Citing "lack of evidence," on Aug. 14 a Haitian criminal tribunal in Port-au-Prince headed by Judge Fritznel Fils-Aime ordered the immediate release of Annette Auguste ("So Ann"), Georges Honore, Yvon Antoine ("Zap-Zap") and Paul Raymond, prominent supporters of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his left-populist Lavalas Family (FL) party. The four were arrested at various times between March 2004 and July 2005; they were held without formal charges until April 2006, when they were charged in connection with a violent attack by Aristide supporters against opposition students at the State University of Haiti (UEH) on Dec. 5, 2003, in which several students were injured and UEH rector Pierre-Marie Paquiot's legs were broken.

On Aug. 9 the US Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a 237-page report on the killing of Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios in the western town of Hormigueros on Sept. 23, 2005, by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The OIG concluded that Ojeda had fired on the FBI agents first and that they were justified in returning fire and in waiting 18 hours after Ojeda was hit before entering his house to check his condition. But the report says the agents should have considered surrounding the house and forcing Ojeda out with tear gas and should have made a greater effort to negotiate a surrender. (Harford Courant, Aug. 10; FBI press release, Aug. 9)

Haiti's Collective for Mobilization Against the High Cost of Living held a sit-in on July 25 in front of the Hotel Karibe Convention Center in Port-au-Prince to demand cancellation of Haiti's external debt. The protesters carried signs with such slogans as: "We're not in debt," "We have nothing to pay," "France is the one that's in debt." (Haiti was born from a massive slave rebellion against French colonial rule in the late 18th century.) According to the collective's spokesperson, Guy Numa, Haiti currently pays $60 million each year in interest on an external debt of a little more than $1 billion. (Agence Haitienne de Presse, July 25)

This July 30 Chicago Tribune story is suddenly much more relevant, since Fidel ceded executive powers—just one day after it appeared! The existence of groups like Elizardo Sanchez' Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (about which more below) is anathema to the dogmatists on either side of the Havana-Washington/Miami divide.

U.S. aid unproductive, some Castro foes say
HAVANA - The Bush administration's plans to send an additional $80 million over the next two years to support Cuba's struggling opposition movement is being criticized by the very people the money is intended to help.

UN troops and armed gangs exchanged gunfire in Haiti's Cite Soleil shantytown late June 7, leaving at least three dead. Cite Soleil, on the northern edge of the Poart-au-Prince, was the scene of routine gunfights between gangs and foreign troops last year, but had been relatively peaceful since before Haiti's Feb. 7 presidential election.

A year after he was arrested on immigration charges, Posada Carriles is being investigated by a federal grand jury--but the media are no longer paying attention. From our sibling journal Upside Down World, May 24:

Convicted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is being investigated by an El Paso-based grand jury [Prensa Latina, May 22]. Carriles just celebrated a year of incarceration in El Paso’s Federal Immigration Detention Center. The investigation seems to be centered around how Carriles entered the US without a visa in March 2005.

Two US Black Hawk combat helicopters were observed flying over the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti on at least two occasions in March: 4:00-4:30 AM on March 23 and 10 PM-12:00 AM on March 24. The flights, reported by Dominican military commanders in Duverge and Jimani, in the southwestern province of Independencia, alarmed the residents of several communities.

From the Wayne Madsen Report, via VHeadline.com, April 6:

In a replay of US naval maneuvers held during the time the Bush administration tried to unseat Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in an April 2002 abortive coup, the US Navy is deploying a task force led by the USS George Washington to waters off the Venezuelan coast in "Operation Partnership of the Americas."