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Haiti hospitals and telecoms hit by fuel shortage as gangs tighten grip

AFP

Hospitals and telecommunication services in Haiti have warned that services could be halted due to fuel shortages caused by the growing grip of criminal gangs on the capital Port-au-Prince. 

Lives are “likely to be lost” if fuel deliveries do not reach hospitals immediately, warned the acting UN humanitarian coordinator in the country, Pierre Honnorat, in a statement released Sunday. 

An association of private hospitals in Haiti, which provides more than 70 percent of emergency and hospital care to the population, said it was issuing “a cry of alarm to the government.”  

“With this fuel shortage, the continuation of vital services of 40 hospitals to entire sections of the population is threatened. The poorest people may pay dearly,” said the association on Sunday. 

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The same concern was expressed by international NGO Medecins sans Frontieres, which has been present in Haiti for 30 years. 

“If the situation continues, the trauma/burns hospital in Tabarre in Port-au-Prince, which receives an average of 155 patients per month, may have to reduce its activities and restrict its admission criteria in the coming days,” MSF said. 

The gangs that control a large part of Port-au-Prince have been blocking roads leading to the oil terminals, preventing regular supply of gas stations for several months. 

The situation is already causing the shutdown of mobile telecommunications services, whose antennas are powered by generators.  

“More than 300 sites out of 1,500 of Digicel are affected by the fuel shortage,” said Jean-Philippe Brun, director of operations of the telephone company, which controls 75 percent of the Haitian market. 

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Schools and businesses were closed Monday in the Haitian capital, and the streets, usually congested by traffic, were deserted following a call for a strike by the public transport unions to protest against growing insecurity. 

Since the summer, armed gangs have increased the number of kidnappings across the country.  

One of the country’s most powerful gangs is demanding $17 million in ransom to free a group of missionaries and their families — 16 US citizens and one Canadian — who were kidnapped on October 16 east of Port-au-Prince.

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International

Thirteen cuban military members missing after explosion at arms warehouse

Thirteen members of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) have been reported “missing” following an explosion at an arms and ammunition warehouse in the eastern part of the island, the military institution announced.

“As a result of the explosions at an arms and ammunition warehouse in the Melones community… in the province of Holguín, 730 km east of Havana,” two officers, two non-commissioned officers, and nine soldiers are reported as “missing,” according to a statement from the Ministry of the Armed Forces released by Cuban state television.

The statement specified that “investigations are still ongoing at the site,” which led to the evacuation of more than 1,200 residents from areas near the warehouse of a military unit where “aged ammunition was being classified.”

Neither the official press nor Cuban state television have provided images of the explosions at the military unit, but independent media outlets published photos online showing a massive column of smoke and police officers deployed in the streets of the Melones community.

 

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International

Trump considers declaring National Economic Emergency to justify universal tariffs

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may be considering declaring a national economic emergency in order to justify implementing a package of universal tariffs on both allied and adversary countries, according to CNN.

The proclamation of these measures would grant the incoming U.S. president the freedom to create a new tariff program using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

This move would give the president the authority to manage imports during a national emergency.

According to the report, Trump has a penchant for this law as it provides broad jurisdiction on how tariffs are implemented without strict requirements to prove they are necessary for national security reasons.

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International

Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Márquez detained ahead of Maduro’s inauguration

Enrique Márquez, a minority opposition candidate in Venezuela’s July 28 elections, was “arbitrarily detained,” denounced a political coalition he is part of and his wife, who described the action as “kidnapping.”

Since Tuesday night, there has been a wave of reports of detentions, with at least a dozen arrests just over 48 hours before President Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration for a third six-year term, following a controversial reelection.

“We inform that yesterday, 07.01.25, Enrique Márquez was arbitrarily detained,” stated the Popular Democratic Front (FDP).

“He was kidnapped by paramilitary groups who, using force as their law, aim to silence and intimidate those of us who want a better country and have a different vision,” said his wife, Sonia Lugo de Márquez, on the leader’s X account.

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