PHOTO ESSAY: Haiti
Ballvé, Teo
HAITI SHOCKED THE WORLD WHEN IT WON ITS independence two centuries ago: a hopeful symbol of liberation for the oppressed and a fearful threat of rebellion for the powerful. The so-called...
...Photo by Peter Hvizdak/The Image Works 8JANUARY FEBRUARY 2005 PHOTO ESSAY Men who identified themselves as police subdue a man in Port-au-Prince on February 29, 2004, the day of Aristide's ouster...
...Sometimes, unfortunately, the most striking photos of human beings are also the saddest...
...We decided not to include photos documenting the appalling displays of violence-the immolations, decapitations and rotting bodies-found daily on the streets of Haiti, of which there were several...
...The students were angry over police inaction the day before, when pro-Aristide thugs attacked a student protest...
...no doubt the case here...
...Photo by Villalon Carlos/World Picture News 9NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS PHOTO ESSAY A flooded street in the port city of Gona'ves...
...It was a day filled with both celebrations and spontaneous eruptions of violence in the streets of the capital...
...But what was already a desperate situation has only grown worse...
...Photo by Leslie Spurlock People in Gonaives fight to reach the back of a truck where aide workers were distributing food and potable water on September 24, 200%, several days after flooding killed thousands of people...
...Photo by Daniel Morel Scores of people wait on line for fresh water after Tropical Storm Jeanne ravaged the city of Gonaives in September 2004...
...Photo by Leslie Spurlock 10JANUARY FEBRUARY 2005 PHOTO ESSAY Menacing former members of Haiti's Armed Forces leaving their makeshift headquarters in an apartment building in Port-au-Prince on November 18, 2004...
...The storms and deforestation-related flooding left some 5,000 dead and an estimated 300,000 homeless...
...The political impasse and violence leading up to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide snowballed into an armed paramilitary rebellion in the first months of 2004...
...The so-called "Black Republic" instantly became an international pariah, and was alternately used, abused or ignored depending on the situation's convenience for global powers...
...Photo by Daniel Morel Brazilian UN peacekeepers watch former soldiers of Haiti's disbanded Armed Forces...
...Indeed, the year 2004 constitutes a blatant and horrific non-exception...
...Teo Ballve A young girl near open sewage in Cite Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince's largest slums...
...Photo by Daniel Morel A mural in Port-au-Prince, celebrates Haiti's successful slave rebellion in 1804...
...Photo by Julio Etchart...
...Photo by Lucian M. Read/WorldPictureNews A student holds rocks during cat-and-mouse clashes with police days before Aristide's ouster...
...Aristide was finally forced to flee the country at the end of February, at best, under dubious circumstances...
...Photo by Lucian M. Read/World Picture News A young "chimbre," literally "monster," or a pro-Aristide street thug, flashes his automatic pistol in front of Cite Soleil residents in Port-au-Prince just days before Aristide's ouster in February 2004...
...Jane Regan's article in the preceding pages of this issue quotes Haitian historian and political scientist Alix Rene who summarizes his nation's history: "Really, 200 years of history have been 200 years of violence...
...They document the byproduct of a confluence of factors-political strife and violence, armed groups, environmental degradation and generalized destitution...
...The ex-soldiers want the army reestablished and in the meantime have taken to patrolling and even making arrests...
...the entire country was devastated by the 20014 hurricane season...
...This photo essay explores the tragic events that engulfed Haiti in 2004...
Vol. 38 • January 2005 • No. 4
