{"id":37733,"date":"2019-03-28T03:23:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T03:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37733"},"modified":"2019-03-28T03:23:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T03:23:08","slug":"gunmen-attack-chilean-ambassadors-motorcade-in-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37733","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen attack Chilean ambassador’s motorcade in Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Chile<\/a>‘s ambassador to Haiti<\/a> has been attacked by armed men in a Haitian village during a visit to a clean water initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Patricio Utreras was visiting a project run by Fundacion America Solidaria, a clean water NGO, on Wednesday alongside his wife and a number of NGO workers when five unknown men armed with AK-47s descended on the delegation.<\/p>\n

La Tercera, a Chilean newspaper, reported that the gunmen arrived at Boutin, a village about 19km from the capital, Port-au-Prince, in a white Ford at around midday (16:00 GMT) and opened fire on the group.<\/p>\n

Chilean police assigned to protect Utreras used their service weapons to repel the assault, forcing the attackers to flee, according to a statement<\/a> from the Chilean foreign ministry.<\/p>\n

Authorities<\/span> are reportedly investigating the attack, which has no apparent motive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conflicting reports emerged regarding fatalities and injuries, with Chile’s foreign ministry saying a Fundacion America Solidaria worker had been killed, and the group itself assuring<\/a> volunteers’ families that “everyone is fine”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Para las familias de nuestros voluntarios que est\u00e1n en Hait\u00ed queremos informarles que todos se encuentran bien. M\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n en el comunicado oficial: https:\/\/t.co\/vmtUzmxjwG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Am\u00e9rica Solidaria CL (@americasolidari) March 27, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TRANSLATION: For the families of our volunteers in Haiti we want to inform you that everyone is fine. More information in the official communication:<\/em><\/p>\n

Various Chilean media were also reporting that one of the attackers had been killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Utreras’ driver suffered a bullet wound to his wrist, the ministry said, adding that all those involved in the incident were taken to a health centre to be evaluated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fundacion America Solidaria said in a statement<\/a> that one of its drivers, Frantz Eliancin, was missing, and that – along with Utreras’ driver – one of its team members had also suffered a minor injury.<\/p>\n

The statement also listed Andy Blaise, an engineer with Proyecto Universal, an organisation that deals with infrastructure and agricultural problems, and Abner Cejuste, a member of Haiti’s National Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation as missing.<\/p>\n

Haitian officials did not immediately comment on the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fundacion America Solidaria said that all Chilean, Colombian and Mexican volunteers in Haiti are “completely safe”, providing a list of volunteers that attended the event, which included Haitians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The delegation was visiting the Wash project, an initiative that builds a system to ensure access to drinking water and improve sanitary conditions in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier that day, the Haitian branch of Fundacion America Solidaria posted photos of the site on Twitter, saying the project would benefit some 3,500 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a1Estamos avanzando con la construcci\u00f3n del sistema de agua potable en Boutin que beneficiar\u00e1 a alrededor de 3,500 personas en la comuna de Croix-des-Bouquets!#AguaYSaneamiento<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/NhfcH3vVwt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 AS Hait\u00ed (@ASolidariaHaiti) March 26, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TRANSLATION: We are moving ahead with the construction of the drinking water system in Boutin that will benefit around 3,500 people in the community of Croix-des-Bouquets.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wednesday’s attack comes amid a deteriorating security situation in Haiti, which has seen weeks of deadly protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In February, the Chilean embassy in Haiti advised Chilean nationals to postpone trips to the Caribbean island.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chile’s ambassador to Haiti has been attacked by armed men in a Haitian village during a visit to a clean water initiative.\u00a0 Patricio Utreras was visiting a project run by Fundacion America Solidaria, a clean water NGO, on Wednesday alongside his wife and a number of NGO workers when five unknown men armed with AK-47s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}