Haití: "Nuestras intenciones eran buenas"
Redacción
BBC Mundo
Los misioneros bautistas niegan los cargos de secuestro y tráfico de menores.
Los 10 miembros de una iglesia estadounidense que están detenidos por tratar de sacar ilegalmente de Haití a 33 menores podrían ser enviados a su país para ser enjuiciados.
La ministra de Comunicaciones haitiana, Marie Lassegue, indicó que la eventual decisión se debe a los daños sufridos por el sistema judicial haitiano tras el sismo del 12 de enero.
Se espera que un juez haitiano decida este martes si los cinco hombres y cinco mujeres afrontarán un juicio en el país caribeño por los cargos de secuestro y tráfico de menores (de entre dos meses y 12 años), así como por conspiración criminal, según informó el fiscal interino de la corte principal de Puerto Príncipe, Mazar Fortil.
Por su parte, el portavoz del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos, P.J. Crowley, dijo que es el gobierno haitiano el que, en definitiva, decidirá el curso adecuado a seguir.
Los misioneros, que pertenecen a la iglesia cristiana bautista New Life Children's Refuge, del estado de Idaho, fueron detenidos el pasado viernes cuando intentaban cruzar a República Dominicana en un autobús con los niños que, aseguraron, habían quedado huérfanos por el sismo del 12 de enero.
Le decimos a los estadounidenses en todo el mundo que ustedes están sujetos a las leyes del país en el que se encuentran las 24 horas del día
Donald Moore, cónsul general de EE.UU. en Haití
Sin embargo, funcionarios del gobierno haitiano dijeron que los estadounidenses no tenían documentos que probaran que los niños eran huérfanos o que tuvieran permiso para sacarlos del país.
Los misioneros niegan todos los cargos y dicen que habían actuado con "buenas intenciones". Actualmente, se encuentran detenidos en los cuarteles centrales de la policía de Puerto Príncipe.
clic Lea: Reanundan vuelos de evacuación médica
Mientras, el cónsul general de Estados Unidos en Haití, Donald Moore, envió un mensaje, a través de los medios, en el que expresa: "Le decimos a los estadounidenses en todo el mundo que ustedes están sujetos a las leyes del país en el que se encuentran las 24 horas del día".
"Buenas intenciones"
La policía de Haití reportó que algunos de los menores habían sido entregados voluntariamente por sus padres.
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Una mujer, que responde al nombre de Magonie y que dice ser madre de cinco de los niños, acudió este lunes a la Dirección Central de la Policía Judicial y declaró que un pastor local había actuado como intermediario y le había dicho que los pequeños tendrían una mejor vida si se iban con los misioneros.
"Se los di al pastor para que les diera una vida mejor, pero ahora me siento arrepentida", le dijo la mujer a los periodistas antes de prestar declaración.
La jefa del grupo arrestado, Laura Silsby, le aseguró a la agencia de noticias AFP que "nuestras intenciones eran buenas. Queríamos ayudar a aquellos que perdieron a sus padres en el sismo o que fueron abandonados".
Y reconoció a la cadena de televisión CNN que los niños "realmente no tenían ningún documento (...) No entendí que eso fuera necesario".
El primer ministro de Haití, Jean-Max Bellerive, si bien calificó a los estadounidenses de "secuestradores", indicó que tal vez se equivocaron y actuaron de buena fe.
El corresponsal de BBC Mundo que estuvo en Haití, Carlos Chirinos, observa que "por la mezcla de pobreza y falta de controles legales, la seguridad de los menores sin familia en Haití siempre ha sido un tema de preocupación, pero el momentáneo vacío legal y de autoridad que dejó el sismo, junto a los 'excesos de buena voluntad' internacional parecen estar agravando la situación".
Medidas
(Los niños) Realmente no tenían ningún documento (...) No entendí que eso fuera necesario. Nuestras intenciones eran buenas. Queríamos ayudar a aquellos que perdieron a sus padres en el sismo o que fueron abandonados
Laura Silsby, jefa de la misión de New Life Children's Refuge
Este caso reavivó las preocupaciones de las autoridades haitianas, que afirman ser conscientes de que, tras el terremoto, han habido muchos intentos de robo de niños y, debido a eso, han reforzado la vigilancia en las fronteras y en el aeropuerto de la capital.
Otra de las medidas que se están tomando es la creación de una base de datos para censar a los niños que viven en los campamentos improvisados tras el terremoto.
clic Lea también: ¿Qué futuro espera a los niños
de Haití?
La ministra de Comunicaciones, Lassegue, señaló que, según datos de UNICEF (Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia), se ha llegado a pagar hasta US$25.000 por un niño haitiano.
Las autoridades destacaron que el destino de los niños robados, vendidos o secuestrados puede ser la adopción, la esclavitud, el tráfico sexual y hasta tráfico de órganos.
Case Stokes Haiti's Fear for Children, and Itself
Reuters
Ten American citizens, some of whom are shown here at a police station, were detained on Sunday for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti.
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By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: February 1, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — "God wanted us to come here to help children, we are convinced of that," Laura Silsby, one of 10 Americans accused of trafficking Haitian children, said Monday through the bars of a jail cell here. "Our hearts were in the right place."
Related
The Lede: Road From Haiti Was Paved With Good Intentions, American Baptists Say
Near Quake's Epicenter, a City Ready for Business (February 2, 2010)
U.S. Will Reimburse Hospitals That Treat Haitians (February 2, 2010)
Haiti Crisis Prompts Fresh Talk of Pooling U.S. Relief Money (February 2, 2010)
Haiti's Children and the Adoption Question
What rules should govern in adopting orphans from Haiti?
Join the Discussion »
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (307) »
Whatever their intentions, the Americans who were detained late Friday at the Dominican border with 33 children struck a deep emotional chord in this earthquake-ravaged country.
Even as Haiti's crippled government asserted itself in the name of defending the nation's children, officials made it clear that more was at stake. In the wake of the worst natural disaster in Haiti's history, the authorities have opened the country to a flood of international assistance, some of it coming uncomfortably close to infringing on national sovereignty.
The 10 Americans, the authorities said, had crossed the line.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive angrily denounced them as "kidnappers" who "knew what they were doing was wrong." Justice Minister Paul Denis said, "We may be weakened, but without laws the Haitian state would cease to exist."
And the chief of the National Judicial Police, Frantz Thermilus, said: "What surprises me is that these people would never do something like this in their own country. We must make clear they cannot do such things in ours."
The Americans, most of whom are affiliated with two Baptist churches in Idaho, said they were trying to rescue orphans from the earthquake and take them to an orphanage they were setting up in the Dominican Republic. But that noble intent came under scrutiny on Monday as questions were raised about whether all of the children were indeed orphans.
Ms. Silsby said that a Haitian pastor in Port-au-Prince, Jean Sanbil, of the Sharing Jesus Ministries, had brought her group the children, whose ages range from 2 months to 12 years.
While she acknowledged that she had no documentation to show that the children were orphans, or permission to remove them from the country, she said they had planned to return to the capital to complete the paperwork. She also said that in the midst of Haiti's crisis, they thought they did not need the documents.
The Haitian authorities said the group planned to offer the children for adoption, but Ms. Silsby denied that.
"We intended to raise those children and be with them their entire lives, if necessary," she said, standing behind a door of thick metal bars in pedal pushers, sandals and a blouse printed with palm trees. "These kind of children are sold across the border for the price of a chicken. We wanted to give them lives of joy and dignity in God's love."
But SOS Children's Villages, an Austrian organization that runs the orphanage in Port-au-Prince where the children have been temporarily placed, said at least one of the children, an 8-year-old girl, told workers, "I am not an orphan," according to the group's Web site. The girl said she thought her mother had arranged a short vacation for her.
Haitian officials said that several of the children had parents, and that, unfortunately, this turn of events was one they had anticipated.
Fearful of the possibility that unscrupulous traffickers would take advantage of Haiti's sundered justice system to take children from poor families for illegal adoptions, prostitution or slavery, the government had halted all adoptions except those already in motion before the earthquake. Mr. Bellerive's signature is now required for the departure of any child.
For the government, the arrests provided an opportunity to send a strong message, and the message was outrage. "If people want to help children of Haiti," said Marie-Laurence Jocelin Lassègue, a government spokeswoman, "this is not the way to do it.
"There can be no questions about taking our children off the streets," she added. "It is wrong. And those who do so will be judged."
Although many of the country's judicial and law enforcement structures, including the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court and numerous police stations, lie in ruins, Haitian officials said they were exploring options for prosecuting the Americans in Haiti. But several officials acknowledged that if there was to be any trial at all, it would probably be in the United States.
Mr. Bellerive said the Americans could face serious charges, although none have been filed yet.
In Washington, the State Department said the American Embassy had been granted unlimited access to the Americans, but where and whether they would be prosecuted was up to Haiti. "It's their country," said Philip J. Crowley, a department spokesman. "The judgment is really up to the Haitian government."
Reuters
Ten American citizens, some of whom are shown here at a police station, were detained on Sunday for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti.
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By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: February 1, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — "God wanted us to come here to help children, we are convinced of that," Laura Silsby, one of 10 Americans accused of trafficking Haitian children, said Monday through the bars of a jail cell here. "Our hearts were in the right place."
Related
The Lede: Road From Haiti Was Paved With Good Intentions, American Baptists Say
Near Quake's Epicenter, a City Ready for Business (February 2, 2010)
U.S. Will Reimburse Hospitals That Treat Haitians (February 2, 2010)
Haiti Crisis Prompts Fresh Talk of Pooling U.S. Relief Money (February 2, 2010)
Haiti's Children and the Adoption Question
What rules should govern in adopting orphans from Haiti?
Join the Discussion »
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (307) »
Whatever their intentions, the Americans who were detained late Friday at the Dominican border with 33 children struck a deep emotional chord in this earthquake-ravaged country.
Even as Haiti's crippled government asserted itself in the name of defending the nation's children, officials made it clear that more was at stake. In the wake of the worst natural disaster in Haiti's history, the authorities have opened the country to a flood of international assistance, some of it coming uncomfortably close to infringing on national sovereignty.
The 10 Americans, the authorities said, had crossed the line.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive angrily denounced them as "kidnappers" who "knew what they were doing was wrong." Justice Minister Paul Denis said, "We may be weakened, but without laws the Haitian state would cease to exist."
And the chief of the National Judicial Police, Frantz Thermilus, said: "What surprises me is that these people would never do something like this in their own country. We must make clear they cannot do such things in ours."
The Americans, most of whom are affiliated with two Baptist churches in Idaho, said they were trying to rescue orphans from the earthquake and take them to an orphanage they were setting up in the Dominican Republic. But that noble intent came under scrutiny on Monday as questions were raised about whether all of the children were indeed orphans.
Ms. Silsby said that a Haitian pastor in Port-au-Prince, Jean Sanbil, of the Sharing Jesus Ministries, had brought her group the children, whose ages range from 2 months to 12 years.
While she acknowledged that she had no documentation to show that the children were orphans, or permission to remove them from the country, she said they had planned to return to the capital to complete the paperwork. She also said that in the midst of Haiti's crisis, they thought they did not need the documents.
The Haitian authorities said the group planned to offer the children for adoption, but Ms. Silsby denied that.
"We intended to raise those children and be with them their entire lives, if necessary," she said, standing behind a door of thick metal bars in pedal pushers, sandals and a blouse printed with palm trees. "These kind of children are sold across the border for the price of a chicken. We wanted to give them lives of joy and dignity in God's love."
But SOS Children's Villages, an Austrian organization that runs the orphanage in Port-au-Prince where the children have been temporarily placed, said at least one of the children, an 8-year-old girl, told workers, "I am not an orphan," according to the group's Web site. The girl said she thought her mother had arranged a short vacation for her.
Haitian officials said that several of the children had parents, and that, unfortunately, this turn of events was one they had anticipated.
Fearful of the possibility that unscrupulous traffickers would take advantage of Haiti's sundered justice system to take children from poor families for illegal adoptions, prostitution or slavery, the government had halted all adoptions except those already in motion before the earthquake. Mr. Bellerive's signature is now required for the departure of any child.
For the government, the arrests provided an opportunity to send a strong message, and the message was outrage. "If people want to help children of Haiti," said Marie-Laurence Jocelin Lassègue, a government spokeswoman, "this is not the way to do it.
"There can be no questions about taking our children off the streets," she added. "It is wrong. And those who do so will be judged."
Although many of the country's judicial and law enforcement structures, including the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court and numerous police stations, lie in ruins, Haitian officials said they were exploring options for prosecuting the Americans in Haiti. But several officials acknowledged that if there was to be any trial at all, it would probably be in the United States.
Mr. Bellerive said the Americans could face serious charges, although none have been filed yet.
In Washington, the State Department said the American Embassy had been granted unlimited access to the Americans, but where and whether they would be prosecuted was up to Haiti. "It's their country," said Philip J. Crowley, a department spokesman. "The judgment is really up to the Haitian government."
Ms. Silsby's effort appeared to be a project of a group called New Life Children's Refuge, which is described on the Web site of Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, as a "nonprofit Christian ministry dedicated to rescuing, loving and caring for orphaned, abandoned and impoverished Haitian and Dominican children."
Related
The Lede: Road From Haiti Was Paved With Good Intentions, American Baptists Say
Near Quake's Epicenter, a City Ready for Business (February 2, 2010)
U.S. Will Reimburse Hospitals That Treat Haitians (February 2, 2010)
Haiti Crisis Prompts Fresh Talk of Pooling U.S. Relief Money (February 2, 2010)
Haiti's Children and the Adoption Question
What rules should govern in adopting orphans from Haiti?
Join the Discussion »
The group was founded by Ms. Silsby, 40, and Charisa Coulter, 24, Ms. Silsby's live-in nanny, who was also among those jailed in Port-au-Prince. Most of the group who went to Haiti belonged to Eastside Baptist Church or Central Valley Baptist in Meridian, Idaho, while others came from Texas and Kansas, Ms. Silsby said.
A document on the Eastside Baptist Web site laid out the group's plans for a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission."
The itinerary for Jan. 23 said: "Drive bus from Santo Domingo into Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages, then return to the D.R."
The itinerary said the group planned to take the children to a 45-room hotel the group leased in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, where they would live until a permanent orphanage was constructed in nearby Magante.
Although Ms. Silsby said the group did not intend to offer the children for adoption, the Web site said they would "strive" to "provide opportunities for adoption through partnership with New Life Adoption Foundation," which subsidizes adoptions "for loving Christian parents who would otherwise not be able to afford to adopt."
The status of New Life Adoption Foundation was not immediately clear. The group is not registered as an adoption agency in Idaho and does not appear to be registered as a federal nonprofit. The group also did not appear on a list of accredited international adoption agencies on the Web site of the State Department.
Mel Coulter, Ms. Coulter's father, said of the group, "It was never their intent to establish an adoption agency or anything similar to it."
"I can't at all question where they went and what they did because I'm really convinced it was at God's direction," he said. "They were acting in faith. That may sound trivial, but they were acting not only in faith but God's faith."
But in Haiti, the group may have run into worldly issues they had not anticipated.
Haiti has long been a target for trafficking organizations, Mr. Denis, the justice minister, said, and in the wake of the earthquake authorities had alerted police and judicial officials that criminal organizations might attempt to take advantage of the disaster.
Asked what he thought about the Americans' claims to be doing God's work, Mr. Denis shrugged. "What is God's I leave to God," he said. "What's the state's is ours."
Related
The Lede: Road From Haiti Was Paved With Good Intentions, American Baptists Say
Near Quake's Epicenter, a City Ready for Business (February 2, 2010)
U.S. Will Reimburse Hospitals That Treat Haitians (February 2, 2010)
Haiti Crisis Prompts Fresh Talk of Pooling U.S. Relief Money (February 2, 2010)
Haiti's Children and the Adoption Question
What rules should govern in adopting orphans from Haiti?
Join the Discussion »
The group was founded by Ms. Silsby, 40, and Charisa Coulter, 24, Ms. Silsby's live-in nanny, who was also among those jailed in Port-au-Prince. Most of the group who went to Haiti belonged to Eastside Baptist Church or Central Valley Baptist in Meridian, Idaho, while others came from Texas and Kansas, Ms. Silsby said.
A document on the Eastside Baptist Web site laid out the group's plans for a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission."
The itinerary for Jan. 23 said: "Drive bus from Santo Domingo into Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages, then return to the D.R."
The itinerary said the group planned to take the children to a 45-room hotel the group leased in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, where they would live until a permanent orphanage was constructed in nearby Magante.
Although Ms. Silsby said the group did not intend to offer the children for adoption, the Web site said they would "strive" to "provide opportunities for adoption through partnership with New Life Adoption Foundation," which subsidizes adoptions "for loving Christian parents who would otherwise not be able to afford to adopt."
The status of New Life Adoption Foundation was not immediately clear. The group is not registered as an adoption agency in Idaho and does not appear to be registered as a federal nonprofit. The group also did not appear on a list of accredited international adoption agencies on the Web site of the State Department.
Mel Coulter, Ms. Coulter's father, said of the group, "It was never their intent to establish an adoption agency or anything similar to it."
"I can't at all question where they went and what they did because I'm really convinced it was at God's direction," he said. "They were acting in faith. That may sound trivial, but they were acting not only in faith but God's faith."
But in Haiti, the group may have run into worldly issues they had not anticipated.
Haiti has long been a target for trafficking organizations, Mr. Denis, the justice minister, said, and in the wake of the earthquake authorities had alerted police and judicial officials that criminal organizations might attempt to take advantage of the disaster.
Asked what he thought about the Americans' claims to be doing God's work, Mr. Denis shrugged. "What is God's I leave to God," he said. "What's the state's is ours."
Scientists: Why Haiti Should Move Its Capital
By TIM PADGETT Monday, Feb. 01, 2010 BACK
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A man sits on rubble as a fire burns in Port-au-Prince
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The image on Falk Amelung's laptop screen looks like 1960s psychedelia. But the interferogram, a composite radar snapshot of Haiti captured by Japanese satellite before and just after the Jan. 12 earthquake, is a trove of geological information. And much of it has surprised the University of Miami professor of geology and geophysics. "In theory, this should have been an earthquake of simple left-lateral movement along the fault line," says Amelung. Then he points to the kaleidoscopic color contours rippling from the quake's epicenter, west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, which indicate vertical quake movement as well. "It's more than we would have thought to see in this region," he says. "We're puzzling over this."
As a result of that anomaly and others they've seen so far, Amelung and many of his colleagues are urging Haiti's government and international donors to consider relocating the capital, which was largely reduced to rubble by the quake. The most important infrastructure should be rebuilt at a site well away from a fault line that they believe will rupture again within the next generation or two but even closer to Port-au-Prince. "If this were a typical earthquake, the risk of future incidents would decline over the next few months," says Tim Dixon, also a geology and geophysics professor at Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The stress would be relieved, and we could all go back to sleep for another 250 years," which is about how long ago Haiti's Enriquillo Fault last convulsed. "But that's not the case here — our findings suggest another shoe has to drop."
(See exclusive pictures from Haiti's devastating earthquake.)
That's largely because of the limited length of the fault-line rupture that caused the January earthquake. Amelung and Dixon, working with two other University of Miami geologists, Sang Hoon Hong and Shimon Wdowinski, say the quake exhibited quite a bit of odd behavior. Its rupture, for example, did not reach the earth's surface — unusual for its powerful 7.0 magnitude. But the more important question is why only the western half of the Enriquillo Fault segment that ruptured in 1751 fractured this time. (That half, about 25 miles in length, lies right under the city of Léogâne, the Jan. 12 epicenter, which is about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince.) As a result, the eastern half of the segment — the one much closer to Port-au-Prince — is subject to that much more stress, which may cause another major quake to come sooner rather than later. "Even if the next earthquake is the same 7.0 magnitude," says Amelung, "it will still be more damaging to Port-au-Prince" than last month's quake was.
Amelung wants to explore how, if at all, the quake's unexpected vertical motion may have affected the January rupture's short length and potent magnitude. But whatever the cause, the scientists say Haiti can escape the devastation of a seismic sequel. Says Dixon: "We feel we have enough knowledge gathered now to recommend that [Haiti] should rebuild critical infrastructure farther to the north, out of harm's way," where the ground often has stable rock instead of the more alluvial soil around Port-au-Prince.
The earth scientists' case for moving the capital may actually dovetail with the arguments of social scientists. Haiti is the western hemisphere's poorest country, which is a primary reason Port-au-Prince, with some 2 million residents, is one of the world's most densely populated cities. This combination of factors helps explain why as many as 150,000 people were killed in last month's quake. Many development experts believe that the city's population needs to be halved, and the rebuilding process may offer an opportunity to resettle some half a million people outside the metropolis to new or existing communities that offer jobs and infrastructure.
Moving an entire capital, of course, is another matter, even if the collapse of the National Palace and other key government structures makes it more possible to contemplate. It's hardly unprecedented and could even serve as a driver of development. The earthquake "creates opportunities for development elsewhere in the country," says Jocelyn McCalla, a development adviser to the Haitian government. "Haiti has to be engaged now in a major decentralizing effort." Brazil did just that in the 1950s, when it moved its capital, with all the associated buildings and bureaucracy, from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, some 600 miles away on the country's relatively unpopulated central plateau. Most Brazilians today agree that the move helped spread political and economic power.
(See how to help the Haiti earthquake victims.)
Amelung and Dixon say it behooves Haiti to at least consider relocation scenarios, perhaps moving government, medical and education infrastructure as far north as the port city of St. Marc. Although scientists traditionally take several months to publish such findings in a peer-reviewed journal, the geologists say the urgency of the policy choices facing Haiti right now demanded that they get the word out quickly. Data from the Japanese satellite's synthetic aperture radar imaging are reaching the broader scientific community in a timelier manner, thanks to new digital supersites developed last year by Amelung and other members of the international Group of Earth Observations (GEO), including JAXA, the Japanese space agency. GEO is working to break through the bureaucratic logjams in which such data often become mired.
The Haiti information, which is also being studied by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab as well as the U.S. Geological Survey, indicates that "this [tectonic] plate boundary is way more complicated than we previously thought," says Amelung. The Caribbean isn't generally known for seismic catastrophe. But scientists, including Dixon, began seriously scrutinizing the Enriquillo Fault in the 1980s, eventually determining that it was a major quake hazard. Known formally as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault, it forms a boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates — and a sort of volatile spine running along the southwest peninsula of Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.
(See pictures of dramatic rescues of Haiti's survivors.)
Port-au-Prince has experienced at least two large aftershocks since Jan. 12. Geologists like Eric Calais of Purdue University are trying to ascertain whether they are a sign of the fault settling or a setup for a bigger earthquake in the near future. Calais told the National Science Foundation last week that he and his team are also "concerned for the Dominican Republic, as our preliminary models show that the continuation of the fault in this area is loaded."
Whether or not Haiti and its international donors agree to move the capital, the geological findings mean they'll have to give serious attention to proposals on population relocation and to tightening Haiti's abysmally shoddy construction codes, which allowed the quake to wreak greater havoc than it should have. That disaster may have caught authorities unprepared, but they no longer have that excuse.
By TIM PADGETT Monday, Feb. 01, 2010 BACK
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A man sits on rubble as a fire burns in Port-au-Prince
Mario Tama / Getty
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The image on Falk Amelung's laptop screen looks like 1960s psychedelia. But the interferogram, a composite radar snapshot of Haiti captured by Japanese satellite before and just after the Jan. 12 earthquake, is a trove of geological information. And much of it has surprised the University of Miami professor of geology and geophysics. "In theory, this should have been an earthquake of simple left-lateral movement along the fault line," says Amelung. Then he points to the kaleidoscopic color contours rippling from the quake's epicenter, west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, which indicate vertical quake movement as well. "It's more than we would have thought to see in this region," he says. "We're puzzling over this."
As a result of that anomaly and others they've seen so far, Amelung and many of his colleagues are urging Haiti's government and international donors to consider relocating the capital, which was largely reduced to rubble by the quake. The most important infrastructure should be rebuilt at a site well away from a fault line that they believe will rupture again within the next generation or two but even closer to Port-au-Prince. "If this were a typical earthquake, the risk of future incidents would decline over the next few months," says Tim Dixon, also a geology and geophysics professor at Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The stress would be relieved, and we could all go back to sleep for another 250 years," which is about how long ago Haiti's Enriquillo Fault last convulsed. "But that's not the case here — our findings suggest another shoe has to drop."
(See exclusive pictures from Haiti's devastating earthquake.)
That's largely because of the limited length of the fault-line rupture that caused the January earthquake. Amelung and Dixon, working with two other University of Miami geologists, Sang Hoon Hong and Shimon Wdowinski, say the quake exhibited quite a bit of odd behavior. Its rupture, for example, did not reach the earth's surface — unusual for its powerful 7.0 magnitude. But the more important question is why only the western half of the Enriquillo Fault segment that ruptured in 1751 fractured this time. (That half, about 25 miles in length, lies right under the city of Léogâne, the Jan. 12 epicenter, which is about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince.) As a result, the eastern half of the segment — the one much closer to Port-au-Prince — is subject to that much more stress, which may cause another major quake to come sooner rather than later. "Even if the next earthquake is the same 7.0 magnitude," says Amelung, "it will still be more damaging to Port-au-Prince" than last month's quake was.
Amelung wants to explore how, if at all, the quake's unexpected vertical motion may have affected the January rupture's short length and potent magnitude. But whatever the cause, the scientists say Haiti can escape the devastation of a seismic sequel. Says Dixon: "We feel we have enough knowledge gathered now to recommend that [Haiti] should rebuild critical infrastructure farther to the north, out of harm's way," where the ground often has stable rock instead of the more alluvial soil around Port-au-Prince.
The earth scientists' case for moving the capital may actually dovetail with the arguments of social scientists. Haiti is the western hemisphere's poorest country, which is a primary reason Port-au-Prince, with some 2 million residents, is one of the world's most densely populated cities. This combination of factors helps explain why as many as 150,000 people were killed in last month's quake. Many development experts believe that the city's population needs to be halved, and the rebuilding process may offer an opportunity to resettle some half a million people outside the metropolis to new or existing communities that offer jobs and infrastructure.
Moving an entire capital, of course, is another matter, even if the collapse of the National Palace and other key government structures makes it more possible to contemplate. It's hardly unprecedented and could even serve as a driver of development. The earthquake "creates opportunities for development elsewhere in the country," says Jocelyn McCalla, a development adviser to the Haitian government. "Haiti has to be engaged now in a major decentralizing effort." Brazil did just that in the 1950s, when it moved its capital, with all the associated buildings and bureaucracy, from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, some 600 miles away on the country's relatively unpopulated central plateau. Most Brazilians today agree that the move helped spread political and economic power.
(See how to help the Haiti earthquake victims.)
Amelung and Dixon say it behooves Haiti to at least consider relocation scenarios, perhaps moving government, medical and education infrastructure as far north as the port city of St. Marc. Although scientists traditionally take several months to publish such findings in a peer-reviewed journal, the geologists say the urgency of the policy choices facing Haiti right now demanded that they get the word out quickly. Data from the Japanese satellite's synthetic aperture radar imaging are reaching the broader scientific community in a timelier manner, thanks to new digital supersites developed last year by Amelung and other members of the international Group of Earth Observations (GEO), including JAXA, the Japanese space agency. GEO is working to break through the bureaucratic logjams in which such data often become mired.
The Haiti information, which is also being studied by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab as well as the U.S. Geological Survey, indicates that "this [tectonic] plate boundary is way more complicated than we previously thought," says Amelung. The Caribbean isn't generally known for seismic catastrophe. But scientists, including Dixon, began seriously scrutinizing the Enriquillo Fault in the 1980s, eventually determining that it was a major quake hazard. Known formally as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault, it forms a boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates — and a sort of volatile spine running along the southwest peninsula of Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.
(See pictures of dramatic rescues of Haiti's survivors.)
Port-au-Prince has experienced at least two large aftershocks since Jan. 12. Geologists like Eric Calais of Purdue University are trying to ascertain whether they are a sign of the fault settling or a setup for a bigger earthquake in the near future. Calais told the National Science Foundation last week that he and his team are also "concerned for the Dominican Republic, as our preliminary models show that the continuation of the fault in this area is loaded."
Whether or not Haiti and its international donors agree to move the capital, the geological findings mean they'll have to give serious attention to proposals on population relocation and to tightening Haiti's abysmally shoddy construction codes, which allowed the quake to wreak greater havoc than it should have. That disaster may have caught authorities unprepared, but they no longer have that excuse.
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