By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirty six commandos from Haiti’s Departmental Unit for Maintenance of Order (UDMO), together with presidentially-appointed regional and local government representatives, arrived in La Visite Park, near the southern city of Jacmel, to evict 142 families by force on July 23, 2012. In the battle that ensued, 4-12 people were killed.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. At a visit to Haiti’s landmark Citadelle Laferriere, Martelly, to emphasize his disgust about the decrepit state of the 300-year old fort, took off in a huff, straight downhill on his motorcycle, leaving his motorcade to scramble after him down a steep and narrow mountain road. The result: an accident that gravely injured seven people and put in critical condition a journalist and a six-year old girl who had been inside her house.
Continue reading →By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans, IPS | UPDATE from Haiti Chery. The United Nations is increasingly hiring Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) for its missions across the world, raising concerns over the use of firms known for participation in human rights abuses, as well as an overall lack of accountability structures governing these contractors within the U.N. system. UPDATE 1: DynCorp boasts of having trained 400 “Haitian police” and is awarded a $48.6 million contract to insert 100 contractors and 10 advisors into the “UN police force” in Haiti.
Continue reading →By Staff, Radio Metropole | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. With the reactivation of the defunct 2005 Council of Economic and Social Development (Conseil de Développement Economique et Social), Haiti establishes a permanent dictatorship with elections. The CESD replaces the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC). (English | French)
Continue reading →By Joseph Serizier (with kft, gp), AlterPresse | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Radio Monopole, in Haiti’s city of Cayes, was burned to the ground early in the morning of June 27. In an interview, the CEO Herold Zamor said he had been openly criticized by highly placed people in the government and hypothesized that the fire was an act of arson. (English | French)
Continue reading →PRESS RELEASE, UN via RadioTV Caraibes | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The heads of the UN peacekeeping missions forces in the Congo (MONUSCO), Haiti (MINUSTAH) and South Sudan (MISNUSS) said that these operations have broad mandates: from classical peacekeeping to conflict mitigation, and even the fight against cholera. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Pierre Ricardo Placide, Le Matin. After a 20% drop in Haiti’s agricultural production last year, the agricultural sector is under threat of a more drastic reduction of food supply. This situation could exacerbate food insecurity in the most vulnerable households in the Departments of the North, Northeast, South, Artibonite and Central Plateau. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Jacob Kushner, Global Post | U.S. Farm Bill 2012, Develop Trade Law | Environmental Working Group | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. U.S. Farm Bill 2012 could reverse a decades-long policy of agricultural subsidies that has undercut Haiti’s local rice production.
Continue reading →By Reynold Aris, Le Matin | Staff, Radio Kiskeya | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Port Market in Port-au-Prince went up in flames early in the morning on June 18, 2012 and again on July 12-13, 2012, about one year after another fire. Traders at the market say they’ve received numerous threats about a fire, and the city’s Chief Prosecutor noted that three attempts to burn this market had recently been aborted. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Joaquín Rivery Tur, Granma | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A new U.S. base was hurriedly built in Fort Aguayo, Chile, in 60 days. The facility will train United Nations ‘peacekeepers,’ and Latin-American soldiers and police, in urban warfare. Chilean civil society has denounced the supposed military college as a center to train future repressors and torturers.
Continue reading →By Staff, Diario Libre | Humberta, Diaspora Women | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Dominican Republic has the highest percentage of pregnant adolescents of all Latin American and Caribbean countries. According to the Statistical Yearbook of Public Health, there were 118,730 births in 2011, 60% of them to mothers under 18 years old. Moreover, 40% of these births were by Caesarian section. Instead of confronting these problems, Dominicans have focused on Haitian births.
Continue reading →By Staff (sgl/emw/mgt/jrr) Prensa Latina | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. At a meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Member countries discussed a timetable for South America’s withdrawal from MINUSTAH. But the plan so far looks more like one for a gradual replacement of Latin American troops with Asian and African troops.
Continue reading →By Staff, AsiaOne | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Bangladeshi UN “peacekeepers” have sent home nearly $1.24 billion during the past three years. In 2010 Bangladesh sent its first female MINUSTAH contingent, a group of 110, to Haiti.
Continue reading →By Toni Solo, Tortilla con Sal, Haiti Chery | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Imperialist collaborators take pride in the degree to which they can assume the posture and mask of the oppressor. The predecessors of Augusto Cesar Sandino and inheritors of his legacy make it possible to shed those masks. (English | Spanish)
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