[News] November 18th Haiti Action Alert

Mon Nov 18 19:04:03 EST 2024

Haiti Action Committee Action Alert

November 18th, 2024

Please join Haiti Action Committee in condemning the Biden 
administration's relations with gangs/death squads in Haiti that rape 
women, kidnap, massacre people and destroy entire neighborhoods in Haiti.

Contact your House Representative 
<https://ziplook.house.gov/htbin/findrep_house>and your Senators 
<https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm>

  *

    Tell them to Stop the flow of US weapons to Haiti and the Financing
    and Support for gangs/death squads

  *

    Tell them to Oppose US Intervention in Haiti and the Financing/
    Support of Foreign Occupation

  *

    Tell them to Stop the Deportation and persecution of Haitian
    Refugees in the US and in the Americas

Nearly 220 years ago, on November 18th, 1804, Haitian revolutionaries 
under the command of the legendary General Dessalines fought against the 
French army sent to restore slavery. A courageous Haitian commander, 
Francois Capoix, exemplified bravery by charging a fortification in the 
face of massive cannon and gunfire. Napoleon’s army was finally defeated 
in this Battle of Vertieres, securing Haiti's independence. *Today, 
marking this anniversary, join forces with the Haitian people and their 
allies throughout the world in demanding an end to US intervention and 
foreign occupation. *

The US government, the main purveyor of the violence in Haiti, is now 
engaged in a series of deceptions. While the Biden Administration has 
been playing a lead role in mobilizing and financing an expanded foreign 
occupation of Haiti– including the deployment of Kenyan police–  in 
order to allegedly combat “gangs,” the Administration has not stopped 
the flow of US weapons into the hands of these paramilitaries. While the 
US has put out a reward for the capture of “gang leaders” in early 
October 2024, it has been widely reported inside of Haiti that US 
ambassador Dennis Hankins has been secretly meeting with Jimmy 
Cherizier, aka “Barbecue”, head of the largest paramilitary (“gang”) 
alliance, Viv Ansam, at the US embassy in Haiti. International media and 
US religious figures have also recently met with "Barbecue" and other 
paramilitary leaders when their whereabouts are supposedly unknown so 
that these leaders cannot be apprehended. Haitians are condemning these 
secret meetings which appear to have emboldened Jimmy "Barbecue" 
Cherizier and the death squads in committing more brazen atrocities 
while the police and the intervention forces are standing down.

While this charade continues, the impoverished majority population is 
being subjected to relentless massacres perpetrated by paramilitaries. 
These death squads are financed by members of Haiti’s upper class 
heavily armed by major weapons flowing into Haiti from Florida. The 
death squads attack the popular neighborhoods of the poor that are bases 
of pro-democratic grassroots activism, such as Site Soley, Belé, Solino, 
Fo Nasyonal, Lasalin, where they massacre people of all ages and burn 
houses down, forcing a massive exodus. The death squads have perpetrated 
these crimes in collusion with the US-installed PHTK (Haitian Tek Kale 
Party) regime, as with the notorious Lasalin Massacre 
<https://www.nlg.org/report-the-lasalin-massacre-and-the-human-rights-crisis-in-haiti/>in 
2018. In the Pont-Sondé Massacre 
<https://www.npr.org/2024/10/10/g-s1-27385/death-toll-in-a-gang-attack-on-a-haitian-town-rises-to-115>this 
past October 3rd, targeting a peasant community, the death toll has now 
risen to 115. According to the UN’s International Organization for 
Migration, as of this October more than 700,000 
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/2/over-700000-internally-displaced-in-haiti-as-humanitarian-crisis-deepens>, 
half being children, are now internally displaced.

Twenty years after the US-backed coup against the democratically elected 
President Jean Bertrand-Aristide and the popular Fanmi Lavalas 
government, Haiti remains under US/ UN occupation. There is not a single 
elected official left 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/10/haiti-no-elected-officials-anarchy-failed-state>in 
the country. Hunger in Haiti has reached a historic high, with 50% 
<https://www.wfp.org/news/hunger-haiti-reaches-historic-high-one-two-haitians-now-acute-hunger#:~:text=As%20Haiti%20continues%20to%20grapple,people%20in%20any%20crisis%20worldwide>of 
the population now facing acute hunger. According to UNICEF data 
<https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/press-releases/armed-violence-plunging-children-severe-acute-malnutrition-in-haiti>, 
by 2023, “nearly one in four children in Haiti also suffer from chronic 
malnutrition, known as stunting, which has long-lasting physical 
consequences.”

The leadership of Fanmi Lavalas, the political party in Haiti based in 
the poor majority, has referred to this violence and suffering as a slow 
motion genocide.

Haitians who flee this are being subjected to ruthless deporations, both 
from the US under the Biden Administration 
<https://www.wola.org/analysis/a-tragic-milestone-20000th-migrant-deported-to-haiti-since-biden-inauguration/>and 
now, by the tens of thousands, from the Dominican Republic 
<https://apnews.com/article/haiti-deportations-dominican-republic-us-0ca0f181119e7a44e52366185fd7754a>and 
from other Caribbean nations 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/14/haiti-mass-deportation>, 
following the lead of the US. There refugees are being forced to return 
to the life threatening conditions from which they fled.

*This call to action on November 18th is also being made by activists 
and organizations in the Caribbean who have issued this statement in 
solidarity with the people of Haiti 
<https://haitisolidarity.net/open-letter-to-t…d-states-embassy/>. *

###

For more information on how to directly donate to and support Haiti’s 
popular movement, go to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund 
<https://haitiemergencyrelief.org/>.

For more information on how to take action here in the US in solidarity 
with the Haitian people, go to the HaitiAction Committee 
<http://www.haitisolidarity.net/>.

-- 
Haiti Action Committee
PO Box 2040
Berkeley,CA 94702
Website <https://haitisolidarity.net>
YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjujXAgb681TkRNdEo1hh5Q>
Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/HaitiActionCommittee>
Twitter <https://twitter.com/HaitiAction1>

Haiti Action Committee: 33 years of solidarity with the anti-colonial 
grassroots struggle for dignity, democracy and self-determination of the 
Haitian people!

Please donate to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund 
<https://haitiemergencyrelief.org/> - all donations are tax-deductible 
and go to support Haiti's grassroots struggle for democracy and sovereignty

<https://haitisolidarity.net/donate/>

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