The Puerto Rican public school system is initiating a program to replace Spanish with English as the language used in teaching most courses, despite warnings from teachers that it won’t work.
In a new assertion of power by Haiti’s officially disbanded army, more than 100 people claiming to be former soldiers marched on Port-au-Prince in uniform; some carried weapons. Haitian police and UN troops made about 50 arrests.
Port-au-Prince assembly plant owners warned workers not to march on May 1, and rewarded them if they stayed at work by paying out an unprecedented $12 for a day’s work.
The Haitian Parliament’s lower house abruptly ended a session when a group of armed men in uniforms entered the legislature’s grounds. They claimed to be vets from the disbanded Armed Forces of Haiti.
As the Dominican election race heats up, the government charges that a retired general close to an opposition candidate is plotting to destabilize the government of Haitian president Michel Martelly.
Construction companies controlled by an influential Dominican politician have paid more than $2.5 million to Haitian president Michel Martelly since 2010, according to a Dominican television report.
Hundreds marched to demand justice for the women who were victims of the 1957-1986 Duvalier family dictatorship and to call for the departure of the UN troops stationed in Haiti.
Haiti’s Prime Mnister Garry Conille submitted a letter of resignation as rumors grew of tension between him and President Michel Martelly; the US embassy appeared unhappy with the development.
Thousands of Puerto Ricans marched to protest right-wing governor Luis Fortuño’s plan for a 92-mile, $450-million natural gas pipeline cutting through the island. Pipeline opponents fear explosions and damage to farmland, forests and archeological sites.
The Puerto Rican Civil Rights Commission has reportedly concluded that the killing of Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios by the FBI was illegal and should be investigated—contradicting the findings of the US Justice Department.
Former soldiers of the disbanded Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd’H) have reportedly been occupying old military bases and training camps for several weeks—as right-wing President Michel (“Sweet Micky”) Martelly broaches plans to revive the FAd’H.
The Cuban government says Wilmar Villar Mendoza wasn’t a political prisoner and hadn’t been on a hunger strike before his death; the US calls him a “courageous defender of human rights.”
