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Welcome to the latest edition of Woy Magazine’s biweekly newsletter, providing you with must-know news and commentary on Haiti and our Diaspora.
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CHAY LA | BIG STORY
Judge, Jury, and Executioner
Making the rounds recently, is a disturbing video of Chief Prosecutor, Ernst Muscadin, of Les Nippes killing a suspected gang leader, Elvain Saint-Jacques (alias Zo Pwason). The Minister of Justice and Public Safety, Berto Dorcé summoned Muscadin regarding the matter. According to the prosecutor, the convocation was postponed indefinitely in order to quell popular tensions.
Fondasyon Je Klere (FJKL) has denounced the incident as an extrajudicial killing, where prosecutor Muscadin, without due process, executed the victim in cold blood. Many more are decrying the human rights violations of the prosecutor acting as judge, jury and executioner.
This incident has engendered much debate — where people on either side of the argument are faced with extreme danger just going about their day-to-day lives in a country with an extremely weak and corrupt judicial system. It’s now been a year since the Southern departments have been cut off from easy access to the rest of the country and recently thousands of people in the northern part of Port-au-Prince have had to flee their homes because of fighting between gangs. With no faith in a justice system that is too unable to elucidate the murder of its president over a year ago, many Haitians welcome Muscadin’s zero tolerance approach.
In an interview with AyiboPost on June 6th, Muscadin asserted that he fully intended on continuing to dole out justice as he sees fit. In other public statements, he has also expressed wanting to make Nippes the “cemetery of bandits”.
“Je vais continuer à mettre [les bandits] en échec, dit-il. En cas où je suis destitué de mon poste de commissaire, je resterai un avocat et j’aurai toujours les moyens pour combattre toutes formes de banditisme dans ma zone.” (Source: AyiboPost)
POLITIK/POLEMIK
De facto Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, is at the Americas Summit which is taking place this week in Los Angeles. Recognizing the irony in this presence, Jake Johnston explored the hypocrisy in the US' foreign policy toward Haiti (along with the entire regions’ role in the present situation in-country).
He refers back to a statement issued just last month, where the US State Department asserted that invitations would not be extended to countries “that by their actions do not respect democracy”— namely Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Like us you may be asking yourself just how this Administration defines democracy? On this we have some ideas. How it could possibly involve what has been unfolding in Haiti recently for the world to see is beyond us however.
In 2020, the terms of almost all of parliament and every single local official expired, leaving Moïse to rule by decree. At the time, the secretary general of the OAS, Luis Almagro, traveled to Haiti and appeared alongside President Moïse, making clear that for the OAS this was no problem. Then last summer, Moïse — who many legal scholars argued had overstayed his mandate, but who nevertheless had the backing of the US and OAS — was assassinated. Today, the only elected officials in the entire country still in office are 10 senators, and together they do not even have a quorum to legislate. (Source: CEPR)
In a video, Eugene Puryear of BreakThrough news confronted Secretary Anthony Blinken on the hypocrisy of welcoming Haiti’s de facto Prime Minister despite him having no constitutional mandate. As expected, Sec. Blinken deflected.
KILTIRÈL
Haiti Film Fest!
Haiti Cultural Exchange announces its 5th annual Haiti Film Festival in New York, taking place the weekend of June 23rd, extending an open invitation to all film enthusiasts!
The 5th Haiti Film Fest, presented by Haiti Cultural Exchange (HCX), a New York based Nonprofit organization, to showcase an exciting and prolific look into the world of Haitian cinema that will run June 23-26, 2022 at two venues one at Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Film in Brooklyn (188 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NY 11215). Door open at 6pm. $30.00
Haiti Film Fest Opening event will begin the festival at Nitehawk on June 23 at 7pm with showing of “Freda” written and directed by Gessical Geneus which is the Brooklyn Premiere. (Source: Patch)
ON THIS DAY (May 28,2022-June 10,2022)
Les Blancs Débarquent
June 1st marked the 18th anniversary of the deployment of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH. With the mission of stabilizing the country and peacekeeping — their 13 year stay in Haiti leaves behind a legacy marred by indiscriminate killing, a devastating cholera epidemic that took the lives of about 10,000 Haitians, and a trail of egregious sexual abuse allegations. If you would like to learn more about the legacy of the MINUSTAH mission in Haiti, check out this article by Aljazeera (*trigger warning*).
#WoyRewind
Dr. Kenny Moise wrote an opinion piece for Woy back in 2016, when the United Nations finally took responsibility for the cholera outbreak and decided to roll out a plan which Dr. Moise described as too little too late. Before the arrival of the MINUSTAH forces, cholera did not exist in Haiti and when the outbreak began, the United Nations vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
In 2016 the United Nations has suddenly changed their posture in regards to their role in the spread of cholera in Haiti and their response to the epidemic. The first hint at this change of heart came in a report by Philip Alston, a UN adviser criticizing the organization for its disastrous response. “The UN’s explicit and unqualified denial of anything other than a moral responsibility is a disgrace,” he stated. In early December this year, 6 years and thousands of deaths later, Ban Ki-Moon apologized to the Haitian people for the role his organization played in bringing cholera to Haiti.
In his Miami Herald Op-Ed, Ban Ki-Moon revealed the outline for what he called a “new approach to right a wrong” in Haiti. This approach revolves around intense response to outbreaks, reparations to the victims’ families, and long term development strategies to provide safe water to the population. As a physician familiar with the Haitian government’s already laid out plan to eliminate cholera by 2022 and the ongoing instrumental work of human rights advocates to hold the UN accountable, I struggled to find what was new about this proposal. Is the UN simply publicly parroting the existing national plan to eliminate cholera, or are they finally heeding the victims’ unceasing call for justice? (Source: Woy Magazine)
DYASPORA | IMIGRASYON
Biden’s mass deportations accelerate further
According to the New York Times, the United States has accelerated the deportation of Haitian migrants, deporting 4,000 people in the month of May alone. Under the Biden Administration, these expulsions are being carried out using Trump-era policies which deny Haitian migrants the right to apply for asylum.
While the number of Haitians crossing into the United States has increased recently, it is far from the biggest migration challenge facing the country. It just happens to be one of the easiest for the administration to manage.
An emergency public health rule has allowed border officials to quickly expel migrants during the coronavirus pandemic, but the Biden administration is limited in terms of where it can send flights. (Source: New York Times)
Meanwhile, last week, Haitian migrants in Tijuana took to the streets to march in protest of the many human rights violations they continue to suffer at the border.
For a look at a list of ICE deportation flights dating back to September of 2021, check out this spreadsheet courtesy of Jake Johnston: ICE AIR to Haiti - Mass Expulsion Flight Data.
DEGI | RECOMMENDATIONS BEFORE YOU GO
Arnold Antonin and Michel Pierre Louis discuss Antonin's latest movie on Dessalines.
Série de dettes publiques contractées par Haïti sur le marché intérieur et extérieur au XIXe siècle (1825-1911)
Poet, Ricardo Boucher analyzes the use of the phrase jou jedi in Kreyòl.
Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Haiti: Key Recent Developments December 2021 through May 2022 (Word)
Enlightening Ayibopost interview with the son of Jacques Stephen Alexis, legendary communist Haitian writer and said to be descendant of Dessalines, on his father's life and death (Youtube)
Haïti: allô la France? Rendez-nous l’argent by Jean D'Amerique
Haitian American singer-songwriter Lalin St. Juste releases new E.P. entitled Vertulie. Check it out!
Fred Hype, « l’immortel » Legendary rap Kreyòl beatmaker and producer of Barikad Crew, Fred Hype recently passed away in the Dominican Republic.