Haitian MPs Who Support Mayors’ Dismissal Will Get Community Development Funds | La Fenamh met l’exécutif en garde contre tout renvoi des cartels municipaux

By Gerard Maxineau, Le Nouvelliste | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The National Federation of Haitian Mayors (FENAMH) has fingered the executive and some lawmakers as having recently drafted a plan to dissolve 140 municipal councils and replace them with municipal boards at the service of the parliamentarians, but this plan was drafted abroad in the prefab constitution that came along with Haiti’s prefab president and its prefab parliament exactly one year ago. It is a plan especially designed to grab lands in northern Haiti.

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When Will Haiti’s Next elections Take Place? | A quand les prochaines élections en Haïti?

By Staff (EJ), Radio Metropole | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The mandates of one third of the Haitian Senate and various municipal executives expired in mid-January 2012, and the mandate of another third of the Senate expired on May 8. Mayors and local officials have been replaced by presidential decree, and no administrative provision is in place to organize new elections. (English | French)

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Poor Little Rich Haiti to Be Fleeced of Copper-Silver-Gold Via Caracol Deep-Water Port

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Plans are under way for Canadian and US corporations to mine Haiti’s northeast area near Caracol, which has been discovered to contain a wealth of silver and gold, in addition to copper. As in the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo project, construction of the mines will involve dynamiting of mountains, and the ore will be extracted by an opencast (or open-pit) mining process that contaminates large volumes of water with cyanide. UPDATES: Attempts to issue mining permits to the US’ VCS Mining LLC and Canada’s SOMINE SA, without any environmental impact assessment (EIA) were thwarted by Haiti’s Senate in January 2013. Plans to dredge a deep-sea port in the pristine Bay of Fort Liberte were scrapped in April 2014.

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Haitian Senate Suspects Counterfeiting Operation for Executive Branch | L’exécutif aurait son propre réseau de faussaires, soupçonne une commission sénatoriale d’enquête

By Staff (rh gp), AlterPresse | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. According to one of Michel Martelly’s passports, the former singer traveled to 21 countries that did not affix any seal of entry. Another passport is dated 1981 to 1991, although a Haitian passport is valid for only 5 years. (English | French)

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Paramilitary Gangs Join UN Force in Preying on Haitian Population

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. It is hardly worthwhile to entertain some notion that the U.N. force MINUSTAH and the new paramilitary gangs are somehow at odds with each other. Both are supported by the U.S. and France, and both prey on the Haitian population and National Police. MINUSTAH’s abuses are given as the reason why a Haitian army is needed to defend the national sovereignty, and the threat of abuse by paramilitaries serves to justify MINUSTAH’s continued stay.

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Caracol Free-Trade Zone Jeopardizes Natural and Cultural Heritage | La zone franche de Caracol met en péril le patrimoine naturel et culturel du Nord-Est

By Rachelle Charlier Doucet, AlterPresse | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A massive industrial park is scheduled to open in the Caracol Bay area of Haiti, although no plan is in place to mitigate the park’s impact on a region that has been proposed as a World Heritage Site for its ecological, historical, and archaeological importance. (English | French)

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Amended Haitian Constitution Confirmed as Prefabricated ‘Fake’

By Staff, Defend Haiti | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A presidential commission recommends withholding publication of the Haitian Constitution amended by the parliament in May 2011 and subsequently corrected. This document’s contents have been found to differ from the outcomes of the parliament’s votes.

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Student from School of Anthropology Wins Freedom From Haitian National Penitentiary By Hunger Strike | Grève de la faim d’un étudiant de la faculté d’éthnologie au pénitencier national

By Hilaire Yvince, Le Nouvelliste | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Psychology major Jaksy Fritzbert, from the School of Anthropology and a father of two, began a hunger strike on Mar 6, 2012 to protest his incarceration in Haiti’s National Penitentiary since February 24. The students say that this was a political arrest to intimidate them after they refused to allow Martelly and a group of armed men into an international symposium. (English | French)

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Haiti’s Secretaries of State Not Haitian, Including One Implicated In Dismissal of Mayors | Plusieurs secrétaires d’Etat ne sont pas Haïtiens, y compris celui accusé du licensement des maires

By staff (jep kft), AlterPresse | English translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Several secretaries in Michel Martelly’s cabinet have a foreign nationality. Secretary of State for the Interior Georges Racine was discovered to be a U.S. citizen; the Secretary of State for Culture and Heritage was discovered to be Spanish, and the Secretary of State for Higher Education was found to be Canadian. The citizenships of Michel Martelly himself and his latest PM designate Laurent Lamothe are also under investigation. (English | French)

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France Promises Aid for New ‘Haitian’ Army | Haïti-Armée: La France promet son appui

By L. Joseph Olivier, HPN | English translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “…the UN force will not be in Haiti forever, and so we look to our partners for a guarantee of public assistance for the design and formation of a new force.” – Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Lamothe during the announcement in Paris on Jan 24, 2012 that France had agreed to grant aid to Haiti for a new armed force.

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Speakers of Haitian Parliament Issue Urgent Call for Popular Vigilance to Respect for Law | Les présidents des deux chambres appellent à la ‘Vigilance’ citoyenne pour ‘éviter le pire’

By Haitian Speaker of the Senate and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, AlterPresse | Translated by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “You stood up in 1804, 1934, 1986 and 1990. Stand up today for respect for the preamble to the 1987 Constitution and respect for the laws passed by Parliament! Stand up and call for the President of the Republic to respect his oath and faithfully follow the Constitution and the laws of the Republic! Stand up to back democratic gains, and demand free and fair elections within the time prescribed by the law and the Constitution!” – Joint statement from Simon Dieuseul Desras and Levaillant Louis-Jeune.

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Haiti’s Elected Mayors Dismissed, Illegally Replaced by Presidential Appointees | Prefeitos Eleitos do Haiti Demitidos, Substituídos Ilegalmente por Nomeados pelo Presidente

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirteen Haitian mayors were dismissed and replaced on February 18, 2012 by presidential decree. In a press conference, one mayor said that a new individual recently arrived claiming to be his municipality’s new mayor, and two days later he got a letter telling him to assist this person in taking inventory of the region’s heritage. Another mayor wrote in open letter on February 3 that his life is under threat. Secretary of the Interior Georges Racine is thought to be behind the wave of illegal dismissals. (English | Portuguese)

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Carnaval 2012: A Musical Indictment of Corruption in Haiti

Music by Don Kato, Boukman Eksperyans, Vwadezil | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Nearly every Haitian Carnival 2012 song is an indictment of the current state of affairs: corruption, cholera, rapes, MINUSTAH. We’re not partying to forget but to remember. (songs in Kreyol)

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Key Decisions and Directions From ALBA XI: ‘A Grand Summit!’

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | By Yaima Puig Meneses, Granma. Participants ratified Haiti’s participation as a permanent special invitee and agreed to hold the next summit of the ALBA Foreign Ministers in Jacmel, Haiti.

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