Prime Minister Bellerive squanders what little is left of his reputation by pressing for funding of a new dock facility in Port-de-Paix. He wants his government to back the project which will only benefit the cocaine traffic in the area. Port-de-Paix has become a key element in the drug flow into the States and America’s DEA is upset at this…

By Joel R Deeb CEO Omega Consultants & World News Political and Security Consultant on Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean deebjr@omegamilitaryconsultant.com deebjr@aol.com 202-239-6567 March 15, 2010 His name is Amaral Duclona.  His dwelling today is a prison cell in France, where he awaits trial for the murder of a citizen of that country, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Mr. Duclona was…

When I first entered the chapel of worship inside Haiti’s main national penitentiary – or central jail – I found it difficult to make sense of the sight before me. The ceiling was inexplicably festooned with plastic bags and scraps of cloth. I had obtained access to the prison to investigate the aftermath of the mass jailbreak that occurred during…

Haiti will need $11.5bn (£7.55bn) to rebuild after the devastating earthquake in January, the country’s government estimates. The amount is a rough estimate of money needed for a complete overhaul of the impoverished country, officials say. The plan, co-authored by international aid agencies, will be put to donors at a conference on Haiti later this month. More than 220,000 people…

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The U.S. Embassy says a kidnapped person was among four U.S. citizens killed in Haiti since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The U.S. State Department expanded its travel warning for Haiti on Monday to say that dangers of killings and kidnappings persist, and “some kidnap victims have been killed, shot, sexually assaulted or physically abused.” Embassy spokeswoman Mari…

BY MARY ANASTASIA O’GRADY Joseph P. Kennedy II took time out last month from his oil dealings with Hugo Chávez to respond to a column I wrote about another of his ventures. This one involved a 1999 contract between Fusion Telecommunications, where Mr. Kennedy was on the board, and the state-owned telecom monopoly Haiti Teleco. Mr. Kennedy’s assertions in a…

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is in Haiti to investigate a shortage of shelter and increased violence in Haiti’s teeming earthquake camps. Ban’s four-hour visit Sunday is his second since the Jan. 12 earthquake ravaged the Caribbean nation, killing more than 200,000 people and leaving 1.3 million homeless. His first stop is a sprawling tent city behind a…

By William Booth Saturday, March 13, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — It was always hard to be old in Haiti, but after the earthquake, to be old and poor feels like a curse, say those who are both. “We struggle to maintain a little dignity, but look at us,” said Lauranise Gedeon, who sat, embarrassed, in soiled sheets in the ruins…

Manuel Quinones, CNC News Now that House and Senate lawmakers have approved measures calling for the elimination of Haiti’s foreign debts, they face a more controversial decision on providing aid to the country’s government. Haitian President Rene Preval was at the White House and on Capitol Hill Wednesday.  He knows lawmakers of both parties are wary of giving U.S. taxpayer…

MIAMI, FLORIDA (BNO NEWS) – A former official of the Republic of Haiti’s state-owned national telecommunications company pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy, prosecutors said Friday. Robert Antoine, 62, of Miami and Haiti, accepted bribes from three U.S. telecommunications companies, defrauding Telecommunications D’Haiti (Haiti Teleco), admitting that $800,000 of these bribes were intended to be given to him. Antoine…

Clinton joins call for quick Haiti elections (AFP) – 3 hours ago WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined Haitian President Rene Preval Tuesday in calling for new elections in quake-hit Haiti as soon as possible. Legislative polls, originally set for February and March, were postponed after the January 12 earthquake that demolished the capital Port-au-Prince, killing more…

By Monika Kalra Varma and Loune Viaud | March 8, 2010 SINCE JANUARY’S devastating earthquake in Haiti, well-meaning experts have proposed an abundance of short-term and long-term recovery solutions. They ask why aid delivery has been so slow, why previous development plans for Haiti have rarely been successful, and why billions of dollars in funding over decades have not improved…

By Joel Rubin March 7, 2010 Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti The line of patients at this city’s battered General Hospital forms early. The sick come to be seen by “the good doctors.” At 10 on a recent morning, Jean Fenisto Joseph, 58, and his 28-year-old daughter, Roselord, were two of the several hundred Haitians standing or sitting on benches —…

Congresswoman Maxine Waters headed mission to Haiti this week. The American team included President Clinton’s man, responsible for reconstruction of Haiti. These visitors accompanied by Ambassador Kenneth Merten, met with various political and business leaders to see what truth there might be in stories about President Preval’s out-of-control theft of emergency relief funds and relief materials. The team was very…

Government representative voiced shock at President Rene Garcia Preval’s uncontrolled outburst during a meeting with Admiral Mullen, Commander SOUTHCOM, and Hillary Clinton’s personal representative. Preval interrupted every attempt to hold a sane conversation with repeated claims to the effect that he had a high moral standing and there had been no theft of cash or material from the last two…

By LAWRENCE DOWNES There were floods on Saturday in Les Cayes, in southwestern Haiti. It rained in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, and again on Saturday and Sunday night, long enough to slick the streets and make a slurry of the dirt and concrete dust. Long enough, too, to give a sense of what will happen across the country in a few…

Even before President Rene Garcia Preval met with the Obama team in Washington, his own team was getting to work in Haiti. Preval wants to derail the ONG efforts in Haiti. He would like to see them withdraw from the scene, leaving his Government the only one capable of accepting cash/materials for the Haitian quake disaster. Preval has made every…

By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 27, 2010; A09 PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Haitian President René Préval faces many challenges: a country in ruins, a government in tatters, a traumatized population. But on Friday, he wanted to get something else off his chest. On an unseasonably cool day in the capital, Préval greeted a delegation of high-ranking U.S….

By Soledad O’Brien and Rose Arce, CNN February 24, 2010 11:03 p.m. EST Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — You hear it all the time in Port-au-Prince: “That’s Haiti,” people tell you when things move slowly, when the electricity goes off or traffic mysteriously comes to a halt. Some say it was like that even before a devastating earthquake reduced most homes…

WASHINGTON — Haiti‘s top reconstruction planning official owns part of the country’s largest concrete company, which stands to reap major gains from the coming wave of international rebuilding aid. Patrick Delatour, Haiti’s tourism minister, leads a commission that has been crafting plans to rebuild Port-au-Prince and other earthquake-devastated areas. He acknowledged he is 5% owner of GDG Concrete and Construction,…

Two days after the January 12 quake, President Preval gave Dimitri Vorbe a contract to purchase 200,000 food packages at $20.00 US pr package. Vorbe went to the Dominican Republic and purchased some time-expired items for $2.00 each and changed the dates. Even as trapped children scratched against collapsed ceilings in a futile hope for salvation. They died alone as…

Dimitri Vorbe is in control of customs at Haiti’s International Airport.  Of course, this is illegal but it would not have become public – international knowledge –had it not been for a particularly stupid move, even for President Preval. The Mexican Government sent a big load of medical supplies for the Haitian people. It was stopped at the airport by…

Just when everyone thought that Preval’s criminal daring ways – urged on and focused by his camp-follower Elisabeth Delatour-Preval – had reached its limits, with his recent theft of the $90,000,000 Venezuelan dollars that was targeted for Gonaives rebuilding, and his earlier theft of $198,000,000 from Petro Caraibe accounts… another outrage appears.  This one is even bigger, and has more…

American Red Cross $175 million in unallocated Haiti donations – update On the matter of the American Red Cross and the $175 million in unallocated Haiti donations, this update: there’s still no word from the American Red Cross on how the $175 million in donations was handled. Initial attempts to gain an answer have been ignored as of this writing….

REYNALD BONEFIL – HAYTRAC – PARTNERS  WITH ELIZABETH DELATOR AND JUDE CELESTIN IN THEFT OF QUAKE VICTIM’S MONEY Here is a guy who was arrested, during the Aristide presidency, with 53 kilos of cocaine in his car, along with $156,000 US in cash. He was in his SUV on Route National #1 early one morning.   Rather than be pleased with…

By Alex Lantier WSWS Saturday, Feb 20, 2010 French President Nicolas Sarkozy traveled for a one-day visit to Haiti on February 17, amid rising popular opposition to the Western-backed Préval government and international tensions over how to rebuild the country. The US military occupied Haiti after the devastating January 12 earthquake that killed over 200,000 people, wounded over 250,000, and…

French President Sarkozy visited Haiti to offer $400,000,000  towards Haiti’s reconstruction. In return for this offer …. concrete help for the Haitian people, Preval  planned a massive demonstration, in front of the National Palace, as Sarkozy toured  the site with Preval. He hoped to embarrass the French president and anger him at what was supposed to appear as a demonstration…

Feb 20 2010 Wales Online The Haitian government will seize land to build temporary camps for earthquake victims in a controversial new move, prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive said. The decision is potentially explosive in a country where a small elite owns most of the land in and around the capital Port-au-Prince. That elite, a traditionally corrupting force in Haitian politics,…

Canadians threatened in Jacmel The Canadians had chosen Jacmel as the focus of their relief efforts. They organized everything in Jacmel…electricity, business …started to build roads. Because they are using good, honest people from the population, Jacmel’s Cartel – headed by Zenny, Senator Lambert and others are uncomfortable. These same people were major supporters of the Preval Presidential Election efforts….

By Christopher M. Matthews | February 19, 2010 Jean Fourcand pleaded guilty Friday to laundering money between U.S. telecommunications companies and former Haitian government officials, the Justice Department said. Fourcand, the president of Miami-based Fourcand Enterprises Inc., admitted to channeling bribes between the U.S. companies and officials in Haiti’s state owned telecommunications company, Haiti Teleco, according to a DOJ news…