Press Review of the Americas

In the News: Police-citizen cooperation in Haiti, a solution to insecurity?

Police officers during an operation against gang crime in Port-au-Prince, April 25, 2023. © AP/Odelyn Joseph

Text by: Margaux Ratayzyk

3 min

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While the Haitian population is still trying to take the law into their own hands by lynching suspected bandits, the director of the national police, Frantz Elbé, on Saturday (May 13th) called for more cooperation between Haitians and police officers. This is the way, according to him, to end the endless gang war that has plunged the country into fear and insecurity. In an appeal relayed by Le Nouvelliste, Frantz Elbé invites to consolidate the "police-population marriage" in order to "put an end, definitively, to the phenomenon of insecurity".

This "marriage" must be done in the "respect of the law and the Constitution", says the director of the police of Haiti, who welcomes in Le Nouvelliste good results in "the fight against organized crime", without however "presenting statistics". For Frantz Elbé, these results are the result of the "determination, willingness and spirit of sacrifice of police officers". And this, "especially thanks to the support of the population," reports the daily. And to conclude: "The victory is ours", in the words of the director of police.

Ecuadorian opposition retains control of National Assembly ahead of president's impeachment trial

The Ecuadorian opposition retains control of the National Assembly after an election on Sunday (May 14th) aimed at renewing several of the leaders of the legislative branch. This re-election comes on the eve of the launch of debates around a possible impeachment of Guillermo Lasso. The Ecuadorian president is suspected of embezzlement of public funds.

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When will the president leave? " asks La Hora in an editorial. "Guillermo Lasso has always defended his interests and those of his close entourage. But he was never the president of people left at the mercy of crime and state inefficiency. [...] It is obvious that the country's problems have never prevented him from sleeping, quips La Hora. That is why today the majority of Ecuadorians want him to go.

According to El Comercio, the future of the president seems indeed "compromised" with the opposition still at the helm of the National Assembly. According to the daily, this is a good "barometer" of what could happen during the impeachment trial Tuesday, May 16, 2023. "Everything seems to indicate," writes El Comercio, "that a majority is forming to impeach the president.

Fires at risk of getting worse in Canada

No improvement in sight on the fire front in Alberta, a western Canadian province plagued by major wildfires for more than a week. The situation may even worsen because of the hot and dry weather forecast for the coming days. "When will there be a respite?" asks the website La Presse. More than 520,000 hectares have already gone up in smoke in Alberta, more than 42 times the size of the city of Paris.

Yet the evacuations continue, as the Globe and Mail explains on its front page of the day. "Thousands of people were still evacuated" Sunday, May 14, headlines the daily in another article, "while devastating forest fires continue to burn homes, vehicles [...] straining local firefighting forces."

More than 1,500 Alberta firefighters are still deployed, in addition to reinforcements "from other provinces" and even "United States," says the newspaper. All are all the more exhausted as "the weather is not encouraging" for the days to come, warns Le Journal de Montréal. "Little precipitation is expected and winds could pick up." This is enough to fan the fires, which are now likely to spread to the provinces surrounding Alberta, such as British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

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• Haiti
• Criminality
• Press review
• Press Review of the Americas