The assassination of the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, 53, shot dead at his home on Wednesday (7), is viewed with concern by Haitians living in Brazil. They fear that the growing wave of violence resulting from political instability in the Caribbean nation will strike relatives and friends and that returning to the country will become an even more distant dream. But not only.
Many Haitians, who began coming to Brazil at the start of the last decade after the 2010 earthquake disaster, say they believe the lack of diplomacy and dialogue with international institutions will worsen the plight of refugees and refugees. immigrants. Haitians interviewed by Folha report difficulties in renewing visas outside the country and increasingly frequent obstacles for those seeking new migration routes, especially to leave Brazil. According to data from the Federal Police, more than 135,000 Haitians entered the country between 2000 and early 2020.
“I’m worried about my family because we don’t have a president and we don’t know who will take power. My relatives are a little safer than the people of Port-au-Prince, because they are inside. from the country. [onde a violência é menor]. But if the president’s life ended this way, imagine the risks that people themselves do not run, “said civil engineer Jean Baptiste Joseph, 34, also referring to the violent protests that had taken place before. in the country.
The assassination of the president, for Joseph, therefore aggravated this scenario. “I follow the papers, I have news that people are on the streets and are burning everything,” he says. “And with the lack of diplomacy, other countries are also failing to offer Haitians opportunities to enter legally.”
“Without a president, what do we have left? Asks athlete Jean Woolmay Denson Pierre, 25. “If something serious happens to a Haitian [imigrante], who will intercede for us? Nobody. At present, many Haitians are leaving Brazil or wish to leave, in search of a residence in another country. It was very cool here [no início da década passada] and today it’s complicated. “
One of the difficulties mentioned by him is unemployment and inflation. “The price of food here in Brazil is very complicated, with R $ 200 you can’t live for two weeks. I don’t see any expectation of improvement. It seems like we are more and more non-existent. people were more ready to help, but Brazilians already have so many problems that they are leaving this help to foreigners aside. “
A Haitian who passed through the central São Paulo region last Wednesday evening – he did not want to identify himself because he fears losing his job – said that in order to survive in São Paulo he resorted to services whose remuneration does not correspond to a minimum wage, which today is R $ 1,100.
He also points out that the pandemic has brought obstacles in addition to health problems. Haitians in Brazil say they have missed opportunities to try and work in neighboring countries like Argentina and Paraguay. “It doesn’t happen [nesses dois países] as often as it happens at the borders of Bolivia and Peru, but Haitians are banned, yes, ”says Haitian documentary maker Akon Patrick Dieudonné.
“The rulers of Haiti are the United States and France. Any president or member of Congress who wants to negotiate directly for the progress of Haiti will not be able to negotiate independently. This type of condition is not topical, it has been since the Haitian Revolution. [1804]», Says Dieudonné.
“Haiti’s GDP comes from remittances made by Haitians who work in other countries, England, Brazil, Canada. In the Dominican Republic there are over 400,000 Haitians, and many of them do slave labor. It is a country that is mistreated. . all over the world, ”he said, citing the legacies of historic conflicts and reprisals conditioned by the insubordination of a nation that was the first to gain independence, fighting against French colonizers and slavery.
Rodrigo Charafeddine Bulamah, author of the doctoral thesis “Circular ruins: life and history in the north of Haiti,” said the Haitians he spoke to in Brazil and the Caribbean country were shocked, “full of uncertainty and frustrated expectations about the possibility of voting. “” There is an aspiration for democracy which cannot be achieved by external pressure. “