Haiti Action Committee Introduces First Issue of "HAITI SOLIDARITY."

Haiti Action Committee has just released the first issue of our newsletter, "Haiti Solidarity." 

Volume 1, Number 1 is available for download below. Published copies will be available at upcoming Haiti events for $3.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Cover Art - "Hands Together"

UNDERSTANDING HAITI - Nia Imara

POPULAR DEMOCRACY UNDER ATTACK - Ben Terrall

THE DEBT OWED TO HAITI - Nia Imara

USAID UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY - Leslie Mullin

A STATEMENT FROM HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE

You can download the issue here at the haiti action website or a direct link here.

Brazil Hides Humanitarian Emergency in Acre

With a “refugee” camp holding over 800 Haitians in inhuman conditions, Conectas charges Brazil is covering up an international crisis

by Conectas Human Rights (for Haiti Liberte)

The Brazilian government has for months now been playing a word game – between “immigration” and “refugee” – to minimize the severity of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the small town of Brasiléia, in Brazil’s northern state of Acre on the border with Bolivia, some 240 kilometers southwest of the state capital Rio Branco.

            More than 830 immigrants – nearly all of them Haitians – are living inside a warehouse built for just 200 people, in extremely unhygienic conditions. They are required to share just 10 lavatories and 8 showers, where there is no soap and no toothpaste, sewage leaks outside in the open air, and people have been packed for months inside an area of 200 square meters under a metal roof, with black plastic sheeting for curtains, in temperatures that can reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). The local hospital reports that 90% of the patients from the camp have diarrhea. The shelter is already operating at four times capacity, and 40 new Haitians arrive every day.

Accusing President Martelly of Lying and “Treason,” Senate Report Calls for His Impeachment

by Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

A special Senate Commission of Inquiry into the sudden and suspicious Jul. 13 death of Investigating Judge Jean Serge Joseph released a bomb-shell on Aug. 8. Its highly detailed 29-page report charges President Michel Martelly, as well as his Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and Justice Minister Jean Renel Sanon, with lying to the public and calls for Haiti’s Deputies to remove them all from office.

Haiti: Missing Healthcare on the frontline of HIV

by Sokari  (originally for Blacklooks.org)

Long before 9/11 and the subsequent incarceration of hundreds of so called ‘terror suspects’, in Guantanamo Bay,  thousands of Haitian refugees fleeing the  military junta in the early 1990s, were detained on the US base. Many of those detained were detained because they were suspected of being HIV Positive [+].

Amy Wilentz and her Twitter Tantrum Regarding the 2004 coup in Haiti

by Joe Emersberger

On Twitter, Amy Wilentz angrily demanded that Justin Podur retweet a statement in which she emphatically denies ever supporting the 2004 coup that ousted Aristide:

I never ever supported the coup gainst Aristide. Ever. Retweet that!

 
Wilentz made this demand in response to a tweet somebody had sent Podur.

I assume Wilentz is correct. I don’t believe she ever supported (as in publicly applauded) the 2004 coup or called on Aristide to resign.  Unless she stooped to that level, it is not accurate to say she “supported the coup” without elaborating more on what exactly is meant by “support”. What Wilentz did do is spread lies about Aristide’s second term in government that helped make the coup possible and that help sustain the impunity of the perpetrators, especially former members of her own government. As Peter Hallward explained in a response to a piece Wilentz wrote for the Nation in 2012:

UN’s Own Independent Experts Now Say MINUSTAH Troops “Most Likely” Caused Cholera Epidemic

by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

The number of experts casting doubt on the likelihood of the U.N. having been the source of Haiti’s deadly cholera epidemic is getting increasingly smaller. In what Foreign Policy’s Turtle Bay blogger Colum Lynch calls a "dramatic retreat," a panel of independent U.N. experts who earlier had reported that the outbreak’s cause "was not the fault" of any "group or individual" and cited environmental factors – most notably Haiti’s lack of adequate sanitation – as being partly at fault, have now determined that U.N. troops from Nepal "most likely” were the cause.

Grassroots Groups Wary of “Attractive” Mining Law

by Haiti Grassroots Watch (for Haiti Liberte)

As the government works on preparing “an attractive law that will entice investors,” Haitian popular organizations are mobilizing and forming networks to resist mining in their country.

            Already one-third of the north of Haiti is under research, exploration, or exploitation license to foreign companies. Some 2,400 square kilometers have been parceled out to Haitian firms fronting for U.S. and Canadian concerns. Some estimate that Haiti’s mineral wealth – mostly gold, copper, and silver – could be worth as much as US$ 20 billion.