Stories written by Ansel Herz
Ansel Herz is an independent multimedia journalist. A Seattle native and survivor of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he has reported from Haiti for nearly two years for IPS, Reuters AlertNet and Free Speech Radio News and has been interviewed by CNN, the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Democracy Now! and other outlets. In 2011 he was key writer and researcher in a series of articles, published by the Nation magazine and Haiti Liberte, based on WikiLeaks cables related to Haiti. Ansel is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism. | Web

Haiti Moves to Tighten Laws on Sexual Violence

Haiti is poised to enact major reforms to its penal code to make it easier for victims of rape to prosecute their attackers.

A demonstrator on Oct. 7 supporting Batay Ouvriye's unionisation campaign holds a sign that says, "Respect the rights of working people." Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/HAITI: Nascent Union Charges Reprisals by Textile Factory Owners

Workers in Haiti's apparel manufacturing sector charge that factory owners are repressing attempts to organise workers in the capital, after the dismissals of six of seven leading members of a new union within just two weeks of its formation.

Nerlande Nazaire says she has a child with a U.N. peacekeeper, who sends money regularly.  Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

HAITI: U.N. Troops Accused of Exploiting Local Women

Seventeen-year-old Rose Mina Joseph says she is nine months pregnant. Her belly is swollen and she moves slowly, placing each step, as she walks around her family's dusty yard.

Fanmi Lavalas march for Aristide's return descends from Bel-air.  Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

HAITI: Aristide Returns Ahead of Controversial Run-Off

Tensions are running high in Haiti as dueling campaigns for the presidency enter overdrive in their final days, and Jean- Bertrand Aristide, a popular former president, returns from a seven-year exile in South Africa.

Dieula Rosemond moments before her husband says she was pepper-sprayed by the U.N. soldier seen in the left foreground. Credit: Joseph Rosemond

HAITI: The Year of Living Dangerously – Part 2

When diplomat Ricardo Seitenfus spoke out in interviews last month condemning the international community, he was dismissed from his post within days by the Organisation of American States.

Dieula Rosemond (right) leads a protest outside the prime minister

HAITI: The Year of Living Dangerously – Part 1

Dieula Rosemond is tired. A lone swaying palm tree yields a little shade over her plastic chair. Her hands are folded in the lap of her white dress. Little girls play with a ragged, pale-faced doll behind her.

A ballot box floats in garbage-filled puddles next to the polling station at Building 2004 in the neighbourhood of Delmas. Credit: Wadner Pierre/IPS

HAITI: Popular Anger Unabated over Chaotic Polls

Furious demonstrations continued across Haiti on Wednesday following the Nov. 28 highly contested election in which thousands found themselves unable to vote.

A demonstrator holds up an anti-U.N. poster during an October protest outside a MINUSTAH base in Port-au-Prince. Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

HAITI: Anger Erupts at U.N. as Cholera Toll Nears 1,000

"People are going to take the body to MINUSTAH to show them what they did," Jean-Luc Surfin told IPS by phone as riots erupted against Haiti's U.N. peacekeeping force on Monday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien.

A boy receives treatment for cholera at the hospital in L

HAITI: As Cholera Spreads, Heavy Rains Wreak Havoc in Camps

Standing on a raised piece of pavement across from the makeshift home where she has lived for the past 10 months, Violet Nicola threw up her hands.

In the small village of Jurve, Haiti, children wash in the Artibonite River, the contaminated source of a recent outbreak of cholera. Credit: UN Photo/Sophia Paris

HAITI: Cholera Outbreak Highlights Clean Water Crisis

The man arrived from Arcahaie, near St. Marc in central Haiti where a cholera outbreak exploded last week, initially overwhelming the local medical grid. It was an hour's journey to a hospital in Lafiteau, near the capital, where he died on Sunday.

Cholera Cases Emerge in Haiti’s Capital

Days after an outbreak of cholera began in Haiti's rural Artibonite region, killing at least 200 people, there are now five confirmed cases of cholera in the busy capital city.

Spread through the ingestion of contaminated water, cholera is widely known as a disease of poverty. Credit: UN Photo

HAITI: Health Workers Scramble to Keep Cholera out of Crowded Camps

Some 1.3 million people have lived in makeshift camps throughout Port-au-Prince since the January earthquake devastated the city. Living conditions are "appalling", according a recent report by Refugees International.

Residents gather together after the owner of the Palais de L'Art centre locked the gate, forcing them to climb over the partially collapsed wall. Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

As “Temporary” Camps Linger, Tensions Rise with Haitian Landowners

Thousands of victims of the January earthquake in Haiti are at risk of being displaced for a second time as private landowners throughout the nation's capital city grow impatient with makeshift tent camps on their properties.

HAITI: U.N. Clash with Frustrated Students Spills into Camps

United Nations peacekeeping troops responded to a rock-throwing demonstration by university students Monday evening with a barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets in the area around Haiti's National Palace, sending masses of displaced Haitians running out of tent camps into the streets, according to witnesses.

HAITI: Displaced Fear Expulsion from Makeshift Camps

For decades, the Saint Louis de Gonzague school has groomed some of Haiti's most elite political players. Francois Duvalier, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled Haiti for 14 years, sent his son to the school. About 1,500 children of Haiti's wealthiest class attend each year.

Brazilian U.N. peacekeepers patrol Cité Soleil in February. Credit: UN Photo/Pasqual Gorriz

HAITI: Looking More and More Like a War Zone

On an empty road in Cite Militaire, an industrial zone across from the slums of Cite Soleil, a group of women are gathered around a single white sack of U.S. rice. The rice was handed out Monday morning at a food distribution by the Christian relief group World Vision.

The field behind Villa Manrese where displaced area residents had been camped now stands virtually empty. Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

HAITI: The Camp That Vanished

Perched near the top of a steep hill, the fractured pink walls of Villa Manrese overlook the rest of the capital city. Both ends of the three-story compound have collapsed, spilling into mounds of rubble. The first floor was pulverised into a layer of dust. There are still bodies inside.

An estimated 50,000 Haitians have pitched makeshift tents on the grounds of the Petionville Club, a golf and tennis resort. Credit: UN Photo/Sophia Paris

HAITI: Secure Shelters Scarce as Rainy Season Looms

A cacophony of murmurs and cries echoed through the neighbourhoods of Haiti's capital city Monday night as a violent aftershock shook people awake. Ten minutes later, another tremor rocked the ground, this time more smoothly back and forth.

Brazilian peacekeepers and U.S. soldiers distribute food and water in Haiti's capital.  Credit: UN Photo/Sophia Paris

HAITI: Local Leaders Shut Out of Military-Run Relief Efforts

Two gray 23-million-dollar hovercrafts sitting in the middle of a sandy tropical beach look like they are from another world. A pair of 15-foot-wide propeller fans sticks out from the back of each behemoth.

The radio hooked up outside the reporter's moto driver's house. Credit: Ansel Herz/IPS

HAITI: Sending Hope over the Airwaves

Throughout the earthquake's aftermath, the voices of many Port-Au-Prince radio stations have been loud and clear.

Children in Cité Soleil, Haiti, play with a kite made from a plastic bag among the shanty town's rubble.  Credit: UN Photo/Logan Abassi

HAITI: Sharing Meagre Supplies, as Graves Multiply

Millions of dollars in aid are pouring into Haiti. Another head of state visits each day. The misery in Port-Au-Prince dominates the news nearly a week after the 7.0 earthquake struck the heart of this island country.

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