Gangs in Haiti kill 4 soldiers and 4 civilians in bid to seize full control of the capital
Lionel Lazarre, spokesman for Haiti's National Police, told Radio Caraïbes that two soldiers and four civilians were killed in Kenscoff, a once peaceful community on the outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Two other soldiers and an undetermined number of civilians were killed in the community of Pacot inside the capital, he said.
On Wednesday night, the government said that at least four police officers and armed civilians from the community of Canapé-Vert, one of the few neighborhoods not controlled by gangs, were killed in the attacks.
In videos posted on social media, gunmen are seen mutilating several bodies and picking up severed heads as trophies, saying, 'We got the dogs.'
Haiti's transitional presidential council and the prime minister's office condemned the attacks in separate statements and said that multiple people were injured.
'The government reaffirms that the fight against insecurity remains its top priority,' the office said.
Gangs that control at least 85% of Port-au-Prince have launched recent attacks on previously peaceful areas that police and armed residents are trying to protect.
More than 260 people were killed in attacks on Kenscoff and Carrefour earlier this year, according to the U.N. political mission in Haiti.
Haitian police are working alongside a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police to repel gangs, although they have struggled in their efforts. The mission is underfunded and only has some 1,000 personnel out of the 2,500 envisioned.
More than 5,600 people were killed in Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than one million people homeless, according to the U.N.
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San Francisco Chronicle
20 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Military base shootings have ranged from isolated incidents to workplace violence and terrorism
ATLANTA (AP) — The shooting of five U.S. Army soldiers at a base in Georgia on Wednesday is the latest in a growing list of violent incidents at American military installations over the years. Shootings have ranged from isolated incidents between service members to attacks on bases to mass-casualty events, such as the shooting by an Army psychiatrist at Texas's Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead. Here is a look at some of the shootings at U.S. military bases in recent years: In December, a National Guard soldier was charged with murder after authorities said he shot a man at a former girlfriend's residence on the grounds of Fort Gordon. The base outside of Augusta, Georgia, is home to the U.S. Army Cyber Command. It was formerly known as Fort Eisenhower. In June 2020, a woman and a man were killed in a shooting at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. The woman's parents later told media outlet KJZZ in Phoenix that she was the victim of domestic violence. In May 2020, a gunman tried to speed through a security gate at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, opening fire and wounding a sailor who was a member of base security, authorities said. Security officers shot and killed the attacker, Adam Salim Alsahli, a Corpus Christi resident who had been a student at a local community college. The FBI said at the time that the shooting was being investigated as a 'terror-related incident.' A group that monitors online activity of jihadists said Alsahli voiced support for hard-line clerics. On Dec. 6, 2019, a Saudi Air Force officer who was training at a Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, killed three U.S. sailors and wounded eight other people in a shooting that U.S. officials described as an act of terrorism. The country's top federal law enforcement officials said the gunman, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, had been in touch with al-Qaida operatives about planning and tactics. Alshamrani was killed by a sheriff's deputy. On Dec. 4, 2019, a U.S. Navy sailor used his service rifle to shoot three civilian shipyard workers at the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii, killing two of them before killing himself with his service pistol. Gabriel Antonio Romero, 22, of San Antonio, Texas, was said to be unhappy with his commanders and undergoing counseling, although a motive for the shooting was not determined. In February 2017, a sailor was fatally shot at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach by a security officer after he crashed through a station gate and went to his squadron's hangar. Seaman Robert Colton Wright was reported to be 'yelling and causing damage' and moving aggressively toward security officers until one of the officers fired, striking him. Wright worked as an information systems technician for Strike Fighter Squadron 81. In April 2016, an airman fatally shot his commander before shooting himself at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Military investigators said Tech Sgt. Steven Bellino, 41, confronted Lt. Col. William Schroeder in an office before the two struggled, and Schroeder was shot multiple times. The men, both veterans of the U.S. Special Operations Command, were in the Air Force's elite Battlefield Airmen program at Lackland. In July 2015, four Marines and a sailor were killed by Kuwait-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, of Hixson, Tennessee, who opened fire at a recruiting center in Chattanooga. He then drove several miles away to a Navy and Marine reserve center, where he shot and killed the Marines and wounded the sailor, who later died. Abdulazeez was shot to death by police. In April 2014, an Army soldier gunned down three other military men at Fort Hood in Texas before killing himself. Authorities said that Spc. Ivan Lopez had an argument with colleagues in his unit before opening fire. In September 2013, a defense contract employee and former Navy reservist used a valid pass to get onto the Washington Navy Yard. Authorities said Aaron Alexis killed 12 people before he was killed in a gunbattle with police, authorities said. The Washington Navy Yard is an administrative center for the U.S. Navy and the oldest naval installation in the country. In November 2009, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 at Fort Hood. He said he was angry about being deployed to Afghanistan and wanted to protect Islamic and Taliban leaders from U.S. troops. It was the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in U.S. history. The Department of Defense called the attack an act of workplace violence, not terrorism. ___
New York Post
20 minutes ago
- New York Post
Voting rights protected by the historic Voting Rights Act threatened as law has its 60th anniversary
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wednesday is the 60th anniversary of the day President Lyndon Johnson made his way to the U.S. Capitol and, with Martin Luther King Jr. standing behind him, signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The act protected the right to vote and ensured the government would fight efforts to suppress it, especially those aimed at Black voters. For many Americans, it was the day U.S. democracy fully began. That was then. 7 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 60 years ago. AP The law has been slowly eroding for more than a decade, starting with the 2013 Supreme Court decision ending the requirement that all or parts of 15 states with a history of discrimination in voting get federal approval before changing the way they hold elections. Within hours of the ruling, some states that had been under the preclearance provision began announcing plans for stricter voting laws. Those changes have continued, especially since the 2020 presidential election and President Donald Trump's false claims that widespread fraud cost him reelection. The Supreme Court upheld a key part of the Voting Rights Act in 2023, but in its upcoming term it's scheduled to hear a case that could roll back that decision and another that would effectively neuter the law. Voting rights experts say those cases will largely determine whether a landmark law passed during a turbulent era decades ago will have future anniversaries to mark. 'We're at a critical juncture right now,' said Demetria McCain, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 'And, let's be clear, our democracy is only about to turn 60 when the Voting Rights Act anniversary gets here. I say that because there are so many attacks on voting rights, particularly as it relates to Black communities and communities of color.' Native Americans celebrate a win that could be temporary The reservation of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Canadian border, a region of forests, small lakes and vast prairie land. Its main highway is a mix of small houses, mobile homes and businesses. A gleaming casino and hotel stand out, not far from grazing bison. In 2024, the tribe and another in North Dakota, the Spirit Lake Tribe, formed a joint political district for the first time. They had filed a lawsuit arguing that the way lines were drawn for state legislative seats denied them the right to elect candidates of their choice. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte agreed and put a new map in place. 7 The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and another tribe in North Dakota, the Spirit Lake Tribe, formed a joint political district for the first time in 2024. AP State Rep. Collette Brown ran for the legislature because she wanted to see more Native American representation, and she won under the new map. 'It felt surreal. I felt accomplished, I felt recognized,' said Brown, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and the Spirit Lake Tribe's Gaming Commission executive director. 'I felt, OK, it's time for us to really start making change and really start educating from within so that we're not silenced.' Brown, a Democrat, co-sponsored several bills on Native American issues that became law, including aid for repatriation of remains and artifacts and alerts for missing Indigenous people. 7 The future of the tribes' district is in the hands of the Supreme Court. AP This year's anniversary of the Voting Rights Act 'forces you to look at how far we've come,' from Native Americans to women, said Jamie Azure, chairman of the Turtle Mountain tribe. Now the future of their district is in the hands of the Supreme Court. Will individuals be allowed to file voting rights challenges? The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers North Dakota and six other states, overturned Welte's decision 2-1, saying the tribes and entities such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU do not have a right to sue over potential violations of voters' constitutional rights. That ruling expanded on an earlier 8th Circuit opinion out of Arkansas that rejected a different challenge on the same grounds. Late last month, a 3rd Circuit court panel ruled in a separate case out of Arkansas that only the U.S. attorney general can file such cases — not private individuals or groups. 7 The University of Michigan Law School Voting Rights Initiative found that since 1982 nearly 87% of claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act were from private individuals and organizations. AP Those decisions upended decades of precedent. The Supreme Court has stayed the ruling for the tribes while it decides whether it will take the North Dakota case. The University of Michigan Law School Voting Rights Initiative found that since 1982 nearly 87% of claims under that part of the Voting Rights Act, known as Section 2, were from private individuals and organizations. Leaving individuals without the ability to file challenges is especially troublesome now because the Justice Department under Trump, a Republican, seems focused on other priorities, said Sophia Lin Lakin, who heads the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! 7 Voters waiting in line to cast their ballots in Fort Defiance, Ariz., on Election Day in 2024. AP The government's voting rights unit has been dismantled and given new priorities that, she said, have turned enforcement 'against the very people it was created to protect.' The Justice Department declined to answer questions about its voting rights priorities, cases it is pursuing or whether it would be involved in the voting rights cases coming before the nation's highest court. Supreme Court weighs another case on race and congressional districts Two years ago, voting rights activists celebrated when the Supreme Court preserved Section 2 in a case out of Alabama that required the state to draw an addition congressional district to benefit Black voters. Now it's poised to rehear a similar case out of Louisiana that could modify or undo that decision. 7 The Justice Department declined to answer questions about its voting rights priorities, cases it is pursuing or whether it would be involved in the voting rights cases coming before the nation's highest court. AP The court heard the case in March but did not make a decision during the term. In an order on Friday, the court asked the lawyers to supply briefs explaining 'whether the State's intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution.' Robert Weiner, the director of voting rights for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said while it is a 'matter of concern' that the court is asking the question, the fact the nine justices did not reach a decision during the last term suggests there weren't five votes already. 'They wouldn't need re-argument if the sides had already been chosen,' he said. Trump's Justice Department shifts focus on voting issues At a time when the remaining protections of the Voting Rights Act are under threat, the Justice Department has shifted its election-related priorities. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, it has dropped or withdrawn from several election- and voting-related cases. The department instead has focused on concerns of voter fraud raised by conservative activists following years of false claims surrounding elections. 7 Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department has dropped or withdrawn from several election- and voting-related cases. AP The department also has sent requests for voter registration information as well as data on election fraud and warnings of election violations to at least 19 states. In addition to the shift in focus at the Justice Department, federal legislation to protect voting rights has gone nowhere. Democrats have reintroduced the John Lewis voting rights bill, but it's legislation they failed to pass in 2022 when they held both houses of Congress and the White House and needed some Republican support in the Senate. Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order seeking to overhaul voting in the states, which includes a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal voting form, though much of it has been blocked in the courts. The GOP-controlled House passed a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. And gerrymandering state legislative and congressional districts remains prevalent. The slow chipping away at the 60-year-old law has created a nation with an unequal distribution of voting rights, said Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the voting rights center at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Some states have been active in expanding access to voting while others have been focused on restricting the vote. 'The last five to 10 years,' he said, 'the experiences of voters increasingly depend on where they live.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
About 300 migrants start walking north in southern Mexico, but goal is not US border
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — About 300 migrants walked out of this southern Mexican city Wednesday, hoping to move north, even as the activist who helped organize them remained in police custody over allegations of human trafficking. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Luis García Villagrán, the leader of a local nongovernmental organization arrested Tuesday in Tapachula, 'is not an activist.' She said he was tied to trafficking people, 'that is the crime.' Sheinbaum said Wednesday during her daily news briefing that there had been an arrest order pending for García Villagrán for years. It was unknown why the outspoken and very public figure hadn't been arrested earlier. The group of migrants that left Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, earlier Wednesday was small in comparison to migrant caravans in years past. There has been very little movement of migrants in public since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, though migration numbers had been falling even prior to that. Those walking Wednesday said their goal was not reaching the United States, but rather central Mexico. They complained that they had been waiting for months to legalize their status or receive asylum. In recent years, the Mexican government has worked to contain migrants in southern Mexico — far from the border with the United States. At times, this strategy has swollen migrant numbers in Tapachula until hundreds set out walking in protest. Chiapas is Mexico's poorest state and migrants complain there is little work or available housing. Johnny López of Ecuador walked with his wife and three children, including a baby born in Tapachula while they awaited a determination on their asylum application, which was eventually rejected. Now they planned to travel to Mexico City where López hoped to find work to support his family. The migrants were escorted by immigration agents, police, marines and paramedics. Heyman Vázquez, a Catholic priest, also accompanied them. He called García Villagran's arrest 'unjust.' Vázquez said it showed the Mexican government's concern over migrant caravans, which he said would be resolved by making it easier for migrants to legalize their immigration status. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at Solve the daily Crossword
