Month: July 2021

Martine Moise, the wife of Haiti’s assassinated president who was injured in the July 7 attack at their private home, returned to the Caribbean nation on Saturday following her release from a Miami hospital.

Her arrival was unannounced and surprised many in the country of more than 11 million people still reeling from the assassination of Jovenel Moise in a raid authorities say involved Haitians, Haitian Americans and former Colombian soldiers.

Martine Moise disembarked the flight at the Port-au-Prince airport wearing a black dress, a black bulletproof vest and a black face mask. Her right arm was in a black sling as she slowly walked down the steps of what appeared to be a private plane. She was greeted by interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph and other officials.

Earlier this week, she tweeted from the Miami hospital that she could not believe her husband was gone “without saying a last word. This pain will never pass.”

On Friday, government officials announced that Jovenel Moise’s funeral would be on July 23 in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien and that his wife was expected to attend.

Group: Let chosen PM form government

Earlier Saturday a key group of international diplomats issued a statement urging Ariel Henry, the designated prime minister, to form a government following Moise’s killing.

Joseph has been leading Haiti with the backing of police and the military even though Moise had announced Joseph’s replacement a day before he was killed.

Joseph and his allies argue that Henry was never sworn in, though he pledged to work with him and with Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s inactive Senate.

The statement was issued by the Core Group, which is made up of ambassadors from Germany, Brazil, Canada, Spain, the U.S., France, the European Union and representatives from the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

The group called for the creation of “a consensual and inclusive government.”

“To this end, it strongly encourages the designated Prime Minister Ariel Henry to continue the mission entrusted to him to form such a government,” the group said.

U.S. officials could not be immediately reached for comment. A U.N. spokesman declined comment except to say that the U.N. is part of the group that issued the statement. An OAS spokesman said: “For the moment, there is nothing further to say other than what the statement says.”

Henry and spokespeople for Joseph did not immediately return messages for comment.

Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said the statement was very confusing, especially after the U.N. representative had said that Joseph was in charge.

The question of who should take over has been complicated by the fact Haiti’s parliament has not been functioning because a lack of elections meant most members’ terms had expired. And the head of the Supreme Court recently died of COVID-19.
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Former Haitian justice ministry official Joseph Felix Badio may have ordered the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise, the head of Colombia’s national police has said, citing a preliminary investigation into the killing. 

Moise was shot dead at his private residence in a suburb of Port-au-Prince before dawn on July 7.

An investigation by Haitian and Colombian authorities, alongside Interpol, into Moise’s killing has revealed that Badio appeared to have given an order for the assassination three days before the attack, General Jorge Vargas said Friday at a news conference and in an audio message sent to news outlets by the police.

It was not immediately possible to reach Badio for comment. His whereabouts are unknown.

According to Vargas, the investigation found that Badio had ordered former Colombian soldiers Duberney Capador and German Rivera to kill Moise. The men had initially been contacted to carry out security services.

“Several days before, apparently three, Joseph Felix Badio, who was a former official of [Haiti’s] ministry of justice, who worked in the anti-corruption unit with the general intelligence service, told Capador and Rivera that they had to assassinate the president of Haiti,” Vargas said.

Vargas did not provide proof or give more details about where the information came from.

Capador was killed and Rivera was captured by Haiti police in the aftermath of Moise’s killing, authorities have said.

Alleged mastermind

On Sunday, Haitian authorities detained Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, widely described as a Florida-based doctor, and accused him of being one of the masterminds behind the killing.

Former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph is being sought by police after Haiti’s National Police Chief Leon Charles identified him as a key player in the plot, while Dimitri Herard, the head of palace security for Moise, has been arrested.

“This is a big plot. A lot of people are part of it,” Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said in a news conference. “I am determined to move the investigation forward.”

The group of assassins included 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, according to Haitian authorities. Eighteen of the Colombians have been captured, while five are on the run and three were killed.

Many of the Colombians accused of involvement in the assassination went to the country as bodyguards, Colombian President Ivan Duque said Thursday. That has been confirmed by relatives and colleagues of some of the detained Colombians.

“We are assisting in all the support tasks for the interviews that are being carried out with the captured Colombians,” Vargas said.

Colombia will send a consular mission to Haiti as soon as it is approved by the Caribbean nation, Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez told journalists on Friday, to meet with the detained Colombians, ensure their rights are being respected, and move ahead with the repatriation of the remains of the deceased Colombians.

The ministry is in daily contact with the families of the dead and detained, Ramirez added.
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South African authorities in the port city of Durban said Saturday they were investigating a coastal chemical spill that may have been caused by a warehouse fire during unrest this week.Other possible sources are also being investigated as the cause of the spill, which is affecting marine and bird life, the eThekwini municipality said late Friday, urging local residents not to use beaches in the area.”Extensive environmental impacts are being reported at uMhlanga and uMdhloti lagoons and beaches in the vicinity, that have killed numerous species of marine and bird life,” the municipality said in a statement.”The pollution is considered serious and can affect one’s health if species are collected and consumed. Lagoon and seawater contact must be avoided.”Reuters reporters saw dead fish that had washed onshore on Saturday, as a clean-up company worked to mop up the spill.KwaZulu-Natal province’s head of environmental affairs, Ravi Pillay, said water samples would be tested Monday.”We will see the results from there,” Pillay told Reuters. “We have some evidence of some limited impact on marine life. Our team is satisfied that there is no impact on public health.”President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday the unrest that ripped through several parts of the country in the past week was stabilizing and calm had been restored to most affected areas.Protests broke out after former President Jacob Zuma was jailed for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry and swiftly degenerated into looting and arson which has killed more than 200 people and destroyed hundreds of businesses.The municipality also said some residents were reporting smoke residue from burned chemical products. It advised people to close windows and doors and put wet cloths over vents until the smoke cleared.Pillay said air quality testing was being undertaken.
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The U.S. is experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths. The highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus among unvaccinated people is largely responsible for the outbreak.Four states with low vaccination rates were responsible for 40% of last week’s new cases, but cases have risen in all 50 states, officials say.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that last week the U.S. had a daily average of 26,000 new cases. She said the outbreak has become “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Later Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden repeated Walensky’s assessment, saying, “The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.”A group of international government advisers say they are concerned about England’s plans to lift virtually all its pandemic restrictions Monday. The advisers believe that would leave Britain susceptible to new coronavirus variants, possibly transforming the country into a superspreader location.Elsewhere, there is worry that Tokyo’s Olympics could become a superspreader event after an unidentified person inside the Olympic Village tested positive for the coronavirus. The person is reportedly not an athlete, but someone from abroad helping to organize the games.“The case is one of 15 new positive results among games participants and workers reported on Saturday, the highest daily count since the committee started compiling figures on July 1,” Kyodo news service reported.“There have been a total of 45 COVID-19 infections announced by organizers since July 1,” according to Kyodo.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Saturday that there have been more than 4 million global COVID-19 deaths. More than 189 million cases have been confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins.  
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Oliver Daemen, 18, received exciting news Thursday from the Blue Origin flight team: He will be flying into space on July 20.Daemen, who will attend Utrecht University in the Netherlands this fall, will be the youngest person to reach space when he departs on Blue Origin’s New Shepard flight. A press release from his family said that Daemen has “been dreaming about this all [his] life.”Blue Origin announced Thursday that an originally scheduled passenger would be unable to take the flight to the edge of space because of scheduling conflicts. The anonymous winner of the company’s public auction spent $28 million for the seat next to Bezos. Until then, Daemen was scheduled to travel on Blue Origin’s second flight after unsuccessfully bidding on the auction.Daemen’s father, Joes Daemen, is the CEO of an investment firm in the Netherlands, and Blue Origin declined to disclose what he paid for the flight. The person who purchased the $28 million ticket remains anonymous.Donations to nonprofitsThe company stated that $19 million of the auction’s proceeds would be donated to 19 space-specific nonprofit organizations, each receiving $1 million. The chosen associations include AstraFemina, a group of women in science and technology dedicated to providing young girls with role models, and the Brook Owens Fellowship, a mentorship program for undergraduate female students interested in space exploration.FILE – In this 2019 photo made available by NASA, Mercury 13 astronaut trainee Wally Funk visits the Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio.Also making history is Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, 82, who will become the oldest person to fly into space. Bezos announced on Instagram that Funk would be an “honored guest” for the first Blue Origin flight.Funk participated in the privately funded Mercury 13 program in 1961 that trained women to go to space. The 13 women received the same preparation as NASA astronauts but were ultimately refused employment because of their gender. Funk was the youngest to graduate from the course and reportedly was told that she “completed the work faster than any of the guys.”The three passengers will be joined by Bezos’ brother, Mark, on Blue Origin’s inaugural flight.
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A federal judge in Texas on Friday ordered an end to an Obama-era program that prevented the deportations of some immigrants brought into the United States as children.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled in favor of Texas and eight other conservative states that had sued to halt the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides limited protections to about 650,000 people. People who are already enrolled won’t lose protections, but Hanen is barring the processing of new applications.

Hanen’s decision limits the immediate ability of President Joe Biden, who pledged during his campaign to protect DACA, to keep the program or something similar in place. His ruling is the second by a federal judge in Texas stopping Biden’s immigration plans, after a court barred enforcement of Biden’s 100-day stay on most deportations.

Biden has proposed legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people who are living in the U.S. without authorization. He also ordered agencies to try to preserve the program.

It’s up to Congress, judge says

Supporters of DACA, including those who argued before Hanen to save it, have said a law passed by Congress is necessary to provide permanent relief. Hanen has said Congress must act if the U.S. wants to provide the protections in DACA to recipients commonly known as “Dreamers.”

Hanen’s ruling came after he held a nearly 3½-hour court hearing December 22 on DACA’s fate.

The states argued that former President Barack Obama never had the authority in 2012 to create a program like DACA because it circumvented Congress. The states also argued the program drains their educational and health care resources.

Suing alongside Texas were Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia — states that all had Republican governors or state attorneys general.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, which defended the program on behalf of a group of DACA recipients, had argued Obama had the authority to institute DACA and that the states lacked the standing to sue because they had not suffered any harm because of the program.

Ruling foreshadowed

Hanen had rejected Texas’ request in 2018 to stop the program through a preliminary injunction. But in a foreshadowing of his latest ruling, Hanen said in 2018 that he believed DACA as enacted was likely unconstitutional.

“If the nation truly wants to have a DACA program, it is up to Congress to say so,” Hanen wrote then.

Hanen ruled in 2015 that Obama could not expand DACA protections or institute a program shielding their parents.

While DACA is often described as a program for young immigrants, many recipients have lived in the U.S. for a decade or longer after being brought into the country without permission or overstaying visas. The liberal Center for American Progress says roughly 254,000 children have at least one parent relying on DACA. Some recipients are grandparents.

The U.S. Supreme Court previously ruled that former President Donald Trump’s attempt to end DACA in 2017 was unlawful. A New York judge in December ordered the Trump administration to restore the program as enacted by Obama.
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