POLITICS-HAITI: Former PM’s Hunger Strike Highlights Sense of Chaos

A three-week hunger strike that now threatens the life of Haiti's jailed former prime minister, Yvon Neptune, is drawing international attention to the increasingly chaotic situation in the Americas' poorest nation.

HAITI: No Lull in Violence For Security Council Visit

In Haiti, violence, political divisiveness, exclusion and poverty are inextricably interconnected.

HAITI: For Once, Violence Leaves Greater Sense of Security

Traffic was steady and people cautiously optimistic in Haiti's capital Monday, after weekend raids by Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers left eight alleged gangsters, some of them ex-soldiers, dead.

HAITI: Human Rights Delegation Echoes Growing Criticism of UN Mission

Argentine human rights activist and Nobel peace laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, speaking with IPS from Haiti, expressed alarm over the violence and crime besieging this devastated Caribbean nation, in addition to allegations - as yet unconfirmed - of U.N. peacekeeping forces involvement in acts of torture and rape.

POLITICS-HAITI: As Polls Near, Challenges Pile Up

For over a year now, Haitian political parties, U.N. officials and foreign consultants armed with plans, charts and millions upon millions of dollars have been planning for Haiti's general elections.

POLITICS-BRAZIL: Rumsfeld, Chavez and Haiti – A Difficult Balancing Act

Haiti and Venezuela have emerged as the most sensitive foreign policy concerns for Brazil, as it seeks the sometimes conflicting dual roles of Latin American leadership and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

ARGENTINA: Rumsfeld Wants South American Troops to Remain in Haiti

During a visit to Buenos Aires on Tuesday, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised Argentina's contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Haiti - but said nothing about the long overdue aid promised by the wealthy nations for the devastated and unstable Caribbean nation.

POLITICS-US: Hemispheric Issues Languishing, Group Warns

The gap between the United States and Latin America is growing ever wider, according to a new report by a major hemispheric think tank that argues the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush needs to give relations a much higher priority than it has in the past.

POLITICS-HAITI: Region’s Leaders Condemn "Deteriorating" Rights

Almost a year after Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide was controversially removed from office on Feb. 29, 2004, Haiti continues to be a millstone around the necks of Caribbean leaders.

POLITICS-HAITI: Peace Eludes U.N. “Blue Helmets”

Last Thursday, automatic gunfire rattled away in this residential suburb of Haiti's capital. Roads were blocked. School children scurried. Drivers slipped gears into reverse.

POLITICS: South Africa Keeps Out the Welcome Mat for Aristide

Haiti and South Africa are at odds over the fate of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Although the two countries are located at opposite points on the globe, distance seems unlikely to make the heart grow fonder in this matter.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: A ‘Leaf Doctor’ Serving Haiti’s Poor

Madam Ti Zo, nearly 100 years old, has lost track of how many babies she has delivered in six decades as a "medsen fey," "leaf doctor" or traditional Haitian herbalist and midwife.

JAMAICA: Haitian ‘Refugees’ Appeal Rejection

Thirty-two-year-old Alserde Emile was a respected school principal in his community of Anse d'hainault, Haiti when he became involved in politics in 2000 with the opposition Rassemblement des Démocrates Nationalistes et Progessistes (RDNP).

CARIBBEAN: Bush, Haiti Could Upstage Economic Talks

Recent events have caught up to the agenda for Monday's meeting of leaders to discuss the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), the region's response to a changing global environment characterised by mega trading blocs.

HAITI: Latin America-Led Peacekeeping Operation – A ‘Mission Impossible’?

Analysts in Latin America are not overly optimistic with respect to the prospect of success for the United Nations peacekeeping mission aimed at stabilising Haiti, in which Brazil and Chile are playing a key role.

HAITI: Must ‘Important History of Violence’ Repeat?

"The 'steamroller' swept across Port-au-Prince ... All night and into the morning furious battles took place throughout the lower city. Finally, as the army gained the upper hand, trucks began picking up littered corpses."

POLITICS: Haiti New Crisis Zone for US, UN

The strife-torn Caribbean island of Haiti - a world apart from U.S.-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan - may turn out to be another political liability both for the United Nations and the United States because of renewed violence, according to U.N. officials and regional experts.

CARIBBEAN: U.S. AWOL On Disaster Aid

When far-away Bangladesh was devastated by a deadly cyclone just after the Gulf War in 1991, George W Bush's father dispatched a U.S. task force of 8,000 troops, 30 giant CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters and four Hovercraft to urgently deliver thousands of tonnes of emergency aid over a period of several weeks.

ENVIRONMENT-HAITI: An Example Not To Be Followed

Haiti, devastated this week by the torrential rains of Tropical Storm Jeanne, has shown itself to be exceptionally vulnerable to natural disasters in comparison to the other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a U.N. specialised agency.

POLITICS-HAITI: Disbanded For Abuses, Army Rises Again

A dozen ex-soldiers from Haiti's long-disbanded army paraded through the streets of this impoverished port town Monday to the improbable cries of "Long live the Haitian Army!"

HAITI: Call for Reparations From France Unlikely to Die

Whether Jean-Bertrand Aristide ever returns to the homeland he left under such controversial circumstances, his call for France to make reparations to his troubled Caribbean nation of Haiti is as important as ever and must not be allowed to die, say observers.