Haiti on the Brink: “The Entire Country Is in Agony,” Says Renowned Doctor | Amanpour and Company

Jun 7, 2023 | Haiti is reeling from a deadly earthquake yesterday which claimed the lives of at least four people – just after devastating floods left thousands in the country homeless. Dr. Jean Pape tells Michel Martin why Haiti — plagued by gang violence and government instability — urgently needs international help to prevent a civil war. | Originally aired on June 7, 2023

Haiti Struck by 7.2-Magnitude Earthquake

THE GUARDIAN: US Geological Survey says quake struck about 150km west of Port-au-Prince at about 8.30am local time

Haiti has been struck by a major 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake struck about 150km (93 miles) west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, at about 8.30am local time and had a depth of 10km.

The earthquake, which was felt across the Caribbean, including in Cuba and Jamaica, comes just over a month after Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse was murdered at his residence in Port-au-Prince. » | Tom Phillips, Latin America correspondent | Saturday, August 14, 2021

Powerful Earthquake Strikes Haiti: Seismologists reported that a magnitude 7.2 quake struck in the west of the country, and heavy damage was reported in at least two cities. »


Un séisme de magnitude 7,2 secoue Haïti : Une alerte au tsunami a été lancée dans la foulée. Des édifices religieux, des écoles et des habitations ont été endommagés lors du tremblement de terre. »

Haiti Calls US for Troops, after Wild Day of Gunfights and Suspicion

THE NEW YORK TIMES: At least 20 people were arrested in the assassination of the Haitian president — 18 Colombians and 2 Americans of Haitian descent — on a day of deepening mystery.

After 24 hours of wild gun battles with suspects in the assassination of Haiti’s president, the nation’s authorities announced the arrests of 20 people and called on the United States to send troops to help protect crucial infrastructure.

Haiti’s remarkable request for military assistance from the United States, a former colonial overlord that has repeatedly intervened in the nation’s affairs, is a measure of how deeply shaken the nation has been by days of chaos and intrigue. As new developments unfolded at a dizzying pace on Friday, the mystery over who was ultimately behind the assassination only deepened.

On the streets, vigilantes prowled for suspects, and the police killed at least three people in gunfights. The vast majority of those arrested have turned out to be from Colombia — former military men said to have turned mercenaries — as questions arose about why it had been so easy for attackers to burst into President Jovenel Moïse’s home and kill him, seemingly with no shots fired from security staff. » | Natalie Kitroeff, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Catherine Porter and Julie Turkewitz | Friday, July 8, 2021

Political Crisis in Haiti Deepens Over Rival Claims to Power »

He Went from Banana Exporter to President: ‘I Am Not a Dictator’

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The president clung to power in a protracted political battle that earned him many enemies.

MIAMI — It was a battle from the start for Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse.

Even before he took office, Mr. Moïse had to fight off accusations that, as a virtually unknown banana exporter, he was nothing but a handpicked puppet of the previous president, Michel J. Martelly.

“Jovenel is his own man,” Mr. Moïse told The New York Times in 2016, shortly after having won the election, trying to rebut the accusations. He promised to show results within six months in office.

After more than four years in office, he was killed in his home early Wednesday at the age of 53. He left a wife and three children. In his last year in office, as protests against him grew and he declined to step down, he had to defend himself in other ways: “I am not a dictator,” he told The Times earlier this year.

Mr. Moïse was the former president of the chamber of commerce in Port-de-Paix, the country’s northwest region, when he ran for president. When he emerged as a leading candidate in 2015, few people had ever heard of him. They called him “the Banana Man.” » | Frances Robles | Published: Wednesday, July 7, 2021; Updated: Thursday, July 6, 2021

Islam Appears to Spread in Haiti, a Country Where Christianity and Voodoo Hold Sway
FOX NEWS: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – School teacher Darlene Derosier lost her home in the 2010 earthquake that devastated her country. Her husband died a month later after suffering what she said was emotional trauma from the quake. She and her two daughters now live in tents outside the capital of Port-au-Prince, surrounded by thousands of others made homeless and desperate by the disaster.

What's helped pull her through all the grief, she said, has been her faith, but not of the Catholic, Protestant or even Voodoo variety that have predominated in this island country. Instead, she's converted to a new religion here, Islam, and built a small neighborhood mosque out of cinderblocks and plywood, where some 60 Muslims pray daily.

Islam has won a growing number of followers in this impoverished country, especially after the catastrophe two years ago that killed some 300,000 people and left millions more homeless. A capital where church attendance is so prevalent that the streets echo with Christian hymns on Sundays now has at least five mosques, a Muslim parliament member and a nightly local television program devoted to Islam. » | Associated Press | Wednesday, October 10, 2012