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((Johny Jean in Montevideo -- El Mostrador photo))

[Translations of two articles, the first by Spanish news agency Efe as published in El Observador of Montevideo on May 9, the second from El País of Montevideo for May 11. See originals here and here and related articles here, here, here and here.]

Haitian youth who denounced rape by Uruguayan marines to testify in Montevideo

Haitian Johny Jean, who accused five Uruguayan blue helmets of abusing him sexually last year in Haiti, will travel to Uruguay on Tuesday to testify before the judge in charge of the case.

The director of the [Haitian] Reseau National de Défense des Droits Humains (RNDDH – National Network for the Defense of Human Rights), Pierre Espérance, confirmed the trip, in which a member of that organization will take part in order to observe Jean’s testimony before the Uruguayan court, planned for Thursday afternoon. (more…)

((Hartley with two Haitian sugar cane workers.))

[Translations of three articles, one by the Spanish news agency EFE as published in El Nuevo Diario of Santo Domingo on April 24, two from Listín Diario of Santo Domingo for April 24 and 25. See originals here, here and here. Christopher Hartley is featured in the film “The Price of Sugar;” for more information, go here.]

US investigates priest’s claims of slave labor

Santo Domingo – The United States Department of Labor has opened an investigation in the Dominican Republic into charges by the priest Christopher Hartley, who claims sugar producers are subjecting workers in the industry to conditions of slavery, the US embassy reports. Hartley is currently outside the Dominican Republic but from 1997 to 2006 he worked in the bateyes, workers’ villages set up on sugar plantations, in the San José de los Llanos parish, in the eastern province of San Pedro de Macorís.

The Anglo-Spanish priest has for years made denunciations on the treatment of workers who cut sugar cane, most of whom are Haitian, by large companies.

He has accused them of human trafficking, child labor, racial discrimination and failure to provide health care, as well as of exploitation, fraud and labor abuse. (more…)

Former soldiers had marched on parliament

[Translation of an article from Agence Haïtienne de Presse for April 20. See original here and related articles here and here.]

Port-au-Prince, April 20 – A meeting was held Thursday evening between representatives of the Conseil Supérieur de la Police Nationale (CSPN) and the international community, 48 hours after the incursion into the parliament, then in full session, by a group of dozens of armed individuals in military fatigues at a time when the legislators were forming a committee to study the case of Laurent Lamothe, nominated as prime minister.

Without supplying details, the minister of justice, as well as the spokesman for MINUSTAH (United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti), have confirmed the meeting was held. Minister Pierre-Michel Brunache stated in a telephone conversation with Radio Solidarité that nothing concrete had come from the meeting. (more…)

[Translation of an article from the Dominican/Haitian website Espacinsular.org for April 10. See original here and related articles here and here.]

Port-au-Prince, April 10 – Without a doubt, this is not the first time Dominican politicians and businessmen have financed electoral campaigns in foreign countries. The best known case in Dominican-Haitian relations is that of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and Elie Lescot, whom the Dominican dictator managed to bribe, according to [Dominican historian] Bernardo Vega, from the time he was minister of the interior under President Stenio Vincent in 1932 until he helped him become president in May, 1941.

Even more recently, during the last two decades, both Haitian and Dominican candidates, as a result of their connections in social and business circles, have benefited from donations coming from sources on the other side of the island and from the diaspora of both countries. This applies as much to the presidential level as in legislative and municipal elections. (more…)

[Translation of an article by the Spanish news agency Efe as published in El Nuevo Diario of Santo Domingo on April 12. See original here and related articles here and here.]

Santo Domingo, April 12 – The governments of the Dominican Republic and Haiti today denounced a plot organized by a former Dominican colonel to destabilize the presidency of Michel Martelly. The plan was denounced by Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, Haitian Minister of Justice Michel Brunache and Dominican Attorney General Radhamés Jiménez, who attribute the plot to former Colonel Pedro Julio Goico Guerrero, known as “Pepe Goico,” one of the closest collaborators of former Dominican President and current presidential candidate Hipólito Mejía.

“This campaign is based on a false and baseless accusation against the integrity and honor of President Michel Martelly,” the officials said in a brief document read by spokesman for the Dominican presidency Rafael Núñez in a meeting with journalists in which questions were not allowed. (more…)

[Translation of an article from the Dominican/Haitian web site Espacinsular.org for April 2. See original here and related article here.]

Port au Prince, April 2 – Just days after receiving the Dominican government’s highest decoration, the Haitian head of state finds himself implicated in one of the most serious cases of corruption known in the Dominican Republic, the central figure of which is Dominican Senator Félix Bautista.

The results of an investigation made public on the eve of Palm Sunday by prize-winning veteran journalist Nuria Piera on her program “Nuria en el 9,” confirm as facts charges widely circulated in Haiti since last year on the radio program of analyst Michel Soukar and involving leaders in both countries within the framework of the reconstruction of Haiti, devastated in the earthquake of 2010. (more…)

((Haiti Press Network photo))

[Translation of an article from Le Matin for March 23. See original here and related article here.]

Secretary of State for Public Security Réginald Delva has ordered the former soldiers to go home. According to the minister, drastic measures are being taken to promote a climate of security in the country. Therefore, a set of arrangements against them has already been planned. Among others, they have already been formally prohibited from moving about on the streets in uniform. They have also been ordered to leave the occupied spaces quickly.

But these armed men have so far shown no inclination to obey. The are still occupying the Lamentin 54 camp [in Ouest province]. Instead of submitting to the government orders, they are rather asking President Martelly to fulfill his promises. (more…)

((Le Nouvelliste photo))

[Translation of an article from Haïti Liberté for February 24. See original here. Most universities in Latin America, including Haiti, are considered “autonomous” and thus protected from police and military intervention.]

By Thomas Péralte

It was around three in the afternoon on February 17, 2012, when Michel Joseph Martelly, at the head of a group of rowdy individuals, tried to force his way into the School of Ethnology (Faculté d’Ethnologie), which is on Magloire Ambroise Street, in Champ de Mars. In the company of his wife, Sophia Martelly, with no invitation of any kind, he wanted to attend an international symposium in progress on the theme “Ethnology and the Construction of the Political Nation, the People, the Citizen in Haiti,” conducted by foreign and Haitian professors. (more…)

[Translation of an article by the Spanish news agency Efe as published on February 17 by the Dominican web site Noticias Sin. See original here and related articles here, here, here and here.]

Lima, Perú – The 274 Haitian immigrants stranded in the Peruvian town of Iñapari find themselves among the victims of recent flooding in the area as they try to cross the border illegally into Brazil.

As the local parish priest, René Salízar, told Efe in a telephone conversation on Fiday, the Haitians arrived in Iñapari, in the southeast of the country, after following a route they consider the most economical, with the least migratory procedures to go through to get into Brazil.

The immigrants were evacuated to a college on high ground after spending more than a month in the Iñapari parish church. (more…)

[Translation of an article from AlterPresse Haïti for February 10.  See original here.]

Port au Prince, February 10 – Citizens are wondering about maneuvers, with weapons, that have been carried out for several weeks in different parts of the country by groups of former members of the military, wearing uniforms, who have taken over  camps of the disbanded armed forces of Haiti.

The training exercises have been observed particularly in the municipality of Carrefour, in the Ouest department south of the capital, in Gonaïves in the department of Artibonite to the north, and in the central plateau, in the northeast.

No relevant information has been released on the source of financing or on the sponsorship of these groups, who, since 2011, with no discussion or administrative orders, have assumed the position of “demobilized former soldiers” in order to resume military training exercises. (more…)

[Translation of an article from AlterPresse Haïti for January 2. See original here and related articles here, here and here.]

Port-au-Prince, February 2 – “We are ready to accept Haitian citizens who would choose to seek new opportunities in Brazil,” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told the press during a brief visit to Port-au-Prince on February 1.

Brazil, which desires to be sensitive to Haitian social, economic and humanitarian difficulties, has created a category of permanent visa exclusively for Haitians.

The country can “admit under that type of visa as many as 1,200 Haitian families a year… for a period of five years,” the head of state specified. (more…)

((Michel Martelly, Jean Claude Duvalier))

Lesser charges of corruption remain

[Translation of an article by Agence Haïtienne de Presse for January 31. See original here.]

Port-au-Prince, January 30, 2012 – Carves Jean, the examining magistrate in charge of the case of former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, has sent to the Port au Prince prosecutor’s office an order of closure in the Duvalier case, “sending the former president for life” to the criminal court on charges of corruption and misappropriation of public funds.

Besides the cases of corruption and misappropriation of public funds, Baby Doc is accused above all of crimes against humanity and violations of human rights committed during his regime.

Judge Carves Jean acknowledges handing down the ruling in the name of the republic, about which he chose not to comment, after hearing testimony from some 30 persons, he said. (more…)