Buried in Cement

June 17, 2006


The Miami Herald reported a story on May 27, 2006 titled “Embassy Denies Visa for Funeral”.

Menes Daniel, who left Haiti in 1981, died entombed in quick-drying liquid cement in a construction accident in early May. He and two other workers were working in the Bal Harbour high-rise building when the roof collapsed, sending a torrent of wet concrete over them. They died almost immediately.

Mr. Daniel’s funeral was scheduled for June 3 and his common-law wife and two children in Haiti applied for a temporary visa to attend his funeral.

The non-immigrant visa section of the American Consulate in Port-au-Prince denied their request for visas. His Haitian family were unable to provide any evidence of “ties to Haiti that would compel their return from the U. S.” They could not prove they had assets in Haiti to come back to from the U.S. Mr. Daniel had been wiring his family money for years so they could survive in Haiti while he worked in south Florida.

So now Mr. Daniel is dead, his family is stuck in Haiti, and his children will be seeing no more money from him. And his family cannot come and say good by to the man that allowed them to stay alive.