Black Immigrant Daily News

“All FAO teams in the region are ready and committed to providing all the technical expertise and capacity to help meet today’s food security challenge”, said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu at the VII CELAC Summit held this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In this context, the Director General met with the Presidents of Brazil, Ignacio Lula da Silva of Argentina, Alberto Fern?ndez of Bolivia, Luis Arce and of Colombia, Gustavo Pedro. He also had meetings with the Vice President of Costa Rica, Stephan Brunner, and the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, new president pro tempore of CELAC. He discussed with them the need to transform agrifood systems to make them more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

In this context, the Director-General signed a Letter of Intent with the President of Colombia on the Peace Agreement, Food Security, and the Human Right to Food. He also signed agreements with the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, on behalf of the Argentinean Government. They aim to promote the development of different regions of the country in the areas of environment, livestock production, sustainable land management, integrated food policies, strengthening of land management, biosecurity, and the strengthening of South-South cooperation.

After the CELAC Summit, the Director-General, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative Mario Lubetkin, FAO Chief Economist M?ximo Torero, Chief of Staff Godfrey Magwenzi, and other FAO officials traveled to Asunci?n, Paraguay, for an official visit.

The agenda started with a meeting with President Mario Abdo Ben?tez.

FAO representatives and Paraguayan government authorities toured jointly implemented projects for rural development, sustainable production, environmental management, and climate change. They also held meetings with representatives of the private sector and dialogued with municipal authorities, producers, and artisanal fishermen.

Update of CELAC’s Food Security Nutrition Plan

The “Declaration of Buenos Aires” from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) seventh summit highlighted the Ministers and High Authorities of Agriculture meeting held at the end of last year, which was co-organized by the Pro Tempore Presidency of CELAC, FAO, and other institutions.

In this context, CELAC urged FAO to work with other technical organizations to update the CELAC Food Security, Nutrition, and Hunger Eradication Plan 2025, aiming to adapt it to the new international situation and the challenges of the region.

Mario Lubetkin, FAO regional representative, stated: “Multilateral institutions such as CELAC are fundamental to jointly coordinate regional work to end hunger and malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lubetkin added: “FAO offers all the technical support to develop strategic alliances to help the 56.5 million people suffering from hunger and the 131 million who cannot access a healthy diet. And to advance in the transformation of agrifood systems”.

This is the first time the current FAO Director General has participated in a CELAC Summit. In his speech, QU said that Latin America and the Caribbean “can and must take a step forward” to address the growing rates of hunger and inequality and thus be “at the forefront of world food and agriculture.”

FAO highlights the importance of regional integration through CELAC as a key element to advance in priority areas of work in the region, such as the need to expand food supply in the Caribbean, where healthy diets are expensive; invest in water infrastructure and food production initiatives in Central America, where droughts and emigration are persistent trends; improve food trade among the countries of the Andean region; and promote a broad regional infrastructure program for food production, storage and transport to facilitate intra-regional trade and exports.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is deeply concerned that the contrasting incidents involving the Haitian national Police indicate the severity of the challenges that the police face as well as further breakdown in security in Haiti.

CARICOM strongly condemns the killing of police officers and expresses its condolences to the families of the officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. The anger and dismay of the police at the gruesome killings of their colleagues, 78 killed since July 2021and 14 to date this January, are shared by all. However, abandoning the role of the security forces to protect every citizen and maintain public order further destabilizes the country. The protest actions by members of the police service against the Prime Minister cannot be condoned.

CARICOM urges the members of the Haitian National Police to safeguard peace and order and refrain from actions which could only serve to foster even greater damage to the country and its people.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

Outraged rebel police officers paralyzed Port-au-Prince on Thursday, roaring through the streets on motorcycles in protest of a slew of killings of police officers by Haitian gangs. More than a hundred protesters blocked roads, shot guns into the air, and broke through gates in the capital’s airport and the prime minister’s house, with tensions escalating throughout the day.

Gangs have killed at least 10 officers in the past week; another is missing and one more has severe bullet wounds, according to the Haitian National Police.

Video circulating social media — likely recorded by gangs — shows the naked and bloodied bodies of six men stretched out on the dirt, their guns laying on their chests. Another video shows two masked men who are smoking cigarettes from the dismembered hands and feet of the dead men.

The gang that killed the police officers, known as Gan Grif, still has the bodies, police said.

The wave of grisly killings of police is only the latest example of escalating violence in the Caribbean nation, which has been gripped by gang wars and political chaos following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. His unelected successor as head of the government, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has asked the United Nations to lead a military intervention, but no country has been willing to put boots on the ground.

The U.N. estimates that 60% of Port-au-Prince is controlled by the gangs. On the streets of the capital, Haitians say it’s more like 100%.

This week, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti urged the American and Canadian governments to lead an international armed force to help Haiti combat the gangs.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti tweeted Thursday afternoon asking for calm, and U.S. Ambassador Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, in a message on his own Twitter account, condemned the gang violence that left the officers dead, repeated the call for calm and extend his condolences to the families of the slain officers.

He said the U.S. would “continue to impose costs on those responsible for this heinous violence,” but gave no indication of any new efforts by the U.S. or its regional partners to address it.

CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk reported that the U.S. and Mexico proposed two resolutions to the United Nations Security Council in October, one to enact an arms embargo and that would impose financial costs on Haitian gang leaders, and another to create a non-U.N. multinational force under the U.N. Charter’s “use of force” provision.

To date, there has been no agreement on a multinational security force.

“Dozens of women and children as young as ten years old have been brutally raped as a tactic to spread fear and destroy the social fabric of communities under the control of rival gangs,” U.N. special envoy for Haiti, Helen La Lime, told the Security Council this week. She said an estimated five million people face acute hunger in the tiny nation, which has a total population of only about 11.5 million.

CBS News’ Falk said La Lime had stressed that the U.S. and Canada had not refused to send a joint security force, but that the North American nations were treading with caution over the details of how such a force might work.

“The United States continues to work to address Haiti’s humanitarian crisis, as well as its insecurity and to support Haitian-led efforts to facilitate the political conditions that would lead to free and fair elections,” said U.S. Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs Ambassador Robert Wood, acknowledging that “gang-related violence has reached unprecedented levels, which has only exacerbated the ongoing humanitarian crisis and hampered the ability to address the cholera outbreak, which has disproportionately impacted children and youth.”

Canada’s U.N. Ambassador, Bob Rae, said it was important to remember the history of “all previous military interventions in Haiti,” and he added that any new force “must be led by Haitians and by Haitian institutions.”

“We cannot wait,” Haiti’s own Ambassador to the U.N., Antonio Rodrigue, said this week. “The security situation could worsen any day, and worsen the fate of the people who are already suffering terribly.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have reported an “alarming” increase in boats full of migrants from Haiti and Cuba attempting to reach Florida in recent weeks.

Haitian police, meanwhile, are pleading for more resources.

The police deaths enraged members of Fantom 509, an armed group of current and former police officers that has violently demanded better conditions for officers.

Dozens of these men wove through Port-au-Prince on Thursday, many wearing hoods along with police uniforms, flak jackets and rifles and automatic weapons. They seized buses to blockade roads and torched tires across the city, leaving smoke plummeting through the streets.

Many demanded tougher crackdowns on the gangs, and called for the end to Henry’s administration, which many Haitians view as illegitimate. Demonstrators broke down one of the gates outside Henry’s home and a barrier at the Port-au-Prince airport, where he planned to make an appearance later in the day.

“We need a revolution,” screamed one protester dressed in a bullet proof vest, helmet and gas mask. “We are in the streets to fight, for our brothers and sisters who are victims of the bandits. We have to take to the streets every day to get what we want.”

A video recorded by local Haitian media shows empty streets and closed businesses on a key road of Port-au-Prince where the rebel group passed through.

In addition to the bodies displayed by the gang, a number of officers were killed last week in a firefight with gangs in a neighborhood that was once considered relatively safe.

Since Henry took the reins of the country, 78 police officers have been killed, according to a Thursday report by Haitian human rights group, National Network of the Defense of Human Rights.

The Haitian National Police expressed condolences to the slain officers’ families and colleagues, and said it’s “calling for peace and invites police officers to come together to bring forward an institutional response to the different criminal organizations that terrorize the Haitian people.”

“The movement will continue, we can’t let police get killed like this,” said one masked man in a police uniform carrying a pistol who did not want to be identified. “We can do the job if they give us ammunition.”

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

Cricket West Indies paid tribute to Irving Shillingford, the former Dominica, Combined Islands and West Indies batsman who passed away on Thursday. He was 78.

Shillingford was a stylish and determined middle-order batsman who made his international debut at age 32 against Pakistan in March, 1977, where he played alongside Sir Clive Lloyd, Sir Viv Richards, Sir Gordon Greenidge and Sir Andy Roberts. In his second Test he made a huge impact with a memorable topscore of 120 at the Bourda Ground in Guyana. Overall, he played four Test matches and two One-Day Internationals.

After his career ended, Shillingford held several roles in regional cricket including manager and coach of the West Indies Under-19 team, selector and coach of the Windward Islands team, and made a major contribution to the development of the game at all levels in his native Dominica. A stand at the Windsor Park Stadium is named in his honor.

Ricky Skerritt, President of CWI paid tribute to Shillingford.

“On behalf of CWI I offer my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Irving Shillingford. He was someone who played in the true spirt of the game and pioneered the way for others to follow. He was also one of cricket’s finest gentlemen, and an astute thinker with a wealth of knowledge. Irving was dedicated to the game over six decades as a player and administrator. He worked patiently and tirelessly to make sure Dominica and the Windward Islands featured prominently in the cricket map of the Caribbean.”

NewsAmericasNow.com