Condemn the US Imperialist Role in the Coup D’etat in Haiti!

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

The Destabilization of Haiti

Haiti – no return of the Army, no human rights abusers in the new government.

Caricom delivers Haiti verdict

HAITI

When Major Powers Stage a Coup

Danny Glover – 2001

Prominent Members Of African Diaspora – 2003

by Michel Chossudovsky

29 February 2004

Double standards

The White House has called into question Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's "fitness to continue to govern his country". According to the official White House statement released one day before Aristide's departure for the Dominican Republic: 

"His failure to adhere to democratic principles has contributed to the deep polarization and violent unrest that we are witnessing in Haiti today... His own actions have called into question his fitness to continue to govern Haiti. We urge him to examine his position carefully, to accept responsibility, and to act in the best interests of the people of Haiti"

Now should we not apply the same standards to President George W.  Bush who has lied to the American people, violated international law and waged a criminal war based on a fabricated pretext?

This article was written in the last days of February 2004 in response to the barrage of disinformation in the mainstream media. It was completed on February 29th, the day of President Jean Bertrand Aristide's departure in exile. 

 

The armed insurrection which contributed to unseating President Aristide on February 29th 2004 was the result of a carefully staged military-intelligence operation.  

The Rebel paramilitary army crossed the border from the Dominican Republic in early February. It constitutes a well armed, trained and equipped paramilitary unit integrated by former members of Le Front pour l'avancement et le progrès d'Haiti (FRAPH), the  "plain clothes" death squadrons, involved in mass killings of civilians and political assassinations during the CIA sponsored 1991 military coup, which led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide

The self-proclaimed Front pour la Libération et la reconstruction nationale (FLRN) (National Liberation and Reconstruction Front) is led by Guy Philippe, a former member of the Haitian Armed Forces and Police Chief. Philippe had been trained during the 1991 coup years by US Special Forces in Ecuador, together with a dozen other Haitian Army officers. (See Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, 24 February 2004).

The two other rebel commanders and associates of Guy Philippe, who led the attacks on Gonaives and Cap Haitien are Emmanuel Constant, nicknamed "Toto" and Jodel Chamblain, both of whom are former Tonton Macoute and leaders of FRAPH.

In 1994, Emmanuel Constant led the FRAPH assassination squadron into the village of Raboteau, in what was later identified as "The Raboteau massacre":

"One of the last of the infamous massacres happened in April 1994 in Raboteau, a seaside slum about 100 miles north of the capital. Raboteau has about 6,000 residents, most fishermen and salt rakers, but it has a reputation as an opposition stronghold where political dissidents often went to hide... On April 18 [1994], 100 soldiers and about 30 paramilitaries arrived in Raboteau for what investigators would later call a "dress rehearsal." They rousted people from their homes, demanding to know where Amiot "Cubain" Metayer, a well-known Aristide supporter, was hiding. They beat people, inducing a pregnant woman to miscarry, and forced others to drink from open sewers. Soldiers tortured a 65-year-old blind man until he vomited blood. He died the next day.

The soldiers returned before dawn on April 22. They ransacked homes and shot people in the streets, and when the residents fled for the water, other soldiers fired at them from boats they had commandeered. Bodies washed ashore for days; some were never found. The number of victims ranges from two dozen to 30. Hundreds more fled the town, fearing further reprisals." (St Petersburg Times, Florida, 1 September 2002)

During the military government (1991-1994), FRAPH was (unofficially) under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces, taking orders from Commander in Chief General Raoul Cedras. According to a 1996 UN Human Rights Commission report, FRAPH had been supported by the CIA.

Under the military dictatorship, the narcotics trade, was protected by the military Junta, which in turn was supported by the CIA. The 1991 coup leaders including the FRAPH paramilitary commanders were on the CIA payroll. (See Paul DeRienzo,   http://globalresearch.ca/articles/RIE402A.html , See also see Jim Lobe, IPS, 11 Oct 1996). Emmanuel Constant alias "Toto" confirmed, in this regard, in a CBS "60 Minutes" in 1995, that the CIA paid him about $700 a month and that he created FRAPH, while on the CIA payroll. (See Miami Herald, 1 August 2001). According to Constant, the FRAPH had been formed "with encouragement and financial backing from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA." (Miami New Times, 26 February 2004)

The Civilian "Opposition" 

The so-called "Democratic Convergence" (DC) is a group of some 200 political organizations, led by former Port-au-Prince mayor Evans Paul.  The "Democratic Convergence" (DC) together with "The Group of 184 Civil Society Organizations" (G-184) has formed a so-called "Democratic Platform of Civil Society Organizations and Opposition Political Parties".

The Group of 184 (G-184), is headed by Andre (Andy) Apaid, a US citizen of Haitian parents, born in the US. (Haiti Progres, http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng11-12.html ) Andy Apaid owns Alpha Industries, one of Haiti's largest cheap labor export assembly lines established during the Duvalier era. His sweatshop factories produce textile products and assembles electronic products for a number of US firms including Sperry/Unisys, IBM, Remington and Honeywell. Apaid is the largest industrial employer in Haiti with a workforce of some 4000 workers. Wages paid in Andy Apaid's factories are as low as 68 cents a day. (Miami Times, 26 Feb 2004). The current minimum wage is of the order of $1.50 a day:

"The U.S.-based National Labor Committee, which first revealed the Kathie Lee Gifford sweat shop scandal, reported several years ago that Apaid's factories in Haiti's free trade zone often pay below the minimum wage and that his employees are forced to work 78-hour weeks." (Daily News, New York, 24 Feb 2004)

Apaid was a firm supporter of the 1991 military coup. Both the Convergence démocratique and the G-184 have links to the FLRN (former  FRAPH death squadrons) headed by Guy Philippe. The FLRN is also known to receive funding from the Haitian business community.

In other words, there is no watertight division between the civilian opposition, which claims to be non-violent and the FLRN paramilitary. The FLRN is collaborating with the so-called "Democratic Platform."

The Role of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

In Haiti, this "civil society opposition" is bankrolled by the National Endowment for Democracy which works hand in glove with the CIA. The Democratic Platform is supported by the International Republican Institute (IRI) , which is an arm of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Senator John McCain is Chairman of IRI's Board of Directors. (See Laura Flynn, Pierre Labossière and Robert Roth, Hidden from the Headlines: The U.S. War Against Haiti, California-based Haiti Action Committee (HAC), http://www.haitiprogres.com/eng11-12.html ).

G-184 leader Andy Apaid was in liaison with Secretary of State Colin Powell in the days prior to the departure of President Aristide for the Dominican Republic on February 29. His umbrella organization of elite business organizations and religious NGOs, which is also supported by the International Republican Institute (IRI), receives sizeable amounts of money from the European Union.(http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/184%20EC.htm ).

It is worth recalling that the NED, (which overseas the IRI) although not formally part of the CIA, performs an important intelligence function within the arena of civilian political parties and NGOs. It was created in 1983, when the CIA was being accused of covertly bribing politicians and setting up phony civil society front organizations. According to Allen Weinstein, who was responsible for setting up the NED during the Reagan Administration: "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." ('Washington Post', Sept. 21, 1991). 

The NED channels congressional funds to the four institutes: The International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS). These organizations are said to be "uniquely qualified to provide technical assistance to aspiring democrats worldwide." See IRI, http://www.iri.org/history.asp )

In other words, there is a division of tasks between the CIA and the NED. While the CIA provides covert support to armed paramilitary rebel groups and death squadrons, the NED and its four constituent organizations finance "civilian"  political parties and non governmental organizations in view of instating American "democracy" around the World.

The NED constitutes so to speak the CIA's "civilian arm". CIA-NED interventions in different part of the World are characterized by a consistent pattern, which is applied in numerous countries.

The NED provided funds to  the "civil society" organizations in Venezuela, which initiated an attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez. In Venezuela it was the "Democratic Coordination", which was the recipient of NED support; in Haiti it is the "Democratic Convergence" and G-184.

Similarly, in former Yugoslavia, the CIA channeled support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (since 1995), a paramilitary group involved in terrorist attacks on the Yugoslav police and military. Meanwhile, the NED through the  "Center for International Private Enterprise" (CIPE) was backing the DOS opposition coalition in Serbia and Montenegro. More specifically, NED was financing the G-17, an opposition group of  economists responsible for formulating (in liaison with the IMF) the DOS coalition's  "free market" reform platform in the 2000 presidential election, which led to the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic.  

The IMF's Bitter "Economic Medicine"

The IMF and the World Bank are key players in the process of economic and political destabilization. While carried out under the auspices of an intergovernmental body, the IMF reforms tend to support US strategic and foreign policy objectives.

Based on the so-called "Washington consensus", IMF austerity and restructuring measures through their devastating impacts, often contribute to triggering social and ethnic strife. IMF reforms have often precipitated the downfall of elected governments. In extreme cases of economic and social dislocation, the IMF's bitter economic medicine has contributed to the destabilization of entire countries, as occurred in Somalia, Rwanda and Yugoslavia. (See Michel Chossudovsky, The globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Second Edition, 2003, http://globalresearch.ca/globaloutlook/GofP.html )

The IMF program is a consistent instrument of economic dislocation. The IMF's reforms contribute to reshaping and downsizing State institutions through drastic austerity measures. The latter are implemented alongside other forms of intervention and political interference, including CIA covert activities in support of rebel paramilitary groups and opposition political parties.

Moreover, so-called "Emergency Recovery" and "Post-conflict" reforms are often introduced under IMF guidance, in the wake of a civil war, a regime change or "a national emergency".

In Haiti, the IMF sponsored  "free market" reforms have been carried out consistently since the Duvalier era. They have been applied in several stages since the first election of president Aristide in 1990. 

The 1991 military coup, which took place 8 months following Jean Bertrand Aristide's accession to the presidency, was in part intended to reverse the government's progressive reforms and reinstate the neoliberal policy agenda of the Duvalier era.

A former World Bank official Mr. Marc Bazin was appointed Prime minister by the Military Junta in June 1992. In fact, it was the US State Department which sought his appointment.

Bazin had a track record of working for the "Washington consensus."  In 1983, he had been appointed Finance Minister under the Duvalier regime, In fact he had been recommended to the Finance portfolio by the IMF: "President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier had agreed to the appointment of an IMF nominee, former World Bank official Marc Bazin, as Minister of Finance". (Mining Annual Review, June, 1983). Bazin, who was considered Washington's "favorite", later ran against Aristide in the 1990 presidential elections.

Bazin, was called in by the Military Junta in 1992 to form a so-called  "consensus government". It is worth noting that it was precisely during Bazin's term in office as Prime Minister that the political massacres and extra judicial killings by the CIA supported FRAPH death squadrons were unleashed, leading to the killing of more than 4000 civilians. Some 300,000 people became internal refugees,  "thousands more fled across the border to the Dominican Republic, and more than 60,000 took to the high seas" (Statement of Dina Paul Parks, Executive Director, National Coalition for Haitian Rights, Committee on Senate Judiciary, US Senate, Washington DC, 1 October 2002). Meanwhile, the CIA had launched a smear campaign representing Aristide as "mentally unstable" (Boston Globe, 21 Sept 1994).

The 1994 US Military Intervention

Following three years of military rule, the US intervened in 1994, sending in 20,000 occupation troops and "peace-keepers" to Haiti. The US military intervention was not intended to restore democracy. Quite the contrary: it was carried out to prevent a popular insurrection against the military Junta and its neoliberal cohorts.

In other words, the US military occupation was implemented to ensure political continuity.

While the members of the military Junta were sent into exile, the return to constitutional government required compliance to IMF diktats, thereby foreclosing the possibility of a progressive "alternative" to the neoliberal agenda. Moreover, US troops remained in the country until 1999. The Haitian armed forces were disbanded and the US State Department hired a mercenary company DynCorp to provide "technical advice" in restructuring the Haitian National Police (HNP).

"DynCorp has always functioned as a cut-out for Pentagon and CIA covert operations." (See Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn,  Counterpunch February 27, 2002, http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=1988 ) Under DynCorp advice in Haiti, former Tonton Macoute and Haitian military officers involved in the 1991 Coup d'Etat were brought into the HNP. (See Ken Silverstein, Privatizing War, The Nation, July 28, 1997, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/silver.htm )

In October 1994, Aristide returned from exile and reintegrated the presidency until the end of his mandate in 1996. "Free market" reformers  were brought into his Cabinet. A new wave of deadly macro-economic policies was adopted under a so-called Emergency Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) "that sought to achieve rapid macroeconomic stabilization, restore public administration, and attend to the most pressing needs." (See IMF Approves Three-Year ESAF Loan for Haiti, Washington, 1996, http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/1996/pr9653.htm ).

The restoration of Constitutional government had been negotiated behind closed doors with Haiti's external creditors. Prior to Aristide's reinstatement as the country's president, the new government was obliged to clear the country's debt arrears with its external creditors. In fact the new loans provided by the  World Bank, the  Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the IMF were used to meet Haiti's obligations with international creditors. Fresh money was used to pay back old debt leading to a spiraling external debt.

Broadly coinciding with the military government, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 30 percent (1992-1994). With a per capita income of $250 per annum, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and among the poorest in the world. (see World Bank, Haiti: The Challenges of Poverty Reduction, Washington, August 1998, http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/External/lac/lac.nsf/0/8479e9126e3537f0852567ea000fa239/$FILE/Haiti1.doc ).

The World Bank estimates unemployment to be of the order of 60 percent. (A 2000 US Congressional Report estimates it to be as high as 80 percent. See US House of Representatives, Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee, FDHC Transcripts, 12 April 2000).

In the wake of three years of military rule and economic decline, there was no "Economic Emergency Recovery" as envisaged under the IMF loan agreement. In fact quite the opposite: The IMF imposed  "stabilization" under the "Recovery" program required further budget cuts in  almost non-existent social sector programs.  A civil service reform program was launched, which consisted in reducing the size of the civil service and the firing of "surplus" State employees. The IMF-World Bank package was in part instrumental in the paralysis of public services, leading to the eventual demise of the entire State system. In a country where health and educational services were virtually nonexistent, the IMF had demanded the lay off of "surplus" teachers and health workers with a view to meeting its target for the budget deficit.   

Washington's foreign policy initiatives were coordinated with the application of the IMF's deadly economic medicine. The country had been literally pushed to the brink of economic and social disaster.

The Fate of Haitian Agriculture

More than 75 percent of the Haitian population is engaged in agriculture, producing both food crops for the domestic market as well a number of cash crops for export. Already during the Duvalier era, the peasant economy had been undermined. With the adoption of the IMF-World Bank sponsored trade reforms, the agricultural system, which previously produced food for the local market, had been destabilized. With the lifting of trade barriers, the local market was opened up to the dumping of US agricultural surpluses including rice, sugar and corn, leading to the destruction of the entire peasant economy. Gonaives, which used to be Haiti's rice basket region, with extensive paddy fields had been precipitated into bankruptcy:

. "By the end of the 1990s Haiti's local rice production had been reduced by half and rice imports from the US accounted for over half of local rice sales. The local farming population was devastated, and the price of rice rose drastically " ( See Rob Lyon, Haiti-There is no solution under Capitalism! Socialist Appeal, 24 Feb. 2004, http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/9095.php ).

In matter of few years, Haiti, a small impoverished country in the Caribbean, had become the World's fourth largest importer of American rice after Japan, Mexico and Canada.

The Second Wave of IMF Reforms

The presidential elections were scheduled for November 23, 2000. The Clinton Administration had put put an embargo on development aid to Haiti in 2000. Barely two weeks prior to the elections, the outgoing administration signed a Letter of Intent with the IMF. Perfect timing: the agreement with the IMF virtually foreclosed from the outset any departure from the neoliberal agenda.

The Minister of Finance had sent the amended budget to the Parliament on December 14th. Donor support was conditional upon its rubber stamp approval by the Legislature. While Aristide had promised to increase the minimum wage, embark on school construction and  literacy programs, the hands of the new government were tied. All major decisions regarding the State budget, the management of the public sector, public investment, privatization, trade and monetary policy had already been taken. They were part of the agreement reached with the IMF on November 6, 2000.

In 2003, the IMF imposed the application of a so-called "flexible price system in fuel", which immediately triggered an inflationary spiral. The currency was devalued. Petroleum prices increased by about 130 percent in January-February 2003, which served to increase popular resentment against the Aristide government, which had supported the implementation of the IMF economic reforms.

The hike in fuel prices contributed to a 40 percent increase in consumer prices (CPI) in 2002-2003 (See Haiti—Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, Port-au-Prince, Haiti June 10, 2003, http://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2003/hti/01/index.htm ). In turn, the IMF had demanded, despite the dramatic increase in the cost of living, a freeze on wages as a means to "controlling inflationary pressures." The IMF had in fact pressured the government to lower public sector salaries (including those paid to teachers and health workers).  The IMF had also demanded the phasing out of the statutory minimum wage of approximately 25 cents an hour. "Labour market flexibility", meaning wages paid below the statutory minimum wage would, according to the IMF, contribute to attracting foreign investors. The daily minimum wage was $3.00 in 1994, declining to about $1.50- 1.75 (depending on the gourde-dollar exchange rate) in 2004. 

In an utterly twisted logic, Haiti's abysmally low wages, which have been part of the IMF-World Bank "cheap labor" policy framework since the 1980s, are viewed as a means to improving the standard of living. In other words, sweatshop conditions in the assembly industries (in a totally unregulated labor market) and forced labor conditions in Haiti's agricultural plantations are considered by the IMF as a key to achieving economic prosperity, because they "attract foreign investment." 

The country was in the straightjacket of a spiraling external debt. In a bitter irony, the IMF-World Bank sponsored austerity measures in the social sectors were imposed in a country which has 1,2 medical doctors for 10,000 inhabitants and where the large majority of the population is illiterate. State social services, which were virtually nonexistent during the Duvalier period, have collapsed.

The result of IMF ministrations was a further collapse in purchasing power, which had also affected middle income groups. Meanwhile, interest rates had skyrocketed. In the Northern and Eastern parts of the country, the hikes in fuel prices had led to a virtual paralysis of transportation and public services including water and electricity.

While a humanitarian catastrophe is looming, the collapse of the economy spearheaded by the IMF, has served to boost the popularity of the Democratic Platform, which had accused  Aristide of "economic mismanagement." Needless to say, the leaders of the Democratic Platform including Andy Apaid --who actually owns the sweatshops-- are the main protagonists of the low wage economy.

Applying the Kosovo Model

In February 2003, Washington announced the appointment of James Foley as Ambassador to Haiti . Foley had been a State Department spokesman under the Clinton administration during the war on Kosovo. He previously held a position at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Foley had been sent to Port au Prince in advance of the CIA sponsored operation. He was transferred to Port au Prince in September 2003, from a prestige diplomatic position in Geneva, where he was Deputy Head of Mission to the UN European office.

It is worth recalling Ambassador Foley's involvement in support of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1999.

Amply documented, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was financed by drug money and supported by the CIA. ( See Michel Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by Organized Crime, Covert Action Quarterly, 1999, http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2743/1.html )  

the KLA was involved in similar targeted political assassinations and killings of civilians, in the months leading up to the 1999 NATO invasion as well as in its aftermath.  Following the NATO led invasion and occupation of Kosovo, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Force (KPF) under UN auspices. Rather than being disarmed to prevent the massacres of civilians, a terrorist organization with links to organized crime and the Balkans drug trade, was granted a legitimate political status.

At the time of the Kosovo war, the current ambassador to Haiti James Foley was in charge of State Department briefings, working closely with his NATO counterpart in Brussels, Jamie Shea. Barely two months before the onslaught of the NATO led war on 24 March 1999, James Foley had called for the "transformation" of the KLA into a respectable political organization:

"We want to develop a good relationship with them [the KLA] as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization,' ..`[W]e believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become... "If we can help them and they want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I think it's nothing that anybody can argue with..' (quoted in the New York Times, 2 February 1999)

In the wake of the invasion "a self-proclaimed Kosovar administration was set up composed of the KLA and the Democratic Union Movement (LBD), a coalition of five opposition parties opposed to Rugova's Democratic League (LDK). In addition to the position of prime minister, the KLA controlled the ministries of finance, public order and defense." (Michel Chossudovsky, NATO's War of Aggression against Yugoslavia, 1999, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO309C.html )

The US State Department's position as conveyed in Foley's statement was that the KLA would "not be allowed to continue as a military force but would have the chance to move forward in their quest for self government under a 'different context'" meaning the inauguration of a de facto "narco-democracy" under NATO protection. (Ibid).

With regard to the drug trade, Kosovo and Albania occupy a similar position to that of Haiti: they constitute "a hub" in the transit (transshipment) of narcotics from the Golden Crescent, through Iran and Turkey into Western Europe. While supported by the CIA, Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND) and NATO, the KLA has links to the Albanian Mafia and criminal syndicates involved in the narcotics trade.( See Michel Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by Organized Crime, Covert Action Quarterly, 1999, http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2743/1.html )  

Is this the model for Haiti, as formulated in 1999 by the current US Ambassador to Haiti James Foley?

For the CIA and the State Department the FLRN and Guy Philippe are to Haiti what the KLA and Hashim Thaci are to Kosovo.

In other words, Washington's design is "regime change": topple the Lavalas administration and install a compliant US puppet regime, integrated by the Democratic Platform and the self-proclaimed Front pour la libération et la reconstruction nationale (FLRN), whose leaders are former FRAPH and Tonton Macoute terrorists. The latter are slated to integrate a "national unity government" alongside the leaders of the Democratic Convergence and The Group of 184 Civil Society Organizations led by Andy Apaid. More specifically, the FLRN led by Guy Philippe is slated to rebuild the Haitian Armed forces, which were disbanded in 1995.

In other words, what is at stake is an eventual power sharing arrangement between the various Opposition groups and the CIA supported Rebels, which have links to the cocaine transit trade from Colombia via Haiti to Florida. The protection of this trade has a bearing on the formation of a new "narco-government", which will serve US interests.

A bogus (symbolic) disarmament of the Rebels may be contemplated under international supervision, as occurred with the KLA in Kosovo in 2000. The "former terrorists" could then be integrated into the civilian police as well as into the task of rebuilding the Haitian Armed forces under US supervision.

What this scenario suggests, is that the Duvalier-era terrorist structures have been restored. A program of civilian killings and political assassinations directed against Lavalas supporter is in fact already underway.

In other words, if Washington were really motivated by humanitarian considerations, why then is it supporting and financing the FRAPH death squadrons? Its objective is not to prevent the massacre of civilians. Modeled on previous CIA led operations (e.g. Guatemala, Indonesia, El Salvador), the FLRN death squadrons have been set loose and are involved in targeted political assassinations of Aristide supporters.

The Narcotics Transshipment Trade

While the real economy had been driven into bankruptcy under the brunt of the IMF reforms, the narcotics transshipment trade continues to flourish.  According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Haiti remains "the major drug trans-shipment country for the entire Caribbean region, funneling huge shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the United States." (See US House of Representatives, Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee, FDHC Transcripts, 12 April 2000). 

It is estimated that  Haiti is now responsible for 14 percent of all the cocaine entering the United States, representing billions of dollars of revenue for organized crime and US financial institutions, which launder vast amounts of dirty money. The global trade in narcotics is estimated to be of the order of 500 billion dollars.

Much of this transshipment trade goes directly to Miami, which also constitutes a haven for the recycling of dirty money into bona fide investments, e.g. in real estate and other related activities.

The evidence confirms that the CIA was protecting this trade during the Duvalier era as well as during the military dictatorship (1991-1994). In 1987, Senator John Kerry as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee was entrusted with a major investigation, which  focused  on the links between the CIA and the drug trade, including the laundering of drug money to finance armed insurgencies. "The  Kerry Report" published in 1989, while centering its attention on the financing of the Nicaraguan Contras, also included a section on Haiti: 

"Kerry had developed detailed information on drug trafficking by Haiti’s military rulers that led to the indictment in Miami in 1988, of Lt. Col. Jean Paul. The indictment was a major embarrassment to the Haitian military, especially since Paul defiantly refused to surrender to U.S. authorities.. In November 1989, Col. Paul was found dead after he consumed a traditional Haitian good will gift—a bowel of pumpkin soup...

The U.S. senate also heard testimony in 1988 that then interior minister, Gen. Williams Regala, and his DEA liaison officer, protected and supervised cocaine shipments. The testimony also charged the then Haitian military commander Gen. Henry Namphy with accepting bribes from Colombian traffickers in return for landing rights in the mid 1980’s.

It was in 1989 that yet another military coup brought Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril to power...According to a witness before Senator John Kerry’s subcommittee, Avril is in fact a major player in Haiti’s role as a transit point in the cocaine trade." ( Paul DeRienzo, Haiti’s Nightmare: The Cocaine Coup & The CIA Connection, Spring 1994, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/RIE402A.html )

Jack Blum, who was Kerry's Special Counsel, points to the complicity of US officials in a 1996 statement to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Drug Trafficking and the Contra War:

"...In Haiti ...  intelligence "sources" of ours in the Haitian military had turned their facilities over to the drug cartels. Instead of putting pressure on the rotten leadership of the military, we defended them. We held our noses and looked the other way as they and their criminal friends in the United States distributed cocaine in Miami, Philadelphia and New, York." (http://www.totse.com/en/politics/central_intelligence_agency/ciacont2.html )

Haiti not only remains at the hub of the transshipment cocaine trade, the latter has grown markedly since the 1980s. The current crisis bears a relationship to Haiti's role in the drug trade. Washington wants a compliant Haitian government which will protect the drug transshipment routes, out of Colombia through Haiti and into Florida.

The inflow of narco-dollars --which remains the major source of the country's foreign exchange earnings-- are used to service Haiti's spiraling external debt, thereby also serving the interests of the external creditors.

In this regard, the liberalization of the foreign-exchange market imposed by the IMF has provided (despite the authorities pro forma commitment to combating the drug trade) a convenient avenue for the laundering of narco-dollars in the domestic banking system. The inflow of narco-dollars alongside bona fide "remittances" from Haitians living abroad, are deposited in the commercial banking system and exchanged into local currency. The foreign exchange proceeds of these inflows can then be recycled towards the Treasury where they are used to meet debt servicing obligations.

Haiti, however, reaps a very small percentage of the total foreign exchange proceeds of this lucrative contraband. Most of the revenue resulting from the cocaine transshipment trade accrues to criminal intermediaries in the wholesale and retail narcotics trade, to the intelligence agencies which protect the drug trade as well as to the financial and banking institutions where the proceeds of this criminal activity are laundered. 

The narco-dollars are also channeled into "private banking" accounts in numerous offshore banking havens. (These havens are controlled by the large Western banks and financial institutions). Drug money is also invested in a number of financial instruments including hedge funds and stock market transactions. The major Wall Street and European banks and stock brokerage firms launder billions of dollars resulting from the trade in narcotics.

Moreover, the expansion of the dollar denominated money supply by the Federal Reserve System , including the printing of billions of dollars of US dollar notes for the purposes of narco-transactions constitutes profit for the Federal Reserve and its constituent private banking institutions of which the most important is the New York Federal Reserve Bank. See (Jeffrey Steinberg, Dope, Inc. Is $600 Billion and Growing, Executive Intelligence Review, 14 Dec 2001, http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2001/2848dope_money.html ) 

In other words, the Wall Street financial establishment, which plays a behind the scenes role in the formulation of US foreign policy, has a vested interest in retaining the Haiti transshipment trade, while installing a reliable "narco-democracy" in Port-au-Prince, which will effectively protect the transshipment routes.

It should be noted that since the advent of the Euro as a global currency, a significant share of the narcotics trade is now conducted in Euro rather than US dollars.

The Latin American cocaine trade --including the transshipment trade through Haiti-- is largely conducted in US dollars.  This shift out of dollar denominated narco-transactions, which undermines the hegemony of the US dollar as a global currency, largely pertains to the Middle East, Central Asian and the Southern European drug routes.

Media Manipulation

In the weeks leading up to the Coup d'Etat, the media has largely focused its attention on the pro-Aristide "armed gangs" and "thugs",  without providing an understanding of the role of the FLRN Rebels.

Deafening silence: not a word was mentioned in official statements and UN resolutions regarding the nature of the FLRN.  This should come as no surprise: the US Ambassador to the UN  (the man who sits on the UN Security Council) John Negroponte.  played a key role in the CIA supported Honduran death squadrons in the 1980s when he was US ambassador to Honduras. (See San Francisco Examiner, 20 Oct 2001  http://www.flora.org/mai/forum/31397 )

The FLRN rebels are extremely well equipped and trained forces. The Haitian people know who they are. They are Tonton Macoute of the Duvalier era and former FRAPH assassins.

The Western media is mute on the issue, blaming the violence on President Aristide. When it acknowledges that the Liberation Army is composed of death squadrons, it fails to examine the broader implications of its statements and that these death squadrons are a creation of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The New York Times has acknowledged that the "non violent" civil society opposition is in fact collaborating with the death squadrons, "accused of killing thousands", but all this is described as "accidental". No historical understanding is provided. Who are these death squadron leaders?  All we are told is that they have established an "alliance" with the "non-violent" good guys who belong to the "political opposition". And it is all for a good and worthy cause, which is to remove the elected president and "restore democracy": 

"As Haiti's crisis lurches toward civil war, a tangled web of alliances, some of them accidental, has emerged. It has linked the interests of a political opposition movement that has embraced nonviolence to a group of insurgents that includes a former leader of death squads accused of killing thousands, a former police chief accused of plotting a coup and a ruthless gang once aligned with Mr. Aristide that has now turned against him. Given their varied origins, those arrayed against Mr. Aristide are hardly unified, though they all share an ardent wish to see him removed from power." (New York Times,  26 Feb 2004)

There is nothing spontaneous or "accidental" in the rebel attacks or in the "alliance" between the leader of the death squadrons Guy Philippe and Andy Apaid, owner of the largest industrial sweatshop in Haiti and leader of the G-184. 

The armed rebellion was part of a carefully planned military-intelligence operation. The Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic had detected guerilla training camps inside the Dominican Republic on the Northeast Haitian-Dominican border. ( El ejército dominicano informó a Aristide sobre los entrenamientos rebeldes en la frontera, El Caribe, 27 Feb. 2004, http://www.elcaribe.com.do/articulo_multimedios.aspx?id=2645&guid=AB38144D39B24C6FBA4213AC40DD3A01&Seccion=64 )

Both the armed rebels and their civilian "non-violent" counterparts were involved in the plot to unseat the president. G-184 leader Andre Apaid was in touch with Colin Powell in the weeks leading up to the overthrow of Aristide;  Guy Philippe and "Toto" Emmanuel Constant have links to the CIA; there are indications that Rebel Commander Guy Philippe and the political leader of the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front Winter Etienne were in liaison with US officials. (See BBC, 27 Feb 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3496690.stm ).

While the US had repeatedly stated that it will uphold Constitutional government, the replacement of Aristide by a more compliant individual had always been part of the Bush Administration's agenda.

On Feb 20, US Ambassador James Foley called in a team of four military experts from the U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami. Officially their mandate was "to assess threats to the embassy and its personnel." (Seattle Times, 20 Feb 2004). US Special Forces are already in the country. Washington had announced that three US naval vessels "have been put on standby to go to Haiti as a precautionary measure". The Saipan is equipped with Vertical takeoff Harrier fighters and attack helicopters. The other two vessels are the Oak Hill and Trenton.  Some 2,200 U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, at Camp Lejeune, N.C. could be deployed to Haiti at short notice, according to Washington.

With the departure of President Aristide, Washington, however, has no intention of disarming its proxy rebel paramilitary army, which is now slated to play a role in the "transition". In other words, the Bush administration will not act to prevent the occurrence of killings and political assassinations of Lavalas and Aristide supporters in the wake of the president's departure.

Needless to say, the Western media has not in the least analyzed the historical background of the Haitian crisis. The role played by the CIA has not been mentioned. The so-called "international community", which claims to be committed to governance and democracy, has turned a blind eye to the killings of civilians by a US sponsored paramilitary army. The "rebel leaders", who were commanders in the FRAPH death squadrons in the 1990s, are now being upheld by the US media as bona fide opposition spokesmen. Meanwhile, the legitimacy of the former elected president is questioned because he is said to be responsible for "a worsening economic and social situation." 

The worsening economic and social situation is largely attributable to the devastating economic reforms imposed by the IMF since the  1980s. The restoration of Constitutional government in 1994 was conditional upon the acceptance of the IMF's deadly economic therapy, which in turn foreclosed the possibility of a meaningful democracy. High ranking government officials respectively within the Andre Preval and Jean Bertrand Aristide governments were indeed compliant with IMF diktats. Despite this compliance, Aristide had been "blacklisted" and demonized by Washington.  

The Militarization of the Caribbean Basin

Washington seeks to reinstate Haiti as a full-fledged US colony, with all the appearances of a functioning democracy. The objective is to impose a puppet regime in Port-au-Prince and establish a permanent US military presence in Haiti. 

The US Administration ultimately seeks to militarize the Caribbean basin.

The island of Hispaniola is a gateway to the Caribbean basin, strategically located between Cuba to the North West and Venezuela to the South.  The militarization of the island, with the establishment of US military bases, is not only intended to put political pressure on Cuba and Venezuela, it is also geared towards the protection of the multibillion dollar narcotics transshipment trade through Haiti, from production sites in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

The militarisation of the Caribbean basin is, in some regards, similar to that imposed by Washington on the Andean Region of South America under "Plan Colombia', renamed "The Andean Initiative". The latter constitutes the basis for the militarisation of oil and gas wells, as well as pipeline routes and transportation corridors. It also protects the narcotics trade.

Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) at www.globalresearch.ca . The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html

Haiti Support Group press release – 1 March 2004

According to the AFP, opposition leader, Evans Paul, said the Democratic Platform is meeting with the armed opposition of Guy Philippe, Jean Tatoune and Louis Jodel Chamblain today, Monday morning, in Port-au-Prince. Opposition leader, Micha Gaillard, said there have already been contacts through intermediaries. Opposition leader, André Apaid, said, "The insurgents must be part of the solution because, after all, they are Haitians."

            Interviewed by the BBC World Service yesterday, 29 February, Guy Philippe was asked if he expected his armed force to be part of the new government. He replied: "I don't 'expect' it. I know that we will be part of it."

            Interviewed by The Miami Herald on Saturday 28 February, Philippe said that the man he most admires is former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. "Pinochet made Chile what it is,'' gushed Philippe. Number 2 on Philippe's list is former US President Ronald Reagan.

            On many occasions, the armed opposition's spokespeople have made it clear they want to re-instate the Haitian Army. Some of them say it already exists – de facto. André Apaid has on several occasions intimated that he favours the return of the Army.

            Jean Tatoune and Louis Jodel Chamblain are convicted killers, leaders of the FRAPH death-squad of 1993-94.

            Guy Philippe, a former Army officer, was trained by the US in Ecuador and given a top post in the new Haitian Police Force. According to Human Rights Watch, between 1997 and 1999, he served as police chief for Delmas, on the north side of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. During his tenure there, the UN/OAS International Civilian Mission learned that dozens of suspected gang members were summarily executed.

Ever since its creation during the US occupation (1915-34), the Haitian Army's primary roles have been to defend the country's tiny and reactionary economic elite and to repress movements for progressive political change. We fully expect a reborn Haitian Army to play exactly the same role.

            For this reason, the Haiti Support Group – a solidarity organisation that has supported the Haitian people's struggle for justice, human rights, equitable development and participatory democracy since 1992 – cannot accept that a reborn Haitian Army will serve the best interests of the Haitian majority.

______________________________________________

            This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group. See the Haiti Support Group web site:

www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

            Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory democracy and equitable development, since 1992.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2004/03/printable/040303_haiticaricom.shtml

Caricom has called for an independent inquiry into the departure of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and says it will not send peacekeepers at this time.

            The statement calling for an inquiry was delivered by Caricom chairman, Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson at the end of a two-day emergency meeting in Jamaica.

            "Despite what we have heard in public and despite what we have heard in private we simply say that the situation calls for an investigation of what transpired."

"We believe that this should be done under the auspices of some independent international body such as the United Nations which would clarify the circumstances leading to the relinquishing of the presidency of Haiti by President Aristide," Mr Patterson said.

            The Caricom chairman said the group was "disappointed in the extreme" that the United Nations Security Council failed to act on the motion put forward last Thursday calling for urgent UN intervention.

            Mr Patterson said Caricom would not be sending peacekeepers to Haiti but would be part of a stabilisation force at a later date.

            The Jamaican prime minister said there had been no indication during discussions with the US and France that the plan which Caricom had put forward was not acceptable.

            A key element of that plan was keeping Mr Aristide in office.

"In respect of our partners we can only say this, at no time in our discussions did they convey to us that the plan was unacceptable so long as president Aristide remained in office."

            "Nor did they suggest to us anything of a nature pertaining to the conduct of President Aristide in office that would cause us to come to the judgement ourselves that he was unsuited to be the President of Haiti," Mr Patterson said.

            The Caricom plan is the basis for the discussions being held in Haiti to form a power-sharing government.

            Mr Aristide is presently in the Central African Republic.

            There have been reports that the former president is there temporarily while an asylum application is considered by South Africa.

            However authorities there say they have not received any formal request.

Mr Aristide’s lawyer Ira Kurzban, told BBC Caribbean Service he is planning international legal action against the US.

            Mr Kurzban, said he had no doubt that the situation surrounding Mr Aristide’s departure was a coup.

            This he said made it a gross violation of human rights of a democratically elected president. The Haitian rebel leader, Guy Philippe, who led the rebellion that resulted in the ousting of Mr Aristide, says he has ordered his forces to lay down their arms. Mr Phillipe, who declared himself military chief on Tuesday, said he had done so because international security forces were moving to disarm supporters of the deposed president.

            The BBC’s Stephen Gibbs said Mr Philippe had been summoned to the residence of the US Ambassador early on Wednesday when he was told he must lay down his arms.

            Increasing numbers of US marines have begun patrolling the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, after they ordered all combatants to disarm and return to their homes.

            Earlier on Wednesday sporadic gunfire was heard as armed rebels patrolled the city, where some districts appeared still to be under the control of gangs loyal to Mr Aristide.

            Aid agencies are gearing up to bring urgent supplies to Haiti where weeks of revolt and political upheaval have left thousands short of food and water.

            A UN plane carrying medical supplies has arrived but aid workers say security needs to be established before large-scale distribution can begin.

            A DC-8 plane from Copenhagen landed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Wednesday morning, bringing in 30 tons of medical supplies, the UN's children's agency (Unicef) said. The UN body has launched an appeal for more than seven-million dollars towards emergency programmes for the country.

Daily Press Briefing
the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson
(Paris, March 2, 2004)

Following the vote on SCR 1529, France gives the highest priority to emergency humanitarian aid. The situation was reviewed on March 1 with NGOs that are either on the ground or plan to be.

            The Foreign Ministry's first step in this regard is the dispatch of a special humanitarian flight on March 3. The plane will carry seven Red Cross ambulances financed by the European Commission (ECHO) and two ICRC vehicles, as well as donations by several Red Cross chapters (in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and France) for urgent operations by NGOs on the ground (Doctors of the World, Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross).

            The plane will also carry 5 WHO kits that fulfil the needs of 10,000 people for 3 months and 32 crates of medications (for paediatrics, surgery and general medicine). The Foreign Ministry is currently working to complete the load that will be taken aboard this flight.

            Given the situation on the ground, we pledge to send a second shipment. But first we must assess the needs. To this end, we are in constant contact with our embassy and the ICRC.

Q - Does France, along with other participants in the international force, intend to disarm armed bands? How does France plan to encourage a dynamic of national reconciliation when Aristide's former militia head, a police commissioner suspected by the United States of cocaine trafficking, is celebrated as a liberator in Port-au-Prince? What role should be given to these insurgent leaders? How can France help the local political class to re-establish the country's institutions? And finally, with respect to Mr. Aristide's presence in Bangui, President Bongo said it was he who asked the authorities of the Central African Republic to welcome Mr. Aristide, but did France intervene with Mr. Bozizé?
To begin with the first in your series of questions, I believe the simplest thing is to remind you that France, like the rest of the international community, is operating in the context of SCR 1529, adopted on February 29. France is not conducting a specific action, it is working within the framework of the international community's action as defined by that resolution. As you know, the priority is the establishment of an interim national unity government. It is up to the Haitian parties to work in that direction and to establish this interim national unity government as rapidly as possible.

            As far as the CAR is concerned, I have no comment.

Q - If I've understood properly, France's role for now is strictly to guarantee the security of French nationals in Haiti but not at all to intervene to disarm armed bands or in Haitian domestic life.
Let me reiterate the terms of SCR 1529, which defines the role of the interim multinational force, whose French components are in fact already in place: to facilitate the establishment of conditions of security and stability in the Haitian capital and elsewhere in the country, as needed and as permitted by circumstances, in support of the request for international assistance made by Haitian president Boniface Alexandre, with a view to promoting the constitutional political process under way in Haiti. Our action falls within that framework.

Q - Is a meeting still planned with Haitian opponents in Paris, or is that now out of date? With regard to Aristide in Bangui, defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie specified that France is offering protection to Aristide; what is the diplomatic basis of that protection? Was a request made by the president, a decision taken by France?
The opponents had asked to be received in Paris, so if they come to Paris, they will of course be received by the minister. Moreover, I want to remind you of what the minister said in his declaration in Japan. He indicated he was prepared to visit Haiti when a national unity government is put in place and had begun working. We are operating mainly in that perspective.

Q - But can you confirm that you received a request from President Aristide to provide him with protection?
No, I can't confirm that we received that request. I have no information on such a request.

Q - How many French troops are there in the Central African Republic?
I suggest you ask the Defence Ministry. Offhand, I'd say it's about 200, but that number needs to be verified.

The Black Commentator
Issue Number 39
April 24, 2003
By Randall Robinson

A bloodless coup, led by the world's richest and most powerful nations, is taking place in Haiti.

For two years now, the world's wealthiest nations and the Bretton Woods institutions they control have maintained a crushing international financial embargo on eight million Haitians. They have done this "to protest an electoral dispute stemming from Haiti's May 2000 national elections." At issue was the formula used to calculate the votes for seven senate seats - out of some 7,500 filled nationwide at that time. The seven senators have long since resigned, yet the sweeping financial embargo their election triggered remains in place.

In the original dispute over the vote count, anti-government figures inside Haiti with powerful connections abroad but no political support at home saw a priceless opportunity. If, instead of the screaming victims and ricocheting bullets of the 1991 coup the international community would, this time, simply block every penny of international capital to the Government of Haiti, then that government could, effectively - and without the negative headlines - be again overthrown. A government with no access to capital soon becomes no government at all. And so, for more than a year now, Haiti has been hog-tied and thrust face into the dirt by a financial embargo initiated and maintained by the wealthiest nations on earth.

There may not be the bullet-ridden bodies along Haiti's streets that we saw after the coup of 1991. But there are bodies. They are the bodies of
Haiti's nameless, faceless poor who, no longer able to bend, break. They buckle under the weight of an embargo that - incredibly - denies their elected government already-approved loans for safe drinking water, literacy programs, and health care that they need. They die out of earshot, out of sight, and unremarked by "those who matter" beyond their shores.

Professor Paul Farmer of Harvard Medical School established a health clinic in Haiti's central plateau some 20 years ago and travels there regularly. Day after day, he and his staff do battle against the ravages of the embargo. He has been writing and speaking extensively in an attempt to alert the outside world to the impact of the world's powerful on Haiti. "They are doing severe harm to millions of Haitian men, women, and children.... If the American people could observe first hand the ravages of this embargo, they would strongly condemn it," he says.

Profoundly concerned by the human costs of the embargo, the 14
English-speaking democracies of the Caribbean dispatched a high-level delegation to Haiti in January of 2002. In their view, the widespread human suffering it has wrought has gone unaddressed - and unremarked - for far too long. These democracies, the oldest and most stable in the hemisphere south of the United States, have stepped forward to serve as a bridge between those imposing the embargo and those suffering under it. They note that the Government of Haiti has made significant concessions in an attempt to end this crisis, key among them being the long ago resignation of the seven senators whose election triggered the embargo. At the same time Caricom (Caribbean Community) is working in earnest with Haiti's unelected opposition figures in an attempt to encourage them to work with their government to end the stalemate.

According to Julian Hunte, Minister of External Affairs in the Government of St. Lucia and Head of Caricom's Special Haiti Mission, for the entire international community, "the social, economic, and political interests of eight million Haitians must now become paramount." Indeed, Dame Eugenia Charles, former Prime Minister of Dominica and rock solid partner of Ronald Reagan in the 1983 US/Caricom invasion of Grenada, lamented after participating in an official fact-finding mission to Haiti in July 2001, "No-one is listening to the Haitian people. No-one is asking what the Haitian people want!"

Caricom is trying to alert the Organization of American States and indeed the entire international community to a number of stark realities. In this special period in world relations, it is morally untenable and politically unwise for the wealthiest nations on earth to maintain a financial stranglehold on eight million men, women, and children in Haiti. Haiti has no nuclear weapons. It has attacked neither American property nor American citizens. Indeed it is trying its very best, even with its limited material resources, to be a responsible nation and to support US priorities in the region. As an active participant in the US led regional war on drugs, for example, even with its inexperienced police and coast guard, Haiti was able to double the size of its cocaine seizures last year over the year before.

Throughout the Caribbean, there is a keen sense that the duly elected
Government of Haiti must now be allowed to govern. The financial embargo robs the Haitian people of their government, and therefore of their democracy. There is also, throughout the Caribbean, respect for the right of Haiti's opposition figures to continue criticizing their government while awaiting their turn at the polls, for this is the essence of democracy.

Caribbean democracies are urging that the loans successfully negotiated by the Government of Haiti on behalf of the Haitian people be released without delay. It is only when this is done, Caricom feels, that the benefits of Haiti's hard-won democracy will, at last, be made manifest to the very special people of that very special land.

Randall Robinson is founder and past president us of TransAfrica Forum. He is a lecturer and author whose works include "The Debt - What America Owes to Blacks" and "The Reckoning - What Blacks Owe to Each Other." He is currently living in the Caribbean (e-Mail rr@rosro.com) where he is
Writing a book about the impact of the United States on the region.

contributor Kevin Pina offers this Afterword on Haitian developments:

Since Mr. Robinson wrote this piece, very little has changed with regard to the crippling "unofficial" economic embargo imposed upon Haiti's constitutional government. As Mr. Robinson points out, the official reason behind withholding of loans and assistance to Haiti's government has always been the method for calculating the ballots of the May 2000 parliamentary elections. This charge has been leveled and repeated again and again by the pundits of the US foreign policy establishment in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The greatest irony is that President Bush himself had to be selected by the Supreme Court of the US amidst charges of bad vote tabulations and manipulation of the electorate. A member of President Aristide's Lavalas party made this comment following the US elections, "Regardless of the problems we had with our elections it is pure hypocrisy for the US to lecture us about democracy and methods for counting our ballots. It is very ironic that the world's first black republic, which arose from the world's only successful slave revolution, is being lectured to by a government whose methods of determining victory in a presidential election were originally designed over 200 years ago by a small clique of white male slave owners.

"The Electoral College system, your method of calculating ballots, guarantees against populism by allowing a candidate who receives the most votes to actually lose an election while in Haiti they insist we must adhere without variation to the principles of one person, one vote.' This does not even begin to address the contradiction of the number of military coups the US has supported over the years against democratically elected governments in this hemisphere in the name of democracy."

On April 30, 2003, a historic meeting of the Organization of American
States (OAS) will take place that may well determine the future of democracy in Haiti. The United States Representative to the OAS, Peter De Shazo, has already begun blaming the government of Haiti for not doing enough to improve the political climate which many here see as "double speak" for "regime change." The charge appears to be part of the continuing campaign to deny Haiti much-needed funds and undermine Haiti's democratic process. To learn more about it contact the Haiti Action Committee at haitiaction@yahoo.com.

Kevin Pina is a documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist who has been working and living in Haiti for the past three years. He has been covering events in Haiti for the past decade and produced a documentary film entitled "Haiti: Harvest of Hope". Mr. Pina is also the Haiti Special Correspondent for the Flashpoints radio program on the Pacifica Network's flagship station KPFA in Berkeley CA (www.flashpoints.net)

T h e ..H a i t i.. B u l l e t i n

i n f o @ r os r o . c o m

Danny Glover, human rights activist and actor, is a leading figure in a growing movement to ensure that the Haitian Revolution is accorded the international respect  and honor that   it deserves.   With the 2004 bicentennial of Haiti’s independence approaching, Mr. Glover is a part of an international movement to help the world understand that of the three great revolutions of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries - the American, French and the Haitian Revolutions - the Haitian Revolution was the most sweepingly humanistic in its aims, the most dramatic in its impact and consequences, and the most daringly brilliant in its execution.   Yet it remains the most ignored, the most vilified.  In the following interview, Mr. Glover talks to Hazel Ross-Robinson about what the victory of hundreds of thousands of slave revolutionaries under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture in their war against France means to him, and what it should mean to the world.

HRR:   What is the relevance of the Haitian Revolution?

DG:   It is of great relevance.    Indeed, I have been working on a movie script on the life of Toussaint L’Ouverture – former slave and brilliant military strategist during the Haitian Revolution.   He was one of the truly great men in history. 

     Toussaint was a committed proponent of the rights of man, and was the leading strategic and military mind during the slaves’ long, but eventually victorious war against France.

     It is difficult today to even begin to imagine how philosophically bold, daring, and truly revolutionary it was in the late 1700’s for Toussaint to commit himself to the complete eradication of slavery – not just in Haiti, but where ever it existed.  This had a tremendous psychological impact on the enslaved throughout the Caribbean, the United States, and elsewhere.   It had an equally dramatic psychological impact on slaveholders and hastened the dismantling of slavery elsewhere. 

    Toussaint and his ideas constituted a very dangerous combination to the United States, which had a large slave population.  American slaves knew about, and were energized by the Haitian Revolution.   Denmark Vesey was inspired by the Haitian Revolultion, and with his army of fighting slaves had planned to commandeer naval vessels in Charleston Harbor and escape to Haiti.   Across the South and throughout the Caribbean slaves were emboldened.  And slave revolts in these areas began to be viewed very differently after the Haitian Revolution.  From that point on, there was a real fear among slaveholders that they could lose their way of life.

HRR:   How does the Haitian Revolution compare with the American Revolution and the French Revolution?

DG:   The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution are all related.   They all had an enormous impact on the way in which the world was shaped                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               politically and economically.  They also had a dramatic impact on the way in which people began to see themselves.

     The American Revolution, nonetheless, was primarily a victory for the merchant class which no longer wished to be dominated by the Crown.  The French Revolution, also, saw the emergence of a merchant class and the abolition of the monarchy.  

     Those who achieved power in France and the United States following those countries’ revolutions, though, had previously been people of power and means.

     The Haitian Revolution took the underlying precepts of both the French and the American Revolutions to a higher plane, to higher moral and philosophical ground.   In that revolution, the most powerless, most exploited, and least privileged within the social and political structures of that time boldly asserted their human dignity and human potential against the mightiest of foes - and prevailed.  They developed and implemented a plan that enabled them to succeed at claiming for themselves an independent, free republic.

     The Haitian Revolution was, in my mind, the highest form of revolution - the most sweepingly dramatic of the three we’ve just discussed.   Yet it is the one that is least celebrated  - or even heard    about.   Indeed, it is often vilified.   We can change that.

     The French Revolution did not result in the end of French Imperialism.   And the American Revolution actually led to the further displacement of Native Americans, the seizing of Spanish lands, and the expansion of the new America into the rest of the continent.    Both revolutions led to the consolidation of power amongst the already powerful.   But the basic, underlying structures of American and French societies were not dramatically altered.

     In Haiti, the situation was radically different.  (You know, the peasants in France became radicalized by the French Revolution, and what was so brilliant about Toussaint is that he took on their battle cry.  And this, in turn, further radicalized the French peasantry.  So the French and Haitian Revolutions were in some ways symbiotic – they energized and strengthened each other).     The Haitian Revolution resulted in power being fought for and won by the most marginalized and oppressed members of society.

HRR:   How should we go about honoring Toussaint L’Ouverture and the hundreds of thousands of slave revolutionaries who waged war against France – successfully – to end slavery in St. Domingue?

DG:   We must elevate the importance of the Haitian Revolution.   This is vital, not only for the Haitian people, not only for the people of the Caribbean, not only for African-Americans, but for the entire world.  The Haitian Revolution is a fascinating and glorious chapter in world history.

     We can remember and honor Haiti’s slave revolutionaries by working around issues pertaining to human rights, national identity.  We can and must begin right now to write plays, publish essays, make films, produce anthologies, compose music – we must tell the story.  And we must not limit the recounting of this fascinating accomplishment to 2004 only.  The next two years also provides Haiti with a priceless opportunity to tell its own story.   That is very important.

     The Haitian Revolution is so very important.  You know, you understand a people in large part by understanding their reaction to oppression.  That is why it is important for African-Americans, the people of the Caribbean, and people all over the world, really, to remember and commemorate.

 HRR:   What is your most important message for those who plan to celebrate the bicentennial in 2004?

DG:   That it would be a mistake to focus only on 2004.  We must focus on the period between the today and 2004.   The next two and a half years provide governments, artists, teachers, students, poets, activists, the old and the young so many opportunities to remember, to re-enact, to celebrate, to learn anew.  The next two years also give us the opportunity to revisit the Haitian Revolution in relation to the French and American Revolutions. 

     The Haitian Revolution was not a victory for Haitians only.  It was a victory for humankind.  It was a victory for human dignity – a wonderful assertion of human potential.  In the United States and in France, in Canada and Caribbean, wherever there are thinkers and artists anywhere in the world, we must, between now and 2004, remember.

HRR:   Thank you.

Ayiti Oui. 2003

Highly accomplished members of the African diaspora have come together as Executive Comittee members of Ayiti Oui to encourage poets, dancers, composers, actors, singers, playwrights, publishers, choreographers, teachers, students, activists, journalists and politicians to take a multi-faceted approach to commemorating the drama and majesty of the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804. Although 2004 will officially mark the bicentennial of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans defeating Napoleon ’ s mighty armies and wresting from France control of its most valuable overseas possession, committee members are encouraging the public at large to find unique and varied ways to begin now to commemorate this breathtaking historical manifestation of the human spirit.

Ayiti Oui Executive Committee members, all of whom have achieved the pinnacle of success in their chosen professions, recognize the role of the Haitian Revolution in hastening the demise of de jure slavery and creating the promise of self-actualization for today ’ s descendents of Africans enslaved in the New World. They think that it is important for us to remember how slaves, slaveholders, European monarchs and citizenry alike, watched with bated breath as Toussaint L ’ Ouverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, and their slave revolutionaries fought with fearless determination against — and defeated — imperial Spain, imperial Britain and imperial France. They wish to commemorate the then-new Republic of Haiti declaring itself an official sanctuary for all runaway slaves from anywhere in the New World, and to examine the political, economic and psychological shockwaves that the Haitian Revolution sent throughout the slave-holding capitals of Europe.
Executive committee members feel that the Haitian Revolution lends itself to spellbinding re-enactments on stage and screen; the crafting of transcendent lyrics; the composition of exquisite melodies and captivating prose; and the creation of breathtaking choreography. It also provides a storehouse of material for ground-breaking academic research and analysis.

The American and French Revolutions have been studied in depth and heralded far and wide – as well they should. Less widely proclaimed, though far more sweeping in both its goals and its impact, has been the Haitian Revolution. This revolution, committee members believe, is as awe-inspiring a process of socio-political transformation as one is likely to find anywhere in the world history. And so they seek to heighten awareness of the significance of the Haitian Revolution, and to encourage its full celebration during this eve of its bicentennial. They do this as a means of paying homage to the Africans enslaved in St. Domingue who waged a glorious revolution and created the Republic of Haiti. And they do this because the Haitian Revolution should symbolize, for all peoples, the enormous and ennobling power of the human spirit and man ’ s innate need to be free.