Rally in Haiti  11/18/2006 AP: "Gunfire rang out Saturday during a street protest by university students demanding the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers from Haiti, and witnesses said two demonstrators were wounded. About 100 protesters were marching through Port-au-Prince's downtown when gunfire erupted, scattering demonstrators. Witnesses said a security guard at a nearby bank fired the shots and was later arrested by police after protesters threatened to lynch him. It was not clear what prompted the shooting."

"You Are a Dog. You Should Die!" - Death Threats Against Lancet's Haiti Human Rights Investigator  9/16/2006 Counterpunch: "A Haitian resident of London, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the death threats, explains that on Sept. 2 Charles Arthur told her and several other people that "We need to find this woman?s phone number so people can contact her and complain to her directly." The following day a flyer emblazed with Kolbe's photo was released titled "Who is Athena Kolbe?" Respond to Fanmi Lavalas Propaganda!!!!" Another witness, wishing to go unnamed due to the fear of being targeted, explains that Arthur was responsible for distributing the fliers. The flyer's text is identical to portions of Arthur's letter to the Lancet, which he posted online. It ends by encouraging people to "ask her why she is hiding her affiliation with Fanmi Lavalas" and gives Kolbe's phone numbers, email address, home address, and the address and phone number of her family members. The calls began the next day, Kolbe explains, as she received over a dozen. One caller with a "clearly Haitian accent" called her a "Lavalas chimere" saying, "Do you know what we do to Lavalas chimere? You deserve to die painfully. We know where you are. We know who you are." In a later call she was threatened with rape, evisceration and death, said a police official. The harassment is being investigated by the FBI who have given the Wayne State University researchers "several options" to find the callers, says Hutson."

Former Haitian army colonel fatally shot  9/15/2006 AP: "PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A former army commander twice accused of plotting to overthrow Haiti's government was shot to death in an upscale suburb of the capital, police said Friday. Ex-Col. Guy Francois was killed Thursday night, said judiciary police chief Michael Lucius. Police have no motive or suspects in the killing. Francois's body was found slumped behind the wheel of his car in Petionville, a wealthy neighborhood in the hills overlooking Port-au-Prince, radio Kiskeya reported. Francois, who is the brother of Dr. M. Rony Francois, Florida's health secretary, was accused of helping plot a December 2001 attack that then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said was an attempted coup. Francois spent two years in prison for his alleged role despite maintaining his innocence."

Shocking Lancet Study: 8,000 Murders, 35,000 Rapes and Sexual Assaults in Haiti During U.S.-Backed Coup Regime After Aristide Ouster  8/31/2006 Democracy Now

Haitian Political Prisoner So Anne Released After Over 2 Years in Haitian Jail  8/15/2006 Democracy Now

Haitian terrorist arrested on Long Island  7/13/2006 WW4 Report

Seeking an "Even Playing Field": Washington and UN Work to Undermine Lavalas  4/13/2006 NarcoNews

The Puzzling Alliance of Chavannes Jean-Baptiste and Charles Henri Baker - Haitian Election Aftermath  3/2/2006 Counterpunch: "Imagine in U.S. politics if Cesar Chavez had suddenly endorsed and collaborated with George Wallace in his Presidential campaign, and the United Farm Workers had joined racist white plantation owners in their last-ditch effort to maintain total apartheid in the U.S. South. This is not an inappropriate comparison to the recent bizarre alliance in Haiti between Chavannes Jean-Baptiste's powerful and genuinely grassroots peasant organization, MPP (Papaye Peasant's Movement) and Charles Henri Baker, the elite owner of a Haitian garment industry sweatshop. Despite years of fighting U.S. economic polices toward Haiti, from the Creole Pig fiasco under the Duvaliers to the disastrous neoliberalism of the past decade, Chavannes and the MPP now uncritically support openly neo-liberalist and Duvalierist members of the tiny, mostly "blanc" (light-skinned, Francophone), Haitian elite, who are in turn supported by U.S. right-wing groups like the IRI (International Republican Institute), funded by USAID. Perhaps just as bizarre has been the continuing uncritical support (at least until now) by MPP's U.S. funder, Grassroots International. GI consistently takes a strong stand against what it calls the U.S. "death plan," structural adjustment and the whole World Bank neo-liberal program, yet remained silent for years after Chavannes and MPP became closely linked to precisely the U.S. "death plan" agenda, in their growing support for the successful overthrow of the Aristide government, and their close alliance with opposition groups with a neoliberal agenda and worse."

Averting Election Theft in Haiti By Rep. Maxine Waters,  2/17/2006 Alternet

En Haití desenmascaran a una reportera NED  2/16/2006 Jiribilla

Election Material Found in Haitian Dump  2/15/2006 AP: "Associated Press reporters saw hundreds of empty ballot boxes, at least one vote tally sheet and several empty bags — numbered and signed by the heads of polling stations — strewn across the fly-infested dump five miles north of Port-au-Prince. "That's extraordinary," U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said. Catherine Sung, a U.N. electoral adviser who works at the main vote tabulation center, said the discovery of empty bags was troubling because they were not supposed to be thrown out. When shown photographs of the bags, Sung said three of them were the kind used to carry invalid and blank ballots."

Haiti: Chaos, Suppression and Fraud  2/15/2006 Counterpunch: "In a better world, Mr. Preval would be happy to go into a runoff with a 48.7% share, assured that he could attract 1.3% of the voters more easily than his opponent, Leslie Manigat, could attract 38%. Mr. Manigat might even save his country time and money by conceding an obviously futile contest. But this is Haiti, where electoral support does not always translate into political power. Mr. Preval and his supporters know that the vote only came close to 50% because the votes of Haiti’s poor- who overwhelmingly voted for Mr. Preval- had been systematically suppressed through a series of irregularities, from the voter registration last summer through election day. They draw a line from this vote suppression through questionable tabulation practices, and see it pointing towards a second round somehow stolen from them." [Some of the vote suppression tactics described in this article resemble those used in the USA.]

Declassified Documents: National Endowment for Democracy FY2005  2/15/2006 NarcoNews: Mostly on Haiti, but also Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, & Cuba.

Left, Right, Left, Right: Running off With Haiti's Democracy  2/15/2006 Zmag: "Further insight into the 'socialist coalition' is found in IRI reports from 2000 and 2001 for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), obtained through FOIA by journalist Jeremy Bigwood. These reports describe how prominent members of opposition parties OPL and KONAKOM, Irvelt Cherie and Victor Benoit respectively, attended meetings with the IRI and U.S. officials in Washington, along with other prominent Haitians including Rudy Boulos, a wealthy business elite who would later help found the Washington-based Haiti Democracy Project, an anti-Aristide lobby group and think tank, and the foreign public relations arm of the Group of 184 and Democratic Convergence opposition bloc. Interestingly, Boulos resigned from his seat on the Board of the HDP in order to run for Senate in the NorthEast department with the Fusion, the party which comprise part of the "socialist coalition" and "agreement for modernity and democracy" signed with Haiti's right-wing parties in November. We should also recall that another Haiti Democracy Project Board member, Timothy Carney, also resigned in order to take over as interim Ambassador to Haiti. Carney has long been a fierce defender of the IRI's activities in Haiti and an ally of Haiti's elite. It was while he was U.S. Ambassador to Haiti in 1998-99 under Clinton that the IRI was forced to shut down its operations there, and set up shop in the Dominican Republic under the leadership of IRI Program Officer Stanley Lucas. In a recent NYT article, the IRI and Stanley Lucas were singled out as, in effect, 'rogue elements' straying from an otherwise benign U.S. 'democracy promotion' program for Haiti. Nowhere in the extensive NYT piece, nor in the IRI-led propaganda melee that has ensued, is there mention of an across-the-board strategy coordinated by the State Department, the NED, USAID, among other foreign actors, to collectively foster the conditions for elite rule in Haiti in strict accordance with the dictates of neoliberal globalization. One example of the coordinated effort to help build and consolidate an opposition to Aristide and Lavalas came from a current program officer for the National Endowment for Democracy. I spoke to Fabiola Cordova in December, 2005. She had just recently taken over at the NED's Washington office after some staff turnover in the Latin American and Caribbean division. Her experience in Haiti came from a six month job as an in-country program officer for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), one of the four core grantees of the NED. With combined grants coming from NED, the State Department, and USAID, NDI's budget for "democracy promotion" is over $100 million a year."

Haiti's frontrunner rejects electoral results, calls for more protests  2/14/2006 AFP: "Massive protests two years ago turned into a popular uprising that forced Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's last elected president, to flee. Haiti has been rocked by turmoil since, but the violence eased shortly before last week's elections." [The "massive protests" were hardly a popular uprising, organised as they were by the narco military and paramilitary working for the elite.]

Election Protests Mount In Haiti; Luxury Hotel Stormed  2/14/2006 All Headline News: "At least one supporter of Preval was killed. News service journalists saw the body of a man, wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt bearing an image of Preval, in the street in the Tabarre neighborhood. Witnesses say that U.N. peacekeepers opened fire on the crowd, but a U.N. spokesman denies the allegations. Witnesses say Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers opened fire, killing two and wounding four… Thousands of protesters stormed the Hotel Montana, where the country's election council had its press center, breaking through a gate and spilling into the luxury resort's garden, lobby and hallways. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in Haiti for a previously scheduled visit, attempted to disperse the crowd from a balcony at the hotel, but many among the protesters had no idea who he was. "If you shoot at us, we're going to burn all this down,'' the crowd chanted as U.N. gunships hovered overhead. Many believed that members of the country's election council were staying at the hotel and demanded to speak to the council's director general, Jacques Bernard."

Allegations Cloud Haitian Vote Count  2/13/2006 Washington Post: "But allegations by a member of Haiti's electoral commission about vote-tampering roiled the capital of Port-au-Prince, where thousands protested outside the hotel where commission members have been releasing partial results since Thursday. Electoral commissioner Pierre Richard Duchemin, whose comments were broadcast widely on radio, accused the commission of manipulating the count and refusing to tell the public that Preval had 52 percent of the vote, enough to avert a runoff and take the presidency. "According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Duchemin told the Associated Press, adding that "there is an effort to stop people from asking questions" about the tabulation process. The slow pace of counting ballots has tipped what was seen as Haiti's most successful election ever -- a huge, peaceful turnout of voters despite a chaotic start to balloting -- into another volatile crisis. On Sunday, the crowd in the capital blocked streets leading to the Hotel Montana, making it nearly impossible for commission members to attend a news briefing. Preval, who lives in a small white stucco house on the town square here, a six-hour drive from the turmoil of the capital, remained confident that he was about to complete a remarkable political comeback after five years of retirement. But he was suspicious of the electoral commission. At one point, he stepped onto his porch, dancing across the tile floor and singing, " Yo vole vot nuo " -- in lyric Creole, "They're stealing our votes.""

AP Blog on Haiti Elections  2/12/2006 AP

America's Historic Debt to Haiti  2/10/2006 Consortium News: "Though the Haitian resistance had blunted Napoleon’s planned penetration of the American mainland, Jefferson reacted to the bloodshed by imposing a stiff economic embargo on the island nation. In 1806, Dessalines was brutally assassinated, touching off a cycle of political violence that would haunt Haiti for the next two centuries. By 1803, a frustrated Napoleon – denied his foothold in the New World – agreed to sell New Orleans and the Louisiana territories to Jefferson. Ironically, the Louisiana Purchase, which opened the heart of the present United States to American settlement, had been made possible despite Jefferson’s misguided collaboration with Napoleon. “By their long and bitter struggle for independence, St. Domingue’s blacks were instrumental in allowing the United States to more than double the size of its territory,” wrote Stanford University professor John Chester Miller in his book, The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. But, Miller observed, “the decisive contribution made by the black freedom fighters … went almost unnoticed by the Jeffersonian administration.”"

Haiti's leading presidential candidates  2/7/2006 CNN

Haitian People Turn Out in Force for Democracy  2/7/2006 NarcoNews

Haiti Pre-Election Update  2/6/2006 NarcoNews: "In addition to its own violence and failing to control the violence of others, in addition to jailing a popular choice for president and hundreds of other political leaders (including the elected prime minister), the coup government further damaged the delayed elections by drastically reduceing the number of polling stations compared to previous years. Through it all, the leading candidate by far is a former President – the only one ever to serve a full term, from 1996 to 2001 – and Aristide ally, René Préval. The coup regime promises just over 800 polling stations in the nation of more than seven million. Haiti will have nearly 5,000 eligible voters per polling station, while India and at least some United States counties aim for under 1,000."

FOIAs Reveal IRI working with OPL to facilitate the creation of an anti-Lavalas socialist coalition. FOIAs also reveal USAID $3m program with UNOPS to "even the playing field".  2/5/2006 Free Haiti: "Recent FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to USAID show that the International Republican Insitute (IRI) facilitated the creation of a socialist coalition between OPL, PANPRA, KONAKOM, and Ayiti Kapab. Research also shows that Marc Bazin's "moderate lavalas" candidacy has also been facilitated and supported by the IRI."

Haiti: Hopes for a Peaceful Alternative as the UN Plans to Invade Cité Soleil - An Interview with Frank Eaton, Filmmaker and Kidnapping Victim  1/26/2006 NarcoNews

Letter from a Haitian Prison By Fr. GERARD JEAN-JUSTE  1/24/2006 Counterpunch

U.S. Gvt. Channels Millions Through National Endowment for Democracy to Fund Anti-Lavalas Groups in Haiti  1/23/2006 Democracy Now: "The NED operates with an annual budget of $80 million dollars from U.S. Congress and the State Department. In Venezuela, it’s given money to several political opponents of President Hugo Chavez. With elections underway in Haiti, it’s reportedly doing the same to groups linked to the country’s tiny elite and former military. Last week Democracy Now! interviewed Anthony Fenton about NED’s activities in Haiti and across the Caribbean and Latin America. Fenton is an independent journalist and co-author of the book “Canada in Haiti: Waging War On The Poor Majority.” He has interviewed several top governmental and non-governmental officials dealing with Haiti as well as leading members of Haiti’s business community. Last month, he helped expose an NED-funded journalist who was filing stories for the Associated Press from Haiti. The Associated Press subsequently terminated its relationship with the journalist."

Batay Ouvriye's Smoking Gun  1/10/2006 Znet: "Recently declassified National Endowment for Democracy (NED) documents reveal that a "leftist" workers' organization, Batay Ouvriye (BO), which promoted and called for the overthrow of the constitutionally elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was the targeted beneficiary of a US $99,965 NED grant routed through the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Solidarity (ACILS). Listed in NED's "Summary of Projects Approved in FY 2005" for Haiti, the grant states, "ACILS will work with the May 1st Union Federation- Batay Ouvriye [ESPM-BO] to train workers to organize and educate fellow workers."

Haiti in the News

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: January 25, 2010

	AfroCubaWeb

Haiti in the News

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A. Last modified: January 25, 2010

Copyright © 1997 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: January 25, 2010