Latest news with #JovenelMoise
Russia Today
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Gangs have Haiti's capital nearing collapse
Heavily armed gangs now control most Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and the city is on the brink of total collapse, a senior UN official has warned. Violence is escalating across the Caribbean nation while the international response remains slow and fragmented, Ghada Fathi Waly, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday. According to UN statistics, at least 5,600 people were killed in gang-related incidents in 2024 alone. Haiti has been without a president since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in July 2021, leaving a power vacuum that has allowed armed gangs to expand their influence unchecked. In the absence of a functioning central government and with weakened state institutions, the armed groups have grown in strength, seizing territory and increasingly operating as the de facto authorities across the country, particularly in the capital. 'Organized criminal groups have gained practically total control of the capital – approximately 90% of Port-au-Prince is under their grip,' Waly told the council. The gangs 'are continuing to establish their presence along strategic roads and border regions,' expanding attacks not only into surrounding areas but also into previously peaceful territories. 'Southern Haiti, which until recently was insulated from the violence, has seen a sharp increase in gang-related incidents,' Waly said. 'And in the east, criminal groups are exploiting land routes, including key crossings like Belladere and Malpasse, where attacks against police and customs officials have been reported.' Criminal groups are setting up their own 'parallel governance structures.' Their control over key trade routes has crippled legal commerce, driving up the cost of essential goods such as cooking fuel and rice. Earlier this week, the UN's International Organization for Migration reported that the ongoing crisis has displaced a record 1.3 million people across the Caribbean state. The IOM noted that the number of makeshift shelters has skyrocketed by more than 70%. According to AP, the Kenyan-led, UN-supported mission in Haiti, which arrived in 2024 to help curb gang violence, has remained understaffed and underfunded, with only around 40% of the planned 2,500 personnel currently deployed. The news agency also noted that in February, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed providing drones, fuel, transport, and other non-lethal assistance to bolster the mission, but the plan has stalled in the Security Council.
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US says Haitians can be deported – days after ruling Haiti unsafe for Americans
More than half a million Haitians are facing the prospect of deportation from the US after the Trump administration announced that the Caribbean country's citizens would no longer be afforded shelter under a government program created to protect the victims of major natural disasters or conflicts. Haiti has been engulfed by a wave of deadly violence since the 2021 murder of its president, Jovenel Moïse. Heavily armed gangs have brought chaos to its capital, Port-au-Prince, since launching an insurrection that toppled the prime minister last year. On Tuesday, the US embassy in Haiti urged US citizens to abandon the violence-stricken Caribbean country. 'Depart Haiti as soon as possible,' it wrote on X. But less than 72 hours later, on Friday afternoon, the Department for Homeland Security – which is at the heart of Donald Trump's hardline migration crackdown - said it believed it was 'safe for Haitian citizens to return home' and announced their protections were being withdrawn. Related: Haitians fear the imminent fall of Port-au-Prince to rebel gangs: 'We will die standing' 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,' a DHS spokesperson claimed as it was announced that an estimated 521,000 Haitians would be stripped of their 'temporary protected status' (TPS) on 2 September this year. 'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that temporary protective status is actually temporary,' the spokesperson said. The decision sparked an immediate outcry. Tessa Petit, the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition and a Haitian immigrant, told Newsweek: 'I'm still in shock, but I'm totally disgusted. This is a complete lie stating that the situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home. This is a lie.' The TPS program was created by US lawmakers in 1990 and was initially used to offer protection to those fleeing El Salvador's 12-year civil war during which more than 75,000 people were killed. Since then it has been used to offer shelter to citizens of countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Ukraine and Venezuela. Haitians were first offered TPS status after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince in 2010, claiming tens of thousands of lives. It is unclear how the DHS reached its conclusion that Haiti was now 'safe'. Experts say more than 80% of the capital has been commandeered by violent, politically connected gangs in recent years, with the gang-controlled roads in and out of Port-au-Prince now considered too dangerous to travel. International carriers including American Airlines stopped flying into the city's airport after several flights came under fire in late 2024. The US state department describes Haiti as a 'level four' destination which citizens are advised not to visit 'due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care'. Its website warns: 'Crimes involving firearms are common in Haiti. They include robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings for ransom. Kidnapping is widespread, and US citizens have been victims and have been hurt or killed … Mob killings and assaults by the public have increased, including targeting those suspected of committing crimes.' The UK Foreign Office also warns against all travel to Haiti because of the 'unpredictable' security situation and the threat of kidnapping and gang violence. 'Road travel is highly dangerous. Armed carjacking is common and criminal groups often use improvised road blocks to extort or kidnap motorists,' it says.
Miami Herald
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Birthright citizenship, sending Haitians back: America no longer for ‘huddled masses'
On Friday, America felt less American, with the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing, for now, the end of birthright citizenship for children of visa holders and undocumented immigrants in some states, along with the Trump administration's announcement it was ending protections for roughly 500,000 Haitians who will be at risk of returning to a country with no functioning government. America, it seems, is no longer the country that welcomes 'your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' The Trump administration's justification for ending Temporary Protection Status for Haiti flies in the face of reason. The Department of Homeland Security wrote: 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,' the Miami Herald reported. Really? This a country where armed gangs control up to 90% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are spreading their ruthless power to neighboring areas. At least one in 10 Haitians has been displaced by deadly gang violence, according to the Herald. Nearly half the population faces acute hunger. The situation in the Caribbean nation has only gotten worse since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, with institutions crumbling and horrific acts of violence taking place in plain sight. Several members of a congregation were beheaded inside a church in the rice-growing community of Préval last month, victims of local self-defense brigades that have been formed to fight organized crime, the Herald reported. The situation in Haiti has become so dire that the U.S. Department of State advises Americans not to visit the country 'due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and limited health care.' How can the Trump administration say Haiti's 'situation' is improved? The same questions lingers for Venezuela and Afghanistan, countries that also lost TPS under President Trump. Venezuela is still a dictatorship under Nicolas Maduro, and Afghanistan is still run by the Taliban. TPS holders are not foreign invaders, as Trump will have many Americans believe, but mostly people trying to escape terrible situations in their native countries. Unfortunately, the president was successful at convincing voters that immigration represents a net negative for the U.S., and every migrant allowed in this country is taking something from an American. Haitians, in particular, were targeted with vitriol during the 2024 elections with Trump and his allies repeating the baseless claim they were eating people's pets in Ohio. This nativist rhetoric ignores the employers who rely on TPS holders to perform jobs that most Americans won't do in our agricultural fields, restaurant kitchens and other businesses. It ignores the countless migrants and their children who made good on their opportunities by starting businesses, attending college and building their own American dream. Another 500,000 Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaragua are also at risk of deportation after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to revoke a Biden-era humanitarian parole program, for now, while a case is litigated. When will it stop? On Friday, the Supreme Court delivered another blow to country's system of checks and balances, allowing Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants in parts of the country to stand for now. The Court granted a request by the Trump administration to throw out national injunctions by lower court judges that preserved the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship while legal challenges to the executive order move forward. The 6-3 ruling means the injunctions blocking Trump's order only cover the jurisdictions where plaintiffs filed their lawsuits, leaving the rest of the country, including Florida, subject to Trump's order. This creates a bizarre patchwork of regulations where, for now, children born to the estimated half-a-million undocumented residents in living Florida, according to the federal government, don't have the same right to citizenship as children born under the same circumstances in Massachusetts, one of the states were a lawsuit was filed. If the U.S. Supreme Court eventually allows Trump to permanently end birthright citizenship, the result will be more undocumented immigrants who are born in the U.S. living in the shadows, their opportunities for advancement diminished. How does that help the U.S., especially when U.S. birthrates have dropped to concerning levels? The point seems to be exclusion and, for the sake of it, a nationalist agenda that's above accountability. Will America look back one day and regret this? Click here to send the letter.
Associated Press
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Judges probing Haiti's 2021 presidential assassination grill a former prime minister
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Claude Joseph, who was Haiti's acting prime minister when President Jovenel Moïse was gunned down in July 2021, came under fire Wednesday as judges investigating the killing questioned suspects in the case. It was the first time Joseph testified since attorneys for some suspects successfully appealed a court ruling that there was sufficient evidence to hold a trial. Since then, many questions have remained unanswered despite a new investigation. Joseph and Moïse's widow, Martine Moïse, were indicted last year after a judge accused them of complicity and criminal association. Both have repeatedly denied those accusations. Joseph on Wednesday called the judge's report that indicted him 'political, unfair and flawed.' He said it was a tactic used to 'neutralize' him because he organized demonstrations across Haiti against Ariel Henry, whom Joseph said was illegally sworn in as prime minister less than two weeks after the president was killed. At the time of his killing, Moïse had only nominated Henry as prime minister. Joseph noted that he didn't make a grab for power after the assassination. 'I said that everything was under the control of the National Police and the Haitian Armed Forces. Not under the control of the acting prime minister that I was then,' he said. 'I was unaware of the plot' Judge Emmanuel Lacroix grilled Joseph for several hours on Wednesday, repeatedly asking how it was possible he did not know about the plot as prime minister, since that position officially presides over Haiti's National Police High Council. 'Like the victimized president, I was unaware of the plot,' said Joseph, who remained calm during an hours-long interrogation as he faced pointed questions from several judges. Joseph said funds for intelligence operations at the offices of the president and prime minister are less than the $20 million it cost to kill Moïse. 'I must admit that no matter what means the prime minister had at his disposal to carry out its support work, it could not have saved the president's life,' Joseph said. Lacroix also pressed Joseph about why he didn't call the president when he first heard something had happened at Moïse's private residence. 'I let the police do their work,' he said. 'They were already on it.' Joseph also denied knowing Haitian-Americans James Solages, a key suspect, and Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a pastor, doctor and failed businessman who envisioned himself as Haiti's new leader and thought that Jovenel Moïse was only going to be arrested. Both are awaiting trial in U.S. federal court, where Martine Moïse, who was injured in the attack, is expected to testify. Judges in Haiti have called on Martine Moïse to fly to the troubled Caribbean country and also testify, but she isn't expected to do so. The former chief of Haiti's National Police, Léon Charles, also was ordered to appear, but it's unclear if he will fly to Haiti to do so. He faces the most serious charges, including murder, which he has denied. 'Rather curious' Last year, The Associated Press obtained a report in which a judge investigating the case stated that the former secretary general of Haiti's National Palace told authorities that he received 'strong pressure' from Martine Moïse to put the president's office at Joseph's disposal so he could organize a council of ministers. Her attorneys have denied the accusations. On Wednesday, Joseph said he was 'shocked' by Jovenel Moïse's killing. 'Everyone, including myself, finds it rather curious that a head of state was assassinated in his home without any reaction from his guards,' he said. 'All this clearly demonstrates the degree of complexity of the plot.' None of Moïse's guards were injured in the attack. Joseph urged the judges to focus on the money used to finance the attack: 'Analyze the distribution channels and hopefully identify the masterminds of the crime.' Of the more than 50 suspects in the case, 20 of them are being held in Haiti, including 17 former Colombian soldiers. Five other suspects are awaiting trial in the U.S., whose government extradited 11 suspects overall. Five of those have already pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Moïse. ___ Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
TimesLIVE
19-06-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
Haiti's capital in the dark after residents storm hydroelectric plant
The outburst came after authorities and gangs faced off in Mirebalais earlier in the day, local media reported, with gangs capturing a security vehicle and setting it on fire. Reuters was not immediately able to verify images of the incident. This would be the second time residents forcibly shuttered the hydroelectric plant in recent months. In May interim Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime promised swift action to ensure a similar incident would not happen again. Haitians are growing increasingly frustrated with the government as the transition council fails to deliver on promises to stabilise the nation, which has been without a president since Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. A Kenya-led, UN-backed security mission to the nation has also failed to make headway in tackling the crisis. World leaders have increasingly called for the mission to become a formal UN peacekeeping mission, while the US and Colombia have floated deploying troops through the Organization of American States.
