Haiti president describes `unimaginable' catastrophe; thousands feared dead

By JACQUELINE CHARLES, CAROL ROSENBERG, JEAN-CYRIL PRESSOIR AND JIM WYSS
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitian President René Préval issued an urgent appeal for his earthquake-shattered nation Wednesday, saying he had been stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped under the rubble of the national Parliament.

Préval, in his first interview since the earthquake, said the country was destroyed and he believed there were thousands of people dead but was reluctant to provide a number.

``We have to do an evaluation,'' Préval said, describing the scene as ``unimaginable.''

``Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,'' he said. ``There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.''

The U.N. said casualties were ``vast'' but impossible to calculate.

The International Red Cross said a third of Haiti's nine million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge, the Associated Press reported.

As the scope of the damage was becoming clear Wednesday, some Haitians were crossing the border into the Dominican Republic.

``I don't have work, I don't have a future here,'' said Antonio Bacevil, 39, a farmer wearing ragged shorts and muddy boat shoes who was on his way to Santiago. ``What you see is what I have. . . . A lot of people are dead.''

The U.S. State Department said there are 45,000 American citizens living in Haiti and efforts were being made to locate them. Of the more than 170 personnel at the U.S. Embassy, eight were injured, four of them seriously enough to be evacuated by the Coast Guard, officials said in a briefing.

Préval said he had traveled through several neighborhoods and seen the damage. ``All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe,'' he said.

The U.N. said Haiti's principal prison had collapsed and inmates had escaped.

A Florida-based shipper said the cranes at the Port-au-Prince cargo pier had toppled into the water and that much of the pier was destroyed.

The second story and dome of the ornate Presidential Palace pancaked onto the first floor. The Parliament was also in ruins, trapping Senate President Kely Bastien, Préval said.

The body of the Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, the Associated Press reported.

In Washington Wednesday, President Barack Obama said search-and-rescue teams from Florida, California and Virginia were on their way to Haiti and that USAID would be coordinating a broad-based effort to take food, water and emergency supplies to the nation.

``We have to be there for them in their hour of need,'' he said.

The military also swung into action early Wednesday, moving a 30-member advance team from Southern Command in Miami by C-130 cargo plane to work with U.S. Embassy personnel and sending a Navy reconnaissance plane from a U.S base in Comalpa, El Salvador, to study the quake damage. The Navy also diverted the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Haiti. It was expected to be off the coast Thursday.

According to media reports, survivors were digging through the rubble and stacking bodies along the streets of Haiti's capital after the powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation Tuesday afternoon. The earthquake has left the nation virtually isolated, with countless crumbled buildings, including the six-story United Nations headquarters.

The U.N. confirmed five of its workers had been killed and more than 100 were missing. Among those unaccounted for were the mission chief, Hédi Annabi, and his deputy, the U.N. said Wednesday.

Brazil's army said at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed, while Jordan's official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed, the AP reported.

Préval said he has not slept since the earthquake. Others slept in the streets fearing their homes would be toppled by aftershocks.

``This is a catastrophe,'' the first lady, Elisabeth Préval, said. ``I'm stepping over dead bodies. A lot of people are buried under buildings. The general hospital has collapsed. We need support. We need help. We need engineers.''

While official details about the scope of the damage were scarce, eyewitness accounts and media reports painted a picture of widespread destruction that could leave thousands dead.

A hospital was reported to have collapsed and people were heard screaming for help, and the World Bank offices in Petionville were also destroyed, but most of the staff were safely accounted for, the organization said.

Part of the road to Canape Vert, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, has collapsed, along with houses perched in the mountains of Petionville, where the quake was centered. Petionville is a suburb about 10 miles from downtown Port-au-Prince.

As the damage mounted, Florida Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pressed Obama for immediate humanitarian aid for Haiti and renewed their request for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals residing in the United States.

``Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti tonight as emergency responders work to ensure the safety of their citizens. It is important that the U.S. make available all possible humanitarian assistance to our friend and neighbor, Haiti,'' Lincoln Diaz-Balart said.

And Ros-Lehtinen called for the U.S. to immediately stop deporting Haitian nationals ``due to the crisis in this already devastated country.''

Broward Democrat Alcee Hastings added his name to the effort, calling it ``not only immoral, but irresponsible'' not to do so.

On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the organization had released $10 million in ``emergency funds'' to set up immediate operations. He said Assistant Secretary General Eduard Moulet would be dispatched to the region as soon as conditions permit.

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said the OAS ``will do everything within our means to support the victims of this catastrophic phenomenon.'' He said Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin was gathering damage information to report to the group's Permanent Council Wednesday to allow member states to contribute to Haiti.

``It is at such times that people, governments and leaders across the hemisphere, as neighbors and friends of the people of Haiti, should show solidarity and support in a real, effective and immediate manner, guided by the country's government, which knows best where the most urgent need lies,'' Insulza said.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat who represents parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, said: ``I am monitoring the situation very closely and am prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives and bring swift disaster relief to Haiti and the Haitian people at this time. I ask that all Americans please keep the Haitian people and all victims of this disaster in their thoughts and prayers.''

From Broward, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, who was in Haiti in June, said she was ``deeply saddened'' by the news.

``I know only too well how much this earthquake will add to the already immense obstacles facing the Haitian people,'' she said, adding that she would work with colleagues in Congress and the Obama administration to provide aid to Haiti.

The American Red Cross was poised to move aid from a warehouse in Panama -- blankets, kitchen sets and water containers for about 5,000 families -- as soon as a flight or means of delivery could be found, Eric Porterfield said in Washington.

Field reports, he said, indicated ``lots of damage and lots of aftershocks.''

In addition, the American Red Cross had already released $200,000 to its counterpart Haitian Red Cross.

On Wednesday, Haitian Sen. Joseph Lambert also described the scene in Haiti. Standing outside the Parliament building, he said: ``Imagine schools, hospitals, government buildings all destroyed.''

When asked about the prospect of Haiti rebuilding, Lambert said, ``It's our country. We have no other choice. It's a catastrophe, but we have no other choice but to rebuild.''

01.13.10

miamiherald


Miami Herald staff writers Nancy San Martin, Lesley Clark, Trenton Daniel, Frances Robles, Martha Brannigan, Jim Wyss, Robert Samuels, Nadege Charles, Mary Ellen Klas and Herald special correspondent Stewart Stogel contributed to this report, which was supplemented by wire services.

French Caribbean regions reject more autonomy

By Dominique Bareto:


FORT-DE-FRANCE (Reuters) - Voters in the French Caribbean territories of Martinique and Guyana rejected the option of greater autonomy in a referendum at the weekend, authorities said.

A year after protests against high prices in the island of Guadeloupe spread to other French overseas regions, the referendum offered the chance to vote for giving local lawmakers more scope to initiate legislation of their own.

Like other parts of France's overseas territories and regions, Martinique and Guyana depend heavily on support from the mainland, but suffer from higher unemployment than the rest of France and rely on expensive imported food and fuel.

The proposed changes would have given the regions a status similar to that of French Polynesia, which has more responsibility for its own affairs than the so-called overseas "departments" but they would not have led to full independence.

But nearly 70 percent of voters in Guyana, on the South American mainland, and 79.3 percent of voters on the island of Martinique voted to remain overseas "departments" that count as full parts of France and the European Union.

"I was surprised by the size of the result but not by the trend," said Marcellin Nadeau a local mayor who had backed the "yes" vote in the referendum.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the vote last year, saying changes were needed to improve governance in the Caribbean regions but his office said in a statement the vote showed how attached they were to the French Republic.

The vote was widely seen as a rebuff to local politicians who had asked Sarkozy to hold the referendum but officials said various factors were at issue.

"There were those who did not answer the question and who saw it as 'Do you want independence?' and who voted No," said Patrick Karam, a government official responsible for overseeing equality issues in the overseas territories.

"Then there were those...who asked 'What will happen to our social benefits in future?'" he told France Info radio.

The vote came as tensions returned to Guadeloupe, the scene of last year's most violent confrontations, where shops were burned and looted and a union leader was killed during a 44-day stand-off between protesters and police.

High prices, combined with what protesters saw as an unfair dominance of key sectors of the economy by the old white elite were the triggers for the protests and the problems have not disappeared despite an accord last year.

Elie Domota, leader of the LKP group which spearheaded the protests, last week called a strike on the island on January 20, saying prices had gone up sharply at the beginning of the year, despite government pledges.

Last year's protests in Guadeloupe ended with a deal to boost the local minimum wage by 200 euros a month and set price pegs on dozens of staple items to reduce the cost of living.

January 12, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Cuba: We have a youth prepared to give continuity to the Revolution

• Confirms José Ramón Machado Ventura during the 9th UJC Congress Evaluation Assembly

Freddy Pérez Cabrera

SANTA CLARA.—The certainty that Cuban youth will know how to continue the work of the Revolution until its ultimate consequences, was confirmed in the this "city of Che" by José Ramón Machado Ventura, member of the Political Bureau during the course of the 9th UJC Congress Evaluation Assembly.

"We have a strong and well-prepared youth, who are in a position to give continuity to the revolutionary process, under present and future conditions. This is the commitment made by young people, and we are certain, firmly convinced, that they will carry this commitment to its ultimate consequences," stated the Cuban first vice president during his speech to the plenary.

"There are problems and difficulties everywhere, but we cannot say that this is because of the youth," commented Machado Ventura, who made a call to continue working with young people who are not demonstrating a firm commitment to fulfilling the tasks mentioned.

In another part of his speech, Machado called on UJC members and young people in general to support the election process that has been recently initiated throughout the country.

Yulián García Zayas Bazán, UJC secretary at the Valle de Yabú Mixed Cultivation Enterprise, highlighted the problems affecting the internal workings of the organization, and emphasized that young people cannot only see themselves as activists when meetings take place, an opinion that was shared by Machado Ventura, who acknowledged that we still lack creativity when it comes to planning youth meetings.

Liudmila Alamo Dueñas, first secretary of the UJC National Committee, highlighted the need to eradicate bureaucracy in the work of the organization, and to solve problems resulting from a lack of information and arguments from certain members and local committees, rather than wait for a Congress to take place.

Julio Lima Corzo, first secretary of the party in Villa Clara, commented on this issue and stated that young people need to create the debates, not with empty slogans but with solid arguments, in a way in which they can rise to the historic challenge of preserving the socialist homeland for present and future generations.

The assembly elected the delegates who will represent that area at the UJC national congress and confirmed Richeliet Calderón Acea as the first secretary of the UJC’s Municipal Committee.

Translated by Granma International

January 11, 2010

granma.cu

Bahamas caribbean Blog International

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Young Communist League (Spanish: Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, UJC) is the youth organisation of the Communist Party of Cuba.

EU must be 'demanding' with Cuba, says Spain

MADRID, Spain (AFP) -- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called Friday on the European Union to be "demanding" with Cuba even while pushing for dialogue with the island's communist regime.

Spain, which assumed the rotating EU presidency for six months on January 1, is at the forefront of efforts to boost relations with Cuba, a former Spanish colony.

"We must be demanding with Cuba but always keep the door open to dialogue," Zapatero said at a press conference with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and the EU's new president, Herman Van Rompuy.

Spanish media have reported that Madrid wants to establish a new agreement on EU-Cuba ties in the first half of 2010 but has lowered its ambitions to avoid objects from other EU nations.

Asked about the reports, Zapatero said that "for the entire EU, Cuba is not a priority, even if for Spain it is very important".

"Today we had a long meeting and among the foreign policy topics which we discussed, we did not touch on Cuba," said Zapatero, referring to his talks with Van Rompuy and Barroso.

Van Rompuy said he has had "little time to think about Cuba" since he assumed office on December 1.

Spain wants to see an end to the European Union's position on Cuba, adopted in 1996, which calls for improvements in human rights and democracy on the island as a condition for normal relations with the 27-nation European bloc.

But this is opposed by other EU nations, including the two previous holders of the bloc's presidency -- Sweden and the Czech Republic -- as well Cuban human rights groups.

Spain's policy on Cuba shifted in 2005 after Zapatero, a socialist, came to power the previous year. His conservative predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, had adopted a policy of isolating the Communist island.

In 2007 Spain and Cuba renewed ties damaged by Havana's jailing of 75 dissidents in 2003.

January 9, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Bahamas: Reducing the government 'only way' to long-term fiscal security

By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:


Reducing the size of government is "the only way" to set the Bahamas' public finances back on the road to fiscal sustainability, a leading accountant said yesterday, arguing that the private sector was not large enough to generate the tax revenues needed to pay for ever-expanding public services.

Raymond Winder, Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) managing partner, also criticised the "average Bahamian" for putting pressure on politicians to continually increase public spending through the mistaken belief that "government can solve all our ills and problems without it costing money".

Acknowledging that Bahamian political, religious and other community leaders "in teaching the average Bahamian that there is nothing free", Mr Winder told Tribune Business that people needed to take more personal responsibility and realise that the country and economy, not just the Government, needed to grow.

"We're not educating people to let them know you can't continually increase the size of government, or have the government continually provide new services, without having that money come from somewhere," he explained.

Raising taxes or introducing new ones was not the long-term answer, Mr Winder added, because the Bahamas - given its relatively small size and population - could only bear this rising burden to a certain point.

And given the recession, which had caused business activity and international trade to contract, and a subsequent decline in government revenues, Mr Winder said companies and households were in no position to absorb new and/or increased taxes and fees.

"We don't have a private sector that is big enough to pay for all these services," the Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) managing partner said. "The majority of the private sector is unable to meet their obligations, so how do you expect to get all this without paying for these services. It's just not there.

"We need to tighten our belts and take personal responsibility for some of the things we ought to."

Backing the position adopted by Rick Lowe, an executive with the hawkish Nassau Institute economic think-tank, Mr Winder told Tribune Business: "For the size of our country, the Government is too big and has to be reduced. That's the only way to right our fiscal responsibility [position]."

Bahamians had been led to believe that growing the Government could fix all this nation's problems and social ills, without realising that the economy and country as a whole needed to grow to.

"The reality is our problems will not be solved if government continues to grow without the wider country growing with it," he added.

Yet Mr Winder said any politician who preached the message of personal and fiscal responsibility, and that the Bahamas should not keep increasing the size of government, was unlikely to find themselves a politician for too much long because it was not something the majority of voters were attuned to or accustomed to hearing.

"I blame the average Bahamian, who believes the Government can solve all our problems and ills without it costing money," Mr Winder said.

He added that "ministers of the Gospel also need to do a better job", as many were "continually pushing" for the Government to provide new services and cure all the Bahamas' problems.

Tribune Business revealed yesterday how the Bahamas' national debt stands at almost $3.8 billion, between $11,000-$12,000 per resident. Data from the Central Bank of the Bahamas' latest statistical digest showed that at the 2009 third quarter end on September 30, 2009, this nation's national debt stood at $3.675 billion. Some $3.236 billion of that was directly owed to creditors by the Bahamian government, along with a further $438.486 million worth of borrowings it had guaranteed on behalf of public sector corporations and agencies.

In downgrading the Bahamas' long-term sovereign credit rating, Standard & Poor's (S&P) had warned: "Overall, the general government deficit is projected at 4.8 per cent of GDP in 2009-2010 (ending June 2010) from an estimated 4.1 per cent of GDP in 2008-2009.

"During 2010-2012, we project general government deficits on the order of 3.5 per cent of GDP, compared with deficits of 1.5 per cent of GDP in 2003-2007."

The Wall Street credit rating agency said the Bahamas' net general government debt had risen to 30 per cent of GDP, compared to 22 per cent in 2008, and it added: "We project that it will continue rising to 35-39 per cent of GDP in 2010-2012.

"Gross general government debt is higher at 46 per cent of GDP in 2009, up from 37 per cent in 2008. The Commonwealth's share of external to locally issued debt is 20 per cent, which is relatively low but up from 10 per cent in 2007."

January 08, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

The Bahamas: Attorney voices concern over retired politicians on bench

By TANEKA THOMPSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
tthompson@tribunemedia.net:



ATTORNEY Damian Gomez contends that the number of retired politicians who are taking up positions on the bench makes it harder for lawyers to find a sitting judge without an apparent conflict of interest in civil suits against the AG's office.

Mr Gomez claims this has created a court backlog contributing to deteriorating public confidence in the legal system.

His comments add to the growing concern that the anticipated appointment of former MP Malcolm Adderley to the Supreme Court bench will undermine the independence of the judiciary from the influence of the executive branch of Government.

"It's just an impossible situation and now we have another person (who may be appointed to the bench) which may add to the difficulty in getting a judge who may or may not have a conflict.

"What it does is lend credence to the critics of our court system, who say all it is, is politics.   I'm not prepared to say it's political interference, I don't know, it doesn't have the right smell.   It undermines the public confidence of the (court), " he said when contacted yesterday for comment.

Mr Adderley is 64 years old, just shy of the mandatory retirement age of 65 for a judge.   It has been rumoured in political circles that Mr Adderley will be offered an extension past the normal retirement age from Government.

Mr Gomez thinks Mr Adderley is qualified for the job but said this reported arrangement would suggest that the ex-MP "will not be as conflict-free in public law matters as he ought".

"I happen to like Malcolm Adderley as a person but I'm just saying that I just find it strange that on the eve of the age of ordinary retirement, he would be given a post which would, in order to make sense, would require him to be extended beyond two years," he continued.

There is also a cry for constitutional reform in order to limit the control a prime minister has over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

Pushing for such reform is fringe political group, the National Development Party, which questioned if Mr Adderley used his political leverage as a bargaining chip to secure a judicial post.   The NDP argued that his resignation from the House was proof that the constitution is "vulnerable to abuse."

"It is because our constitution was not designed to protect the citizenry from the abuse of power by the Prime Minister, that Mr Malcolm Adderley is today causing the public to question whether he used his elected office as a bargaining chip in this game of political poker that has been played between the FNM and the PLP since May of 2007," the NDP told the press in an impromptu press conference on the steps of the House of Assembly yesterday morning, after Mr Adderley resigned from Parliament.

This comes after speculation that Government wooed Mr Adderley away from the PLP with promises of a post within the Supreme Court in exchange for his seat.

The NDP said the country must institute constitutional safeguards to limit a prime minister's "absolute power", if the Bahamas plans to escape being categorised as a "Banana Republic."

tribune242

Cuba rejects inclusion on blacklist

AS WE GO TO PRESS…

WASHINGTON.—The Cuban Interests Section in this capital assured this January 5 that the island government is cooperating in the international fight against terrorism, and it condemned its inclusion on the list of states described by the U.S. administration as sponsors of terrorism, EFE reports.

Alberto González, spokesman for the Cuban mission in Washington, stated that Cuba "has complied with, is complying with and will comply with the internationally recognized security measures in these cases," and he noted that the Cuban people "do not recognize in any way the moral authority of the U.S. government to certify their inclusion on this kind of list."

González unequivocally stated that "Cuban territory has never been utilized to organize, finance or execute acts of terrorism against the United States or any other state," and suggested that this latest attack on the island is politically motivated.

On the contrary, he continued, Cuba has been the victim of violence and terrorism on the part of individuals such as Luis Posada Carriles, who remains at large in the United States and has not been brought to justice.

Translated by Granma International

January 6, 2010

granma.cu

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International