The American Civil Liberties Union on June 19 released a report alleging widespread abuses by the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD). The report documents numerous instances excessive force, sometimes deadly, to suppress speech, subdue protesters, and target ethnic and racial minorities. It also alleges a culture of impunity among the police and a failure to police crimes of abuse and sexual assault:

The Puerto Rican public school system is about to start a program intended to replace Spanish with English as the language used in teaching most courses, Education Secretary Edward Moreno Alonso told the Spanish wire service EFE on June 8. The change will begin this August at 66 of the system's 860 schools: at 31 schools children ages 5-9 will be taught all courses in English except history and Spanish; the other 35 schools will offer at least some of the course work in English. The government plans to complete the switch to English in all schools within 10 years.

More than 100 people claiming to be former members of the disbanded Armed Forces of Haiti (Fad'H) marched to Port-au-Prince from Carrefour, on the capital's southwestern outskirts, on May 18 to mark Haiti's Flag Day. They were wearing combat fatigues and some were armed. A few admitted to a reporter that they were too young to have been in the military in 1995 when it was disbanded by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004); others were women, even though the Fad'H had been all male. The marchers were calling on the government of President Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky") to restore the old military.

About 100 Haitian unionists and activists observed International Workers Day on May 1 with a march in Port-au-Prince to demand better wages and conditions for the country's assembly workers, who mainly produce apparel for sale in North America. Groups organizing the march included the Textile and Garment Workers Union (SOTA), the leftist workers' organization Batay Ouvriye ("Workers' Struggle"), the Women's Network of the Bureau of International Lawyers (BAI) and the Mobilization Collective for Compensation for Cholera Victims (Komodevik). SOTA and Batay Ouvriye have been working since the fall to organize assembly plant workers in the capital.

The Chamber of Deputies of the Haitian Parliament abruptly ended its session on April 17 when a group of armed men in uniforms entered the legislature's grounds in two vans. The men claimed to be former soldiers from the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd'H), which was officially disbanded in 1995 during the first administration of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004). Chamber president Levaillant Louis Jeune refused to meet with the men and suspended the session. "It's a serious issue when a working parliament is besieged by armed bandits," he said. Groups of former soldiers have been seen since the beginning of the year carrying out exercises in various parts of the country, sometimes using old military bases and training camps; apparently the government has done nothing to interfere.

Retired Dominican general Pedro Julio ("Pepe") Goico Guerrero has been heading a plot to destabilize the administration of Haitian president Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky"), Dominican president Leonel Fernández's information secretary, Rafael Núñez, announced at a Santo Domingo press conference late on April 12. The alleged plot also involves a Haitian citizen, Pierre Kanzki, according to Núñez, who was accompanied by Dominican foreign affairs minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, Haitian justice minister Michel Brunache, Dominican attorney general Radhamés Jiménez, and ambassadors Fritz Cineas (Haiti) and Rubén Silie (Dominican Republic). Returning to Haiti on April 13, Justice Minister Brunache announced that his department was investigating Kanzki; he didn't mention any criminal charges against either of the two men named in the alleged plot. (AlterPresse, AlterPresse, AlterPresse, Haiti, April 13)

Several construction companies controlled by Dominican senator Félix Bautista have paid a total of more than $2.5 million to Haitian president Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky") since 2010, according to a March 31 television report by Dominican investigative reporter Nuria Piera. At least two of the companies were awarded major contracts by the Haitian government for rebuilding in Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake: Hadom S.A., which won a $33 million contract to construct a new building for the Parliament, and Roffy S.A., which is getting $174 million for a housing project in the capital's Fort National section. (The ceremony to mark the start of the Fort National project last year was called off because of protests by area residents who demanded greater transparency.)

Hundreds of Haitians marked International Women's Day on March 8 with a march in downtown Port-au-Prince to demand justice for the women who were victims of the 1957-1986 Duvalier family dictatorship and to call for the departure of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 11,200-member international police and military force.