Haiti News

With the expiration of Temporary Protection Status granted to 350,000 Haitians set to expire on February 3rd, a hearing was held on February 2, in US District Court in Washington, DC to halt an action by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to end the program. During the Washington court proceeding, human rights advocates in San Francisco rallied outside the US Immigration Court to denounce the administration’s enforcement agenda and demand sweeping policy changes.

UPDATE: On October 3-4, Hurricane Matthew killed hundreds of people in Haiti, causing untold damage. The elections will not be held as scheduled, after already having been postponed repeatedly throughout this year. A new date has not been announced yet by the electoral council.

September 30 marked the 25th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Haiti’s first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency agents were present with the Haitian military during the coup. Protesters marked the day with rallies in the Bay Area cities of Palo Alto, Oakland, and San José. The U.S. government financed fraudulent elections in 2015 and new elections will be held on October 9 of this year. At the Bay Area rallies, demonstrators standing in solidarity with the people of Haiti demanded free and fair elections in Haiti without U.S. interference.

On January 12th, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. The earthquake was centered ten miles southwest of Haiti's capital Port-Au-Prince and was the largest earthquake to strike the Caribbean nation in more than two centuries. Buildings have collapsed and more than 100,000 people are feared dead. Among the buildings that collapsed were the Presidential Palace, the UN headquarters and at least one hospital in the capital.