Thousands flood the streets in South Florida to rally for Haiti as kidnappings, violence surge
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More than 2,000 people filled the streets marching under sweltering heat in North Miami Sunday afternoon to rally in support for the people of Haiti and to protest ongoing gang violence, political instability and corruption.
“We are marching against violence, we are marching against kidnapping,” Anna Dorvilier, 40, from West Palm Beach, yelled waving a sign that read “If we are not on the table, we are on the menu.”
Chanting and singing “Jistis pou Ayiti” and “Souf pou Ayiti” — Creole for “Justice for Haiti” and “Relief for Haiti” — the crowds waved tiny Haitian flags and followed a tractor trailer truck with an elevated platform carrying dignitaries like Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, clergy and musicians
“We are united for Haiti, and God’s ears are open today,” Levine Cava said.
Dance and church music boomed over huge speakers towed by the truck and the people in back and ahead of the semi sang along.
“We want everyone to hear our voices,” said marcher Mana Pierre-Louis, a 31-year-old who moved to South Florida from Haiti seven years ago. “We need a solution to Haiti now.”
The “Relief for Haiti” rally was organized by pastor Gregory Toussaint, senior pastor of Tabernacle of Glory Church in North Miami. Toussaint, who is CEO of Shekinah.fm. The North Miami was among several the pastor organized in major cities across the United States and in Haiti itself. He decided to organize a March after a petition drive to get support for a sanctions bill in congress garnered more than 100,000 signatures in a week.
Toussaint’s goal was to bring together Haitians in the U.S., Haiti, Canada and France in an effort to bring awareness to the escalating gang violence and kidnappings in the Caribbean country, and demand something be done.
Sunday’s rally also comes amid escalating violence in the Caribbean country. On Friday, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières announced suspension of all treatment at its trauma facility in the Haitian capital after approximately 20 armed men stormed its hospital in Tabarre.
The incident on Thursday night serves as a microcosm of the unprecedented level of violence in Port-au-Prince, and particularly in Tabarre, where armed men last month kidnapped prominent journalist Marie Lucie Bonhomme out of her home in the middle of the night. Ten days later they abducted her husband, the former head of the Provisional Electoral Council, Pierre-Louis Opont. He remains in captivity.
The march started at North Miami Senior High School on Northeast Eight Avenue and ended at North Miami City on 125th Street.
And though the rally was announced last week, the enormous size of the crowd was a pleasant surprise to those marching.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Babylson Dorelien, a 49-year-old Coral Springs man who moved from Haiti when he was a little boy in the early 1980s. He grew up to join the U.S. Army, and while Dorelien considers the United States home, he — like the others at the rally — want to be able to visit Haiti. Something the increasing gang violence makes nearly impossible.
“It’s necessary to be united and bring everyone together to show the world we are as one and we want our country to be free of the corruption and to be free to go back to our country and enjoy our country as we should,” he said.
His wife, Marjorie Dorelien, also 49, said something divine was afoot Sunday gauging from the sea of people covering the streets and hearing about similar rallies in other cities around the world.
“This is God’s purpose, and God is going to make a move,” she said.
In the United States, marches were planned a number of cities, including Atlanta, Newark, N.J., Brookyln, San Diego, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Philadelphia and Tampa.
Guerty Saint Jour, 43, said she hasn’t been back to Haiti in six years. She said if those living in the U.S. can’t visit friends and family in Haiti, the people left behind will continue struggle, especially economically.
“The people are suffering and they need help,” she said. “But, we can’t help them because we can’t go back to our country, to visit, to send money, to send goods.
Her friend, Woodline Mezier, 39, was born in Haiti, but also hasn’t been able to return since 2017.
“We’re tired of working 40 hours a week, and we’re not able to go home,” she said.
Mezier said she’s also sad that her young children have never been able to go to Haiti to visit their relatives there.
“Our heart breaks because Haiti is our country,” she said. “It’s home.”
In its latest report on the situation in the country, the United Nations says that violence by armed groups in the country is worsening, with sexual violence against women and girls and attacks against police officers and substations on the rise. María Isabel Salvador, who heads the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, told the U.N. Security Council that another worrying trend is the rise in vigilante killings. Her office has documented the killing of 264 alleged gang members by vigilante groups this year.
Back in Haiti, several thousands took to the streets at noon, traveling a familiar protest route that started near the Carrefour airport and headed in the direction of the National Palace. As they marched, they waved signs in Creole that read, “Haiti will not go to waste.”
Those participating in the North Miami march said they’re optimistic the large turnout at home and at similar rallies abroad could create a momentum resulting in improved conditions for people living in Haiti.
“The country of Haiti has suffered a lot, and the roots of the challenges in our country are very deep,” said Mashli Fleurestil, a member of Fraternity Baptist Church in North Miami. “But change has to start, and this is our first step in helping organize the diaspora here in Miami.”
