The women of Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen raise their voices in grief and outrage, mourning the loss of live in the Pont-Sondé massacre of October 3, 2024. They condemn the authorities’ inaction, their complicity in the violence, the “anti-people action plan” that shatters families and forces communities to flee. As mothers, farmers, and market women, they demand an end to the terror, a future where their children are given schools, not weapons, and where their labor is met with dignity, not death. This is their cry for a Haiti free from fear, where the masses rise up to reclaim their stolen peace.
National Position of Women of Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen on the occasion of October 15, World Rural Women’s Day
October 15, 2024, is a special moment in the lives of women, especially peasant women and market women, due to the suffering they endure in the plotting of the political system and the gangs that destroy all the activities that peasant women and market women used to carry out to feed their families and society in general. They are left in a precarious situation.
We, the women of TÈT KOLE TI PEYIZAN AYIZAN, when we look, we see that peasant women are the pillar of the country’s economy. It is we who work the land, who harvest, who sell in the market, who trade, who make everyone find food in the country. And yet we are the most despised and marginalized. It is rural women who always fight against poverty, hunger, carry heavy loads to make the pot boil in the city. Despite all the responsibilities that peasant women carry in society, they never cease to be victims of violence and exploitation in this very unequal society.
The women of TET KOLE TI PEYIZAN AYISYEN denounce the complicity of the members of the KPT (referring to a political entity, likely the Provisional Electoral Council), the government of Garry Conille and the Director of the Police Normil Rameau who do nothing to counter the gangs in the country. For more than 5 months they have been in power, they have the army, the police, and supposedly multinational forces. These gentlemen give no appearance of solving the gang problem and restoring security in the country.
More territory is being lost, massacres continue to be perpetrated on the population, about 50 percent of the population is dying of hunger, people continue to flee their homes, the gangs continue to challenge the State. Despite the gangs announcing through social networks that they would massacre the population of Ponsonde, the authorities did nothing to prevent the gangs from carrying out this massacre on the population. This clearly shows that the authorities are the main ones responsible for the series of massacres and acts of banditry committed against peaceful citizens in society.
The women of Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen are deeply saddened and stand in solidarity with all the families who were victims of the Ponsonde massacre on the night of October 2nd to 3rd, 2024. The women of Tèt Kole declare that these series of massacres are part of the State’s anti-people action plan, which the groups, bourgeoisie, “patripòch” (likely a term for patriarchal figures), and traditional politicians have for the Haitian people. Their goal is to eliminate everyone living on the land of Papa Dessalines (Haiti).
That’s why, instead of the State establishing technical schools, professional schools, universities, and creating conditions for people to live in the country, so that young men and women can better organize themselves, they distribute weapons to them. This leads to massacres, kidnappings, rapes, thefts, and the burning of all that the population owns to live with dignity. They force peaceful citizens to leave the country in droves. We can say that the massacre of the Ponsonde population is a consequence of the political orientation of the indifferent, looting, corrupt, and criminal men and women who have been leading the country for over 13 years.
It’s sad when we look at what is happening to our brothers and sisters in the Dominican Republic. It’s a revolting and indignant situation, a result of the way those in power govern the State. They are simply content with privileges for themselves and their families, while the masses are languishing in poverty. These situations will never awaken the conscience of those in power because it’s not the mission that their Western masters gave them. It is the people who must gather their strength, build their power, and change this retrograde, exploitative, and criminal State.
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Showcasing stories of Caribbean organizations at the foreground of the struggle against disaster capitalism in the Caribbean. Our network of participants in the Greater Caribbean region connect, learn, share their hands on responses to the impacts of the twin threats of the climate crisis and disaster capitalism in our region.
Bernard Lodge Farmers Group
WAVE (Progressive Reform Movement)
Tèt Kole
Global Challenges Research Fund
Open Society Foundations
All Rights Reserved – strongercaribbeantogether.org 2022
All Rights Reserved – strongercaribbeantogether.org 2022
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