Haiti Report, December 23, 2024
A compilation of news about Haiti from the past couple weeks.
Rain continues to drench the north, leading to deaths in Port-de-Paix
The torrential rains that fell on the city of Port-de-Paix on December 22-23 caused the death of 4 people, while several others are missing. The city is flooded, and the inhabitants are left to fend for themselves. While the authorities have announced more than a billion gourdes to help the most vulnerable, nothing has been done yet. At the same time, companies close to the government have received several million gourdes to distribute food kits. A check for more than 200 million gourdes has also been issued to a commercial bank for the distribution of gift cards. At the moment, Port-de-Paix seems abandoned by the authorities. The city is submerged by water, and it has already been three years since it was plunged into a total blackout. https://x.com/Radio_Metronome/status/1871242959179448340
US Continues Deporting Haitians to the north
On December 19, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security deported Haitian nationals who were seeking asylum to Cap-Haitien. These actions undermine the United States’ long-standing commitment to human rights, due process, and international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1980 Refugee Act.
The recent wave of deportations, including vulnerable Haitian families fleeing violence, persecution, and immense violence, demonstrates a disturbing disregard for legal protections guaranteed to asylum seekers under U.S. and international law. In Haiti, more than 700,000 Haitians have been displaced due to gang violence and more than 4,000 have been murdered. For the past several years, the United States Department of State has designated the country as a level 4- do not travel destination due to extreme violence. Furthermore, the U.S. has evacuated most of its personnel, including U.S. citizens from the country. The violence has been so severe that on December 9, 2024, American Airlines announced that it had indefinitely suspended all flights to Haiti. Deporting individuals to countries in turmoil, such as Haiti, where political violence, insecurity, and humanitarian crises prevail, contravenes the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened.
“It is unconscionable that the Biden-Harris Administration, which claims to represent the ‘soul of America,’ is sending Haitian asylum seekers back to Haiti, effectively condemning them to a death sentence,” said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. “This Administration has repeatedly failed to uphold its moral and legal obligations. By perpetuating anti-Black immigrant policies, particularly against asylum seekers of African descent, the Administration continues to violate both domestic and international laws. Haitian asylum seekers, fleeing unimaginable violence, have a lawful right to seek protection. Deporting them back to danger is not only cruel and racist—it is a blatant violation of the law.” https://haitianbridgealliance.org/haitian-bridge-alliance-urges-the-biden-harris-administration-to-immediately-halt-the-deportation-of-haitian-nationals-to-haiti-and-obey-international-laws/
Nearly 200 Haitians in Port-au-Prince were killed over the weekend of December 7-8 on the orders of a powerful gang leader who reportedly targeted elderly practitioners of voodoo because he blamed them for sickening his son. The massacre is the latest chapter in Haiti’s ongoing political crisis, with gangs now controlling much of the capital despite a Kenyan-led security mission to stabilize the country and support the U.S.-backed Transitional Presidential Council. Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch called for what it described as a “full-fledged United Nations mission to Haiti.” Human rights lawyer Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, says what we are seeing is “the predictable result of dismantling democracy” by successive U.S. administrations, though foreign interference in Haiti goes back two centuries. He says that given the security situation today, it is “absolutely indefensible” for the Biden administration to continue deportations at this time, which the Trump administration is poised to intensify. https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/11/haiti_massacre_port_au_prince
JetBlue extends suspension on flights to Haiti until late April
JetBlue Airways, the only U.S. carrier that connects Haiti directly with South Florida and New York, has extended suspension of its daily flights between the United States and the volatile Caribbean nation until late April 2025. “Due to the ongoing civil unrest in Haiti, we have made the decision to suspend all flights to and from the country through at least April 30,” Selma Garcia, a spokesperson with the airlines, told the Miami Herald on Thursday. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely and update our plans as necessary.”
The Federal Aviation Administration had earlier extended a flight ban on U.S. commercial and cargo flights traveling to Port-au-Prince until March 12. The decision was announced the same day that Haitian officials officially reopened both Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the capital and the nearby Guy Malary terminal for domestic flights. Earlier this month, American Airlines told the Herald that it had indefinitely suspended its flights between Miami and Port-au-Prince, and would revisit the decision in late 2025.
JetBlue, which operates flights between Haiti and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and between Haiti and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, cited the “safety and well-being of our customers and crew members” as the reasons for their decision to suspend the flights to Haiti until April.
While the suspensions have created anxiety for travelers, Haiti’s gang violence has created problems for pilots, some of whom were already prevented by charter and insurance companies from landing in Port-au-Prince after armed gangs shot at three U.S. commercial carriers on Nov. 11. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article297367924.html#storylink=cpy
Key Trauma Center in Port-au-Prince attacked by armed group
Haiti’s only neurological trauma center for nearly 12 million people, an 87-bed hospital tucked down a narrow street off the airport road in Port-au-Prince, survived a powerful 2010 earthquake, a deadly coronavirus epidemic, kidnappings and, until this week, the gang violence that had forced many of the capital’s doctors and nurses to flee abroad. On December 15, however, Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince could not survive the Molotov cocktails. Criminal gangs armed with the homemade explosives attacked the medical facility, setting fire to an ambulance and other vehicles in the courtyard along with millions of dollars worth of life-saving equipment. Two CT-scanners, a brand-new 3D X-Ray imaging machine, the lab, operating rooms and the pediatric ward all went up in flames.
The hospital had been recently emptied of all of its patients. But as recently as late August it was caring for police officers injured in the line of duty and received a visit from Police Chief Rameau Normil, who had accompanied the prime minister at the time, Garry Conille, and journalists.
In addition to its adult, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, the hospital had multiple residency programs where it trained doctors and nurses, and offered Haiti’s only neurosurgery residency program.
“This makes me worried right now, because even the littlest, the smallest things like an appendicitis, a ruptured appendix, where do we go to to get operated? We’re literally back to zero right now,” said Harold Marzouka Jr., a local businessman who has financially supported the hospital for the past decade.
Most of the capital’s hospitals, including the largest public medical facility known as the General Hospital, are overrun by armed gangs and if they are not, then getting to them requires money or traveling through gang territory. Bernard Mevs “was almost like the pillar with all of these; we would treat the more critical patients and the critical care, and then we could move them off to some of these other places where they would go to recover, and then go home because those places don’t treat the kind of cases that we’re doing, like these really complicated procedures,” Marzourka said. “We’re small, but we’re muscular.”
“People are dying from the most basic needs, like diabetes medicine, insulin,” he said. “It’s the saddest thing that someone could be witnessing in today’s time. We’re literally 700 miles away from the U.S. coast, and it’s something that we can fix in a second. I have to believe that this issue with the gangs… goes way beyond a political issue.” https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article297252659.html#storylink=cpy
UN reports 207 people were killed during massacre at Wharf Jeremie
Just over two weeks after the start of a wave of crimes committed by the Wharf Jérémie gang in the municipality of Port-au-Prince, the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) in Haiti and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published their investigation report today. Between 6 and 11 December 2024, more than 207 people (134 men and 73 women) were executed, the majority of whom were elderly individuals accused of practicing voodoo and causing the gang leader’s child disease. Other victims included people who tried to flee the area for fear of reprisals, or who were suspected of having leaked information about these crimes to local media.
The work of BINUH and OHCHR has established that the victims resided in five distinct areas throughout the Wharf Jérémie neighbourhood and were killed over a six-day period. They were first tracked down at their homes and a place of worship, and taken to the gang’s stronghold where they were held captive and interrogated in a so-called “training centre”. They were then taken to a nearby execution site before being shot dead or killed with machetes. The gang tried to erase all evidence by burning the bodies, or by dismembering them and then throwing them into the sea.
María Isabel Salvador, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Haiti, stresses that these crimes touch the very foundation of Haitian society, targeting the most vulnerable populations.
“We cannot pretend that nothing happened. I call on the Haitian justice system to thoroughly investigate these horrific crimes and arrest and punish the perpetrators, as well as those who support them. I also call on the authorities to set up a specialized judicial unit as soon as possible to combat this type of crime.”
For a long time, neither the police nor the judicial authorities have intervened at Wharf Jérémie. The abuses committed by gang members remain largely unpunished. On 12 December, the Prime Minister nevertheless instructed the Minister of Justice and Public Security and the head of the judicial police to deploy all necessary resources to apprehend the perpetrators of these crimes. Since 2022, the Jérémie Wharf gang has been fighting rival gangs for control of the roads leading to the capital’s main port and its container terminal. In addition, the leader of this gang would impose “taxes” on the consortium managing the port, including for the exit of containers, as well as on road transport companies moving goods from the port. It has also positioned itself as a key intermediary for national and international actors seeking to access local populations living in Wharf Jérémie.
The documented crimes at Wharf Jérémie occur in an alarming context of violence and human rights violations and abuses in Haiti, involving both criminal gangs, self-defense groups, as well as unorganized members of the population. Credible sources also indicate the involvement of specialized units of the National Police of Haiti (PNH). Since the beginning of 2024, BINUH and OHCHR have recorded more than 5,350 people killed and more than 2,155 injured as a direct result of these acts of violence. This brings the total of deaths and injuries to over 17,000 since 2022.
As the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has emphasized, it is urgent that the Haitian authorities take robust measures to strengthen the police and other state institutions paralyzed by corruption and impunity. The international community must also implement the targeted arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed by the UN Security Council to stem gang violence in Haiti.
EU sanctions three in relation to the escalating gang violence in the country
On December 16, the Council adopted restrictive measures against three Haitian individuals in view of the escalating gang violence, unremitting serious human rights abuses committed by the gangs in the country, and the continuing impunity for the perpetrators. The new listings include Jonel Catel, leader of the Terre Noir gang which is affiliated with the G9 coalition of gangs in Haiti, Gabriel Jean-Pierre, leader of GPep coalition of gangs, and Ferdens Tilus, leader of Kokorat San Ras Gang. They have engaged in criminal activities and violence in Haiti involving armed groups and criminal networks that promote violence, including robbery, ransoming, kidnapping, extortion, murders and rape.Those designated are subject to an asset freeze and EU persons and entities are forbidden from making funds, financial assets or economic resources available to them. In addition, they are subject to a travel ban to the EU. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/12/16/haiti-eu-sanctions-three-individuals-in-relation-to-the-escalating-gang-violence-in-the-country/?utm_source=brevo&utm_campaign=AUTOMATED%20-%20Alert%20-%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_id=3318
Haiti’s Electoral Council now complete
Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) is finally complete after Yves Marie Edouard and Rose Thérèse Magalie Georges were sworn in as members on Dec. 13. Their installation marks a turning point, as for the first time since the selection process started in May, the council can operate with its full complement of nine members tasked with organizing long-delayed elections. This development follows a Dec. 4 meeting of the Council of Ministers, during which the appointments were approved by the Presidential Transition Council (CPT) and Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé’s cabinet. The appointments, however, have been overshadowed by widespread protests and criticism from political factions disputing the legitimacy of the Council’s composition.
Despite persistent divisions and protests over the selection process of its representatives, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has now been completed with the installation of the two missing members. The disputes and disagreements have already cast doubt on the council’s ability to facilitate free and fair elections in a nation plagued by escalating gang violence and allegations of corruption within the transitional government. https://haitiantimes.com/2024/12/14/haitis-provisionalelectoral-council-finally-complete-after-contentious-process/
Haitian Police and Multinational Security Support Mission actively combating armed groups
Kendy, alias "Jeff Mafia", was shot dead on Sunday, December 15 during a clash with law enforcement at the bottom of Delmas, in Port-au-Prince. The information was confirmed by Lionel Lazarre, deputy spokesperson for the Haitian National Police (PNH), who said that the police also neutralized several other members of Jimmy Chérizier's gang, known by the nickname "Barbecue". https://www.rfi.fr/fr/am%C3%A9riques/20241216-ha%C3%AFti-un-lieutenant-du-chef-de-gang-barbecue-abattu-par-la-police-%C3%A0-port-au-prince?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=x&utm_source=user&utm_slink=rfi.my%2FBF6A
The Haitian National Police (PNH), reinforced by the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), conducted and won several operations in Palmiste over the weekend of December 14-15. Dozens of agents from the PNH’s specialized units, such as the Motorized Intervention Brigade (BIM), the Departmental Unit for Maintaining Order (UDMO), the Temporary Anti-Gang Unit (UTAG), and the SWAT Team of the Haitian National Police, mobilized to confront key allies of the Gran Grif gang from Savien.
“After two days of relentless battles, Jonas’ gangsters, unable to withstand the police assaults, fled,” the PNH Press and Public Relations Coordination reported. In communication with Le Nouvelliste, they praised “the exemplary commitment and combativeness of the Kenyan agents.”
A viral amateur video of a SWAT officer circulating on social media illustrates the police penetration into the gang’s stronghold, entrenched for years in a locality within the second communal section, geographically opposite Savien. “All we ask of the population is a little patience. The days of the major gangs in the department are numbered. We are working very hard, day and night, toward this goal,” said the government commissioner for the jurisdiction, Venson François. Provisionally, a reliable source from the Saint-Marc police station reported to the newspaper that “around twenty gang members were killed in shootouts with the police, while others, wounded by gunfire, fled with their associates.”
President Transitional Council requests aid from ALBA at Venezuela Conference
The President of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT), Leslie Voltaire, requested “security and food aid” during a video address at the conference marking the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), held in Caracas on December 14, 2024. “We are currently facing a problem of violence from armed gangs who are terrorizing the population. That is why we are asking our ALBA brothers for security and food assistance,” said Leslie Voltaire, referring to the nearly 6 million Haitians suffering from food insecurity. Leslie Voltaire also acknowledged the solidarity expressed towards Haiti during previous disasters, such as the January 12, 2010 earthquake.
“ALBA has received the precise instruction to do everything within its power to support Haiti, a nation that has been a victim of aggression, mistreatment, and colonialism in all its forms for centuries,” declared Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in response. “We agree to coordinate a common strategy to defend the inalienable right of the Haitian people to enjoy peace and to exercise authentic sovereignty and independence in multilateral spaces such as CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States),” states the final declaration, according to a Yahoo Noticias report.
Haiti and Colombia strengthen their cooperation
The governments of Haiti and Colombia held a joint Council of Ministers on Saturday, December 21, 2024, in Riohacha, department of La Guajira in northern Colombia. Discussions focused on topics of bilateral interest such as peacebuilding, strengthening state institutions, economic and commercial promotion, justice, migration, public security, and technical and cultural cooperation. The President of the Transitional Presidential Council, the Haitian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Trade, External Cooperation, Education, Defense, Social Affairs, Solidarity and Humanitarian Affairs, National Education, Economy and Finance, and Agriculture, as well as their counterparts and Colombian President Gustavo Petro took part in the discussions.
In an interview with Le Nouvelliste in Cap-Haïtien upon his return from Colombia on Saturday afternoon, CPT President Leslie Voltaire stressed the unprecedented nature of this event. "This is a first for Colombia. We would not have been able to launch cooperation without this bilateral council of ministers," explained Leslie Voltaire to explain the merits of this approach. "We talked about trade, scholarships in vocational schools in Colombia, training for police and military, coastal surveillance boats, South-South cooperation, conflict resolution," explained Leslie Voltaire.
La Guajira is located near Haiti. Armed gangs take about 8 hours to get there to stock up on weapons, ammunition or drugs. According to Leslie Voltaire, the two countries have agreed to strengthen maritime surveillance. "The Colombians recognize that drugs and weapons coming from their country contribute to destabilizing Haiti. They are determined to help us. They have established contacts with France, which has a fleet in Martinique and Guadeloupe, to help with maritime surveillance and to block the traffickers' route," Voltaire reported, adding that Colombia has promised Haiti security assistance "at all levels."
On the trade front, Leslie Voltaire said that the two countries discussed the possibility of purchasing products from Colombia that will be delivered directly without going through a third country. "We have requested a free trade agreement with Colombia," revealed the president of the CPT who believes that this option could alleviate the misery in Haiti. https://lenouvelliste.com/article/252145/haiti-et-la-colombie-renforcent-leur-cooperation
Latest Humanitarian Situation report from UNICEF
HIGHLIGHTS: As of 11 November, the situation in Port-au-Prince has rapidly deteriorated following attacks by armed groups in several neighborhoods – including attempted sieges of established residential areas. These attacks have caused the largest single displacement event since January 2023, with over 40,000 people forced to relocate within two weeks. The international airport remained closed throughout the month, and although UNHAS services experienced a temporary suspension, they have since resumed and remain the sole air-transport option for the humanitarian community to travel in and out of the capital.
In response to these events, several partners had to suspend mobile clinics due to security constraints. However, UNICEF has played a crucial role in facilitating the resumption of essential WASH, health-nutrition, and child protection services in displacement sites and host communities. During November, UNICEF provided critical support to over 22,400 children, parents, and caregivers with mental health and psychosocial services. Additionally, more than 67,000 people received critical water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies, and over 35,000 children were screened for wasting, with more than 4,400 cases of severe wasting treated.
UNICEF urgently calls on all donors to mobilize resources to address the 72 percent funding gap (US$160.4M) in the 2024 humanitarian appeal. Immediate funding is essential to meet the life-saving humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable women and children in Haiti. https://www.unicef.org/haiti/en/reports/haiti-humanitarian-situation-report-no-10
New Human Rights Update from Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
Since IJDH’s last Update on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Haiti in June, Haiti’s already catastrophic insecurity and humanitarian crises have deepened further. The Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) – charged with implementing a political accord designed to advance Haiti toward fair elections and a rights-based government, addressing insecurity in a way that centers Haitian sovereignty, and ensuring justice and accountability – has struggled to fulfil its obligations. Instead, there is evidence that the TPC is repeating the patterns of corruption and state capture that defined the previous 14 years of regimes affiliated with the U.S.-backed Pati Ayisyen Tèt Kale.
This reporting period saw a further increase in violations of the right to life and security of the person that the government has been unable or unwilling to control, even with the partial deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS). Most notable were a massacre in Pont-Sondé that killed at least 50, which received no police or MSS response despite advance warning; several large-scale, coordinated attacks by the Viv Ansanm coalition of armed groups, which displaced over 40,000 in the span of a week; and the forced shutdown of international air traffic. Armed groups continue expanding to areas previously considered safe and using brutal tactics to control the population. Over 5,000 people have been killed since January; over 700,000 are internally displaced; kidnappings remain rampant; and journalists and human rights defenders are facing increased threats without government protection. Haiti’s police remain weak and largely ineffective. The unaddressed acute insecurity exacerbates the other challenges described in this Update.
The life and death of a displaced Haitian woman
By Pascale Solages, Co-founder and general coordinator of NÈGÈS MAWON, a feminist organisation based in Haiti
On 15 October this year, Béatrice Cajoux’s image was everywhere on Haitian social media. The photos being circulated by online outlets and feminist organisations showed a smiling, round-faced young woman with sparkling eyes and sleekly braided hair. The previous night, she had been murdered in a displacement camp in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Béatrice was just 31 years old.
Today, I want to share her story to highlight the violence faced by Haitian women and the impunity that exists and enables it to continue. There are currently more than 700,000 displaced people in Haiti, and 25% of them live in makeshift displacement sites in Port-au-Prince like the one where Béatrice was killed. These are often schools, churches, or government buildings that are overcrowded and where there is limited-to-no access to basic services, adequate food, or health care. The camps are also often located in gang controlled areas, making aid access particularly challenging.
About 90% of the women living in camps have no source of income, and many are forced to engage in transactional sex to obtain food, water, a place to sleep, or simply to use the toilet. Lawlessness reigns and violence of all sorts continues to be perpetuated. Béatrice is just one of countless victims. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/first-person/2024/12/18/life-and-death-displaced-haiti-violence-woman?utm_content=buffer81539&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Artibonite Entrepreneurs Condemn Insecurity's Effects on Economy and Agriculture
The economic and social situation in the Artibonite department continues to deteriorate under the weight of growing insecurity. On the “Panel Magik” show this Thursday, December 19, entrepreneur Garry Dalencourt painted a bleak picture of the living conditions of the residents and the challenges facing local economic players.
According to Dalencourt, merchants and transporters are forced to pay “passage fees” to gangs that control the main roads in the department, leading to a steep rise in the prices of essential goods. “This cost is then passed on to the goods, which results in a continuous increase in the prices of essential products.”
“Day by day, the population sees its purchasing power decline,” said Dalencourt. The security crisis is also severely affecting the agricultural sector, the economic backbone of the region. Farmers struggle to access necessary inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers. Agricultural production is plummeting, worsened by the isolation caused by gang activities. “There are no seeds or fertilizers. Agricultural production is low. Those who manage to produce suffer significant losses due to the isolation caused by insecurity. In Savien, gangs control a strategic point where they block water, depriving downstream farmers of this resource. The few farmers who manage to get some water and cultivate must pay the gangs to access their land. Even when they succeed in producing, there is no guarantee they can harvest because sometimes the gangs themselves seize the crops,” lamented entrepreneur Garry Dalencourt.
Entrepreneurs in Artibonite are calling for urgent intervention by the authorities to restore security in the region and allow the economy to restart. “If nothing is done, the population will continue to sink into poverty, and Artibonite, once considered Haiti’s breadbasket, risks losing its strategic role,” said Garry Dalencourt.
In Grand’Anse, Merchants, Madan Sara, and Farmers Seek Alternative Solutions
Insecurity and the blockage of agricultural paths due to flooding in recent weeks are taking a toll on the department of Grand’Anse. Deprived of access to the metropolitan market, informal economy actors are forced to find alternative sources to stock up on goods or sell their products. In this article, Le Nouvelliste provides an update with key stakeholders in the region
From Wharf APN, Miragoâne, to Jérémie: The Journey of Entrepreneurs
As a direct consequence of insecurity, for over a year, farmers, merchants, and Madan Sara in Grand’Anse have had reduced access to the metropolitan market. To purchase new products, major merchants, despite the high risk, have been opting for the Wharf APN route. “The supplier is paid via a bank deposit. Once the transaction receipt is verified, the supplier hands over the goods to a truck driver at Wharf APN. In a long queue, this driver must wait for his turn—sometimes for a week or even a month—before his truck is transported by boat from the APN port to Miragoâne or Petit-Goâve. After that, the goods are delivered to us in Jérémie by road,” explained Lanèse Dufort, an entrepreneur and wholesaler at the Jérémie public market. It’s worth noting that $1,500 is charged per truckload of goods for the boat transport.
Similarly, Suzette Germain, another entrepreneur, highlighted the details and consequences of this journey. According to her, to cover the shipping fee, truck owners charge 1,100 gourdes per sack, whereas the normal rate is between 100 and 250 gourdes. In the event of theft or an accident during transport, the buyer bears the entire loss. As a result, despite rising prices in the local market, profit margins on these products are reduced. Additionally, banks, the main source of loans for these merchants, have increased their interest rates.
Cayes and Fond-des-Nègres: The New Supply Hubs: For several months, Les Cayes and Fond-des-Nègres have become the preferred supply locations for merchants and Madan Sara from Grand’Anse. Deprived of access to the capital’s markets, they have had no choice but to turn to alternative sources. “It is less risky to acquire products in Les Cayes and Fond-des-Nègres,” said Maxwell Similien. He noted that although food products are more expensive there, the risk of an armed group intercepting the truck is minimal. Additionally, unlike the Wharf APN option, the transportation cost is much more reasonable, he concluded. Notably, in addition to wholesalers, an increasing number of Madan Sara are also traveling to the South. In these towns, they purchase essential goods in bulk to resell them at the Jérémie public market.
Farmers and Madan Sara Running Out of Options?
Today, with ongoing insecurity, farmers and Madan Sara are striving to find alternatives. The Jérémie public market has become the new hub for these actors. However, the blockage of agricultural paths due to landslides caused by heavy rains in recent weeks presents a new challenge for these contributors to the national economy. For agronomist Jean Widal Phanor, given the state of the agricultural paths, the Department of Agriculture and the MTPTC should urgently act to clear the roads and secondary routes. “Due to this situation, we are seeing a disruption in the supply and distribution of products at the Jérémie market,” said Mr. Phanor. Meanwhile, Me Christine Monquélé, director of the DPC/GA, confirmed that rehabilitation and maintenance work on rural infrastructure is underway in collaboration with the MTPTC and the local population to resolve the situation. If no action is taken to improve conditions, merchants, Madan Sara, and farmers from the Grand South, particularly Grand’Anse, risk running out of options.
IMF Management Approves a New Staff Monitored-Program with Haiti
Management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved on December 20, 2024, a Staff-Monitored Program (SMP) with Haiti covering the period through December 2025. According to the IMF, this new 12-month SMP is expected to contribute to strengthening macroeconomic stability to support the well-being of people and to enhance economic resilience and governance. It will anchor the government’s macroeconomic priorities for the year ahead. Fund management also welcomes the authorities’ commitment to publish the forthcoming Governance Diagnostic Report. https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/12/21/pr24498-Haiti-IMF-Management-Approves-a-New-SMP
The IMF highlighted the dire consequences of the multidimensional crisis, noted that net international reserves were estimated at nearly $1 billion at the end of September 2024, and set a deadline for the BRH with a challenge: June 2025 is the deadline for publishing the BRH's 2023 audit. This is "an important pledge of transparency," according to the IMF.
“Advancing governance reforms is critical to helping Haiti emerge from fragility, ensuring inclusive growth, and building trust in the private sector and development partners. In this regard, the authorities’ commitment to publishing the Governance Diagnostic Report is commendable. This report should provide a roadmap for reforms to improve governance and will require capacity development support, not only from the IMF, but also from development partners,” the IMF statement said.
“A government strategy to strengthen the resilience of the economy to multiple shocks requires financial support from the international community. This assistance is essential to enable quality spending in the short, medium and long term. Without it, Haiti will continue to experience severe import compression. External assistance should take the form of grants. The authorities should avoid contracting non-concessional loans, in order to ensure consistency with the commitments of the SRM program. Non-concessional loans would not only be contrary to the commitments of the SRM program, they would also compromise debt sustainability,” the IMF advised.
https://lenouvelliste.com/article/252149/haiti-le-fmi-approuve-un-nouveau-programme-de-reference
$7 Million in Aid for Businesses Affected by Vandalism
“The MEF, in collaboration with the MCI, the CFI, and other public entities, will launch a support program for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that were vandalized in the metropolitan area, for an amount of USD 7 million. At the same time, the MEF intends to launch two support programs for MSMEs in two regions of the country: one in the North and the other in the South,” stated the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alfred Métellus, in an interview with Le Nouvelliste on Thursday, December 19, 2024.
“In January 2025, the program targeting businesses operating in the southern part of the country will be launched. The funds they receive will help them cope with shocks and develop strategies. The MEF, with the support of the World Bank, is establishing a line of credit and a partial guarantee fund to facilitate access to credit for MSMEs. These two financial instruments are managed by commercial banks, financial institutions, and microfinance organizations. Businesses can directly access these two instruments, which offer very affordable financing terms,” explained the head of the country's finances. “At the same time, as part of preparing the 2024-2025 supplementary budget, the Ministry of Economy and Finance is working on facilitating SMEs’ access to public procurement opportunities in various departments, in sectors such as public works, health, and education,” added Alfred Métellus. “Additionally, we are developing a recapitalization plan for businesses that have fallen victim to the barbaric acts of armed groups,” he said.
“Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé announced that the government would soon launch projects to help businesses that were forced to close due to gang violence resume their activities. The government is hard at work and continues to develop this program to define its modalities and make it effective as soon as possible,” assured Minister of Economy and Finance, Alfred Métellus.
https://lenouvelliste.com/en/article/252100/7-million-in-aid-for-businesses-affected-by-vandalism
OPINION
Biden couldn’t sell a Haiti intervention. Trump can, and should
Opinion By James B. Foley in Miami Herald, December 19, 2024 9:19 AM
The incoming Trump administration will be confronting a world on fire — national security challenges ranging from ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East to potential conflict with China over Taiwan. The last thing they’ll want is to be dragged into a military intervention in Haiti. And yet, history teaches that it likely will happen. The Trump team needs to plan ahead in order to minimize the U.S. footprint that restoring a modicum of stability may require.
It is the aim of every administration to keep Haiti at the bottom of the national security agenda and to avoid entanglement in its turmoil. This is due to overriding priorities elsewhere as well as to profound “Haiti fatigue” among U.S. politicians and policy-makers, who understandably have concluded that past interventions have failed to effect change for the better. What they don’t fully grasp is that Haiti’s dysfunction is an irremediable condition and as such requires periodic U.S. security engagement.
My experience two decades ago as U.S. ambassador in Port-au-Prince illustrates the point. At a time when U.S. forces were becoming mired in Iraq, intervention in Haiti was out of the question. My mandate was to promote a negotiated solution to an ongoing political crisis and keep a lid on the situation.
And yet, within six months of my arrival, 2,000 U.S. Marines were on the scene to quell spreading anarchy. President Bush’s abrupt decision to intervene was driven in part by political necessity — to stop a surge of migrants from heading to Florida during the 2004 election. It also reflected the untenability for Washington of allowing lawless elements to seize power. U.S. forces quickly gave way to a UN peacekeeping mission that provided Haiti with baseline security until it was withdrawn, disastrously, in 2017.
Like its predecessors, the Biden administration sought to minimize U.S. involvement even as the situation in Haiti deteriorated. After prolonged dithering, Washington finally persuaded Kenya to lead a woefully underequipped multinational security mission. Military planning for a limited U.S. intervention that could have set conditions for the mission’s success was undertaken but never activated. Clearly, the political calculus for the unpopular Biden weighed against the only option that could have rescued Haiti from the brink of total anarchy.
Biden is thus bequeathing to his successor a ticking time bomb — Haiti may finally go over the brink. More than 700,000 Haitians are homeless. Mounting gang violence has disrupted U.S. commercial flights and shut down the airport in Port-au-Prince while forcing humanitarian relief organizations to withdraw personnel. Food and supplies cannot reach the country or be distributed, and hunger stalks the population. Criminal gangs are on the verge of capturing the entire capital city.
It might seem plausible that the Trump administration will prove no less indifferent to Haiti’s agony than the Biden team, and no less eager to wash its hands of the problem. But such a position will become untenable if the Haitian state is completely erased or is seized by criminals. Minds in Washington will surely be concentrated if tens of thousands of desperate Haitians take to the sea heading to the U.S. And if hundreds of thousands of Haitians are dying of starvation mere hundreds of miles from our shores, Americans — led by churches with ties to Haiti — will demand action to alleviate the suffering.
Total anarchy and mass starvation in Haiti will have global impact. Should Washington refuse to intervene, the door would open to an external power such as China to fill the void. Trump would stand accused of abandoning the Monroe Doctrine and surrendering primacy in the hemisphere.
Trump is opposed to endless wars and pointless expenditures of U.S. lives and resources overseas. But he also revels in demonstrations of strength. Repeated experience proves that Haitian street gangs are paper tigers; when confronted with U.S. military force, they crumble.
A Trump-ordered intervention to rescue the population will be brief, successful and applauded. A small U.S. contingent, after freeing key infrastructure in Port-au-Prince from gang control, could rapidly give way to private military contractors who would support the Kenyan mission until the arrival of a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation. Biden could never sell such an intervention. Trump can — and should. James B. Foley served as U.S. ambassador to Haiti from 2003 to 2005.
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article297291199.html#storylink=cpy
Port-au-Prince or the CPT: Which One Won't Make It Through the Winter?
Op-Ed by Frantz Duval in Le Nouvelliste, 18 Dec 2024
At the rate things are going, and given the weak response from the security forces, more than one person is wondering if Haiti’s capital will be completely overwhelmed by gang violence in the coming weeks and months.
Another concern: What future awaits the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT)?
The CPT is being contested by the main sectors that brought it into existence. The presence of the three councilors accused of being involved in the BNC affair is increasingly denounced. In an interview with Magik 9 on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, Joël Édouard Vorbe, a member of the Fanmi Lavalas leadership — the party to which the current president of the Council belongs — declared: “The sectors need to reach an agreement and coordinate their actions. The removal of the three indicted councilors must be enacted. Security needs to be regained immediately. Otherwise, by mid-January, we will witness the end of the CPT, and at that point, the country will be handed over to the gangs,” warned the Fanmi Lavalas leader.
Other parties and groups, like Lavalas, see the same peril: the CPT, as currently constituted, is a useless burden for the country.
On the other side of the CPT's contributors, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the West — the country’s main business association, whose former president, Laurent Saint-Cyr, is a member of the Transitional Presidential Council — has issued a negative assessment of the actions of the nine councilors.
In an open letter to the CPT made public on December 18, the Chamber of Commerce stated that “it is now imperative that the State take urgent and decisive measures. The time for speeches and hesitation is over: inaction and ignoring the population's concerns are no longer tolerable. We demand unwavering mobilization from the authorities to establish security, restore State authority, and rebuild the conditions for sustainable economic growth and a better future for all Haitians.”
When the majority of political parties and business leaders believe you are on the wrong path, there is likely some truth in that judgment.
Returning to the issue of security, while the American ambassador to Haiti announced the imminent arrival of 600 new troops to reinforce the Multinational Security Support Mission, and with just a few weeks until Donald J. Trump takes power in the United States, CPT President Leslie Voltaire has decided to appeal to the Bolivarian Alliance.
President Voltaire requested “security and food assistance” during a video address at the conference marking the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) on December 14, 2024.
“Alba has received clear instructions to do everything in its power to support Haiti, a nation that has been the victim of centuries of aggression, mistreatment... and colonialism in all its forms,” responded Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Will this pivot toward the continent’s most left-leaning actors help solve the security challenge or further weaken the already fragile framework leading the country?
Political crisis and security collapse are acting like a vice. No one can predict with certainty if the CPT and Port-au-Prince will make it through the winter.