Beyond The Horizon

ICYMI: The Rampant Violence In Haiti Has Left Dead Bodies Left In The Streets

Haiti faces a myriad of complex challenges that threaten the well-being of its people and hinder the nation's development.

Political Instability: Haiti has a long history of political instability, characterized by frequent changes in government, corruption, and weak institutions. Political unrest often leads to protests, violence, and economic disruption, further exacerbating the country's challenges.
Economic Crisis: Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, with a significant portion of its population living below the poverty line. High unemployment rates, low wages, and limited access to basic services contribute to widespread poverty and economic vulnerability.
Natural Disasters: Haiti is prone to natural disasters, including hurricanes, earthquakes, and flooding. The country's vulnerability to these events is compounded by factors such as deforestation, inadequate infrastructure, and poor urban planning, leading to significant humanitarian crises and loss of life.
Environmental Degradation: Deforestation, soil erosion, and environmental degradation are serious problems in Haiti. Rampant deforestation, driven by charcoal production and agricultural expansion, has depleted the country's natural resources, leading to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and increased vulnerability to natural disasters.
Healthcare Challenges: Haiti's healthcare system is underfunded and poorly equipped to meet the needs of its population. Limited access to healthcare facilities, medical supplies, and trained personnel contributes to high rates of preventable diseases, maternal and infant mortality, and poor health outcomes.
Education: Access to quality education is limited in Haiti, particularly in rural areas where schools are often poorly resourced and understaffed. High dropout rates, low literacy levels, and inadequate infrastructure hinder the country's human capital development and economic growth.
Crime and Violence: Haiti struggles with high levels of crime and violence, including gang-related activities, drug trafficking, and interpersonal violence. Weak law enforcement, corruption, and socioeconomic inequality contribute to the perpetuation of criminal activities and undermine public safety.
Humanitarian Crises: The combination of political instability, economic hardship, natural disasters, and social challenges has led to recurring humanitarian crises in Haiti. These crises often result in displacement, food insecurity, and inadequate access to clean water, shelter, and healthcare services.

As we continue to follow along with the horror unfolding in Haiti, we are getting very, very disturbing reports from the people living in the capital and how civil services, which were spotty during the best of times, have now completely broken down, leading to dead bodies littering the streets as coroners and morgue employees refuse to go to work out of fear of being caught up in the violence.

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source:

Corpses piling up in streets of Haiti’s capital - The Washington Post

Duration:: 15m
Broadcast on:: 24 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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On a ride through the gang-controlled streets of Haiti's capital on Friday, passed an improvised barricade, the motorcycle taxi reached a crossroad. First came the smell of something burning, then the sight. A corpse charred black, lying in the middle of the street, its bones and feet sticking out of the pile of ash. The night before Jimmy Barasquo, a carpenter who lives nearby, heard two gunshots. Pearing carefully out of his window, he checked his watch. It was 8.24 p.m. He saw two men drive away, leaving the body behind, not far from a university administration office, and one of Haiti's largest telecommunication companies. A few hours later, he said the men returned and burned the remains. And unfortunately, this is commonplace in Haiti right now. And this is going to continue to keep happening until there's some sort of resolution that's figured out on the ground. And I think that the resolution obviously starts with free and fair elections. But how could Haiti even attempt to do that? Considering the infrastructure problems, considering what we see on the streets, the violence, the gang issues, the revolution that's occurring, there's just no way that they could even attempt to have a free and fair election right now. And unfortunately, the fact that there's no real elected officials in the whole last country, that's playing a lot into what we're seeing here with all of this violence breaking out in the streets. Of course, there's people that are taking advantage of it because they're just violent, disgusting fucks all around. But to think that the people of Haiti, the common people of Haiti, don't have any gripes about their lifestyle about the way they're forced to live, well, that would be foolish because they do. Imagine not having any elected officials for like six years. Nobody comes to pick up the trash. It's just a whole nightmare. And these people are forced to live like this. And now you add all of this ultra violence on top of the issues to compound their already terrible situation. It's almost unfathomable to think about having to live like this. The streets of Port-au-Prince, wreak with the stench of the dead. It's a grisly new marker of the violence and dysfunction in this beleaguered Caribbean nation of 11 million people. In the absence of a functioning state, violent armed gangs or militias have taken control of more than 80% of the capital the United Nations estimates. Gunfire crackles at all hours, residents who dare leave their homes, stumble across bodies that have been left where they fell. So there's nobody out here cleaning up corpses. There's no police, there's no EMTs. The hospitals are all closed. The port's been attacked. And with the infrastructure under attack, no water, no hospitals, no medical services, it won't be long before there's an outbreak of a disease or two, cholera, typhus, you know, some Oregon trail style shit. It's only a matter of time. Port-au-Prince reached a high of 92 degrees on Friday. The smell of decaying corpses, human rights activists say, has driven some people from their homes. Others have taken it upon themselves to move or burn the bodies because who else will? When society completely shuts down and there is no more functioning government, this is what happens. For all intents and purposes, they might as well be living in Mogadishu right now. I mean, over there in Somalia, there's never even been a garbage pickup in the city of Mogadishu. So it's pretty much the same situation that they're facing over here in Haiti now. There's no services, no hospitals like we talked about. Forget about going to school. Oh, you're not going to the grocery store. What you thought you can go to the grocery store? Not only is the grocery store closed, but if you showed up, you'd probably get killed. Even before the past week, public services in the city were sharply limited. Trash piled up in its slums, cholera had resurfaced, the gangs terrorized the population with systematic rape, indiscriminate kidnapping and mass killing, all with impunity. And unfortunately, this was just the norm down here in Haiti. You add all this other stuff to it though, and it's just the perfect storm. You wanna talk about a fertile ground for human suffering? This is it. Then attacks on two of the city's largest prisons last weekend for thousands of inmates, including some of the country's most notorious criminals. Now gangs, reinforced by returning comrades, have attacked the city's airport and the main port. They've torched at least dozen police stations, hospitals are closed, security forces are hard to come by, the prime minister traveling abroad to rally support for an international police force was unable this week to return to the country. Imagine being so feckless and so powerless to stop what's going on as the elected leader of your country? Talk about pathetic. And like usual, the people who suffer the most are the poor people. The people who can't even make ends meet as it is. They're the ones that are really taking the brunt of all of this. Because you already know, anybody with any kind of dough has already left the country. The gangs are in control. One more director said that he has received 20 calls in the past week from residents asking him to pick up the bodies. Four calls came in on Friday. Lionel Milford said he has refused all of them. Yeah, I don't blame them. Go out there to try to pick up a body and end up becoming a body. So if I lived in Haiti, I wouldn't leave the house unless I had to at this point and I'd be doing everything in my power to get off the island. With gangs barricading the streets, Milford said venturing out has been impossible. Other morgues have come under attack, he said, and he doesn't want to risk the lives of his staff. So the whole entire country is at a standstill. If you haven't figured that out yet, when the guy who collects the bodies can't leave his house, folks, we have a serious, serious issue. Milford has been in business since 2002. Violence has forced him to halt operations before for one or two days, but never he said for an entire week. What I'm witnessing today is unprecedented. It's been too long, he said. It's heartbreaking to go around and see bodies being eaten by dogs and see the corpses covered with sheets. Romaine Le Cor, a political scientist who has conducted research and poured a prince in recent weeks, said the unretrieved bodies reflect extremely high levels of violence, extreme pressure on the population and a feeling of hopelessness and abandonment. I can't imagine man what's going on over here in Haiti. You take one little look across the border to the Dominican Republic, everything stabilized, things are going pretty well, economy's doing pretty well, then you look over here in Haiti and you have dogs in the street eating people's corpses. If that was happening in Gaza, forget it, you'd have the whole entire Uma up in arms, you'd have everybody in the world talking about, oh, the war crimes, oh, the travesty of it all, but all of those loud mouths seem to be closed when it comes to Haiti. And do you blame the people of Haiti for feeling abandoned? Where's the emergency air drop for Haiti? Where's the port that they're gonna build for Haiti? Oh, that's right, they're not gonna do any of that, right? They're just gonna let the Haitian people suffer. Le Cor, a senior expert with a global initiative against transnational organized crime, described the violence and instability as among the worst Haiti has suffered in decades. The 2010 earthquake left 220,000 people dead, but there was a national and international response to give Haitians a sense that the crisis was met with actions. Le Cor said, right now, what is terrible is the sense of abandonment. You have no one to turn to, he said. Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been silent. Haitians don't even know where he is with the airport under attack. As he was attempting to return from Kenya, he flew instead on Tuesday to Puerto Rico. So imagine being in this country, turning on the news and nobody talking about what's going on, nobody talking about bringing food to Haiti or getting rid of the scumbags that are causing all this chaos. Yeah, I'd feel abandoned too. You have to do what you have to do, Le Cor said, but you have to do it alone. The person who speaks the most in Haiti right now, he said, is Jimmy Barbecue, which is insane. The former police officer, now the country's most powerful gang leader, has issued Henry and ultimatum, resign or face a civil war. So yeah, let's just all back Jimmy Barbecue. A guy who has the same kind of name as you would see in one of these African warlords who are cutting people up and eating them. Hey, it is Ryan Seacrest. There's something so thrilling about playing Chumba Casino. Maybe it's the simple reminder that with a little luck, anything is possible. Chumbak Casino.com has hundreds of social casino style games to choose from with new game releases each week. Play for free anytime, anywhere, for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Join me in the fun. Sign up now at Chumbak Casino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void were prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. - The presidency has been vacant since the still unsolved 2021 assassination of Jovanelle Moise. The National Assembly has been empty since the last lawmakers terms expired last year. That leaves Henry unelected and unpopular to lead what remains of the government. There's no remains of the government. There's no government whatsoever. For the past year, US officials have pressed the 74 year old neurosurgeon to work with a transnational council to help bring elections, a senior state department official told the Washington Post. But he has shown an unwillingness to seed real power. Last week, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield and Caribbean community leaders urged Henry once again to make concessions. So look, there's a lot to be said about Henry and his behavior. And he's also a man that's willing obviously to let the people of Haiti suffer as long as he can hold on to a little bit of power. Meanwhile, the whole ass city of Port-au-Prince smells like dead people. At the end of the meeting, the official said, a statement was issued that gave Haitians the erroneous impression that the international community supported Henry staying in power until 2025, which may have exasperated other factors and contributed to the out of control gang violence that we see today. Very possible. Look, when people lose it, they lose it. And if you add no hope and you add an unelected official making life decisions for you, I'm sure you wouldn't like it too much either. As the violence this week became untenable, the official said, the United States and Karakom proposed an expedited transition of power in which a transitional council would appoint an interim prime minister and Henry would step down. Henry would not be involved in the organization of that body, the official said, a key change in the US stance towards them. Well, isn't that nice? Here's an idea to the elected officials here in America. Stop making things more difficult for other people. I know, I know very basic, right? But if you think they make our lives miserable, wait till you see how they meddle in a place like Haiti. Henry has not yet publicly accepted the proposal of the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity under the State Department rules, said the conversation with them are ongoing. While the prime minister remained in Puerto Rico, people here began re-emerging from their homes on Friday in search of food and fuel. Cars and small buses returned to the streets. The few gas stations that were open saw a line stretching for several blocks at a street market. A man in a police uniform could be seen exchanging gas with a resident in a parent's sign of an emerging black market for fuel. The only other police officers visible were guarding the shuttered airport. So they're not gonna be out here, you know, doing street work, right? They're gonna protect the airport and some of these other types of institutions. But people out in the streets, they're gonna have to fend for themselves. Late Sunday morning, Jonathan Lindor, passed by three corpses lying side by side in the road. They had been men, the 27-year-old said, and around his age, each had been bleeding, apparently from bullet wounds. All were barefoot. In Haiti, it's not unusual for a killer to remove the victim's shoes after the shooting. "I didn't eat meat for the rest of the day," Lindor said. He returned to the area Wednesday. Neighbors, unable to bear the stench, had burned the remains. Another witness said the group eventually placed the remains in a ravine. "The smell is untenable," Lindor said. "We don't know who can pick them up, "so people don't have any other choice than to burn them. "Just so gruesome. "The kind of shit you hear about "in some far-flung country "somewhere way out of the Western Hemisphere. "But unfortunately, folks, "this is right off the coast of America." The residents, Lindor said, were a part of the neighborhood vigilante group, a mix of off-duty police officers and civilians, often armed with machetes or knives, who take turns watching the neighborhood. Lindor had seen bodies burned on the street of his city before, including during last year's Wacale movement, when large vigilante groups hunted down and killed alleged gang members. But he had never before seen conditions this dire, with an absent government leaving citizens to clear the streets of corpses themselves. "You cannot sleep in peace," Lindor said. "And while we're observing it "from the comfort of our home, "people like Mr. Lindor, they have to live it. "So we're gonna keep shining a light "on what's going on down in Haiti "for the foreseeable future "until there is some resolution one way or the other." All right, folks, that's gonna do it for this one. All of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box. - Hey there, it is Ryan Seacrest with you. You wanna make this summer unforgettable? Join me at Chumbak Casino. It's this summer's hottest online destination. They are rolling out the red carpet with an amazing welcome offer just for you. So don't wait, dive in now and play hundreds of social casino games for free. Your chance to redeem real prizes is just a spin away. Care to join me? - Sponsored by Chumbak Casino, no purchase necessary. VGW Group, void word prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply.