Image copyright AFP Image caption A small contingent of Brazilian troops will remain in Haiti until the UN mission ends in October

Haiti's government has launched a campaign to re-establish its army, dissolved more than 20 years ago.

It wants to recruit about 500 men and women to help deal with natural disasters and to patrol borders.

The recruitment drive follows the announcement by the United Nations mission that it would be leaving Haiti in October.

But critics say the island's small budget should be spent on the national police force of about 15,000 officers.

A Ministry of Defence statement said the recruitment drive is open to both men and women between the ages of 18 and 25, who have passed their secondary education exams.

The UN Security Council agreed in April to withdraw their security forces, the blue helmets, and leave only a small police presence to support the Haitian police.

The UN departure has sparked a debate over whether Haiti should or should not form a new army.

Many politicians support the idea arguing it would provide jobs for young people.

But the government's critics say a military force could quickly become politicised, becoming a weapon in the hands of whoever is the president or prime minister.

For much of Haiti's history, the army has been used to crack down on political dissent by a series of authoritarian presidents.

During the 29-year family dynasty founded by Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier in the 1950s, the army was pushed aside and replaced by the Tonton Macoutes, a feared private militia famed for its savagery.

But when Duvalier's son, Jean Claude, was ousted and fled to France in 1986, the army high command - notorious for its repressive tactics and packed with Duvalier appointees - remained in place.

Image copyright UN Image caption The UN mission played a big role in helping the country to overcome the devastation caused by the 2010 earthquake

After Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted in a 1991 military coup, soldiers and paramilitary forces committed countless atrocities and are estimated to have killed about 4,000 people over the next three years.

Haiti's leaders argue the new army would have different kinds of military duties, providing help after natural disasters and fighting smuggling.

Many international donors have been unenthusiastic, after having poured billions of dollars into developing the Haitian National Police which now has about 15,000 trained members. </s> US extends Haitians’ Temporary Protected Status for another 6 months

Washington, May 22 (EFE).- The US government announced Monday a six-month extension of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 58,000 Haitians who fled their country following the devastating earthquake of 2010.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had until this Tuesday to announce the extension, which means that Haitians now accepted for the program will have 60 days to present the required documents to avoid having to leave the country next July 23, when the new interim protection expires.

Immigrant defenders have pressured Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to extend the Temporary Protected Status on grounds that Haiti suffers a food shortage, unemployment and widespread poverty, and is incapable of repatriating thousands of its citizens.

Secretary Kelly said that “after careful review of the current conditions in Haiti and conversations with the Haitian government, I have decided to extend the designation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status for a limited period of six-months.”

DHS officials said Kelly had obtained the commitment of Haitian authorities that, when conditions permit, Haitian citizens who now enjoy that protection will be accepted back to their country in order to help with its reconstruction.

“We plan to continue to work closely with the Haitian government, including assisting the government in proactively providing travel documents for its citizens,” Kelly said.

“I believe there are indications that Haiti – if its recovery from the 2010 earthquake continues at pace – may not warrant further TPS extension past January 2018,” he said

Though this is an extension of just six months instead of the usual 18, the decision shows a softer touch than the hard-fisted immigration policy of US President Donald Trump, as expressed in his electoral campaign rhetoric.

The US government offered TPS for Haitians after the powerful quake on Jan. 12, 2010, which left thousands dead.

The unfortunate Caribbean nation also suffered a cholera epidemic that spread to almost 800,000 citizens and left 9,000 dead. </s> Haiti’s man in Washington, an ambassador with seven years under his belt defending his country’s image, has been recalled.

At a time when Haiti is facing critical issues that need representation before the Trump administration, Paul Altidor, received a letter on Tuesday informing him that his services will no longer be needed. The recall was effective immediately.

“We accomplished a lot here at the embassy,” Altidor said.

He took Haiti’s diplomatic mission on Embassy Row in Washington from a place where Haitians only went to get passports and resolve document issues, to a cultural hotspot where visitors can bask in Haitian culture from art to cooking to artistry.

Altidor, 45, had submitted his resignation to President Jovenel Moïse a year ago. But the president had asked him to stay on, and in recent days had found himself fielding calls from concerned U.S. lawmakers and their staffers about the ongoing violent demonstrations that have rattled Haitians and paralyzed major cities.

Since Thursday, thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets in Port-au-Prince and other cities throughout the impoverished country to protest against skyrocketing prices, double-digit inflation, currency devaluation and corruption. In their anger and frustration, they’ve lashed out at businesses and demanded the resignation of Moïse, who has insisted that his five-year presidential mandate is not up for debate.

On the same day that Altidor received his recall letter Tuesday, protesters burned a popular Port-au-Prince street market and looted stores while 78 prisoners broke out of jail in a small southern town. The European Union mission, concerned about the ongoing unrest, hired a charter to fly dependents to the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, the 15-member Caribbean Community, which Haiti is a member of, appealed to all to engage in constructive dialogue and to respect the Constitution, the rule of law and democratic processes so that issues can be resolved in a peaceful atmosphere. It also called for a cessation of the violence to allow for the return to a state of normalcy.

It was the sixth day of what’s being dubbed, “Operation lock down Haiti,” in which the opposition has vowed to keep the country locked until Moïse resigns.

So far, it has succeeded in shutting down schools, businesses and public transportation, and halting activities across Haiti where roads have been barricades with burning tires, tree branches and rocks.

“The timing is very strange. He’s embattled down here, why would he do this? It begs the question why,” Georges Sassine, president of the Association of Haitian Industries said about Moïse, who has yet to address his nation since the violence broke out. “You don’t change a horse in the middle of crossing a river.”

Adding to those concerns is that the recall comes just days before Haiti Foreign Minister Edmond Bocchit is scheduled to meet with Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Bocchit, who last week visited the Center for Strategic and International Studies and State Department with influential Haitian businessman Andy Apaid, has been seeking out support for the Moïse administration in Washington ever since Haiti agreed to broke with longtime ally Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and recognize acting opposition leader Juan Guaidó as president.

civil society movement that forced the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in 2004 amid a bloody revolt.

A former adviser for the World Bank’s International Financial Corporation and vice president of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Altidor came into the ambassador’s role with no public diplomacy experience during president Michel Martelly’s administration.

Determined to change the narrative of his crisis-plagued country, he opened up the embassy to congressional lawmakers, fellow ambassadors and Haitians. Among those who have visited the mission: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Georgia Democrat Rep. John Lewis and media executive and entrepreneur Cathy Hughes of Radio One.

“We opened the embassy up to the outside public,” Altidor said, noting that instead of going to meet members of Congress on Capitol Hill, they often came to him. And very often these meetings were held not in the top floor office, but in the bottom-floor kitchen where Altidor often invited lawmakers to join him in a meal of Haitian cuisine as they discussed topics relevant to Haiti.

One memorable meeting occurred in September 2017 as the Trump administration weighed whether to extend Temporary Protected Status, TPS, for Haitians. In between meetings with U.S Department of Homeland Security officials and immigration advocates, Altidor hosted an intimate dinner for about a half dozen Democratic lawmakers to craft a new strategy he hoped would convince the White House to extend the temporary program that has allowed thousands of Haitians to work and live in the U.S..

The strategy didn’t work, but the dinner accomplished something else.

“We have institutions coming to our doors, people who would not be otherwise interested in Haiti,” said Altidor, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who also pursued graduate studies in law and economics at the University of Paris X, in France.

In January 2018, Altidor was in the U.S. spotlight again when it was reported that Trump referred to Haiti and other African nations as “shithole countries.” He was the first and only Haitian government official to respond to the remark, saying he vehemently condemned it and would use the publicity to continue to introduce a new narrative around Haiti.

That narrative has involved getting Americans to see Haiti as a country that is capable of luring investments, and to see Haitians as hard workers who contribute to the fabric of America. No longer did Altidor want Haiti to be viewed in university circles as a place where college students can just do charitable work.

“I made a point to ensure that the U.S community get a glance of the Haitian package, not just some of the bad things like we are seeing right now,” he said, “but from the the history to the culture. Folks should know about that. And we’ve made significance progress.”

Still his efforts weren’t always appreciated. Critics accused him of spending too much time on community relations rather than diplomacy while lobbyists and want-to-be lobbyists, sometimes went around him as they escorted Haitian government officials and parliamentarians to meetings on Capitol Hill and at the State Department. The move often created confusion over who was speaking on behalf of the government.

Even DHS officials once questioned Altidor’s credentials, insisting that he was speaking more on behalf the Haitian diaspora rather than the government when pushed for TPS renewal on behalf of Haitians in the United States. He went as far as writing a letter on behalf of the Moïse administration when Port-au-Prince refused to do so even at the insistence of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.

Altidor, who points his embassy’s 24-hour turnaround for Haitian passports, among his accomplishments, said he’s proud of the fact that he’s managed to generate conversations around non-political issues that he felt needed to be addressed.

“The embassy became a relevant institution in the Haitian conversation in Washington D.C. and beyond,” he said.
Haiti will reinstate its armed forces after 20 years of having none.