Jose Luis Rugeles and Ana María Tarazona of Rhayuela Won Five Prizes for ‘Rookies’
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What is the history of foreign interventions in Haiti?
The proposal initially sparked an uproar. In October 2022, then-Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 top officials called on the international community to send a “specialised armed force” to help combat the spread of gang violence in Haiti.
But Haiti has struggled with a long, fraught history of foreign involvement — and the prospect of a new wave of outside interference was met with scepticism.
Now, experts say that public opinion is shifting in Haiti, as the violence continues to fester and Haiti’s already tenuous government is on the verge of yet another shake-up.
“In October 2022, most Haitians were against an international force,” said Pierre Esperance, executive director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH). “But today most Haitians will support it because the situation is worse, and they feel there are no other options.”
Still, the history of international involvement in Haiti casts such a long shadow that it continues to be a divisive subject — both among the Haitian people and the outside forces that would potentially be involved.
A new level of crisis
The instability in Haiti entered a new chapter this week when Prime Minister Henry — an unelected official who has been serving as de facto president — announced that he planned to resign.
The announcement came after mounting international pressure, as well as threats from the gangs themselves. One of the country’s most notorious gang leaders, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, told reporters that a “civil war” would erupt if the deeply unpopular Henry did not step down.
The calls for an international force to intervene arise from the acute nature of the situation, Esperance and other experts told Al Jazeera.
Gang violence has forced more than 362,000 Haitians from their home, largely in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince. The United Nations estimates that at least 34,000 of those have been displaced since the start of the year.
Armed groups have also taken control of roadways and other vital arteries around the country, limiting the flow of supplies. With high rates of poverty already driving malnutrition, the UN has warned the country is at risk of famine.
“The gangs control more than 95 percent of Port-au-Prince,” Esperance said. “Hospitals don’t have materials, there’s not enough drinking water, the supermarkets are almost empty. People are staying at home because it’s very dangerous.”
Will Kenya take the lead?
With gang violence at crisis levels and Haiti’s government in shambles, some Haitians are increasingly looking abroad for assistance.
An August poll released by the business alliance AGERCA and the consultancy DDG found that about 63 percent of Haitians supported the deployment of an “international force” to combat the gangs.
An even higher portion — 75 percent — said the Haitian police needed international support to reestablish order.
But countries like the United States and Canada have baulked at the prospect of helming such a force themselves, though they have offered to back other governments that might lead one.
In July 2023, Kenya announced it would be willing to deploy forces to Haiti and potentially lead a multinational security mission.
The UN Security Council threw its support behind the initiative, approving the Kenya-led mission. But the effort has since stalled, amid court challenges and other slowdowns.
In January, a Kenyan court ruled that deploying forces in Haiti would be “illegal and invalid”. And just last Tuesday, Kenyan officials said they would pause any deployment to Haiti until a new government was in place.
Jonathan Katz, the author of the book The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, told Al Jazeera that the international community’s hesitation to lead a mission to Haiti is a testament to the poor track record of past foreign interventions.
“These countries are saying, ‘We need to do this because we can’t think of any other solution,’” said Katz. “But nobody wants to do it themselves because every single one of these interventions throughout Haiti’s history have ended with significant egg on the face for everyone involved.”
‘A direct colonial occupation’
Since the early 1900s, there have been at least three direct interventions in Haiti, including a decades-long occupation by US forces.
That occupation lasted from 1915 to 1934 and was carried out in the name of restoring political stability after the assassination of then-President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam.
But during their time in Haiti, US forces oversaw widespread human rights abuses and the implementation of a “corvée”, a system of forced labour sometimes likened to slavery.
“Slavery it was — though temporary,” said US civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson, writing for The Nation magazine in 1920.
“By day or by night, from the bosom of their families, from their little farms or while trudging peacefully on the country roads, Haitians were seized and forcibly taken to toil for months in far sections of the country.”
US soldiers even removed substantial funds from the Haitian National Bank, carting them off to New York.
“This was a direct colonial occupation that began under US President Woodrow Wilson and lasted for five administrations, both Republican and Democrat,” Katz said of that period. “Later occupations were carried out with varying degrees of directness and indirectness.”
A hand in Haiti’s politics
For instance, the US would intervene again in Haitian politics during the Cold War, as it propped up governments friendly to its interests in the name of anti-Communism.
Positioning himself as an anti-Communist leader upon his election in 1957, Haitian President Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier actively courted US support, even as he led a brutal campaign of state violence against his own people.
Despite misgivings about Duvalier, the US offered him aid: US Ambassador Robert Newbegin, for instance, arrived in Port-au-Prince prepared to give Duvalier’s administration approximately $12.5m in 1960 alone.
One estimate puts the total US support given to Haiti under Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, at $900m. Meanwhile, the Duvaliers faced accusations of murder, torture and other violations.
The US also sent troops to intervene directly in Haiti. In 1994, for instance, US President Bill Clinton sent a contingent of about 20,000 troops to restore Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after he was overthrown by the country’s military in 1991.
That deployment took place in parallel with a UN mission that ran from 1993 to 2000, also with the support of the US.
In 2004, Aristide was overthrown once more, but this time, the US encouraged him to step down, flying him out of the country and sending troops to the island alongside nations such as France and Chile.
That force was then replaced by the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, which lasted from 2004 until 2017 and was led by the Brazilian military.
While MINUSTAH was tasked with enhancing security, it soon faced allegations of committing rape and other atrocities against civilians. A massive cholera outbreak that killed more than 9,300 people was also traced back to a sewage leak from a UN facility.
A Haitian-led future
Given its pockmarked history of Haitian intervention, the US has expressed wariness towards leading a new international mission to Haiti. Many are calling for solutions to be Haitian-led, instead of foreign-led.
“We need to give the Haitians time and space to get this right,” former US special envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, said in a recent interview with NPR.
“Let’s let the Haitians have a chance to mess up Haiti for once. The international community has messed it up beyond recognition countless times. I guarantee the Haitians mess it up less than the Americans,” he added.
For his part, Katz said the Kenya-led mission, with its UN backing, would have provided a buffer for the US and other powers that have a checkered history in the region.
In the 20th century, the US carried out these occupations of Haiti. Later, you get these outsourced occupations by the UN, which the US supports,” said Katz.
“But these always turn out poorly for the reputations of those involved, and they never leave the country on a better footing. So now with this Kenyan-led initiative, you have an almost double-outsourced intervention.”
A last resort
But with the Haitian government in disarray and violence rampant, some experts question what systems are in place to foster recovery.
President Jovenel Moise’s assassination in 2021 left a power vacuum in Haiti’s government, and no general elections have been held since. Katz argues the US made the situation worse by lending support to Henry, whose popularity has cratered amid questions about his commitment to democracy.
“Anybody paying attention has been saying for years that this was an unsustainable situation that was going to explode,” said Katz. “When there’s no legitimate democracy, it opens the door for people with the most firepower.”
Both Katz and Esperance point out that, while countries like the US have helped equip the Haitian National Police, the boundary between the officers and the gangs they are meant to combat is often porous.
The gang leader Cherizier, for instance, is himself a former member of the Haitian National Police’s riot control branch.
The result is that Haitians feel like they have no choice but to look abroad, Esperance explained.
“We need a functional government. An international force will not be able to solve the problem of political instability,” said Esperance. “At the same time, Haiti cannot wait. We are in hell.”
World
Beloved musicians among victims in deadly Bahamas plane crash; aviation authority grounds flights
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A devastating double-aviation crisis in the Bahamas, including a deadly North Andros plane crash and a separate aircraft fire on Friday, prompted the government to suspend flight operations for a local airline and launch a federal safety probe.
Shortly after 1 p.m. local time Friday, a Cessna 402 aircraft with Bahamian registration departed Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau bound for San Andros Airport.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) said the plane “encountered difficulties” and crashed into bushes prior to landing.
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Authorities said 10 people were killed in a Bahamas plane crash on Friday. (Our News Bahamas via AP)
First responders, including the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Airport Authority and emergency medical personnel, rushed to the dense brush where the aircraft went down.
The Bahamas Musicians and Entertainers Union confirmed in a statement Saturday that 10 people died in the crash, including prominent members of the “The Pond Band” and a local DJ, whose artistry the union said “touched so many lives and helped to enrich the cultural fabric of The Bahamas.”
Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis said a sole survivor was pulled from the wreckage.
“Ann and I are praying for the families who are now facing unbearable grief,” Davis wrote in a statement on X. “We are also praying for the survivor, whose recovery and care will remain in our thoughts.”
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The identities of those killed in the crash have not yet been released.
While the AAIA’s preliminary reports initially indicated seven people were on board, officials are still establishing the facts of the flight manifest.
Just hours before the fatal crash in North Andros, a Flamingo Air flight en route to Mayaguana was forced to turn back to Nassau after the pilot reported a concern, according to the Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Aviation (MoET).
After the aircraft landed and passengers safely deplaned, the plane caught fire on the runway.
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FILE – The Civil Aviation Authority Bahamas temporarily suspended Flamingo Air’s Air Operator Certificate following two aircraft incidents Friday. (iStock)
Following the two back-to-back safety incidents, the Civil Aviation Authority Bahamas (CAAB) temporarily suspended Flamingo Air’s Air Operator Certificate, according to MoET officials.
“The suspension is a precautionary safety measure and should not be treated as an adverse compliance action against Flamingo Air,” the agency wrote in a statement.
FILE – The plane crashed in North Andros on Friday after taking off from Lynden Pindling International Airport. (Melissa Alcena/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Investigators from the AAIA and inspectors from the CAAB remain at the scene in North Andros as they work to determine what caused the Cessna 402 tragedy.
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Flamingo Air did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Published on •Updated
Moldova’s pro-European President Maia Sandu nominated businessman Vasile Tofan on Saturday as the country’s next prime minister to replace Alexandru Munteanu, who resigned earlier this month over differences with the ruling majority.
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In a video posted to social media, Sandu said Tofan’s primary responsibility, after his candidacy is approved by the country’s parliament, would be to move the country further towards its path of “integration” into the European Union.
He should also “strengthen the resilience of state institutions and society”, and “revive the economy”, added Sandu.
The Moldovan businessman now has two weeks to secure parliamentary backing, a prospect he hopes to achieve after submitting his government programme and his ministerial cabinet nominations.
Tofan had been mentioned as a possible prime minister last year even before the appointment of Munteanu.
Igor Grosu, who heads Sandu’s Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) which won the last parliamentary elections in September, announced on Friday that he had selected him as his candidate to replace the outgoing premier.
He said Tofan shared “the same objectives” as him and PAS, specifying that “EU accession in the years to come, institutional reform and economic growth”, were among the biggest points of agreement.
The nominee for prime minister, who graduated Harvard Business School and turns 44 on Sunday, has a degree in public management from the Netherlands and is a managing partner at Horizon Capital, a private equity firm with assets primarily in Ukraine and Moldova.
He has also chaired the board of directors of Moldova’s Purcari winery, considered the crown jewel of the country’s winemaking sector.
Munteanu, another businessman who like Sandu previously worked at the World Bank, had been chosen to boost the economy and bring it closer to the EU, but turbulence with PAS saw him vacate his post less than a year into holding office.
He resigned on 3 July after less than eight months, stating that he could no longer carry out his mandate “according to (his) principles and (his) convictions”.
The EU last month officially launched a first round of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. Both countries became official EU candidate countries on 23 June 2022.
Additional sources • AFP
World
Colombia Adds Massive Soundstage as Bogotá Audiovisual Market Attendance Soars and ‘Narcos’ Star-Led ‘Rookies’ Cleans Up in Project Prizes
Colombia’s Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM) has wrapped its 17th Edition July 10 with an uptick in attendance. The numbers say it all: 2,336 accredited participants and 271 industry activities and 882 one-on-one business meetings connecting selected projects with a host of international guests, advisors and potential partners.
“BAM once again showed that Colombia has world-class stories to tell and the talent to bring them to global audiences. We’re confident that many of the projects that came through the market leave stronger than they arrived—and one step closer to becoming the films, series, and audiovisual experiences audiences will see in the years ahead,” said BAM director Carlos Eduardo Moreno.
The ever-expanding five-day event was packed with panels, masterclasses and training sessions among a dizzying array of activities. It only paused when Colombia played against Switzerland in its failed bid to make the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup on July 8. Even the traffic-clogged streets of Bogotá went virtually silent.
This year’s edition awarded 70 in-kind prizes from national and international partners to selected projects and emerging talent across various categories including Fiction Films, Documentaries, Series, Rough Features, Animation, Rough Shorts and Bammers. Among the big winners was José Luis Rugeles and Ana María Tarazona of Rhayuela, who took home five awards for their TV series project, “Rookies” (“Oficina de Detectives”).
Among documentary feature contenders, “La Sombra de Yolüja” by Hanz Rippe Gabriel and Fernanda Pineda and “De la Villa” by Mónica Taboada and Beto Rosero split the prizes.
Meanwhile, Agamenón Quintero’s “De naranjas y otros demonios” snagged the most awards in the fiction feature section.
Organized by Proimágenes Colombia and the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, BAM remains a key engine driving Latin America’s audiovisual sector.
TIS Studios Opens Massive 18,300-Square-Foot Stage 7, VFX Companies Folks, Loma Expand Clientele
BAM took place just as TIS Studios, which has hosted a slew of high-profile projects, announced the opening of Stage 7, a new 18,300-square-foot soundstage, primed to host large-scale international film and TV productions.
Stage 7, TIS Studios
“TIS Studios brings highly trained crews, international production standards and the protocols to manage large-scale projects, all backed by nearly three decades of delivering premium content,” said Samuel Duque, president of TIS Studios. “Stage 7 adds to that foundation. Combined with Colombia’s production incentives, it gives producers, showrunners and production studios around the world one more reason to bring their most ambitious projects here.”
The launch of Stage 7 marks the next phase in TIS Studios’ expansion, building on nearly 30 years of production expertise and a track record of projects for major global platforms and networks including Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount, CBS Studios, MTV, Fox Television Studios, Nickelodeon, NBCUniversal and Telemundo.
At 18,300 square feet and 40 feet high, Stage 7 is Colombia’s largest soundstage and one of the biggest in Latin America.
Meanwhile, VFX company Folks Bogotá, run by Andrea Espinal, has attracted a slew of international projects to its studio, lured by its highly competitive rates.
The shows it has serviced include Netflix’s epic “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Taylor Sheridan’s “1883” and “Lioness” (Seasons I and II), Rodrigo Prieto’s directorial feature debut “Pedro Páramo,” AppleTV’s “The Morning Show” and survival horror pic “Boiúna: Legend of the Amazon,” formerly titled “Titan,” which shot in the Colombian Amazon.
Launched in 2019 under Espinal, Folks Bogotá studio was established to harness Colombia’s creative talent for high-end VFX productions. What began by supporting the Montreal team grew into a full-service studio delivering visual effects for major Latin American and international titles.
Another burgeoning VFX company, Loma, with deep roots as a family-owned rental equipment company, has expanded into the virtual production business. Its 200-square-meter virtual production studio combines custom LED volumes with real-time technologies including Unreal Engine, camera tracking and media servers to deliver in-camera VFX and extended reality (xR) productions.
Run by COO Francisco Forero, the Bogotá-based facility supports feature films, series, commercials, live broadcasts and R&D projects, offering filmmakers a state-of-the-art environment for virtual production and next-generation visual effects workflows.
Among some of the shows they have serviced are Netflix’s fact-based skyjacking series “The Hijacking of Flight 601,” SPT’s “Hasta que amanezca” and “Como perderlo todo” from Dago Prods. as well as BAM’s Vaivén, a large-scale immersive audiovisual installation created by artist collective Project Aurora.
Not surprisingly, its biggest client, as is the case with TIS’ and Folks,’ is Netflix, which has continued to grow its slate in Colombia, recently tapping Ana Maria Londoño as Head of Content in Bogotá.
Venezuelan Filmmaker Mariana Rondón Reflects on ‘All Her Nights Without Caracas’
Taking the stage for her BAM Talk, Venezuelan filmmaker Mariana Rondón reflected on her path to cinema, from her award-winning “Bad Hair” (“Pelo malo”) to her latest feature, “It Would Be Night in Caracas,” produced by Edgar Ramírez.
Rondón revealed that her creative journey began with an unexpected fascination: genetics. She spent a decade developing her own “genetic laboratory” through art, creating an installation that imagined transgenic beings and produced just 12 seconds of moving imagery. “That process transformed my understanding of cinema: powerful stories can begin with an image, not only with a script,” she said, emphasizing the emotional power of images to generate curiosity, wonder, and meaning.
The Venezuelan exodus later reshaped her artistic focus. “Seeing people walk from Venezuela all the way to Chile—step by step, crossing borders on foot—felt almost biblical,” she said, describing a crisis that forced many, including herself, to rethink identity, belonging and the possibility of imagining a future.
Unable to film “It Would Be Night in Caracas” in the Venezuelan capital, Rondón and her co-director Marité Ugas recreated the city in Mexico, working with hundreds of displaced Venezuelans. During scenes recreating protests, the boundary between fiction and reality collapsed. “We would call ‘cut,’ but there was no way to stop,” she recalled. Many participants were reliving their own experiences, leading the production to provide psychological support.
Ultimately, the film became an act of reconstruction – a way to reconnect with a country many had lost and to explore identity through cinema. “That question of identity is at the heart of why we make films,” she said.
Colombia’s Film Boom Has a Sustainability Problem
A new industry study presented at BAM confirms the historic impact of Colombia’s Film Law 814, which, through the Film Development Fund (FDC) and tax incentives, transformed the country into a thriving production hub. Between 2015 and 2025, Colombia released 548 feature films—compared with roughly two per year before 2003—with public support and tax incentives financing more than half of them and attracting around $160 million in private investment.
But the study also reveals a major challenge: production growth has not translated into stronger companies. Only 25% of production houses supported by the FDC or tax incentives have returned for a second project, leaving 75% unable to build long-term capacity. With most companies operating with just two employees and cinema representing only part of their revenue, the report warns that Colombia is successfully financing films—but not yet building sustainable film businesses.
The study proposes 12 strategies to strengthen the ecosystem, including expanding funding tools, improving tax incentives, supporting distribution and promotion, and recognizing the operational costs needed to build resilient production companies.
“The study confirms the need for a more integrated approach to film policy. 26 years ago, the priority was to create Colombian films. Today, those films exist—but their market share remains minimal, and they are still not reaching audiences,” said producer-director Cristina Gallego (“Birds of Passage”), who led the panel.
“We need to embrace technological change and incorporate it into financing strategies, moving beyond fragmented interests. Screenwriters, regional filmmakers, workers, festivals, producers, distributors, and public institutions—including the ministries of culture, education, technology, and commerce—all have a stake in the audiovisual sector, yet they often operate separately,” she added.
“Without a sustainable ecosystem that supports both companies—production and distribution—and the people who power the industry, long-term growth will remain impossible.”
TIS Studio’s New Stage 7
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