In the spotlight: MSF forced to permanently leave the Martissant district in Port-au-Prince
MSF vehicles at Martissant hospital on May 31, 2021. Valerie Baeriswyl AFP
Text by: Stefanie Schüler Follow
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In a press release, published this Monday morning, Doctors Without Borders announces that it has permanently left the Martissan district, which has been in the grip of clashes between rival armed gangs for several weeks. "
Unable to have a guarantee of safety for its staff and its patients and wanting to draw attention to the unbearable situation in Martissant, (...) the humanitarian medical organization is forced to put the keys under the door
", perhaps we read there.
In an interview, granted this Monday to RFI, the head of mission of MSF in Haiti, Alexandra Giudiceandrea, recalls that since the beginning of June, “
hundreds, even thousands of inhabitants of the district
(of Martissant, editor's note)
had to flee fighting between armed gangs
.
MSF had to suspend its activities in Martissant at the end of June. We intended to return there in order to continue providing our health care services to the population. But unfortunately this is still not
possible ”.
In 15 years of activity, the MSF emergency center in Martissant had become an essential pillar for access to healthcare for the population. Last year alone, MSF admitted 33,100 people to the emergency room. Alexandra Giudiceandrea explains that a large part of the equipment at the MSF emergency center in Martissant could be recovered. On the other hand, the NGO “did
not have time to remove neither its logo nor the other signs and inscriptions of identification of its care center
”.
“
We have just published the
press
release to warn the population
, alert Alexandra Giudiceandrea.
No MSF staff are present in the structure.
We cannot guarantee what is going on inside
”.
The MSF head of mission in Haiti nevertheless assures us that the organization is in negotiations with the Haitian Ministry of Health, in order to be able to reopen its emergency center in another place "
more secure, where we would be less exposed
" in Port. -au-Prince knowing that “
zero risk does not exist.
But we want to remain at the service of the Haitian people
”.
A former Haitian government commissioner who died this Saturday in the Dominican Republic
"
Master Claudy Gassant was found dead in his residence in Arroyo Hondo, an area of Santo Domingo, where he had been living for some time,
" reports
Le Nouvelliste
. According to his wife, he would have been infected with Covid-19. Weakened, he would have committed suicide. A death "
qualified as suspicious
", notes the
Miami Herald
. The American newspaper points out that Claudy Gassant had announced his participation, this same Saturday in Florida, "
in a conference on growing insecurity in Haiti
".
Claudy Gassant was a renowned lawyer in Haiti. He first became known as an examining magistrate in charge of the investigation into the assassination of the famous Haitian journalist Jean Léopold Dominique on April 3, 2000. A job that had earned Claudy Gassant threats of dead, recalls the
Miami Herald
. "
After spending several years in South Florida, Claudy Gassant returned to Haiti where former President René Préval had appointed him to the post of prosecutor and charged with fighting corruption. In recent years, the lawyer had been at the head of the anti-corruption unit under Jovenel Moïse. The former president, assassinated on July 7, appointed Claudy Gassant on November 29, 2019 to dismiss him 50 days later. Claudy Gassant then learned of his dismissal on social networks with the appointment of his replacement, Rockefeller Vincent, who is now the current Minister of Justice of Haiti
”. And the
Miami Herald
concludes: “
This same anti-corruption unit also employed Joseph Felix Badio.
He is now wanted by the Haitian police to be questioned in the investigation into the murder of President Moïse
”.
In the Dominican Republic, the police opened an investigation after the death of Claudy Gassant.
Four people were arrested.
Among them, the wife of the former Haitian prosecutor and a guardian of the couple's house, reports
Diario Libre
.
"
We do not rule out any hypothesis,
" said the spokesperson for the police who said she was waiting for the results of the autopsy.
Flop for the referendum in Mexico
Flop for the referendum called Sunday in Mexico by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on whether to investigate and prosecute his predecessors for alleged corruption. Less than 8% of some 94 million Mexican voters took part in this referendum. However, it would have taken at least 40% turnout for the ballot to be translated into law. "
The referendum failed
", headlines the
Reforma
newspaper
. "
And this despite the immense communication apparatus deployed by the AMLO government
", adds the daily
Millenio
: "
hundreds of polls, massive referendum campaign on TV and radio, in print media, on billboards across the country. In all, the ballot will have cost taxpayers 522 million Mexican pesos. All for nothing. The Mexicans stayed at home
”.
President Lopez Obrador had argued that this consultation would strengthen participatory democracy in Mexico. But his detractors saw it only as a political coup. First of all, because in Mexico, former presidents can be judged like any other citizen. Many then felt that this referendum was unnecessary. And besides, the head of state himself did not, in the end, take part in the ballot, criticizes
El Universal
. But the conservative newspaper still ends on a positive note: “
this referendum, the first of its kind in Mexican history, has shown us that our country has strong institutions capable of consulting citizens on matters of importance.
Should we hope that the next time the question put to the voters will be less demagogic than that of this Sunday
”.
White House wants to convince American teens to get vaccinated
For 12 to 17 year olds, nearly six in ten young people have not yet received a first dose of the vaccine. "
To reach these young people, the White House has assembled a veritable army, to say the least eclectic
", estimates the
New York Times
: "
more than 50 influencers Twitch, YouTubers, TikTokers and the pop star of 18 years Olivia Rodrigo. All of them have a huge audience on the web. The Biden administration wants to rely on them to promote vaccination among adolescents
”. Different American states have also launched similar campaigns. These governments appeal to "
local micro-influencers
», Those with 5 to 10,000 subscribers.
And they get paid up to a thousand dollars a month to promote anti-Covid vaccines to their fans.
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