This past Saturday, July 19th. 2014, in the heart of the City of North Miami at the MOCA CAFE, HAGC members met with Haitian Officials to discuss issues related with the Haitian Diaspora, including: the pending Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program being discussed at U.S the Department of Homeland Security, the Haitian Diaspora, Haiti's upcoming National Elections, the Reagan era Haitian Interdiction Program agreement signed between President Ronald Reagan and the Dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in September 1981, and convening a global conference in Port-au-Prince in about two months for the Diaspora to elect its own leaders for some kind of representation that will be sanctioned by the Executive, and the Legislative branches of the Government.This meeting was possible thanks to the mediation of the Minister for Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE), Mr. Francois Guillaume II who has been appointed to this new post earlier this year, upon exiting his previous post being the Haiti General Consulate in Miami. Mr. Guillaume has been able to use his negotiating skills to make some advances within the Diaspora Communities by persuading two Haitian Diaspora Groups to reconcile and create one Haitian Federation of the Diaspora serving under the same leadership, a group, that was split in 2013 in two major groups serving the same purpose.
At the meeting this past Saturday, PM Lamothe set the framework for the upcoming elections in 2014 and 2015. The bad news is the Haitians Living abroad will not be able to participate in the 2014 National Elections since the current Constitution does not allow it. We do feel that Haitian Nationals Living Abroad should have the right to be able to serve in the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP). Our Government will do what is necessary in order to grant the diaspora that right, he stated. In an interview to Radio Voice of America, Mr. Lafortune added that since 1986, successive Haitian Governments have transited in the National Palace, they gave only lip service. Even when they are placed under pressure to deliver, they have enacted laws filled with ambush and poison, and are worthless. Today we are asking Haitian Authorities to amend properly the Constitution to grant members of the Diaspora total integration compared with Haitians at home, we need laws with no restriction, continues Lafortune who is a Haitian-American and civil rights and Human Rights Advocate based in Miami. In 1994, Lafortune petitioned the Miami Dade County Commission to increase the Number of Commission Districts from 13 to 15 District in order to allow for fair representation of Haitian Nationals in the Commission.
Other important items of the discussion consist with the request for the Haitian Government to endorse the community campaign that is asking the Obama Administration to take an Executive Order to get the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) allow the settlement of some 110,000 Haitians whose family has applied for them for a visa and whose name are still waiting at the U.S Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Some of those who have been waiting became tired and resolved to take unsafe in flimsy boat to Florida. About a year ago, a Haitian teenager perished in waters off the coast of West Palm Beach, said Lafortune. He reminded Mr.Lamothe that the timing was appropriate for action on the idea of the Diaspora Envoy whose job will be to serve as a link between those residing abroad and at home.