JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE

Boniface Alexandre, who served as president of Haiti from 2004 to 2006 after the coup that overthrew Jean-Bertrand Aristide for the second time, died on Friday. He was 87.

A standoff between a powerful gang federation and Haiti’s government is testing how much power both sides wield and threatens to further derail a paralyzed country where millions of people are struggling to find fuel and water.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, is in the grips of an inflationary vise that is squeezing its citizenry and exacerbating protests that have brought society to the breaking point.

Fernando González, the head of Caribbean newsgathering for The Associated Press, has died in Havana.

Gangs across Haiti’s capital and beyond are wielding power like never before.

The kidnapping of 17 missionaries and their relatives in Haiti is only one of hundreds of abductions that have occurred in recent months as the country struggles with a spike in gang violence.

Haitian Americans met Friday in Miami-Dade County to pray for First Lady Martine Moïse who remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital for over a week. She was injured during the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, 53, in Port-au-Prince, and hopes to attend his funeral July 23 in Haiti’s city of Cap-Haitien.

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has returned to Haiti after nearly a month in Cuba.

The last time Haiti was thrust into turmoil by assassination was 1915, when rebels beat to death President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, triggering a nearly two-decade U.S. military intervention.