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After almost nine years in the country, MINUSTAH prolongs conditions of poverty and repression, securing the political and economic interests of the United States

[Translation of an interview from Brasil de Fato of São Paulo for May 9, 2013.  See original here and related articles here, here, here and here.]

By Márcio Zonta

The United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) will be nine years old in June.  Created in 2004 by the UN Security Council, it brought the activities of foreign troops into the country after the coup against then President Bertrand Aristide.  He was kidnapped and deposed by United States forces, being forced into exile in Africa. (more…)

[Translations of two articles from August 9, the first from Radio Metropole, the second from AlterPresse Haïti. See originals here and here.]

Brazil contemplates departure of Blue Helmets from Haiti

The new Brazilian defense minister, Celso Amorim, is contemplating withdrawal of the  Blue Helmets of the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH). The former foreign minister, who has made two visits to Haiti, Amorim considers that the Brazilians’ mission is nearing its end with the strengthening of democracy and economic growth.

This represents a radical change of position for Amorim, who, during the Lula administration, had encouraged Brazil’s involvement at the center of MINUSTAH.

Assuming office last Monday, Amorim bases his decision on a slow-down of the Brazilian economy. “On the international level, this is a time for military disengagement and from the economic point of view, Brazilian growth has slowed,” he explains. Amorim draws attention as well to an improvement in the security climate in Haiti. “Even if the country is far from being a haven of peace, it is now endowed with a president with the outlook of institutions regaining their normal functioning,” he remarked.

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[Translation of an article from Agence Haïtienne de Presse for June 30. See original here.]

Port-au-Prince, June 30 – Several social organizations, including the Plateforme Haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif (Papda – Haitian Platform to Plead for Alternative Development) and Solidarité des Femmes Haïtiennes (Sofa – Haitian Women’s Solidarity), on Wednesday appealed to the United Nations to compensate the Haitian people, and in particular victims of cholera, because the virus (sic) causing it was introduced into Haiti by soldiers of the UN Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH).

The organizations hold that the more than 850 million dollars allocated every year to the UN mission in the country should be used to compensate the victims and to launch an intense mobilization against the epidemic with the aim of eradicating it.
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[Two articles on Chilean participation in MINUSTAH, the United Nations mission in Haiti.  See related articles here, here, here, and here.]

Time to withdraw Chilean troops from Haiti

[Translation of a commentary from La Nación of Santiago, Chile, for November 28. See original here.]

by Raúl Sohr

The death of a Haitian citizen at the hands of a Chilean soldier last week in Cap Haïtien was the last straw. The soldiers had found themselves surrounded by a rock-throwing crowd.

In fact, several soldiers were injured by rocks. The agitation was a reaction to the people’s distress and helplessness in the face of the cholera epidemic that had already killed more than 1,400 people and infected almost 25,000. (more…)

[Translations of excerpts from five recent articles in the Dominican press. See related article here.]

Army deploys military cordon along length of border
Measure follows meeting with president on Wednesday

[From Listin Diario for November 25. See original here.]

A military cordon made up of 1,500 members of the National Army and hundreds of public health profesionals and workers has been posted in the most vulnerable areas of the border with Haiti to prevent the spread of cholera, which has caused almost 2,000 deaths in the neighboring country.

The military guard is under the command of the head of the National Army, Major General Carlos Alberto Rivera Portes, who arrived last night at the Third Infantry Brigade in this city at the head of a military supply convoy. (more…)

Cholera and disturbances pose challenge

[Translation of an article from El Pais of Madrid, Spain, for November 19. See original article here. The OAS and the article fail to mention that the most widely supported Haitian political party in the country, Fanmi Lavalas, has been consistently excluded from past and upcoming elections despite massive protests against its exclusion and for the return of Jean Bertrand Aristide, Lavalas founder, who has lived in forced exile in South Africa since he was ousted from the presidency in a coup d’état in 2004. See interview with Lavalas coordinator Maryse Narcisse here and recent interview with Jean-Bertrand Aristide here.]

The Organization of American States (OAS) on Friday offered assurances that preparations for Haitian elections next November 28 “are on a clear path” even though there are still challenges to be faced. The OAS and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Joint Electoral Observation Mission (JEOM) indicated in a press release that electoral planning in the impoverished country has become consolidated to the degree that the process had advanced. It has emphasized the efforts of the Provisional Electoral Council, charged with organizing the elections, “in confronting the numerous challenges it has been faced with on a technical, political and humanitarian level.” (more…)

[Translation of an article from Haïti Liberté for November 19. See original article here and related article here. Of the three cases of cholera reported in the Dominican Republic so far in the current epidemic, the first involved a Haitian migrant construction worker who had made a recent trip to his homeland.]

Since the confirmation of the first case of cholera in the Dominican Republic, the government of that country has strengthened preventive measures considerabely, among which is the ban on hiring new Haitian employees in the construction industry and in tourism without authorization from the Ministry of Health.

The construction industry

The construction sector has described these new measures as “unreasonable.” To prohibit the hiring of Haitian workers will create greater insecurity in the country, declared Jaime González, president of the Asociación Dominicana de Constructores y Promotores de Viviendas (Acoprovi – Dominican Association of Housing Promoters and
Constructers). He holds that such a measure would also result in a significant slowdown in the real estate sector. “What will these people do on the streets if they don’t have other jobs and can no longer earn money?” Jaime González recalls the importance of the Haitian work force in the construction field, citing as examples Bávaro, Samaná, where 95 percent of the construction workers are Haitians, or Santo Domingo, where they make up close to 75 percent. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Listín Diario of Santo Domingo for October 26. See original article here and related article here.]

Santo Domingo – Minister of Public Health Bautista Rojas Gómez today authorized the resumption of normal functioning of the binational markets in the five border provinces with the provision that established hygienic measures and controls be observed to avoid cholera in the Dominican Republic.

Rojas Gómez said the cancellation yesterday of the market in Dajabón resulted from Dominican authorities’ analyzing of actions to be taken in the face of the cholera edpidemic in Haiti.

The minister of health, the president of the Dominican Medical College, Senén Caba, and the representative in the country of the Panamerican Health Organization, Lilian Renau, travelled to the border, where they observed measures for controlling the disease.

Rojas Gómez explained that sanitary control measures have been established along the entire length of the border, made up of the provinces of Pedernales, Independencia, Elías Piña, Dajabón and Montecristi.

The government has made the logistics available to guarantee hygiene and sanitary controls around the markets, with driniking water, soap and chlorine…

He affirmed that the Dominican Republic is still free of cholera and stated that strict vigilance is being observed to avoid its entry into Dominican territory…

[Translations of two articles, the first from La Jornada of Mexico City, the second from Listín Diario of Santo Domingo, both from October 25. See original articles here and here.]

Dominican Republic closes border with Haiti

Santo Domingo – Thousands of Haitians who had planned to participate today in a binational market in the Dominican city of Dajabón were prevented from crossing the border by members of the armed forces of the Dominican Republic out of fear of the spread of cholera, official sources have confirmed.

The Dominican ministry of health ordered that Haitians be blocked from entering the coutry as part of an effort to avoid the spread of the cholera epidemic in the country.

An unkown number of Haitians nevertheless entered Dominican territory by way of the Masacre river, which divides the two countries. Members of the Cuerpo Especializado de Seguridad Fronteriza (CESFRONT – Specialized Border Security Corps) were searching the streets of Dajabón today for those who had flaunted the measure, while thousands of persons were left stranded at the Haitian border, according to accounts by local media. (more…)