The Nation
<http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20051212&s=weisbrot>
December 12, 2005
Comment
"Undermining Haiti"
by Mark Weisbrot
History is repeating itself in Haiti, as democracy is being destroyed
for the second time in the past fifteen years. Amazingly, the main
difference seems to be that this time it is being done openly and in
broad daylight, with the support of the "international community" and
the United Nations. The first coup against Haiti's democratically
elected government, in September 1991, was condemned even by the
George H.W. Bush Administration. This although the CIA had funded the
leaders of the coup and--according to a founder of the death squads
that murdered thousands of people during the 1991-94 military
dictatorship--also sponsored the repression. All this was covert, and
the official position of the United States and most other countries
was that the dictatorship was not legitimate.
But when in February 2004 Haiti's democratically elected president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown for the second time by
remnants of that prior dictatorship--including convicted mass
murderers and former death squad leaders--this was considered a
legitimate "regime change." The Caricom countries, showing great
courage, objected strenuously, as did some members of the US
Congress. But these voices were not powerful enough to influence the
course of events.
The fix was in: The US Agency for International Development and the
International Republican Institute (the international arm of the
Republican Party) had spent tens of millions of dollars to create and
organize an opposition--however small in numbers--and to make Haiti
under Aristide ungovernable. The whole scenario was strikingly
similar to the series of events that led to the coup against
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in April 2002. The same US
organizations were involved, and the opposition--as in
Venezuela--controlled and used the major media as a tool for
destabilization. And in both cases the coup leaders, joined by
Washington, announced to the world that the elected president had
"voluntarily resigned"--which later turned out to be false.
Washington had an added weapon against the Haitian government. Taking
advantage of Haiti's desperate poverty and dependence on foreign aid,
it stopped international aid to the government, from the summer of
2000 until the 2004 coup. As economist Jeffrey Sachs has pointed out,
the World Bank also contributed to the destabilization effort by
cutting off funding.
Now the coup government, headed by unelected Prime Minister Gérard
Latortue, is trying to organize an election. But it is an election
that would not be seen as legitimate in any country, not even Iraq.
Everything is being arranged so that the country's largest political
party, Fanmi Lavalas--which at any moment before the coup would have
overwhelmingly swept national elections--cannot win. Many of the
party's leaders are in jail, generally on trumped-up or nonexistent
charges, including the constitutional prime minister, Yvon Neptune,
and Father Gérard Jean-Juste, a Catholic priest and likely
presidential candidate if he were not jailed. Jean-Juste has been
declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Other
leaders are in hiding or in exile, since the murder of political
opponents is common. In one massacre in August, witnesses described
Haitian police arriving at a soccer match and pointing out people in
the crowd, who were then hacked to death by civilian accomplices with
machetes. UN troops have also been implicated in some of the
violence, and the UN has promised an investigation.
The coup government, with an electoral commission that has no
pretense of impartiality, is also set to disenfranchise a huge number
of its opponents. There have been about one-twentieth as many
registration sites for this election as there were for previous
elections, and it is mostly Fanmi Lavalas voters who have been
excluded. According to party spokespeople, the party has not
registered any candidates for president, and many of its voters will
boycott the election unless their demands for the release of
political prisoners and an end to the persecution are met.
The election has been postponed three times, most recently to
December 27. Setting the date two days after Christmas will also help
minimize voter turnout.
Will the world accept this farce of an election? The Bush
Administration and its allies seem to be hoping that Haiti is just
too poor and too black for anyone to care about whether democratic,
constitutional or even human rights are respected there. They have
also cited the violence from both sides of the conflict to disguise
the fact that most of that violence is directed at supporters of the
ousted government to prevent them from returning to power through a
fair election.
But if this election goes forward without the release of political
prisoners and the restoration of basic rights and security, it will
not only be a tragedy for Haiti. It will be a throwback to the days
when the United States was able to destabilize, overthrow and replace
elected governments that it did not like. It will be a huge step
backward for democracy in this hemisphere.
--
about MARK WEISBROT
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research, in Washington, is co-author of The Scorecard on
Globalization 1960-1980: Twenty Years of Diminished Progress (Center
for Economic and Policy Research).
<http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20051212&s=weisbrot>
December 12, 2005
Comment
"Undermining Haiti"
by Mark Weisbrot
History is repeating itself in Haiti, as democracy is being destroyed
for the second time in the past fifteen years. Amazingly, the main
difference seems to be that this time it is being done openly and in
broad daylight, with the support of the "international community" and
the United Nations. The first coup against Haiti's democratically
elected government, in September 1991, was condemned even by the
George H.W. Bush Administration. This although the CIA had funded the
leaders of the coup and--according to a founder of the death squads
that murdered thousands of people during the 1991-94 military
dictatorship--also sponsored the repression. All this was covert, and
the official position of the United States and most other countries
was that the dictatorship was not legitimate.
But when in February 2004 Haiti's democratically elected president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown for the second time by
remnants of that prior dictatorship--including convicted mass
murderers and former death squad leaders--this was considered a
legitimate "regime change." The Caricom countries, showing great
courage, objected strenuously, as did some members of the US
Congress. But these voices were not powerful enough to influence the
course of events.
The fix was in: The US Agency for International Development and the
International Republican Institute (the international arm of the
Republican Party) had spent tens of millions of dollars to create and
organize an opposition--however small in numbers--and to make Haiti
under Aristide ungovernable. The whole scenario was strikingly
similar to the series of events that led to the coup against
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in April 2002. The same US
organizations were involved, and the opposition--as in
Venezuela--controlled and used the major media as a tool for
destabilization. And in both cases the coup leaders, joined by
Washington, announced to the world that the elected president had
"voluntarily resigned"--which later turned out to be false.
Washington had an added weapon against the Haitian government. Taking
advantage of Haiti's desperate poverty and dependence on foreign aid,
it stopped international aid to the government, from the summer of
2000 until the 2004 coup. As economist Jeffrey Sachs has pointed out,
the World Bank also contributed to the destabilization effort by
cutting off funding.
Now the coup government, headed by unelected Prime Minister Gérard
Latortue, is trying to organize an election. But it is an election
that would not be seen as legitimate in any country, not even Iraq.
Everything is being arranged so that the country's largest political
party, Fanmi Lavalas--which at any moment before the coup would have
overwhelmingly swept national elections--cannot win. Many of the
party's leaders are in jail, generally on trumped-up or nonexistent
charges, including the constitutional prime minister, Yvon Neptune,
and Father Gérard Jean-Juste, a Catholic priest and likely
presidential candidate if he were not jailed. Jean-Juste has been
declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Other
leaders are in hiding or in exile, since the murder of political
opponents is common. In one massacre in August, witnesses described
Haitian police arriving at a soccer match and pointing out people in
the crowd, who were then hacked to death by civilian accomplices with
machetes. UN troops have also been implicated in some of the
violence, and the UN has promised an investigation.
The coup government, with an electoral commission that has no
pretense of impartiality, is also set to disenfranchise a huge number
of its opponents. There have been about one-twentieth as many
registration sites for this election as there were for previous
elections, and it is mostly Fanmi Lavalas voters who have been
excluded. According to party spokespeople, the party has not
registered any candidates for president, and many of its voters will
boycott the election unless their demands for the release of
political prisoners and an end to the persecution are met.
The election has been postponed three times, most recently to
December 27. Setting the date two days after Christmas will also help
minimize voter turnout.
Will the world accept this farce of an election? The Bush
Administration and its allies seem to be hoping that Haiti is just
too poor and too black for anyone to care about whether democratic,
constitutional or even human rights are respected there. They have
also cited the violence from both sides of the conflict to disguise
the fact that most of that violence is directed at supporters of the
ousted government to prevent them from returning to power through a
fair election.
But if this election goes forward without the release of political
prisoners and the restoration of basic rights and security, it will
not only be a tragedy for Haiti. It will be a throwback to the days
when the United States was able to destabilize, overthrow and replace
elected governments that it did not like. It will be a huge step
backward for democracy in this hemisphere.
--
about MARK WEISBROT
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research, in Washington, is co-author of The Scorecard on
Globalization 1960-1980: Twenty Years of Diminished Progress (Center
for Economic and Policy Research).