While U.S. media coverage today will focus on the impact Hurricane Sandy will have in the states and on the coming election, the storm has already ravaged locations throughout the Caribbean. The majority of the 65 reported deaths came from Haiti, where over fifty were reported killed by rampant flooding.

Rains finally abated there after pummeling the island since Friday:

As the rains stopped and rivers began to recede, authorities were getting a fuller idea of how much damage Sandy brought on Haiti. Bridges collapsed. Banana crops were ruined. Homes were underwater. Officials said the death toll might still rise.

“This is a disaster of major proportions,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press, adding with a touch of hyperbole, “The whole south is under water.”

Tropical storms and hurricanes have so far this year killed more and done greater comparable damage to island nations than they have once reaching the United States. Hurricane Issac, at the time a tropical storm, killed 29 in Haiti in August, compared to six deaths in the U.S. from the same storm system.

These storms can prove more devastating to Haiti and the surrounding states, despite often gaining strength as they move north, due to lower level of infrastructure development and mass deforestation. The amount of trees cleared to use in building shelters, cook-fires, and farm land wipes out natural barriers to flooding and landslides. Adding to the problem, hundreds of thousands of Haitians still live in tents and make-shift shelters as part of the ongoing aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

While the United States pledged billions to help rebuild Haiti following the earthquake, the effect of what money has been delivered is lacking, and has done little the strengthen the island’s ability to weather hurricanes. Recent cuts of $8 billion dollars to international development funding by Congress is also unlikely to help Haiti and other states’ resilience against natural disasters in the future.

Since the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti the demand for private security in Haiti has surged, says a new report [PDF] from the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a Canadian think tank. The study finds that while many countries rely heavily on private security companies to protect people and property, Haiti stands out for its heavy use of private contractors while providing little effective government oversight.

Indeed, the security companies’ biggest clients include international organizations like the U.N., Western embassies and NGOs. But while international efforts have emphasized building and strengthening the Haitian infrastructure, the police force remains under staffed with 10,000 officers in a country of 10 million. About 12,000 guards work for private security firms.

The report, “From Private Security to Public Good: Regulating the Private Security Industry in Haiti,” observes that the growth in private security has been driven by “the critical lack of public police personnel,” leading to a 7 to 8 percent anticipated annual growth rate for private security firms. And while private security guards, often armed with shotguns or handguns, are now a commonplace sight in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, private security firms are a surprisingly recent presence in Haiti.

Private security services were not even permitted during Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s dictatorship which ended in 1986. President Prosper Avril issued a decree two years later permitting for such businesses to set up shop. The report’s author, Geoff Burt, writes:

Haiti’s extreme economic inequality and fears of kidnapping for ransom have left wealthy Haitians anxious to protect their property and their homes. The presence of armed security personnel in the streets — whether public or private — may give some citizens a greater sense of security and order. At the same time, the most vulnerable populations — those living in refugee camps — do not benefit equally from private security provision.

The report urges the Haitian government to impose laws stipulating the roles of private security companies, create strict guidelines for the licensing and storage of firearms, and provide mechanisms for the state to oversee the industry.

As ThinkProgress reported earlier, The Nation magazine and the Haitian weekly newspaper Haïti Liberté have announced a partnership where they will publish revelations from leaked American diplomatic cables made public by Wikileaks. Over the weekend, the papers published evidence that the U.S. aggressively worked to scuttle a gas development deal on behalf of Big Oil and to counter the influence of left-wing governments in the region. Now, The Nation has published a report detailing efforts by the United States under the Obama administration to successfully defeat a hike in the minimum wage in the textile industry to $5 a day.

In 2009, the Haitian parliament unanimously passed a measure that would hike the Haitian minimum wage to $5 a day. Yet much as the United States government mobilized to protect Big Oil’s profits a few years earlier, American diplomats immediately protested the hike in wages.

Contractors for large American clothing firms like Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and Levi’s began protesting the increase in the minimum wage, aggressively lobbying the parliament and the populist Haitian president, René Préval, to reverse course. They were soon joined by American diplomats who began to lobby the Haitian government as well, arguing that it would be too costly for textile manufacturers. As one cable noted, “more visible and active engagement by Préval” would be crucial to reverse the hike. Deputy chief of mission David E. Lindwall argued in one cable that the wage hike “did not take economic reality into account” and that the measure was intended solely to appease the “the unemployed and underpaid masses.”

The U.S. Agency for International Development and the Association of Haitian Industry — the main trade organization for textile manufacturers in the country — both funded studies claiming that raising the wages would “make the sector economically unviable and consequently force factories to shut down.” Yet at the same time, in private cables the embassy noted that the wage “had support from a majority of Haitian private sector representatives” because of “reports that wages in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua (competitors in the garment industry) will increase also.”

In August 2009, Préval partially conceded to the demands of the garment industry and the United States. He negotiated a new arrangement with his parliament that would offer a special carveout for the textile sector — allowing it to pay $3 a day rather than $5 a day — which marked a huge win for major textiles corporations like Hanes and Dockers.

Commenting on the revelations, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) calculates exactly how little it would’ve cost the clothing companies to comply with the new $5 a day wages. “Haiti has about 25,000 garment workers. If you paid each of them $2 a day more, it would cost their employers $50,000 per working day, or about $12.5 million a year.” CJR notes that if Hanes had to comply with the new law, it would cost them about $1.6 million a year — yet it made $211 million in profit last year. Yet unfortunately for the people of Haiti, Hanes’ greed was too great to sacrifice so little to help so many.

Last week, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the former ruler of Haiti, unexpectedly returned to the country after a 25-year exile in France. Duvalier’s return has many concerned that his presence will once again stir up the animosity and violence that existed during his 15-year dictatorship. Duvalier’s rein saw the disappearance and torture of hundreds of Haitians and brutal crackdowns on democracy and human rights advocates (it should be noted that much of this was possible thanks to the international assistance of France and the United States).

Now, with Duvalier once again seeking to become a public figure in Haiti, he is working to rebuild his public image in the eyes of both Haitians and the international community. In order to do this, he has enlisted the help of numerous U.S. attorneys, including none other than former Libertarian Party presidential candidate and Clinton impeachment champion former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA). Barr will serve as the former dictator’s “voice to the world,” and he told CNN that he plans to bring Duvalier’s “message of hope to the world“:

A former U.S. congressman was among a group of American attorneys accompanying former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier as he spoke in the country’s capital Friday. Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr said he is not serving as Duvalier’s attorney, but is in Port-au-Prince to consult, assist and be Duvalier’s voice to the international community. [...]

Barr “will be representing” Duvalier “in bringing his message of hope to the world,” the former Republican congressman’s website says. “I also am reminded of others who have risen from the ashes,” Barr told reporters Friday. “The city of Atlanta is the Phoenix city. The people of Haiti, likewise, will rise from the problems created by last year’s earthquake and emerge stronger and better than before. That I know is Mr. Duvalier’s deep wish and something that he knows in his heart.”

Accompanying Barr will be fellow Georgia attorneys Ed Marger and Mike Puglise, who practice law in the small rural towns of Jasper and Snelleville, GA respectively.

One has to wonder how Barr — who ran for president in 2008 to “deliver a refreshing message of liberty” — can reconcile his supposed right-libertarian beliefs with being on the payroll of a notorious autocrat who shut down elections and the free press and tortured nonviolent dissidents. (h/t Mike Elk)

Last spring, the United States pledged nearly $1.2 billion in emergency aid to Haiti following its tragic earthquake that left hundreds of thousands of people dead and many more homeless.

Yet the Associated Press (AP) reports today that “not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived” to Haitians who badly the need the aid. This summer, both the House and the Senate passed a bill that would make $917 million available for Haiti reconstruction aid. Yet Congress must also pass an authorization bill that directs exactly how the money will be spent, and thus far, the U.S. Senate has failed to do.

The AP conducted its own investigation of why the Senate has failed to pass the authorization bill, and it discovered that a single senator “pulled it for further study.” After calling dozens of senators’ offices, the AP discovered that the senator holding up the bill is Tom Coburn (R-OK). Coburn spokeswoman Becky Berhardt explained that the reason he is holding up the bill is because he objects to the creation of a senior Haiti coordinator — a position that would cost a paltry $5 million over five years — when the United States currently has an ambassador to the country:

Now the authorization bill that would direct how the aid is delivered remains sidelined by a senator who anonymously pulled it for further study. Through calls to dozens of senators’ offices, the AP learned it was Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma. “He is holding the bill because it includes an unnecessary senior Haiti coordinator when we already have one” in U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten, Coburn spokeswoman Becky Bernhardt said.

The bill proposes a new coordinator in Washington who would not oversee U.S. aid but would work with the USAID administrator in Washington to develop a rebuilding strategy. The position would cost $1 million a year for five years, including salaries and expenses for a staff of up to seven people.

While Coburn continues to hold up much-needed reconstruction aid over a relatively meaningless objection, “just 2 percent of [Haiti's earthquake] rubble has been cleared and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built – less than 10 percent of the number planned.” There are estimated to be 1.3 million Haitians still homeless as a result of the earthquake.

Back in November, President Obama nominated former president of National Council of La Raza and Arizona State University professor, Raul H. Yzaguirre, to serve as ambassador to the Dominican Republic on behalf of the U.S. Despite a devastating earthquake in neighboring Haiti and the fact that the Dominican Republic is home to the largest Caribbean economy, his nomination is still being stalled in the Senate by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Last night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent Kyl a letter, obtained by ThinkProgress, asking him to release his hold on Yzaguirre’s nomination “without further delay”:

Earlier in her letter, Clinton reasons that Yzaguirre’s nomination has been held up “for reasons completely unrelated to his credentials or fitness to serve.” Indeed, the fact that Kyl is bitter over the fact that the Iran Sanctions Act doesn’t make the Iranian people as miserable as he would like them to be has little do with U.S. interests in the Caribbean. And, as Clinton notes, the Dominican Republic is “a significant trading partner” and “a major hub for our relief and reconstruction efforts in neighboring Haiti.” The U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic has been without a permanent ambassador for over 18 months. An aide from Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) office pointed out that, if his nomination does not go through tonight, the Dominican Republic will have to wait at least another five weeks until congressional recess is over to have an ambassador.

Republicans in Congress have both blocked and delayed a number of critical nominations over reasons that have nothing to do with the qualifications of the nominees themselves. This past fall, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) brazenly blocked the confirmations of Arturo Valenzuela, Obama’s nominee to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, and Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the nominee to be ambassador to Brazil over the Obama administration’s refusal to recognize the de facto Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti. Shortly after DeMint agreed to drop his opposition to Shannon, Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) decided to further delay Shannon’s critical confirmation over the innocent role he played in initiating talks with Cuba on family migration and direct mail service.