International

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has raised alarm over escalating gang-related violence in Haiti and reports indicating that recent law enforcement operations involving drones have resulted in civilian deaths, including children. The Commission noted that operations conducted over the past year—some in collaboration with private actors—have allegedly caused multiple fatalities amid intensified security efforts.

A massive haul of marijuana worth around $3.8 million was seized from a suspected drug smuggling boat that was stopped near Haiti, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. The vessel was stopped Thursday about eight miles off Mole Saint-Nicolas by a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment that was aboard the U.S. Navy's USS Billings, officials said. Authorities discovered about 3,200 pounds of marijuana on the boat, with a value of around $3.8 million.

On Tuesday, the U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra instructed the 12-member jury, telling them they could not consider the guilt of other suspects in their deliberations, which began late in the day and will resume Wednesday. She was alluding to Joseph Félix Badio, a former Haitian anti-corruption official who played a pivotal role in transforming the plot, at a meeting in Port-au-Prince in mid-June 2021, from arresting Moïse arrest to killing him.

The lawyer, José Antonio Corrales, testified that he drafted several documents central to the plot, including the arrest warrant, which he had hoped to have signed by a Haitian Superior Court justice, Windelle Coq Thélot. His clients at the security firm had designated the judge as the heir apparent to Moïse after abandoning a South Florida pastor in his months-long quest for the presidency.

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared poised Wednesday to uphold the Trump administration’s efforts to end temporary legal protections for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians.  The decision could also affect several other lawsuits related to what is known as Temporary Protected Status that are pending in lower courts. The suits challenge the Trump administration’s procedures to terminate country protections, which have sharply raised deportation risks for more than 1 million immigrants.