Haiti
Government is confident before ratification
Government spokesman Eddy Jackson Alexis says Prime Minister Fritz William Michel has a majority of senators to ratify his policy statement. He maintains that Michel has had numerous meetings with senators and deputies of all political blocs in order to obtain a majority.
Alexis indicates that the intervention of the opposition senators to prevent the holding of the meeting is proof that the Prime Minister does have a majority.
In recent weeks, several senators including Joseph Lambert, Francenet Dénius and Sorel Jacinthe have joined the ranks of the opposition. Asked about the new political configuration at the Grand Corps, the Secretary of State for Communication argued that there is a difference between opposition senators and those of the “other position.” These legislators do not support the Prime Minister’s general policy, but are not members of the opposition according to Alexis. Continue reading
Activists break everything in the Senate to prevent Prime Minister’s policy presentation
Dozens of angry campaigners stormed the meeting room on Wednesday night to discuss the Prime Minister Fritz William Michel’s policy statement even as he and his cabinet members were in the Diplomatic Hall of Parliament.
The incident occurred after a day of high tension in the city center and around the parliament, where there were violent protests. It all started towards the end of the morning when a few dozen protesters, most of them armed, positioned themselves around the Legislative Palace despite an important security device deployed by the Haitian National Police.
Some of these gunmen who pretended to be political activists along with some opposition senators even managed to invest in the court of Parliament. By mid-day, the protesters were going to set fire to a bus carrying agents from the intervention and law enforcement agency (Cimo). Attempts by the police and the fire department to extinguish the fire have been in vain. Continue reading
500,000 barrels of petroleum products to arrive by Monday, announces Jean-Michel Lapin
“We are in the process of finalizing a new order of 500,000 barrels for the three petroleum products,” former Prime Minister Jean-Michel Lapin said Wednesday as the country faces a shortage of gasoline for nearly three weeks.
Of the 4.2 billion gourdes that the Haitian government owes to importers of petroleum products, “we have made an advance of two billion gourdes that will allow them to supplement the money for the order of 500,000 barrels of gasoline,” Lapin said before clarifying that it is not the government that controls the gasoline.
If all the technical data are respected, the cargo will arrive in Haiti on Sunday evening or Monday morning. Continue reading
The situation for LGBTIQ people worsens in Haiti according to “Kouraj”
The Haitian organization that campaigns for LGBTIQ rights, “Kouraj,” is appalled at the rise of violence against homosexual men and women in the country. In a report published on August 8, Charlot Jeudy said he had recorded 21 cases of violence against LGBTIQ people including a murder case over the past three years.
The heated debate over rights for LGBTIQ people is gaining momentum in Haitian society. Jeudy explains that if the situation of the LGBTIQ is only progressing in certain places in the world, in Haiti the evolution is done in two directions. On the one hand, he argues, “transsexuals and homosexuals take the courage to assert themselves, which implies that the issue of sexual orientation takes more prominence in public debates and that academics express the desire to carry out more and more of their research work on the issue of the recognition of the rights of LGBTIQ people.”
According to Jeudy, these homophobic politicians, most of whom are parliamentarians, are only the opposite of their prerogatives. “While they should create laws to protect the rights of all citizens without exception, these politicians ignore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our Constitution, the observations of the UN committee, recommendations which were made in Haiti during the last Universal Periodic Review but especially that made by the Republic of Colombia and that Haiti has signed on the identity of gender,” he said. Continue reading
Haiti wants Bahamas to grant temporary asylum to undocumented migrants affected by Hurricane Dorian
Haitian Chargé d’Affaires Dorval Darlier wants the Bahamaian government to grant temporary asylum to undocumented migrants affected by Hurricane Dorian. He said this is the best way to assist Haitians living in Grand Bahama and Abaco to rebuild their lives after losing everything to Dorian’s destruction. His comments came days after North Eleuthera Member of Parliamentt Hank Johnson was caught on video by a Florida reporter arguing about the picture being painted of how the Bahamas government is treating Haitian evacuees. Continue reading
Caribbean
Hurricane Dorian: Trump administration reportedly won’t extend temporary protected status to Bahamians
The Trump administration reportedly will not grant temporary protected status to Bahamians impacted by Hurricane Dorian, according to CNN and NBC.
Temporary protected status would allow Bahamians to work and live in the United States until it is safe enough for them to return. As CNN explained: “TPS applies to people who would face extreme hardship if forced to return to homelands devastated by armed conflict or natural disasters, therefore the protections are limited to people already in the United States.” Continue reading