Opinion

Adult MAGA rage is making schools more dangerous for students

Amanda Marcotte

SALON
Mon, March 18, 2024 

Last week saw national headlines regarding two tragic stories that illustrate how MAGA radicalization of adults endangers kids in school. First, a medical examiner reported that Nex Benedict, the non-binary Oklahoma 10th-grader who passed away recently after enduring a beating in a school bathroom, apparently died by suicide. Then, James Crumbley, the father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for providing his disturbed son with a gun. The boy's mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted of the same crime in February.

What links these stories is that they are both case studies in how the hatreds and obsessions of MAGA adults are trickling down into the lives of children, and causing real harm and even death.

The Crumbleys faced such unusual charges because they gave their son access to guns mere days before the 2021 shooting, despite knowing he was articulating violent fantasies. One could guess right-wing politics were a factor, but there's no need to speculate. In 2016, Jennifer Crumbley wrote a gushing open letter praising Donald Trump as a man of "sincerity, and humility" who she trusted with "my son's future." She claimed children of immigrants get "free tutors, free tablets from our Government," while her son supposedly gets nothing.

Benedict died in the wake of a growing crescendo of right-wing hysterics demonizing LGBTQ students and teachers as "groomers" and accusing them of being a threat to other students. In Oklahoma, the far-right Republican state superintendent, Ryan Walters, has been especially aggressive on culture war issues, attacking LGBTQ people and calling for book bans. In an especially trollish move, Walters recently hired Chaya Raichik, who runs the infamous "Libs of TikTok" Twitter account, to be on the state's library committee. Raichick's only "experience" in education is targeting LGBTQ teachers and allies with her account, knowing bomb threats and harassment usually follow. Benedict was beaten up in a girls' bathroom, after being required by Oklahoma state law to use a restroom based on gender assigned at birth, not the one they live as.

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

Raichik, Walters, and other MAGA Republicans are scrambling to deny any link between Benedict getting beaten up in a bathroom and a suicide that literally happened the next day. Benedict's family disagrees, however, noting the "severity of the assault" as shown by the autopsy. President Joe Biden released a statement declaring, "no one should face the bullying that Nex did" and they "should still be here with us today." Walters, in response to the criticism, leveled baseless accusations implying LGBTQ people are pedophiles.

This doubling down on the MAGA vitriol that is linked to school violence is not unique to Walters, but swiftly becoming endemic to the Republican Party. That's evident in the growing popularity of Raichik as a conservative leader, even though she regularly proves she is incapable of coherent sentences when asked to explain what she believes. Even more determinative, from a pure numbers perspective, was the North Carolina primary this month. Republicans nominated far-right activist Michele Morrow for state superintendent, despite — or because of — her history of shockingly violent rhetoric. Unlike the current Republican incumbent, Catherine Truitt, Morrow has no experience in education. On the contrary, Morrow hates public schools, calling them "socialism centers" and "indoctrination centers" and homeschooling her kids instead. But, in a sign of how radical the GOP has become, this is the least incendiary aspect of Morrow's campaign. As CNN reported, Morrow has a long-standing habit of calling for the violent deaths of Democrats or anyone she perceives as "liberal."

In other comments on social media between 2019 and 2021 reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Morrow made disturbing suggestions about executing prominent Democrats for treason, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other prominent people such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates.

She wants Obama to be killed by "firing squad," and called for it to be aired on "Pay Per View." She also longed for Obama to be executed by electric chair. In response to President Joe Biden asking Americans to temporarily wear a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Morrow wrote, "KILL all TRAITORS!!!" She also called for the imprisonment of Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for refusing to help Donald Trump steal the 2020 election.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported, "School hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people have sharply risen in recent years, climbing fastest in states that have passed laws restricting LGBTQ student rights and education." Overall, the annual reported hate crimes doubled from what they were just a few years ago. In the "states with restrictive laws, the number of hate crimes on K-12 campuses has more than quadrupled" since Raichik and her Republican cronies in states like Florida and Oklahoma got to work.

In the wake of Benedict's death, we're hearing a lot of Republicans, even the most rabidly MAGA ones, claim they oppose violence in schools, even against queer kids. Actions like elevating Morrow, Raichik and Walters say otherwise. At this point, it's almost banal to point out that the Republicans who claim to be "protecting" kids do not actually care how many children are hurt — or killed — because of their cynical efforts to generate right-wing panics and culture wars. But it's crucial nonetheless to keep talking about this.

That the MAGA movement stokes violence hardly needs arguing, as evidenced by January 6. It was inevitable that some of that ugliness would trickle down from adults to kids. But, as the nomination of Morrow shows, it's even worse than that. For years now, through "don't say gay" laws and groups like Moms for Liberty, the MAGA movement has been actively trying to remake America's schools in their own image. Where MAGA goes, violence follows. Ignore the glib denials of Republican leaders about school violence. Judge them by what they do — and who they support going into the 2024 election.

GOP lawmakers blocking critical funding for Haiti multinational mission

 Haiti's National Penitentiary on fire, in Port-au-Prince

By Daphne Psaledakis and Patricia Zengerle

Fri, March 15, 2024 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers are refusing to release millions of dollars in funding that Washington views as critical to help tackle spiraling violence in Haiti, in another potential stumbling block for the international force.

Representatives Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on Senate Foreign Relations, have both put "holds" on $40 million requested by the U.S. State Department, warning the administration they need "a lot more details" before it gets more funding.

Congressional aides said the money being held could prevent deployment of the Kenyan police force to Haiti, unless another country stepped up to fill in the gap. The $40 million would cover costs essential to the mission.

The State Department is engaging with Congress on approval for the funds, a senior State Department official said.

"We think it's critical for deployment," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Gang violence has spiraled in Haiti, fueling a humanitarian crisis, cutting off food supplies and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes. Prime Minister Ariel Henry pledged on Monday to resign as soon as a transition council and temporary leader were chosen.

Countries have been slow to offer support and doubts have grown after Kenya - which had pledged to lead it - announced it was pausing the deployment after Henry announced he would resign.

Kenya's government pledged 1,000 officers to lead an international security force last July, but the initiative has been tied up in court challenges and Kenya has asked to be paid upfront.

US PLEDGE INCREASED TO $300 MILLION

The U.S. is the largest backer for the force, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced at talks on Monday in Jamaica that the U.S. was upping its pledge to $300 million.

"Given the long history of U.S. involvement in Haiti with few successful results, the administration owes Congress a lot more details in a more timely manner before it gets more funding," Risch and McCaul said in a joint statement.

The lawmakers said President Joe Biden's administration had only sent them a "rough plan" to address the crisis. They have concerns over whether Kenyan courts would allow the deployment and whether the force could get to Port-au-Prince.

The first State Department official said 68 briefings had been held with Congress on the situation in Haiti and the force, adding that $50 million in funds, including what is being held, would go toward equipment for the force, training, personnel kits and uniforms.

Of that, $10 million that has been released has already been obligated, including to reimburse Kenya for training, the official said.

The Department of Defense’s contribution of $200 million, which would support logistics, supplies and services to contributing countries, is already approved by Congress, a Pentagon spokesperson said.

A second senior State Department official said the U.S. has also been encouraging other nations to make contributions, but the challenge is "unprecedented global crises," including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Keith Mines, vice president for Latin America at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said he would be surprised if Kenya can send its police before receiving funds.

"I don't think they can go at all until the funding is there," Mines said.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Aaron Ross in Nairobi; Editing by Don Durfee and Lincoln Feast.)

Gangs unleash new attacks on upscale areas in Haiti's capital, with at least a dozen killed nearby

PIERRE-RICHARD LUXAMA and ODELYN JOSEPH
Mon, March 18, 2024 

Haiti Violence
The relative, below, of a person found dead in the street reacts after an overnight shooting in the Petion Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, March 18, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gangs attacked two upscale neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital early Monday in a rampage that left at least a dozen people dead in surrounding areas.

Gunmen looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police. The neighborhoods had remained largely peaceful despite a surge in violent gang attacks across Port-au-Prince that began on Feb. 29.

An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of at least 12 men strewn on the streets of Pétionville, located just below the mountainous communities of Laboule and Thomassin.


Crowds began gathering around the victims. One was lying face up on the street surrounded by a scattered deck of cards and another found face down inside a pick-up truck known as a “tap-tap” that operates as a taxi. A woman at one of the scenes collapsed and had to be held by others after learning that a relative of hers was killed.

“Abuse! This is abuse!” cried out one Haitian man who did not want to be identified as he raised his arms and stood near one of the victims. “People of Haiti! Wake up!” An ambulance arrived shortly afterward and made its way through Pétionville, collecting the victims.

“We woke up this morning to find bodies in the street in our community of Pétionville,” said Douce Titi, who works at the mayor's office. “Ours is not that kind of community. We will start working to remove those bodies before the children start walking by to go to school and the vendors start to arrive.”

It was too late for some, though. A relative of one of the victims hugged a young boy close to his chest, with his head turned away from the scene.

The most recent attacks raised concerns that gang violence would not cease despite Prime Minister Ariel Henry announcing nearly a week ago that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created, a move that gangs had been demanding.

Gangs have long opposed Henry, saying he was never elected by the people as they blame him for deepening poverty, but critics of gangs accuse them of trying to seize power for themselves or for unidentified Haitian politicians.

Also on Monday, Haiti’s power company announced that four substations in the capital and elsewhere “were destroyed and rendered completely dysfunctional.” As a result, swaths of Port-au-Prince were without power, including the Cite Soleil slum, the Croix-des-Bouquets community and a hospital.

The company said criminals also seized important documents, cables, inverters, batteries and other items.

As gang violence continues unabated, Caribbean leaders have been helping with the creation of a transitional council. It was originally supposed to have seven members with voting powers. But one political party in Haiti rejected the seat they were offered, and another is still squabbling over who should be nominated.

Meanwhile, the deployment of a U.N.-backed Kenyan police force to fight gangs in Haiti has been delayed, with the East African country saying it would wait until the transitional council is established.

In a bid to curb the relentless violence, Haiti's government announced Sunday that it was extending a nighttime curfew through March 20.

Bodies found in Haitian suburb as gang violence rages for third week
AFP
Mon, March 18, 2024 

Paramedics carry the body of a person killed by gang members in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Clarens SIFFROY)

Fourteen bodies were found in an affluent suburb of Haiti's capital Monday, as international efforts accelerated to fill a political vacuum created by weeks of gang violence that has forced the impending departure of the prime minister.

Local residents told AFP they did not know the circumstances of the deaths but said that the Laboule and Thomassin neighborhoods, in the suburb of Petion-Ville, had been under attack by what they said were armed criminals since dawn.

Witnesses said gang members attacked a bank, a gas station and homes in the area. Gunfire continued to ring out in Petion-Ville in the afternoon.

"They came wearing balaclavas in their cars, on motorcycles, with their own ambulance, then they massacred the population of Petion-Ville," said local resident Vincent Jean Robert.

"I was on my motorcycle when they arrived and started shooting," a motorcycle taxi driver named Cadet told AFP, while adding, "We don't know if it's bandits or the police who were behind this."

He suspected that the victims were those who had been out late at night, "searching for something to eat for their children."

Amid the violence Monday morning, a judge narrowly escaped an attack on his home, a relative told AFP.

Haiti has been engulfed for three weeks in a gang uprising by well-armed groups saying they want to topple Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Last week Henry agreed to step aside to allow the formation of an interim government, following pressure from neighboring Caribbean countries, including the CARICOM regional body, and the United States.

The situation remains dire even as Washington voiced hope Monday that a transitional body to lead the country, set up at a crisis meeting a week ago, could be ready "as soon as today" -- though as of that evening nothing had been announced.

"I understand that Haitian stakeholders are very close to finalizing membership and remain in active discussions with CARICOM leaders as it relates to the makeup of the Transitional Presidential Council," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington.

"The announcement of this council, we believe, will help pave the way for free and fair elections and the deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission," he said, referring to a UN-backed, Kenyan-led force that aims to bring stability to Haiti.

- 'Famine and malnutrition' -

The council, which will include seven voting and two observer members representing a broad spectrum in Haiti and its diaspora, will be in charge of naming an interim government before elections, which have not been held since 2016.

Ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Haiti Monday, deputy US ambassador Robert Wood had told journalists that a decision on the make-up of the transitional council was "close."

After the closed-door session, Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith noted that talks "are progressing well," though she added "it's a difficult process."

The Security Council meeting came as the United Nations announced that the first helicopter flights had begun in an air bridge set up between Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic to deliver aid.

UNICEF, the United Nations' children's agency, offered a bleak assessment of the situation in the country over the weekend, saying Sunday it was "almost like a scene out of 'Mad Max,'" and warning people were suffering "famine and malnutrition" with aid groups unable to gain access.

That same day, a curfew was extended until Wednesday in the Ouest department, which includes Port-au-Prince. A state of emergency is set to end April 3.

Several countries including the US and European Union member states have evacuated diplomatic personnel from Haiti due to the crisis.

Meanwhile, efforts are continuing to organize Nairobi's security mission to back up Haiti's overwhelmed police force.

Ten killed in Port-au-Prince suburb as tensions rise in Haiti

Reuters
Updated Mon, March 18, 2024 



People react at a crime scene, in Port-au-Prince

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -At least ten people were killed in a wealthy suburb of Haiti's capital on Monday, there were reports of looting, and thefts of electricity equipment cut the power supply as lawlessness spread to affluent areas and gangs tightened their grip on the city.

A Reuters witness saw at least ten dead bodies, at least some of which had bulletholes, on Monday morning in the streets of upscale Petion-Ville on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, which were later removed by ambulance. Authorities have not commented on the events surrounding the deaths.

Haitians also reported gunfire and looting on Monday morning in the nearby area of Laboule. Later, the streets around Petion-Ville were practically deserted.

Meanwhile, the EDH electricity service said several stations had been attacked and that cables, batteries and documents were stolen.

Armed gangs who have been increasing their power in recent years took advantage of the absence earlier this month of Prime Minister Ariel Henry to escalate violence, attacking infrastructure including police stations and government offices.

Under international pressure and stranded in Puerto Rico, the unelected Henry announced his resignation pending the appointment of a council and temporary replacement a week ago, but the transition council has yet to be appointed amid disagreements by some of the groups putting forward representatives.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the council's membership could be finalized "very soon," and that an update could come later on Monday.

Local media reported Haiti's Catholic Church would not participate in the council, as had been previously expected, in order to maintain a "moral distance," although it was quoted as saying that it hoped all sectors would seek a resolution to the crisis.

The church's episcopal council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Leaders of the armed groups who have long sought to oust Henry have warned of a "battle" for Haiti and threatened politicians who join the transition council. Residents are facing worsening shortages of food and medical care as shipping firms have changed routes.

Over the weekend, U.N. children's agency UNICEF said one of its containers of "essential items" for maternal, neo-natal and childcare was stolen from Haiti's main port.

The international presence in Haiti has declined as the insecurity has risen.

The United Nations and U.S. and Canadian embassies have withdrawn staff this month.

Over the weekend, the Dominican Republic - which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti - evacuated dozens of its citizens by helicopter, while the Philippines' PNA state news agency said it would repatriate at least 63 of 115 nationals and was looking for options such as chartering a flight. Commercial flights have been suspended.

Around 17,000 people left the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area last week, according to U.N. estimates. Many of those had already been displaced.

Neighboring countries have been bolstering their borders. Plans for an international intervention, which Haiti's government requested in 2022 and was ratified by the U.N. nearly six months ago, remain on hold.

(Reporting by Ralph Tedy Erol and Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince and Sarah Morland in Mexico City; Writing by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Rosalba O'Brien)

Vigilantes battle gangs in Port-au-Prince as Haiti’s elites vie for power

Caitlin Stephen Hu, David Culver and Evelio Contreras, CNN
Mon, March 18, 2024 at 7:18 PM MDT·8 min read

The wide road that passes in front of Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport has a post-apocalyptic stillness these days. Where cars and crowds of people once massed, only tendrils of smoke rise from smoldering piles of trash, sending a bitter taste into the air.

An armored police vehicle hulks nearby; the few police officers on watch cover their faces with balaclavas. This street looks nearly abandoned, as if in the wake of a disaster – an experience that people in Port-au-Prince know better than most. But leaving the city isn’t an option this time; the airport, under siege by gangs, has been forced to close.

Since the start of the month, criminal groups have been attacking with unprecedented coordination the last remnants of the Haitian state – the airport, police stations, government buildings, the National Penitentiary. The culmination of years of growing gang control and popular unrest, their joint assault forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign last week, a stunning capitulation that has nevertheless proven futile in restoring calm.

Port-au-Prince’s gangs are still choking off the supply of food, fuel and water across the city. Perhaps the last functional part of the state, Haiti’s National Police, continue to fight, battling to reclaim ground block by block across the city. But the very life of the city they are fighting for seems to be waning, as intensive urban warfare grinds down on basic human ties.

The social fabric is fraying as businesses and schools stay shuttered. Many residents self-isolate, afraid to leave their homes. Some have turned to vigilantism. Fear, mistrust, and anger reign. Death is on everyone’s mind.
Vigilante justice, approved by the police

In the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Canapé Vert on Monday, crowds seized a man they accused of belonging to a nearby gang – forcing him to walk down the road toward a cemetery before killing him and setting his body on fire in the street, sources in the community told CNN.

Videos seen by CNN showed remains smoking on the pavement in front of a shuttered supermarket, adding to a stretch of thick black soot. At this corner, the indelible mark of extrajudicial executions is all that remains of hundreds of suspected criminals killed by residents, their bodies disposed of by flame according to a local security source.

Gangs have long haunted the residents of Port-au-Prince, but their reach has dramatically expanded over recent years, covering 80% of the city today, according to UN estimates. Seeing their city shrinking, many Haitians in this region and beyond have organized among themselves in a vigilante movement known as bwa kale.

The anti-gang movement has seen communities form neighborhood defense committees with shared fortifications, surveillance systems, checkpoints and even patrols.

Their solidarity is effective; in 2023, for example, several areas of the city’s hilly residential areas joined forces with local police to push back the Ti Makak gang, ultimately expelling it from the area entirely, according local sources and a February 2024 report by the Swiss-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

But the line between defense and mob justice is easily crossed. Vigilante groups have also lynched hundreds of people suspected of gang membership or “common crimes,” according to an October 2023 United Nations report.

Speaking to CNN in a car-filled lot next to a church, whose open doors revealed a wedding in progress, one militia member told CNN that his group had repelled repeated gang attempts to seize Canapé Vert.

“This is the way the gangs operate: they take over areas with big businesses and force them to pay them while they remain in control,” he said, noting that the area contains several high-profile businesses, including two national cellular companies and a major hotel. He spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity out of concerns for his safety.

“We constantly receive threats; they say they will come and attack us, destroy the neighborhood. So we block the streets and the police to do the searches; no civilians are involved in searching cars,” he added. The militia is armed only with “machetes and our bare hands,” he said.

People apprehended by these vigilante groups are often accused of being spies for the gangs, according to a local security source.

“The bandits send the spy on a motorcycle to come see if there’s a barricade in the road, and how many people are manning it. But if someone comes looking suspicious, they’ll question him, find out who he is, check his telephone. If he has messages with bandits, they have to take him,” the source said. “Then they burn them.”

“It’s not a war,” he emphasizes. “The neighborhood is trying to protect itself.” But he recognizes that there’s no judicial process for those.

Local police meanwhile tell CNN that they know the militia well and even rely on them, with one commander crediting the group with saving the Canapé Vert police station from a particularly intense gang attack last spring. Over a dozen suspected gang members in that instance were killed and burned outside the police station, according to the commander, who requested anonymity for his security.
Refugees in their own city

Just five minutes away by car, another community is trying desperately to hold together in even more trying conditions: a displacement camp – one of dozens of sites across the city where tens of thousands of city residents congregate, after being forced from their homes by violence and arson.

Marie Maurice, 56, had seen the gang take territory closer and closer; on February 29, when the warning came of an imminent gang attack, she didn’t waste any time. She left all her belongings behind and fled with the others nearly an hour on foot to the public Argentine Bellegarde school for shelter, she said.

Nearly three weeks weeks later, children here fly kites made of discarded foil and plastic, drive homemade toy cars cut from empty soda cans, with bottle caps for wheels and stones for passengers.

The adults also make a show of normalcy, but with a sense of futility; they’ve elected a leader to liaise with local police and to advocate for aid organizations to bring food and water, for example, but little aid has actually come due to roadblocks across the city.

Maurice tries to keep her family’s little corner of the crowded space clean, washing the floor with water that she has to walk 20 minutes to purchase. But no one in her family has enough to eat or even space to cook, living off a shared bite or piece of street food each day. Even a mint might count as a meal, she told CNN.

On the day we met her, she hadn’t eaten at all.

Beyond the difficulty of daily survival, several residents of the camp say they know they’ve worn out their welcome and that relations are worsening with their neighbors. There have been clashes with locals anxious for them to move on, fearing that the influx of outsiders could attract gang attention.

Anticipating the effects of dwindling resources and worsening violence, the International Organization for Migration has repeatedly warned of a sharpening “climate of mistrust” in Haiti that would fray traditional social safety nets, leaving people with nowhere to go.

“High levels of insecurity are creating a climate of mistrust between certain host communities and displaced populations, thus deteriorating social cohesion,” the organization said in an August 2023 report, which also noted that more and more displaced Haitians are ending up in such camps rather than relying on friends and family.

The little school where Maurice lives is already far past capacity. But every day, more people join them from other parts of the city, further straining what few resources the site provides – the building’s septic tank is full and the toilets backed up, one resident showed CNN. Its water cistern is nearly dry.

Today, 1,575 people are now living packed into the grid of open-air classrooms – just a handful compared to the over 360,000 who have been displaced across the country according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Divided by fear

Port-au-Prince has been terrorized for years by frequent kidnappings, torture, and rape by the gangs. But today, as Haiti’s elite haggles over the composition of a presidential transitional council – and the international community remains unwilling to intervene – talk of a political solution sounds more than ever like wishful thinking as long as gunshots ring out in the evenings, puncturing the city’s hush.

The proliferation of police, gang and civilian checkpoints meanwhile is fracturing Haiti’s capital into wary and anxious fiefdoms. Increasingly, the only thing that everyone shares is trauma.

Marie-Suze Saint Charles, 47, says her own sons are too terrified of the constant violence to even visit her in the hospital, where she is recovering from a shooting on March 1 that shattered her leg, after being attacked on her way back from work.

One son, 17, was also shot and is in a different hospital. Her other sons – eight and thirteen years old – refuse to leave the house. She is not sure who, if anyone, is feeding them.

“They are scared of the street,” she told CNN from her hospital bed. “They don’t even want to come see me. They are too scared to go outside.”

CNN.com

Nearly 1,000 Americans in Haiti plea for help, State Dept. says, as gangs unleash new attacks
Greg Norman
Mon, March 18, 2024 



The State Department revealed Monday that nearly 1,000 Americans have filled out a "crisis intake form" seeking assistance in Haiti – a country it is now calling "one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world."

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel made the remark hours after dozens of Americans landed in Miami on a U.S. government-chartered evacuation flight from Haiti, where reports are emerging of gangs killing at least 12 people early this morning in a suburb of Port-au-Prince following the looting of homes in two upscale neighborhoods in the Caribbean country’s capital.

"It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world," Patel said. "Gang violence continues to make the security situation in Haiti untenable, and it is a region that demands our attention."

"This is a fluid situation and the number of individuals who have reached out to us through the crisis intake form is approaching a thousand," he added, referring to the form on the State Department’s website.

STATE DEPARTMENT CONFIRMS MORE THAN 30 AMERICANS EVACUATED FROM HAITI ON US-GOVERNMENT CHARTERED FLIGHT

Police officers take part in an operation on the surroundings of the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 14.

"And we're continuing to monitor the situation closely and evaluate the demand of U.S. citizens, evaluate the overall security situation, evaluate what is feasible when it comes to commercial transportation options, what is feasible for other transportation solutions," Patel also said, emphasizing that "we have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.

The State Department previously has said it is aware of several hundred U.S. citizens being stuck in Haiti.

Patel said people fill out the form requesting assistance for "a variety of reasons."

"Many, we assume, are in a circumstance where they are ready to fully depart the country.... Others may be more interested in just getting status updates, getting information on what avenues might be available to them," he continued. "It is hard to paint this entire population with a single stroke."

People react after a dozen people were killed in the street by gang members, in Pétionville, Haiti, on Monday, March 18.

In Port-au-Prince this morning, gunmen looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police, according to the Associated Press.

The news agency reported that one of their photographers saw the bodies of at least 12 men strewn on the streets of nearby Pétionville, which later were collected by an ambulance.

"Abuse! This is abuse!" one Haitian man reportedly cried out as he raised his arms and stood near one of the victims. "People of Haiti! Wake up!"

"We woke up this morning to find bodies in the street in our community of Pétionville," Douce Titi, who works at the mayor's office, also told the AP.

Orlando, Florida, resident Abson Louis, 46, pauses in search of friends after arriving on the first evacuation flight out of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, that landed at Miami International Airport on Sunday, March 17, 2024.

The most recent attacks have raised concerns that gang violence will not cease despite Prime Minister Ariel Henry announcing nearly a week ago that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created, a move that gangs had been demanding.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Evacuation flights to US begin as Haiti deteriorates

Bernd Debusmann Jr - BBC News, Washington
Mon, March 18, 2024 

Dozens of US citizens fled the chaos and violence of Haiti this weekend, arriving on a government-chartered plane in Miami on Sunday.

The flight came a week after Washington airlifted non-essential staff from the capital, Port-au-Prince, parts of which have been overrun by gangs.

As gunfire and threats of starvation rock Haiti, the State Department is working to help other Americans leave,

Aid groups have warned that millions of Haitians face acute food shortages.

The first flight, which took off from the city of Cap Haitien on the island's north coast, touched down in Miami with 47 people aboard, according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

Earlier this month, the US had warned its citizens to leave Haiti "as soon as possible" as the violence escalated.

Passenger, Abson Louis, told CBS that he was in Haiti on business when the airport closed.

"We felt like we had no no one fighting on our behalf, but finally got an email saying we got a flight," he said. "I'm feeling great."

Running the gauntlet to flee Haiti gang territory

Haiti violence: 'We're living with death on a daily basis'

Boston resident Avlot Quessa had "mixed emotions" getting off the plane, telling CBS: "It's good to be back here, but I also need to think about the people back home".

Passengers were asked to sign promissory notes that they would pay for the flight at a later date. It is unclear when the next flight will take place.

While the airport in Cap-Haitien has opened periodically, the State Department has warned US citizens that the 120 mile (193km) trip from Port-au-Prince is "dangerous" and that it cannot provide transportation.

The US is examining other options for departures from the capital, according to CBS, and US citizens still in the country who wish to be evacuated have been urged to contact the State Department.

In Florida, home to a large Haitian community, Haitians told local media they wished the US would do more to help and they wanted US lawmakers to take action.

"The more that we can put light on this the sooner that we can see stability come back to the region," Jean Perpillant Jr, the president of the Orlando-based Greater Haitian American Chamber of Commerce told local news outlet WESH.

In an interview with CBS, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell compared the situation in Haiti to the film Mad Max, which depicts a chaotic post-apocalyptic future.

"Many, many people there are suffering from serious hunger and malnutrition and we're not able to get enough aid to them," she said. "Somehow, we need to get more control over that situation so that we can get the humanitarian response in."

Inspired by a dream, this photograph became a symbol for a transformative protest movement

Rosa Rahimi, CNN
Fri, March 15, 2024 at 2:30 AM MDT·6 min read

Editor’s Note: In Snap, we look at the power of a single photograph, chronicling stories about how both modern and historical images have been made.

Nine years ago, Sethembile Msezane stepped on top of a plinth, wearing a black body suit and stiletto heels, her arms adorned with wings she fashioned out of wood, velvet, and hair. Behind her, a statue of a man can be seen being lifted in the air. “Chapungu — The Day Rhodes Fell” has since become an iconic photograph, capturing the spirit of the #RhodesMustFall movement which led to the removal of 19th century colonist Cecil Rhodes’ statue at the University of Cape Town.

Msezane was a studying for a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at the university during the protests, which saw students call for the Briton’s statue to come down, citing his legacy as being tainted with racism.


“There is no way I could have conceptualized that moment and the way things unfolded on that day,” said Msezane, speaking to CNN from Cape Town. Her performance, and the resulting image — which has come to serve as a symbol for the historic day — was born from a recurring dream that haunted her around the time the protest movement began.

Artist Sethembile Msezane on a plinth in front of the statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes. Its removal was the culmination of a month of protests by students. - Charlie Shoemaker/Getty Images

The dreams centred around “Chapungu,” a sacred Zimbabwean bateleur eagle who Msezane embodied atop the plinth with her wings.

Eight of the birds — which hold great spiritual value for the people of Zimbabwe — were immortalised in green-gray soapstone in the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe. As the site fell into disrepair, six were subsequently looted, and in the 1800s, one statue of Chapungu was given to Cecil Rhodes. While several have now been returned, to this day, it remains at Rhodes’ former home at the Groote Shuur estate in Cape Town, Msezane explained.

“There have been political calls for her to return home, but for some reason, these calls have been denied,” she said. “There is a mythological belief that until she is returned home, there will be social unrest in Zimbabwe.”

Msezane says that Chapungu, who is a totem of people’s hopes and aspirations in Zimbabwean society, was in collaboration with her consciousness on the day Rhodes fell. “She used my body as a vessel, and I accepted the call.”

Even after the sculpture of Rhodes had fallen, Msezane stayed atop her plinth for another 20-30 minutes. “It was important for (Chapungu) to be present so that she could be seen, so that we can begin to see ourselves in her — and not in our history of subjugation and dispossession. That we too have histories of abundance and ancestral knowledge.”

The image is currently on display in London as part of the South London Gallery and V&A Parasol Foundation’s exhibition “Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest” which takes a journey through female-led resistance around the world, from the perils of illegal abortion in Chile, Poland, and the United States, to women-led protests in Iran and Bangladesh.
“Would I be pushed over?”

Creating the work took its toll. The Chapungu piece — which involved Msezane standing on the plinth in high heels on a hot day for nearly four hours — was “pretty strenuous,” she said. She would hold the wings strapped to her arms aloft for two minutes before having to rest for 10, then start again.

She was also afraid at the beginning. “When you make a work like that, you’re quite vulnerable,” she explained.

The statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes was removed from South Africa's Cape Town University on April 9, 2015. - Schalk van Zuydam/AP

“I was scared because what if the police come and take me away, while this very important historical occasion is happening? What would happen to me, having been taken away wearing a leotard and some stilettos? Would I be pushed over? Could I potentially hurt myself or die?”

Afterwards, she was shaking. Her limbs were tired, her feet painful and her vision blurred. “All I wanted were my clothes,” she says, of stepping off the plinth. “I just wanted to go home and take a bath.”

When the Chapungu work garnered so much international attention, Msezane continued on with her life and didn’t think much about it.

“I was still within the tension of what was happening,” she said, referencing the Rhodes movement and what would lead to the Fees Must Fall campaign. While her work was receiving acclaim, she was being targeted for her involvement with the movement.

“My work was being cited everywhere and it meant very little to me to be honest, when that was the reality I was living… the system still finds ways to oppress you, even though a work like that can give you a voice.”

Sometimes, she fears that the meaning of the piece is lost — with the focus being on Rhodes and not the symbol of Chapungu, who has “become a beacon of hope for many.”

For Msezane, the work has inspired her to think about how else we can help women around the world. She no longer performs “endurance works” like Chapungu, citing how taxing, dangerous, and emotional such they can be. Instead, she uses her art as a tool for change in other ways — such as by donating profits from the sales of her work to fund charitable endeavors (she has previously supported the Panzi Hospital in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which provides health care for over 80,000 women and girls who are survivors of conflict-related sexual violence).
Art was a calling

From a young age, Msezane was a creative at heart — expressing herself through poems, drawings, and dress, but she did not expect to become an artist.

Sethembile Msezane has performed other performance pieces like this titled "So Long a Letter," at the African Renaissance Monument in Senegal in 2016. - Sethembile Msezane

“I didn’t think that being an artist would be viable for me,” she explained. With encouragement from her aunt, she set off to study fine arts at the University of Cape Town — an experience which she describes as “very frustrating,” due to the curriculum’s Eurocentrism.

“I kept fumbling over concepts of Africans not being producers of their own work but being faceless and nameless.”

While observing Cape Town’s landscape and architecture, Msezane became inspired to think about what the city had to say about black women’s histories. “I found it to be quite barren of our stories,” Msezane told CNN.

This observation marked the start of her Public Holidays performance art series, when Msezane would use the day off from her job as an arts administrator to stage performances in the city.

“It became a task for me to re-insert some of the histories I was thinking about on political public holidays, in relation to colonial, male, European statues,” she said. She performed as Lady Liberty on Freedom Day, Rosie the Riveter on Worker’s Day. Not long after, Msezane left her day job and started practicing full-time as an artist. “It’s kind of how life panned out… it was a calling.”

Now, suspended from a ceiling in a south London gallery, Msezane’s image greets visitors and commands their immediate attention. “I want for them to walk in with a sense of wonder and to let that wonder take over their senses,” she said. “When they view the image, let them go where they need to.”

The U$ Supreme Court upholds mandatory prison terms for some low-level drug dealers

MARK SHERMAN
Fri, March 15, 2024 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that thousands of low-level drug dealers are ineligible for shortened prison terms under a Trump-era bipartisan criminal justice overhaul.

The justices took the case of Mark Pulsifer, an Iowa man who was convicted of distributing at least 50 grams of methamphetamine, to settle a dispute among federal courts over the meaning of the word “and” in a muddy provision of the 2018 First Step Act.

The law's so-called safety valve provision is meant to spare low-level, nonviolent drug dealers who agree to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors from having to face often longer mandatory sentences.

Some courts had concluded the use of the word indeed means “and,” but others decided that it means “or.” A defendant's eligibility for a shorter sentence depended on the outcome.

“Today, we agree with the Government's view of the criminal-history provision,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority in the 6-3 decision that did not split the justices along liberal-conservative lines.

In dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch referred to the First Step Act as possibly “the most significant criminal-justice reform bill in a generation.” But under the court's decision, “thousands more people in the federal criminal justice system will be denied a chance—just a chance at” a reduced sentence, Gorsuch wrote, joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor.

Nearly 6,000 people convicted of drug trafficking in the 2021 budget year alone are in the pool of those who might have been eligible for reduced sentences, according to data compiled by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

The provision lists three criteria for allowing judges to forgo a mandatory minimum sentence that basically looks to the severity of prior crimes. Congress wrote the section in the negative so that a judge can exercise discretion in sentencing if a defendant “does not have” three sorts of criminal history.

Before reaching their decision, the justices puzzled over how to determine eligibility for the safety valve — whether any of the conditions is enough to disqualify someone or whether it takes all three to be ineligible.

Pulsifer's lawyers argued that all three conditions must apply before the longer sentence can be imposed. The government said just one condition is enough to merit the mandatory minimum.

Kagan wrote that the language “creates an eligibility checklist, and demands that a defendant satisfy every one of its conditions.”

Two of the three conditions applied to Pulsifer. The trial court and the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled he was eligible for a mandatory sentence of at least 15 years. He actually received a 13 1/2-year sentence for unrelated reasons.

Now 61, Pulsifer is not scheduled to be released from prison until 2031, according to federal Bureau of Prison records.

Congress could still change the law if it thinks the court was wrong.

The case is Pulsifer v. U.S., 22-340.

Ten years since its illegal annexation, Crimea is a template for newly occupied parts of Ukraine

Vasco Cotovio, Clare Sebastian and Yulia Kesaieva, CNN

Sun, March 17, 2024 

A petite woman calmly exits her home, escorted by a group of large men in green fatigues, dwarfed by their sheer size and number. They look fierce: green balaclavas cover most of their face, hiding their identity, but their Russian flag patches reveal their allegiance.

The woman is Lutfiye Zudiyeva, a Crimean Tatar, and she shared video of the moment on her social media accounts.

“They came to my house to carry out a search,” she said in an interview from the occupied Ukrainian peninsula, looking as resolute as she did in the video. “I had been preparing for it for years.”

Her composure and foresight come from experience - this was her third arrest since 2019. On this occasion, she was held for an hour and accused of “abuse of mass media freedom,” she said, over posts she made on social media.

“When you cover politically motivated criminal cases or when you write about torture, you can’t help but get on the radar of the special services or the police,” she explained.

Zudiyeva is a human rights activist and also one of the many Ukrainians who have suffered under Russia’s now decade-long illegal occupation of Crimea, a period marked by the imposition of Moscow’s laws and institutions, the oppression and repression of any opposition, as well as serious human rights violations, according to the United Nations.

“There are arrests, searches, torture and repression,” Zudiyeva said. “As soon as you try to publicly express your disagreement… or you somehow get involved, you become a target. It’s inevitable.”

Arrests like hers, as well as large mass raids, especially, but not exclusively, in areas predominantly inhabited by Crimean Tatar communities, have been common since 2014.

The Tatars, a Muslim minority of Turkic origin, are widely considered to be Crimea’s indigenous population. They were also persecuted while the peninsula, and Ukraine, were part of the Soviet Union, with long-time dictator Joseph Stalin forcibly deporting them from Crimea in 1944.

It was only in the late 1980s and then into the 1990s, as Ukraine achieved independence, that Crimean Tatars were allowed to return. Tatars were among those who opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and rights groups noted Russian authorities’ persecution of the minority group in the aftermath.

But what was already common has become more frequent and more invasive since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“The situation is only getting worse,” said human rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, himself a Crimean Tatar. “The cases of kidnapping, detention of people without trial in prisons, have increased, especially after 2022.”

Crimean Tatar women rallying against the war between Russia and Ukraine on the road between Simferopol and Sevastopol in Crimea, Ukraine, on March 8, 2014. - Daniel van Moll/NurPhoto/Corbis/Getty Images

Kurbedinov has lived in Crimea since 2008 and says he has also faced harassment by Russian authorities since 2014. He has been arrested on several occasions, most recently, in February, for the same alleged offense as Zudiyeva – who’s one of his clients.

He said Russian authorities act under the guise of the “fighting terrorism,” frequently claiming Ukraine is directing and controlling networks of dissent inside the peninsula. He believes it is just pure opportunism.

“They get people when it suits them and they add charges that would make clear to society that these are terrorists,” he explained. “Under the auspices of the fight against terrorism, they can arrest at one time a religious figure, a civic journalist, people who discussed something disloyal to the authorities, some other discontented people.”
‘Little green men’

Russia’s occupation of Crimea began in 2014, shortly after the events of the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine. Confusion and concern riled up pro-Russia sentiment in the region - which had been a part of the Russian republic within the Soviet Union until 1954, housed its Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol and already leaned more towards Moscow than other parts of Ukraine – leading to protests and clashes.

While politicians in Kyiv were trying to hold the country together following then President Viktor Yanukovich’s sudden departure on February 22, following months of political uncertainty and protests, Moscow set its sights on Crimea.

Russian soldiers in uniform without identifying insignia — at the time referred to as “little green men” — started popping up outside government buildings and military bases, though Moscow denied any involvement.

Amid the confusion, many Ukrainian troops simply barricaded themselves in their bases, as the green men lined the perimeter. Russian helicopters were spotted entering Ukrainian airspace. Two top commanders of Ukraine’s navy defected.

Pro-Russian supporters take part in a rally in Sevastopol, Crimea, on March 15, 2014. Displayed in the background are Russia's presidential flags. - Baz Ratner/Reuters

While there were some pro-Russia pockets in cities like Sevastopol who favored annexation by Moscow, that sentiment was generally not considered to be widespread. A slim majority in Crimea also voted in favor of Ukraine’s independence in a 1991 referendum. In the 2010 regional elections, the party of then-leader Yanukovich – who never argued for Russian annexation of Crimea or any part of Ukraine – won with nearly 50% of the vote. Research also indicates that before 2014, most residents believed annexation by Moscow was either illegal or pointless.

Weeks after the appearance of the little green men, a sham referendum, illegal under international law and unrecognized by a large majority of the international community, showed 95.5% of people in the peninsula wanted to secede from Ukraine and to join Russia.

“We are going home. Crimea is in Russia,” Russian-installed Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov told crowds gathered in Simferopol, while votes were still being counted. A decade later he is still in charge, as the head of the so-called Russian Republic of Crimea.

The replacement of Ukrainian institutions and repression of dissent started quickly after the vote.

Heavily-armed soldiers without identifying insignia guard the Crimean parliament building shortly after taking up positions there on March 1, 2014 in Simferopol, Ukraine. - Sean Gallup/Getty Images

“From the first months we faced a huge number of human rights violations. There were hundreds of administrative cases, kidnappings, and so on and so forth,” Kurbedinov said. “We realized that we were in a completely different reality.”

That new reality is one Russia is trying to make permanent and irreversible, according to the UN.

“We have seen a systematic effort essentially to erase Ukrainian identity to erase and suppress all things Ukrainian. It also involves suppression of Tatar national identity,” said Krzysztof Janowski, from the UN’s Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. “We know, for example, of at least 100 forced disappearances among people who oppose the new regime and oppose the occupation,” he added.

The UN says Moscow expropriated at least 730 plots of land belonging to Ukrainian and Tatar citizens, which it then gave to Russian servicemen, or ex-servicemen involved in the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine. It has also made it almost impossible to live in Crimea without a Russian passport.

“Without a Russian passport, you cannot have any access to any of the social services: healthcare, pensions, and so on. So, people are often presented with an offer they cannot refuse,” Janowski said. “They cannot get access, they cannot essentially survive. Accepting a Russian passport is a way of surviving this horrible situation.”

People walk in front of a poster showing Russian President Vladimir Putin and reading "The West doesn't need Russia. We need Russia!" in Simferopol, Crimea, on March 5, 2024

. - AFP/Getty Images

The major concern now is that Crimea is a template for the other four Ukrainian regions now fully or partially occupied by Russia.

A spokesperson for Russia’s interior ministry, Irina Volk, has claimed 90% of residents of those four regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – now have Russian passports. Less than a week after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the eastern town of Avdiivka, the first residents there had applied for Russian passports, Volk said.
Propaganda effort

When it comes to Crimea, Russia has tried to hide its oppression under a veil of public investment, and patriotism.

Ahead of the 10-year-anniversary of the annexation, billboards and posters have popped up all over the peninsula celebrating how Moscow’s investment has made life there better. Some show Crimea covered in the Russian flag, others feature Russian President Vladimir Putin and read: “The West doesn’t need Russia. We need Russia.”

That narrative is not a novelty, as Russian state broadcasters and local pro-Russian media reports often highlight the construction of new roads and other public infrastructure, like sports centers and even mosques in some cases.

The Kerch Bridge, connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland and inaugurated in 2018, is a major source of pride for Moscow and the focus of a large part of its propaganda. Its significance from a symbolic and strategic standpoint also explains why Ukraine has targeted it several times during the war.

“This is how we live,” says Kurbedinov. “Today you drive along nice roads, arrive home, tomorrow you simply disappear.”

A woman poses for pictures with an artwork featuring the map of Crimea in the colours of the Russian flag, days before the 10th anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea, in Simferopol, March 13, 2024. - AFP/Getty Images

Zudiyeva, like others in her community, didn’t set out to be a human rights activist. She wanted to work in education and even opened a children’s center before Moscow took over the peninsula.

But then came the Russian soldiers, along with the Kremlin’s surveillance and oppression.

“We began to read news about people going missing, we began to read news about some of them being tortured,” she said. “I realized that I would not be able to abstract from this and live my life as if nothing was happening.”

For a while, she combined her children’s center with her newfound activism, but Moscow came knocking at her door.

“It was difficult to explain to the parents, who brought and trusted us with their children, why their teacher was being harassed and the children’s center was being searched,” she said.

She closed the center down and focused on her activism; in 2020, she became a journalist as well.

“I dream of writing a text (that will change the course of events) or hope that my work will bring such results that would stop the repressions in Crimea,” she said. “I do it consciously, and I think I overcame my fear back in 2014.”