Essential The Official Contemporary Haitian Geopolitics/Event thread

[loyola llothta]

#Haiti: Like Toto Constant before him, Guy Philippe is reminded the #CIA is a fickle master https://youtu.be/3AZFKDaGi5o

 

[loyola llothta]

#Haiti: Let's not forget -- the U.S. government allowed Toto Constant to stay in America for 11 years as a free man despite murdering thousands of #Haitians following the 1991 coup. He only went to prison here after he cheated Americans.

The former head of the FRAPH, a paramilitary death squad that killed an estimated 3k-4k after the '91 coup in Haiti, is set to be deported on Monday after serving 12 years in a NY State prison on grand larceny and mortgage fraud charges.

 

[loyola llothta]

US is sending convicted death squad leader Toto Constant to Haiti Tues. Human Rights advocates in Haiti demand that he be arrested upon arrival, and that justice and reparations be provided to his victims. The US govt must not export impunity. cc

 

[loyola llothta]

What’s clear from the notorious death squad leader’s history with the U.S. and its own court system is that many influential people in several of our alphabet agencies do not want Constant on trial in any courtroom.#USA #Deportes #CIA @USEmbassyHaiti

 

[loyola llothta]

People protest outside of the New York home of Emmanuel ‘Toto” Constant, Aug. 9, 1997.
Emile Wamsteker | AP#Food #haiti #WarCrimes #Genocide #COVID

 

[loyola llothta]

Murderer Emmanuel "Toto" Constant and at least 9 COVID-19 positive detainees will be deported on Tuesday! Call The White House at 202-456-1111 and demand a stop to all deportations

Contact your Representatives today: https://myfloridahouse.gov…/Represen…/myrepresentative.aspx

 

[loyola llothta]

@Jesus is my protector
US really trying to have Haiti run by the mafia for next the 20 years and on

After Exporting COVID-19 to Haiti, the U.S. Now is Returning Death-Squad Leader “Toto” Constant


[Editor’s Note: The day after publication, the Miami Herald reported that Emmanuel Constant had been removed from the deportation flight. An updated version of the article, in Haitian Kreyòl, was published by Ayibopost.]

May 5, 2020


Emmanuel “Toto” Constant (shown here in 1994) was the former head of the death-squad known as FRAPH, responsible for killing of an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Haitians in the aftermath of the 1991 military coup.



Link:

The US Has Been Exporting COVID-19 to Haiti; Now, It Is Returning a Death Squad Leader - Center for Economic and Policy Research

Summary bullet point style

• As the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down borders and airports across the world, planes chartered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continue to fly.
• Every two or three weeks, a deportation flight operated by Swift Air, LLC has landed at the Port-au-Prince airport.
• After one such flight in early April, at least three of those deported tested positive for COVID-19.
• The pandemic is now sweeping through ICE detention facilities, putting the lives of tens of thousands at risk and highlighting the public health ramifications of continued deportations.
• Next week, another ICE Air deportation flight is scheduled to arrive in Haiti.
• But the controversy will extend far beyond the health and well-being of those on board.
• According to a flight manifest obtained by Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch, ICE is planning to deport Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, a former death squad leader who has been in a New York state prison for the past 12 years on grand larceny and mortgage fraud charges.
• Constant is listed in the manifest as a “High Profile Removal.”Sources: http://nysdoccslookup.doccs.ny.gov/ and https://locator.ice.gov/odls/#/index.
• In late April, a government-backed scientific commission supporting the country’s COVID-19 response asked President Jovenel Moïse to halt further deportations during the pandemic.
• Representatives of the Haitian government did not respond to a request for comment.
• On Mon., May 11, the next ICE Air deportation flight is scheduled to arrive in Port-au-Prince, according to the flight manifest. ICE identifies 51 of the flight’s 101 passengers as having criminal backgrounds.
  One of those is Constant, the 63-year old former death squad leader.
• Constant was facing up to 37 years in jail, but New York State prison records show that Constant was released to ICE custody on Apr. 7 — 12 years after his conviction — in order to face deportation.
• Constant’s next parole hearing had been scheduled for August 2020.
• ICE records show he is currently being held at the ICE federal detention facility in Buffalo, NY — where at least 45 of those detained have confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Link:

The US Has Been Exporting COVID-19 to Haiti; Now, It Is Returning a Death Squad Leader - Center for Economic and Policy Research

 

[loyola llothta]

@Jesus is my protector
US really trying to have Haiti run by the mafia for next the 20 years and on

After Exporting COVID-19 to Haiti, the U.S. Now is Returning Death-Squad Leader “Toto” Constant


[Editor’s Note: The day after publication, the Miami Herald reported that Emmanuel Constant had been removed from the deportation flight. An updated version of the article, in Haitian Kreyòl, was published by Ayibopost.]

May 5, 2020


Emmanuel “Toto” Constant (shown here in 1994) was the former head of the death-squad known as FRAPH, responsible for killing of an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Haitians in the aftermath of the 1991 military coup.



Link:

The US Has Been Exporting COVID-19 to Haiti; Now, It Is Returning a Death Squad Leader - Center for Economic and Policy Research

The Long Struggle for Accountability, Reignited

• TOTO CONSTANT IS THE MOST NOTORIOUS AMONG THE 101 HAITIANS THAT THE U.S. INTENDS TO DEPORT NEXT WEEK.
  
• Constant was the former head of the Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH)
• a paramilitary organization that was responsible for the extrajudicial killing of an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Haitians in the aftermath of the 1991 military coup — as well as thousands of incidents of rape, torture, and arbitrary detention.
• Constant, it was later revealed, was on the CIA payroll during this period.
• Upon the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in late 1994, Constant left Haiti and settled in the New York City area.
• In 2000, a Haitian court convicted Constant and 14 others in absentia for their involvement in a 1994 massacre in the small town of Raboteau.
• A civil action resulted in a $140 million award to victims’ families.
• In 2005, following the second ouster of Aristide, the high court in Haiti overturned the sentences for those who had been tried in person.
• The judgment against Constant remains valid, however, according to human rights organizations.
• U.S. courts have also recognized Constant’s responsibility for crimes against humanity,however.
• On behalf of three Haitian women who had been terrorized by Constant, the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) brought a civil case against Constant in 2004 and eventually won a $19 million civil judgment.
• Constant appealed the ruling, but the judgment was upheld by a federal court in 2009.
• Separately, in 2008, Constant was convicted on charges of grand larceny and mortgage fraud in New York State Court and sentenced to 12 to 37 years.
• He remained in state prison until last month, when he was quietly released to ICE custody.
• In 2016, when Constant was up for parole, lawyers with CCR and CJA wrote to the New York State Parole Board cautioning against such a release: “If Constant were released from incarceration in New York, he would pose a serious flight risk, and might return to Haiti to exploit the tense situation to his political advantage.”
• Now, the Trump administration is putting Constant on an ICE Air deportation flight direct to Haiti.
• But it remains unclear what will await the former CIA-backed death squad leader upon his arrival
• “If Constant is, indeed, deported to Haiti next week, the obligations of the Haitian criminal justice system are clear,” said Mario Joseph.
• The state must “arrest Constant as soon as he arrives and ensure that he is held accountable to the people of Haiti.”
• Joseph, a prominent Haitian human rights lawyer with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), was the lawyer who secured the guilty verdict in the Raboteau Massacre case on behalf of victims’ families.
• Twenty years later, however, the struggle for justice and accountability remains as distant as ever.
• Constant, Joseph said, could either accept the existing judgment against him or demand a new trial as he had been tried in absentia.
  Joseph noted, however, that Haiti’s justice system has allowed others convicted in the Raboteau Massacre to go free, including Jean Robert Gabriel, who the Haitian government appointed to the high command of the reconstituted Haitian armed forces in 2018.
• Joseph added that Constant had fled Haiti in 1994 precisely to avoid accountability for his heinous crimes and that the U.S. had failed to execute a judicial order requiring his return to Haiti at the time of the Raboteau trial.
• “As with the Raboteau trials, which no one thought could be successfully prosecuted at the time, BAI will continue to advocate for justice for Constant’s victims,” Joseph said.
• “The law of Haiti is clear on what must happen next. It is my hope that the Haitian government lives up to its responsibilities.”
• Constant is the most notorious among the 101 Haitians that the U.S. intends to deport next week, and the case most fraught with political implications.
• But there will be 100 others, including 50 who may be facing further jail time back in their native Haiti.
• The Haitian government has thus far been using hotels in the capital to quarantine those who arrive via Swift Air flights every few weeks.
• It has provided meals and pledged medical support to deportees, but it is unclear what it will do with those facing criminal charges
• In 2019, Haiti’s prison occupancy rate was 358% — the jails are notoriously and chronically overcrowded, holding three-and-a-half times as many as they should be.
• The pandemic has shone fresh light at the prisons’ horrid conditions — including in the U.S., where COVID-19 is spreading far faster among the prison population than among the general public. From Mar. 19, when Haiti declared a national emergency, to Apr. 15, at least 459 prisoners were released in Haiti, according to the National Human Rights Defense Network.
• “Given the inhumane conditions and overcrowding in Haiti’s prisons, it is important the government release those detained — especially the large number of individuals who have never faced a judge and have been held indefinitely while facing only minor charges,” said Rosy Auguste of the National Network for Human Rights Organizations (RNDDH).
• Even with Haiti’s prisons overflowing, the country is facing a crisis of impunity — with those politically connected seemingly protected from justice. “Further deportations will only place additional strain on Haiti’s institutions,” Auguste added.
• The deportation of Constant “complicates things on so many levels,” said Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the Haiti Bridge Alliance. “We don’t know why they are deporting him now, especially understanding the current situation with Haiti’s politics“
• Jozef said she is worried that Constant’s return will create even more instability, especially considering his past conviction by a Haitian court.
• But for Jozef, whose organization spearheaded a letter last month from 164 organizations calling for an end to deportations during the pandemic, the bigger picture remains halting all such flights. “No matter how you look at it, continuing with deportations means continued exportation of COVID-19 throughout the region.”

 

[loyola llothta]

The last five months in Haiti

Armed men like these are being used to lock down a number of neighborhoods for #Haiti’s rightwing govt

This is outside the national electricity provider & gheskio hospital,near Village de Dieu

Gang’s boss Arnel Joseph has said he is close w/Jovenel Moïse & PHTK Sen.Garcia Delva

 

[loyola llothta]

I have had footage of people murdered by this group sent to me, and it’s horrifying to watch.

 

[loyola llothta]

Local institutions & business are often required to pay them bribes

These armed groups are especially active during election time; important for intimidating people

They are connected w/Pres. Moïse & former Pres. Martelly’s rightwing PHTK party

The US embassy turns a blind eye

I wrote this 10 years ago on former Pres Michel Martelly’s “stealth duvalierism”, just before he came to office.

It was clear then, for any students of history, the direction this was going to take.

OAS & US played a key role in bringing him to
power

https://haitiliberte.com/michel-martelly-stealth-duvalierist/ …

 

[Bawon Samedi]

not surprising

desperation , govt. neglect, and ignorance drives people to seek out bogus solutions to real problems

And what are people with very little medical infrastructure suppose to do? Especially poor people? More importantly Haitians have a rather long history of using medical herbs(and yes parts of it backed up by mainstream science).

Almost half of the plants reported in this study are not reported in Beyra et al. [15]. Among these, there are plants that are important medicinals for Haitians, such as Artemisia absinthium, Phyllanthus procerus, and Priva lappulacea, as well as culturally relevant Haitian food plants that are also used in the realm of traditional medicine, such as Abelmoschus esculentus, Cajanus cajan, Corchorus siliquosus, and Xanthosoma sagittifolium, and some species used for ritual and religious baths such as Allophylus cominia, Alpinia speciosa, and Vitex trifolia. Although medicinal uses of these plants are not absent from the Cuban pharmacopoeia, they may in some cases be restricted to Haitian descendants and to Cubans who have been influenced by the migrants' culture.

Uses of medicinal plants by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagüey, Cuba

Scientists have long noted some of the benefits of Haitian Vodou medical treatments while being late on it. Haitians proficiency in natural medicines is nothing new and can be found in West Africa(where the talent came from), the same West Africans who used herbs that had remedies that acted against even sickle-cells. Which have baffled Europeans.

Dr Charles Finch, associate professor of medicine at Morehouse, demonstrated that West African countries traditionally used large range of plants, minerals and animal material for medical purposes. Some groups such as the Mano of Liberia, even practiced quarantining to contain diseases. West Africans traditionally used local anesthetics and had treatments for asthma, bronchitis, diabetes, malaria and muscular-skeletal pain. They used plants that had anti-sickle cell properties and other plants that had insect repellent properties.

Walker, Robin. Blacks and Science Volume Two: West and East African Contributions to Science and Technology AND Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu. London: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Print.

Of course Vodou herbal treatment may not be on the level of modern healthcare but calling these people "ignorant" and these "bogus solutions" is flat out disrespectful to Haitian tradition when the people have a long history of using this type of health care. And are more experienced in it than either you or I.

 

[loyola llothta]

And what are people with very little medical infrastructure suppose to do? Especially poor people? More importantly Haitians have a rather long history of using medical herbs(and yes parts of it backed up by mainstream science).


Uses of medicinal plants by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camagüey, Cuba

Scientists have long noted some of the benefits of Haitian Vodou medical treatments while being late on it. Haitians proficiency in natural medicines is nothing new and can be found in West Africa(where the talent came from), the same West Africans who used herbs that had remedies that acted against even sickle-cells. Which have baffled Europeans.

Walker, Robin. Blacks and Science Volume Two: West and East African Contributions to Science and Technology AND Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu. London: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Print.

Of course Vodou herbal treatment may not be on the level of modern healthcare but calling these people "ignorant" and these "bogus solutions" is flat out disrespectful to Haitian tradition when the people have a long history of using this type of health care. And are more experienced in it than either you or I.

Haiti phytotherapists and conventional doctors unite to provide three local treatments for Corona virus - Haiti news



Only thing it's missing is the essential lwil maskreti for the authentic haitian touch

botanical medicine/ herbology. Billion dollar business

Even Bayer Pharmaceutical purchased the Chinese herbal company Dihon Pharmaceutical Group in 2014 because of the huge potential for discovering powerful phytochemicals to treat a wide variety of diseases.

Helmut Kaiser Consultancy in Germany predicts that annual revenues in Chinese botanicals will triple by 2025 from 2015 revenues of $17 billion.[19] A Morgan Stanley 2012 review found that even among Chinese physicians trained in Western medical schools, TCM is being used as the first line of defense against disease in 30% of medical cases.[20]

Curiously Skeptics and Wikipedia fail to acknowledge that the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to China’s scientist Tu You-you for her use of the Chinese medical remedy artemisia to develop an anti-malarial drug.[21] In 2015, researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and the Center for Integrative Protein Science in Munich published their findings in Science of an alkaloid in an ingredient of the Chinese formula Han Fang Ji that protected human white blood cells from the Ebola virus.[22]

And in 2006, the FDA gave its first drug approval to an ointment based upon Chinese botanicals, including green tea leaves, for the treatment of genital warts caused by human papillomavirus.[23]

In a bioinformatics database analysis comparing phytochemicals in Chinese plants with the modern Comprehensive Medical Chemistry database of pharmaceutical drug ingredients, over 100 Chinese herbal phytochemicals had direct correlates with ingredients used in approved pharmaceutical drugs on the market.[24]

 

[loyola llothta]

Father Gerard Jean-Juste Memorial Video

 

[loyola llothta]

It's been a very long 11 years since the death of our beloved Gerard Jean-Juste. Much has changed but his example of commitment to the struggle for social justice and liberation in #Haiti continues to inspire. NOU PAP JAMN BLIYE! /WE WILL NEVER FORGET

https://haitiinformationproject.blogspot.com/2020/05/mon-pere-remembrances-of-fr-gerard-jean.html?spref=tw …