In the spotlight: national funeral for the victims of Cap-Haitien
Funeral of one of the many victims in a gas tanker explosion on December 14 in Cap-Haitien, Haiti on December 14, 2021 (Illustrative image).
AFP - RICHARD PIERRIN
Text by: Stefanie Schüler Follow
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A week after the terrible explosion of a tanker truck in Cap-Haitien, which has left at least 90 dead, a couple testify in
Le Nouvelliste.
Lucien Bélonne and Guylaine Charles lost seven of their nine children, all already adults, during the tragedy.
"
Five died instantly, two others in the hospital,"
the father told the newspaper.
The family lived in several houses near the site of the explosion: “
We were sleeping. Suddenly, people were screaming fire. Since then, I haven't seen them again,
”sighs the mother, who explains having seen the bodies of two of her children who died in hospital, but not the other five.
“
The authorities came and put the bodies of the victims in trucks and went to dump them. We could not identify the bodies to find out to whom they belonged
, ”denounces Guylaine Charles in the columns of Le
Nouvelliste
. The daily recalls that “
after the accident, the government announced the disbursement of emergency funds to help the victims
”. But according to
Le National
today, "
the victims are still waiting for help from the government
."
It is therefore in this context that the national funeral is being held this Tuesday, December 21 in the cathedral of Cap-Haitien.
A ceremony after all symbolic for all the victims of the tragedy, explains
Le National
.
The newspaper also recalls that these funerals had to be postponed for two days, "
for lack of logistical and financial means
".
The town hall declared that it "did
not receive government assistance in time for the preparations necessary for the organization of the ceremony
".
►
To read also: Haiti: the explosion of a tanker lorries at least 60 dead and many injured
Former American hostages in Haiti: how did they find their freedom?
Another question made the headlines of Haitian news this Tuesday morning: that of knowing how the twelve missionaries, eleven Americans and one Canadian, who had been held hostage by the armed gang 400 Mawozo found their freedom. The CNN channel had indicated, last week, that a ransom had been paid, without being able to give further details. But this is a completely different version presented on Monday, December 20 by their religious group, Christian Aid Ministries.
At a press conference in Ohio, the group's chief executive said the twelve hostages, including several children, had managed to escape their captors in the middle of the night.
The
Miami Herald
sees fit to add that "
neither the American authorities, nor the Haitian government made the slightest remark on the circumstances which led to the release of the hostages
".
Gabriel Boric's victory: what is the nature of the Chilean “new left”?
Gabriel Boric's victory in the Chilean presidential election caused a lot of ink to flow this Tuesday in the newspapers of the continent. Editorial writers wonder about the nature of this “
new left
” which is coming to power. In Mexico, the daily
El Economista
talks about “
the millennial revolution
”. These young people who have assimilated better than other layers of the population "
the daily uncertainty induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. This generation,
continues the editorialist,
is used to living daily life as a kind of laboratory. She has learned that there is no future without change.
"
For the Argentinian newspaper
La Nacion
, Gabriel Boric represents "
the new Chilean left
" that it is difficult to define. Admittedly, explains the daily, “
the former student leader was presented for a long time as radical. Gabriel Boric accuses the center-left governments that have ruled the country for most of the past three decades as being too neoliberal. But the elected president has also repeatedly confronted the positions of the Communist Party of Chile and expressed his rejection of the regimes of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. These contradictions show how difficult it is to define the borders of the new left on the basis of the traditional ideological spectrum
”, underlines
La Nacion.
before concluding: and then, “
positions like feminism and the firm intention to protect the climate may have seemed radical in another era. For the new generation, faced with existential threats different from that of their parents, these proposals seem to be the fruit of common sense. Gabriel Boric's ambitious program represents a valuable laboratory for anticipating the direction Latin America could take.
"
In Ecuador,
El Comercio
notes that "
the Latin American left celebrates the results of the Chilean elections and places great hopes in the future of the young president
".
While the newspaper
El Colombiano
is already looking ahead to the presidential election next May in Colombia and wonders: "
Could we experience at home an electoral surprise similar to what has just happened in Chile
?
"
►
To read also: Chile: the former student leader Gabriel Boric elected president at 35 years old
Guatemala: high tensions after the massacre committed this weekend in the village of an indigenous Mayan community
El Periodico
returns to the facts reported by the Guatemalan human rights prosecutor: “T
he massacre began late Friday afternoon when several families from the village of Santa Catarina Ixta-huacan went to collect corn. They were ambushed by a group of men carrying large caliber weapons.
"According to the prosecutor, these families were killed then"
burned inside the truck in which they were. Four children, aged 5 to 16, were cut up with machetes. A policeman was also killed.
"
For more than 100 years, the inhabitants of the village of Santa Catarina have been in conflict with another indigenous Mayan community in the neighboring village. The two populations compete for control of forests and water sources in their region. But for the Guatemalan President, Alejandro Giammattei, these events are no longer “
the product of an ancestral land conflict. They are the direct consequence of an armed and organized illegal group which acted against civilians and security forces through an ambush in which many men, women and even children were murdered
”.
The head of state called an emergency meeting of his government on Monday and declared a state of siege in the region around the two villages "in
order to prevent further violence
", reports
La Hora
. "
Police and soldiers have been deployed to secure the area and restore order
."
But this is not the first time that a state of siege has been declared in this area, recalls the
Prensa Libre
: “
in 2020 already, the same measure, which lasted two months, allowed the arrest of 53
people. 23 firearms were seized, as well as more than
7,000 ammunition of various calibers and more than 700
homemade explosive devices. But
, continues the newspaper,
that did not prevent the new violence of this weekend.
"
The
La Hora
columnist
points to the responsibility of the government.
“
It has been several months since mediation under the aegis of the Guatemalan vice-president has been underway to find a solution to this bloody conflict between the two communities.
If this new tragedy could have happened, the government must question its method of negotiation.
"
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