Page 12 - Aruba Today
P. 12
A12 CARIBBEAN
News Briefs
WORLD NEWSTuesday 3 November 2015
Haitians mark annual Voodoo day of the dead
DAVID McFADDEN be the oldest grave. There, a better look didn’t buy his sayer for advice on how
to increase his chances at
Associated Press they lit candles and stoked performance. “Thief!” they winning bets at Haitian out- Cuba and US firm
lets that play on New York sign agreement on
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) small fires as they evoked shouted, as he spat out State Lottery numbers. telecom roaming
Vendors who set up shop in
the cemeteries did a brisk LA HABANA (AP) — Cuba’s
business selling pictures of
Catholic saints alongside state telecommunica-
candles, rum, and rosary
beads. Voodoo, or Vodou tions company and U.S.
as preferred by Haitians,
evolved in the 17th cen- firm Sprint have signed an
tury when colonists brought
slaves to Haiti from West Af- agreement for cellphone
rica. Slaves forced to prac-
tice Catholicism adopted roaming service, the first
saints to coincide with per-
sonalities in the African re- direct deal of its kind be-
ligions. Voodoo was sanc-
tioned as an official religion tween phone companies in
in 2003 and it is practiced
widely across the country both countries. The agree-
of 10 million inhabitants.
This year’ two-day celebra- ment was announced
tion comes shortly before
Haitian officials are expect- Monday at the Internation-
ed to announce the top
two finishers in a presiden- al Fair of Havana, which
tial first-round vote. Elector-
al authorities say they plan this year features about
to release the preliminary
results of the presidential 900 companies, a third of
vote on Tuesday, after the
Voodoo festival concludes. them Cuban. About 70
Voodoo priest Pierre Saint
Ange cracked a rope whip countries are represent-
on a crumbling tomb and
told onlookers not to “fight ed, including the United
with guns or burn tires” in
coming days. States, with some 20 firms.
“We are asking for peace,”
he cried, standing near The agreement will allow
three women with their
A woman in the role of a spirit known as a “Gede” dances during a Voodoo ritual in tribute to faces smeared in white Sprint subscribers visiting
Baron Samdi and the Gede family of spirits during Day of the Dead celebrations at the National paint.q
Cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015. Day of the Dead traditions coincide with Cuba to send and receive
All Saints Day and All Souls Day on Nov. 1 and 2.
calls and text messages
(AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
directly through the state
company Etecsa, which
has the monopoly for tele-
— Revelers streamed into the spirit Baron Samedi, the blood. Minutes later, the communications service
cemeteries across Haiti on guardian of the dead who crowd perched atop the
Sunday and Monday bear- is typically depicted with a tombs gave respect to a on the island. Verizon in
ing beeswax candles, food dark top hat and a white priestess with a purple scarf
offerings and bottles of skull face. wrapped around her head September began offering
rum infused with hot pep- Some filled their mouths as she danced in a spastic
pers to mark the country’s with fiery rum and sprayed manner and made a keen- the first cellphone roaming
annual Voodoo festival it over the tomb’s cross. As ing lament.
of the dead. At Port-au- if in a trance, one young Other Haitians gathered service in Cuba through
Prince’s sprawling national man wrapped in a paisley among the tombs to quiet-
cemetery, Voodoo priests print sheet chewed up bits ly remember dead relatives the firm’s Pay-As-You-Go
and priestesses gathered of a broken glass bottle, and ask spirits to grant fa-
around a blackened mon- but onlookers who scram- vors or provide guidance. International travel option.
ument that is believed to bled on burial vaults to get One man paid a sooth-
But the service is through
third companies, not di-
rectly through Etecsa.
Puerto Rico official
dies in crash; health
condition probed
Argentina: SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
(AP) — A Puerto Rico leg-
Candidate blames rival’s prospects for NYC ruling islator who was injured in a
car crash died on Monday
Associated Press landscape by garnering 34 been going on for several court, essentially ignores morning, and authorities
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — The percent of the vote in the years. The spat has its ori- Griesa’s rulings. said they were investigat-
ruling party candidate country’s presidential elec- gins in the 2001-2002 finan- Griesa’s ruling on Friday was ing whether he had a med-
in Argentina’s upcoming tion. Scioli, the chosen suc- cial crisis, when the South related to another group of ical condition that contrib-
presidential election this cessor of President Cristina American nation defaulted creditors that subsequently uted to his death. Police
weekend blamed his top Fernandez, got 37 percent on $100 billion in debt. In took Argentina to court. Us- said Rep. Carlos Vargas
rival’s electoral possibilities of the vote, much less than 2005 and 2010, the majority ing the same logic, Griesa Ferrer hit a newspaper ven-
for the decision by a New polls had anticipated. The of Argentina’s creditors ac- ruled that Argentina can- dor after he lost control of
York federal judge who close finish forced a runoff cepted lower-paying bond not pay some bondholders his car early Monday, then
ruled that the country owes between the two men. swaps. A group of creditors while refusing to pay $6.1 crashed into a light pole in
an additional $6.1 billion to “These are the first conse- led by billionaire Paul Sing- billion in claims by creditors the San Juan suburb of Rio
foreign bondholders. quences” of the possibility er refused and took Argen- who refused to swap their Piedras. Dr. Israel Ayala, a
Official candidate Daniel a Macri administration, said tina to court. Griesa has bonds for steeply discount- spokesman for the hospi-
Scioli told a local radio sta- Scioli. Calls and emails send repeatedly ruled in favor of ed replacements. tal where Vargas was de-
tion that U.S. District Judge to Macri campaign officials that group, saying Argen- Both Scioli and Macri have clared dead, told reporters
Thomas Griesa’s recent de- seeking comment were not tina can’t pay its creditors promised to solve the dis- they were performing oth-
cision was tied to the possi- immediately returned. without first paying the es- pute, which has scared off er tests to determine how
bility that opposition candi- Scioli’s comments are likely timated $1.5 billion that it many would-be investors he died because his injuries
date Mauricio Macri could to raise eyebrows, if not owes the creditors. Argen- and kept Argentina on the from the crash alone were
win in the Nov. 22 runoff. some hackles, as the long- tina has rejected that, and margins of international not severe enough to kill
Macri shook up the political standing debt fight has while continuing to fight in credit markets. q him. q