Haiti: dozens of inmates starve to death as malnutrition crisis engulfs prisons

[Judi Lynn]

Prison in Les Cayes that ran out of food two months ago reports deaths as UN urges government to tackle food and water crisis

Associated Press in Port-au-Prince
Thu 23 Jun 2022 16.21 EDT

At least eight inmates have starved to death at an overcrowded prison in Haiti that ran out of food two months ago, adding to dozens of similar deaths this year as the country’s institutions crumble.

Hunger and oppressive heat contributed to the inmates’ deaths reported this week by the prison in the south-west city of Les Cayes, Ronald Richemond, the city’s government commissioner, said on Thursday. He said the prison houses 833 inmates.

“Whoever can help should help immediately because the prisoners are in need,” he said.

The United Nations security council released a report last week saying 54 prison deaths related to malnutrition were documented in Haiti between January and April alone.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/23/haiti-prisons-starvation-un-deaths-crisis

[Judi Lynn]

1. Reminder of recent N.Y.Times article:Haiti's Forced Payments to Enslavers Cost Economy $21 Billion,

Haiti’s Forced Payments to Enslavers Cost Economy $21 Billion, The New York Times Found
06.13.22

It was big news in the U.S. when enslaved people in Haiti rose up and wrested their freedom from France in 1791. Haiti was founded as an independent nation in 1804, striking such fear in the hearts of American enslavers that the U.S. did not officially recognize Haiti until 1862, after the start of the Civil War.

What happened next is less well known in the U.S. today. Two decades after declaring independence, the French forced formerly enslaved Haitians at gunpoint to pay reparations to the people who had enslaved them.

Reporters for The New York Times tracked each payment Haiti made over the course of the 64 years that followed and calculated that the nation paid about $560 million in today’s dollars to satisfy this ransom and the loans they were forced to take to pay it.

For generations, Haiti’s revenues went to service its “double debt,” depriving its people of schools, hospitals, and basic infrastructure and pushing the country into a cycle of debt, poverty, and underdevelopment that persists today.

More:
https://eji.org/news/haitis-forced-payments-to-enslavers-cost-economy-21-billion-the-new-york-times-found/