A 5.3-magnitude earthquake and a series of smaller tremors have struck southwest Haiti, killing at least two people, sending panicked residents into the streets and forcing authorities to close schools.

The US Geological Survey said the first earthquake on Monday morning struck near the city of Les Cayes, about 200km (124 miles) west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, followed by tremors of 4.4 and 5.1 magnitudes.

Two people were killed, The Associated Press and AFP news agencies reported, citing Haiti’s civil protection agency.

AFP said a man died when a wall collapsed in Anse-a-Veau, a small coastal town 130 kilometres (80 miles) from Port-au-Prince, while a second man died in a landslide in Fond-des-Negres, 20km (12 miles) further south.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/24/deaths-reported-as-earthquakes-rattle-southern-haiti

>>15451176

TORONTO (AP) — Haiti’s spiraling insecurity and growing concerns about its ability to hold general elections following the killing of President Jovenel Moïse prompted two dozen international senior officials to meet Friday and agree to increase aid.

Canada, which hosted the more than three-hour-long meeting with representatives from countries including the U.S., France and Mexico as well as U.N. officials, pledged $39 million in aid while other countries promised to improve Haiti’s security situation so it could hold successful elections. They also committed to bolstering Haiti’s National Police as violence spikes and gangs become more powerful, with more than 20,000 Haitians forced to live in unhygienic shelters amid the pandemic after losing their homes in recent months to gang turf battles.

“The increase in violence is only worsening the already precarious humanitarian situation,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of the meeting, which was behind closed doors. “We must work together to restore stability, and to protect the safety and well-being of the Haitian people.”

Representatives of 19 countries took part, including Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

https://apnews.com/article/business-justin-trudeau-canada-haiti-assassinations-5ceb57d6b63c5118b6c23ace7b2a1a35

With a bounty on his head and Haiti’s dysfunctional legal system and dangerously decrepit prison system on his mind, an ex-Colombian soldier wanted in a wide-reaching assassination probe took a gamble. After three months on the run, Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios fled Haiti by boat for Jamaica, from which he hoped he could be smuggled back to his native Colombia. Once back home, though, he planned to get in touch with the American Embassy to “bring clarity” to his role in the July 7 slaying of Haitian President Jovenel Mose, according to his lawyers. Instead of contacting U.S. authorities from afar, he ended up in the United States, charged in federal court.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article257076042.html

>>15451444

Three weeks after Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios arrived in Port-au-Prince last summer to assist in an operation to arrest Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, one of his co-conspirators flew to South Florida to ask for assistance with the plot. The man had a written request for assistance furthering the plot to arrest Moïse on a bogus 2019 Haitian arrest warrant and then imprisoning him, according to an FBI criminal complaint unsealed this week in a Miami federal courtroom. The man told others that the individuals involved would get immunity in Haiti for helping. Instead of being kidnapped, Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, in the bedroom of his private Port-au-Prince hillside residence after the plan changed, Palacios told Homeland Security Investigations and FBI agents after he was caught in Jamaica in October after months of hiding out in Haiti and deciding to cooperate in the joint U.S. investigation. “According to Palacios, co-conspirator #1 was one of the leaders of the operation,” the criminal complaint said. U.S. officials have not publicly identified co-conspirator #1. But the Miami Herald has confirmed that he is James A. Solages, a former Broward resident and one of three Haitian Americans jailed in Port-au-Prince in the crime, and who according to the complaint and records left Haiti on June 28 and returned on July 1.

Three weeks after Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios arrived in Port-au-Prince last summer to assist in an operation to arrest Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, one of his co-conspirators flew to South Florida to ask for assistance with the plot. The man had a written request for assistance furthering the plot to arrest Moïse on a bogus 2019 Haitian arrest warrant and then imprisoning him, according to an FBI criminal complaint unsealed this week in a Miami federal courtroom. The man told others that the individuals involved would get immunity in Haiti for helping. Instead of being kidnapped, Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, in the bedroom of his private Port-au-Prince hillside residence after the plan changed, Palacios told Homeland Security Investigations and FBI agents after he was caught in Jamaica in October after months of hiding out in Haiti and deciding to cooperate in the joint U.S. investigation. “According to Palacios, co-conspirator #1 was one of the leaders of the operation,” the criminal complaint said. U.S. officials have not publicly identified co-conspirator #1. But the Miami Herald has confirmed that he is James A. Solages, a former Broward resident and one of three Haitian Americans jailed in Port-au-Prince in the crime, and who according to the complaint and records left Haiti on June 28 and returned on July 1.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article257128667.html

Haiti’s investigative judge overseeing the inquiry into President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination is being removed from the case after failing to meet a legal deadline on bringing formal charges, signaling a significant delay in the prosecution of dozens of suspects being held but not formally charged.

Judge Garry Orelien had three months to summon witnesses and investigate the facts in the July 7, 2021, attack that left Moïse, 53, dead and his wife, Martine, seriously wounded. After failing to do either, Orelien earlier this month asked for an extension until Dec. 30. Bernard Saint-Vil, the dean of the Court of First Instance in Port-au-Prince and Orelien’s boss, said no.

Saint-Vil said in a letter Tuesday that an extension “will not allow the judge to complete his mission.”

In response to an inquiry from the Miami Herald, Saint-Vil said Orelien “has not yet reacted” to the decision to remove him from the case.

The highly unusual move by a judicial head comes amid doubts about Haiti’s ability — or even its willingness — to prosecute those responsible for the brazen crime and criticism that the investigation into who killed the country’s own president is stalled. After an initial arrest of 44 people, including 18 former Colombian soldiers, Haitian national police officers have made no new arrests despite the issuance of wanted posters for several key suspects.

Three out of four suspects who were picked up in connection with the assassination over the past three months were detained after spending months in hiding in Haiti — not by Haitian authorities but by foreign governments.

https://gazette.com/ap/business/while-us-probe-of-mo-se-murder-advances-judge-running-haiti-investigation-faces-firing/article_f9b7adef-a76a-5b1a-ada8-0b4f278bf3d1.html

The Biden administration and the U.S. intelligence community are increasingly concerned that Haiti is approaching a dangerous flash point in February, when they believe that the term of assassinated President Jovenel Moïse will officially end, deepening the country’s political crisis during a simmering power struggle in Port-au-Prince. In the days following Moïse’s assassination in July, his choice for the country’s next prime minister, Ariel Henry, took over running the country in his place. But international powers believe the slain president’s term formally ends on Feb. 7 — a date that could provide Henry’s adversaries with a pretext to challenge his fragile authority. U.S. officials fear that gangs increasingly coalescing power since Moïse’s death, destabilizing the country with fuel and hostage crises last fall, could align with different factions in the event of a challenge to Henry, raising the specter of political violence. “How the government of Haiti moves forward after February 7, the official end of assassinated President Jovenel Moïse’s term, will be an important inflection point for Ariel Henry’s government and its ability to bring some measure of political stability to Haiti,” a U.S. intelligence official told McClatchy. It is the latest chapter in a long-running state of emergency in Haiti that has repeatedly demanded the attention of the Biden administration.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article257283037.html

When thousands of Haitian migrants converged underneath a Texas bridge last September, the images of their plight, broadcast across the world, depicted the dire humanitarian consequences of a historic migration wave at the U.S. southern border.

But the events in Del Rio, Texas, last fall also illustrated the complicated, and often contradictory, trajectory of U.S. immigration and border policy during President Biden's first year in office.

Republicans, who have accused Mr. Biden of encouraging unlawful migration through changes in policy and rhetoric, portrayed the administration as too lenient, criticizing the release of some migrants who were allowed to stay in the U.S. to have court hearings before an immigration judge.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-biden-first-year-title-42-ice-texas/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17

In 2016, Donald Trump argued that the presidential election was being rigged against him, even going so far as to suggest that he may not accept the results. Four years later, he acted upon this impulse when he fell short in his reelection bid.

His questioning of the legitimacy of the election was roundly condemned, especially after it culminated in the January 6 Capitol riot. Trump’s opponent and successor, Joe Biden, was particularly effusive in his criticism, comparing the riot to the Civil War and declaring that “in America, if you lose, you accept the results.”

Those past statements are out of step with the hedging rhetoric Biden used at Wednesday’s press conference. Asked if he believed the 2022 midterms would be legitimate in the event that the Democrats’ voting bill failed to pass the Senate, Biden answered “it all depends on whether or not we’re able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election.”

Given a chance to clarify his comments, Biden doubled down, saying “I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit. It’s — the increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these — these reforms passed.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/the-medias-muted-reaction-to-biden-casting-doubt-on-election-legitimacy/