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Associated Press
7 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Colombia's Petro visits Haiti for a 2nd time to help bolster security as gang violence surges
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Preto arrived Friday in Haiti for the second time this year in a show of support as gangs in the troubled Caribbean country continue to gain ground. Petro announced the opening of a Colombian embassy in Haiti and pledged to help Haiti strengthen its security. Petro met with Haiti's prime minister and its transitional presidential council, which is under pressure to hold general elections before February 2026. While officials met behind closed doors, a statement from Colombia's government noted they would review bilateral projects focused on security, commerce, education, agriculture and the fight against drug trafficking. Petro's administration has offered to train Haitian officers, and Haitian delegations have visited a state-owned arms manufacturing company in Colombia to learn about its defense capabilities. The two countries are strengthening their ties as judges in Haiti continue to interrogate 17 former Colombian soldiers accused in the July 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moïse. Petro previously visited Haiti in late January, where he was received in the southern coastal city of Jacmel with much fanfare. Prior to his visit, Haitian officials invested some $3.8 million to more than double the runway at the airport in Jacmel, renovate the town and restore electricity to a population living in the dark for at least three years. This time, Petro landed in Port-au-Prince, where 90% of the capital is under gang control. He was accompanied by officials including Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez. The officials arrived less than a week after Haitian authorities killed four suspected drug traffickers and confiscated more than 2,300 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of cocaine off the country's north coast. It was a remarkable seizure for Haiti's National Police, which remains understaffed and underfunded as it works with Kenyan police leading a U.N.-backed mission to help quell gang violence. While most of the violence is centered in Port-au-Prince, gangs have razed and seized control of a growing number of towns in Haiti's central region. At least 4,864 people have been killed from October to the end of June across Haiti, with hundreds of others kidnapped, raped and trafficked, according to a recent U.N. report. Gang violence also has displaced 1.3 million people in recent years.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Yahoo
Thousands of Haitians mark annual pilgrimage far from a sacred waterfall surrounded by gangs
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The massive crowd that would gather once a year at a revered waterfall in central Haiti where the faithful would splash in its sacred waters and rub their bodies with aromatic leaves was not there on Wednesday. Powerful gangs in March attacked the town of Saut-d'Eau, whose 100-foot-long waterfall had for decades drawn thousands of Vodou and Christian faithful alike. The town remains under gang control, preventing thousands from participating in the traditional annual pilgrimage meant to honor the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, closely associated with the Vodou goddess of Erzulie. 'Not going to Saut-d'Eau is terrible,' said Ti-Marck Ladouce. 'That water is so fresh it just washes off all the evilness around you.' Instead, Ladouce joined several thousand people who scrambled up a steep hill in a rural part of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, on Wednesday to honor Erzulie and the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel at a small church that served as a substitute for the waterfall. Like many, Ladouce thanked the Virgin Mary for keeping him and his family alive amid a surge of gang violence that has left at least 4,864 people dead from October to the end of June across Haiti, with hundreds of others kidnapped, raped and trafficked. 'People are praying to be saved,' he said. A church bursting at its seams Daniel Jean-Marcel opened his arms, closed his eyes and turned toward the sky as people around him lit candles, clutched rosaries and tried to push their way into the small church that could not hold the crowd gathered around it. Jean-Marcel said he was giving thanks 'for the grace of being able to continue living in Port-au-Prince,' where gang violence has displaced more than 1.3 million people in recent years. 'There is nowhere for us to go,' he said, adding that he and his family would remain in Haiti even as people continue to flee the ravaged country despite an immigration crackdown by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, U.S. authorities deported more than 100 Haitians to their homeland on the latest such flight. Jacques Plédé, 87, was among those dressed in all white who gathered to give thanks in Port-au-Prince, of which 85% is now controlled by gangs. He recalled helping build the small church but never thought it would serve as a substitute for the Saut-d'Eau waterfall. 'It's very disgraceful for the country that the gangs are taking over one of the nicest waterfalls where people go to pray privately,' he said. 'Life is not over. One day, if I'm still alive, I'll make it back to Saut-d'Eau.' Gang leaders visit a revered church On the morning of March 31, the Canaan gang led by a man known as 'Jeff' attacked Saut-d'Eau. Police and a self-defense group repelled the attack, but the gang returned in early April with more than 500 men, prompting residents and authorities to flee, according to a new report from the U.N. human rights office. Angry over the ongoing violence and what the United Nations described as 'weak responses from authorities,' residents of Saut-d'Eau and other nearby communities in May and June took over a hydroelectric plant in protest, causing widespread power outages in Haiti's capital and its central region. On Wednesday, videos posted on social media showed Jeff Larose, leader of the Canaan gang, standing in the large church of Saut-d'Eau that traditionally hosted the annual Mass amid the three-day pilgrimage. Next to him, in the largely empty church, stood Joseph Wilson, who goes by 'Lanmo Sanjou' and is the leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, and Jimmy Chérizier, best known as 'Barbecue" and one of the leaders of a powerful gang federation known as ' Viv Ansanm,' or 'Living Together.' The video showed them distributing money to some residents who gathered with their arms outstretched. 'They used to stop us from coming to Mount Carmel,' Barbecue said. 'We are at the foot of our mother now.' At one point, Lanmo Sanjou looked at the camera and said the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel would give them the opportunity to perform more miracles. 'Everybody needs protection' The sounds of laughter and gurgling water were absent on Wednesday at the church in Haiti's chaotic capital where the substitute pilgrimage was underway. Hugens Jean, 40, recalled how he and his family in previous years would visit Saut-d'Eau, where they would wash themselves in the waters and cook meals in the nearby woods. 'Today is a very special day,' he said. 'I come here to pray for deliverance for my family and for the country that's in the hands of gangs. One day, we need to be free from these systematic attacks. We don't know who's going to live today or who's going to die tomorrow.' Joane Durosier, a 60-year-old Vodou priestess known as a 'mambo,' shared a similar lament. Dressed in white with a rosary in hand, Durosier said she was praying for herself and her followers. 'A lot of people are suffering,' she said. 'In a country like Haiti, everybody needs protection.' ___ Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Daily Mail
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Haitian migrants face mass deportation as the US ends legal protections
Haitian migrants risk deportation from America after the Trump Administration terminated their temporary legal protections. On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security that it is terminating legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, setting them up for potential deportation. DHS said that conditions in Haiti have improved and Haitians no longer meet the conditions for the temporary legal protections. 'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,' a DHS spokesperson said. 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.' The Department of State, however, has not changed its travel advisory and still recommends Americans 'do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime , civil unrest, and limited health care.' 'The decision today will leave returning Haitian citizens at very high risk of persecution, danger, homelessness. People have nowhere to go,' Pastor Dieufort Fleurissaint, of Boston, told The Boston Globe . 'You have a humanitarian collapse... The only hope we have is God. God and to call upon our friends and allies, elected officials, to advocate on our behalf, so these families can be protected and find a way to enact permanent solutions.' He told the outlet that migrants have been calling him left and right since the news dropped as they are now unsure what their and their children's futures look like and their employment. Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley condemned DHS, writing on Bluesky: 'We should NOT be deporting anyone to a nation still dealing with a grave humanitarian crisis like Haiti.' Heather Yountz, senior immigration staff attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said the Trump Administration was revoking Haitian's protect 'simply to fulfill the harmful mass deportation he promised,' she told The Boston Globe. Haitian migrants who are in the US under a temporary protection status (TPS) will have to leave by September 2. The program ends on August 3, but it doesn't go into effect for a month. DHS advised TPS holders to return to Haiti using a mobile application called CBP Home. The majority of Haitian migrants live in Massachusetts and Florida. Gang violence has displaced 1.3million people across Haiti as the local government and international community struggle to contain an spiraling crisis, according to a recent report from the International Organization for Migration. The report warned of a 24 percent increase in displaced people since December, with gunmen having chased 11 percent of Haiti's nearly 12million inhabitants from their home. 'Deporting people back to these conditions is a death sentence for many, stripping them of their fundamental right to safety and dignity' Tessa Pettit, a Haitian-American who is executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told AP. Frantz Desir, 36, has been in the US since 2022 on asylum, but he says he is concerned by the Trump administration's decision to terminate their protections. 'You see your friends who used to go to work every day, and suddenly - without being sick or fired - they just can't go anymore. It hits you. Even if it hasn't happened to you yet, you start to worry: "What if it's me next?"' he told AP. Desir says his asylum court date was set for this year, but the judge rescheduled it for 2028. Desir lives in Springfield, Ohio, with his wife and two children, and he works in a car parts manufacturing plant. The US has also banned all flights to Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital, until September.
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Haitian migrants face mass deportation from America after dramatic update
Haitian migrants risk deportation from America after the Trump Administration terminated their temporary legal protections. On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security that it is terminating legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, setting them up for potential deportation. DHS said that conditions in Haiti have improved and Haitians no longer meet the conditions for the temporary legal protections. 'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,' a DHS spokesperson said. 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.' The Department of State, however, has not changed its travel advisory and still recommends Americans 'do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care.' 'The decision today will leave returning Haitian citizens at very high risk of persecution, danger, homelessness. People have nowhere to go,' Pastor Dieufort Fleurissaint, of Boston, told The Boston Globe. 'You have a humanitarian collapse... The only hope we have is God. God and to call upon our friends and allies, elected officials, to advocate on our behalf, so these families can be protected and find a way to enact permanent solutions.' He told the outlet that migrants have been calling him left and right since the news dropped as they are now unsure what their and their children's futures look like and their employment. Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley condemned DHS, writing on Bluesky: 'We should NOT be deporting anyone to a nation still dealing with a grave humanitarian crisis like Haiti.' Heather Yountz, senior immigration staff attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said the Trump Administration was revoking Haitian's protect 'simply to fulfill the harmful mass deportation he promised,' she told The Boston Globe. Haitian migrants who are in the US under a temporary protection status (TPS) will have to leave by September 2. The program ends on August 3, but it doesn't go into effect for a month. DHS advised TPS holders to return to Haiti using a mobile application called CBP Home. The majority of Haitian migrants live in Massachusetts and Florida. Gang violence has displaced 1.3million people across Haiti as the local government and international community struggle to contain an spiraling crisis, according to a recent report from the International Organization for Migration. The report warned of a 24 percent increase in displaced people since December, with gunmen having chased 11 percent of Haiti's nearly 12million inhabitants from their home. 'Deporting people back to these conditions is a death sentence for many, stripping them of their fundamental right to safety and dignity' Tessa Pettit, a Haitian-American who is executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told AP. Frantz Desir, 36, has been in the US since 2022 on asylum, but he says he is concerned by the Trump administration's decision to terminate their protections. 'You see your friends who used to go to work every day, and suddenly - without being sick or fired - they just can't go anymore. It hits you. Even if it hasn't happened to you yet, you start to worry: "What if it's me next?"' he told AP. Desir says his asylum court date was set for this year, but the judge rescheduled it for 2028. Desir lives in Springfield, Ohio, with his wife and two children, and he works in a car parts manufacturing plant. The US has also banned all flights to Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital, until September.
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US sets deadline to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants
The United States government has announced it will terminate special protections for Haitian immigrants. In a statement issued Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that, starting on September 2, Haitians would no longer be able to remain in the country under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation. TPS allows nationals from countries facing conflict, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances to temporarily remain in the US. It also gives them the right to work and travel. The designation is typically made for periods of six, 12 or 18 months, but that can be extended by the DHS secretary. But under the administration of President Donald Trump, temporary protections like TPS have been pared back, as part of a broader push to limit immigration to the US. 'This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,' a DHS spokesperson said in Friday's statement. Haiti first received the TPS designation in 2010, when a devastating earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless – more than a 10th of the population. The designation has been routinely extended and expanded, particularly as gang violence and political instability worsened in recent years. Since his first term in office, from 2017 to 2021, President Trump has sought to strip TPS for Haitians, even as conditions have deteriorated in the Caribbean island nation. Today, Haiti faces a protracted humanitarian crisis, with more than 5,600 people killed by gangs last year and 1.3 million displaced. Armed groups now control up to 90 percent of the capital, and food, water and medical services are extremely difficult to come by. The US Department of State has placed a travel advisory on Haiti, listing it as a Level 4 country, the highest warning level. Level 4 signifies 'do not travel', as there are life-threatening conditions in the designated area. The State Department advises Americans to avoid Haiti 'due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care'. The DHS statement, however, notes that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem 'determined that, overall, country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety'. 'She further determined that permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interest of the United States,' the statement adds. An estimated 260,000 Haitians have TPS. The statement advises that those affected can either pursue another immigration status or return home. But Haitians are not the only group to face the revocation of their temporary immigration status. In early May, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to revoke TPS for 350,000 Venezuelans living in the US. Later in the month, the high court also ruled that Trump can revoke the two-year 'humanitarian parole' that allowed 530,000 people to legally remain and work in the US. The affected humanitarian parole recipients included Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, all of whom face instability and political repression in their home countries. Trump officials have also moved to end TPS for 7,600 Cameroonians and 14,600 Afghans. But critics note that fighting continues to rage in Cameroon, and in Afghanistan, the Taliban government is accused of perpetrating widespread human rights abuses.
