Students protesting an $800 tuition surcharge imposed this year at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) marked the beginning of the spring semester on Feb. 7 with a two-hour march and rally at the school's Río Piedras campus in San Juan. Adriana Mulero, a spokesperson for the protesters' Student Representative Committee (CRE), called the demonstration a success, since "they didn't use brute force," referring to the large police presence at the campus.

Jean-Michel François, the son of exiled former Haitian police chief Joseph Michel François, was killed the night of Feb. 3 in the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula. The younger François, a law student, was thrown from a moving vehicle in front of his father's electronic appliance store in the Medina neighborhood; he died hours later at a nearby hospital. According to some sources he died of bullet wounds, while others say he was badly beaten and died from his injuries. No motive had been given as of Feb. 5.

A Haitian national with symptoms of cholera died in Haiti just two days after his Jan. 20 deportation from Florida by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Wildrick Guerrier was one of 27 Haitians repatriated in ICE's first deportation of Haitian immigrants since an earthquake devastated southern Haiti in January 2010. Immigrant rights advocates had warned about the dangers of resuming deportations, especially after a cholera epidemic struck Haiti in mid-October. "This is death by deportation," Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) executive director Cheryl Little said in a Jan. 31 press release.

Student strikers at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) continued using mass civil disobedience the week of Jan. 24 to push their demand that the university drop an $800 tuition surcharge the administration is imposing this year. Some 200 protesters occupied parts of the Río Piedras campus in San Juan at various times on Jan. 25, with a total of 32 arrests. "We're going to emphasize civil disobedience as a strategy to bring the message that there are students ready to commit themselves totally because they believe there are alternatives to the fee," said Xiomara Caro, a spokesperson for the Student Representative Committee (CRE). (El Nuevo Día, Guaynabo, Jan. 25)

On Jan. 28 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced its new schedule for the long-delayed runoffs for the presidency and for many legislative seats. The CEP set Feb. 2 as the day when it would announce the results of the first round, held on Nov. 28; campaigning is to take place from Feb. 17 to March 18; and the actual vote is planned for Mar. 20, with the preliminary results to be announced on March 31. The second round was supposed to be held on Jan. 16 but was delayed by disputes over the results of the chaotic first round.

Even before a major earthquake hit Port-au-Prince in January 2010, the US embassy planned for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)--an international force then numbering about 9,000 soldiers and police--to remain in the country through 2013, according to a confidential US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks group and published by the Spanish daily El País on Jan. 28.

While media attention remains focused on the return of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier to Haiti, disputes over the Nov. 28 elections continue. A week after a technical group from the Organization of American States (OAS) recommended a runoff between presidential candidates Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky," Peasant Response), Haitian president René Préval still had not agreed to have his Unity party's candidate, Jude Célestin, cede the number two spot on the ballot to Martelly.

On Jan. 21 former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier (1971-1986) gave his first press conference since arriving unexpectedly in Port-au-Prince the evening of Jan. 16 after 25 years of exile in France. Speaking at a private residence in Montagne Noire, on the eastern edge of the capital, Duvalier expressed his "profound sorrow" on behalf of his "compatriots who legitimately claim that they were victims" of his regime, along with his "sympathy" for his "millions of supporters," especially the "thousands" who were "cravenly assassinated... roasted... their houses, their goods pillaged, uprooted."