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  The Shameless Electoral Decree Dictated by the Legal Bandits Opinion — By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson (Le Français suit) Haiti’s newest electoral decree of October 5 is not a legal document. It is an insult — a brazen, shameless maneuver by a transitional apparatus that behaves less like a government and more like a cartel with official stationery. Adopted on June 2, rewritten on October 5, and still mutating like a virus, the decree has become the clearest proof that the country’s institutions are no longer guardians of democracy but instruments of delay, distortion, and self‑preservation. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and the government have effectively taken a national process hostage, hiding behind legal language while dismantling the very possibility of a fair election. Let’s call this what it is: a decree dictated by legal bandits — actors who operate inside the state, cloaked in authority, but accountable to no one. The first round of elections, once ...

  OP-ED | The Great American Gold Heist: How the 1914 Seizure of Haiti’s Reserves Mortgaged a Century of Growth By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson * (Le Français suit) There are dates in a nation’s history that sit like a stone in the collective memory. For Haiti, December 17, 1914 is one of them. That morning, eight U.S. Marines walked into the Banque Nationale in Port-au-Prince, loaded 17 crates of Haitian gold —the country’s entire reserve—onto a waiting naval vessel, and shipped it to New York. The official justification was “stability.” Haitians called it what it was: a heist , executed under the shadow of gunboats, months before the full military occupation began. For decades, the episode lived in the footnotes of diplomatic history, sanitized by euphemism. But numbers have a way of cutting through myth. And now, thanks to a new analytical tool—a Monte Carlo simulation app built to model Haiti’s lost century of capital—we can finally quantify what that theft meant. The ...

  Opinion | The Island Formerly Known as Ayiti, Hispaniola, Santo Domingo, Quisqueya, Kiskeya or Bohio By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson (Le Français suit) There are many ways to spark a diplomatic crisis on the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. You could mention migration. You could mention history. You could mention the border. Or — if you’re truly committed to chaos — you could simply say the island’s name. This week, a Haitian footballer did exactly that. He pointed at the ground and declared that Ayiti is the true name of the island . Not a manifesto. Not a territorial claim. Not a cartographic coup. He pointed at dirt. And yet, the reaction was so explosive you’d think he had tried to annex Santo Domingo using shin guards and a corner kick. The Island With a Full-Blown Identity Crisis Let’s be honest: this island has more names than a reggaeton artist with tax problems. Haitians call it Ayiti , because that’s what the Taíno called it lon...