` Haiti Resources
News & Analysis Links & Reources Return to Top

News

Washington reluctantly concedes Préval is Haiti’s president-elect. (POSTED: February 22, 2006)

Victory? Ex-Aristide ally leads Haiti poll. He's getting > 60% of the vote! (POSTED: February 10, 2006)

Haiti election may pave way for Aristide's return. (POSTED: February 6, 2006)

New York Times provides background to administration infighting on Haiti: In Haiti, politics and gunfire engulf UN force. (POSTED: January 29, 2006)

Brian ConCannon, Jr.: Meanwhile, Down in Haiti: The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost. (POSTED: December 30, 2005)

Labor victory! Collective Bargaining Agreement Signed at Grupo M Plant in Haiti. (POSTED: December 21, 2005)

From Haiti Information Project. Isabel MacDonald: DDR in Haiti: The UN's cleansing of Bel Air ahead of elections. (POSTED: December 19, 2005)

Kevin Pina's films: Haiti: Harvest of Hope on the early Aristide years [now on DVD]. And: Haiti:The Untold Story. [Download the trailer there.] (POSTED: December 19, 2005)

Bill Quigley: Prison meeting with Pere Jean-Juste in Haiti. (POSTED: December 19, 2005)

Stephen Lendman: Achievements Under Aristide, Now Lost. (POSTED: December 19, 2005)

Where is the Outcry? Haiti: Insanity Takes Over, While the Selection Continues. (POSTED: November 12, 2005)

Haiti's Interim Government Sues Aristide. (POSTED: November 4, 2005)

Urgent Action Needed! San Francisco Bay Area Journalist Kevin Pina Held in Haiti. [Detailed information on needed action is included.] See also: Haiti journalists Kevin Pina and Jean Ristil arrested by masked police at Father Jean-Juste's church. (POSTED: September 13, 2005)

Shirley Pate on the UN in Haiti: MINUSTAH Lies, Haitians Die. (POSTED: August 15, 2005)

Amnesty International Action Alert: Haiti: Arbitrary arrest/prisoner of conscience: Gérard Jean-Juste (m), aged 59, Catholic priest. (POSTED: July 27, 2005)

Miami Herald: Ghosts of the 1915 U.S. Invasion Still Haunt Haiti's People. (POSTED: July 27, 2005)

Priest Allied to Ex-Haiti President Jailed. (POSTED: July 23, 2005)

Fr. Jean-Juste arrested for murder in Haiti when he was in Florida: Haitian Priest Assaulted by Mob at Funeral and Arrested for Murder. (POSTED: July 22, 2005)

He flashed a tired smile and told me: "Now you see what we are up against in Haiti. If they treat me like this, think how they treat the poor people. Tell everyone that with the help of God and everyone else I will keep up the good fight. Everyone else should continue to fight for democracy as well. The truth will come out. I am innocent of all charges. I will be free soon. Freedom for Haiti is coming. The struggle continues."

Democracy Now! interviews Fr. Jean-Juste: Day of Protest Decries Deaths in Haiti. (POSTED: July 22, 2005)

big>Naomi Klein: 6/7: the massacre of the poor that the world ignored. (POSTED: July 19, 2005)

Haitian Journalist Kidnapped, Tortured, Killed. (POSTED: July 17, 2005)

Pro-Aristide Priest Reportedly Detained on Return From Miami. (POSTED: July 17, 2005)

[With US support:] Hundreds of other Aristide militants and officials remain in detention for months, without charge or trial.

Naomi Klein: Aristide in Exile. (POSTED: July 16, 2005)

A few weeks ago I visited Aristide in Pretoria, South Africa, where he lives in forced exile. I asked him what was really behind his dramatic falling-out with Washington. He offered an explanation rarely heard in discussions of Haitian politics--actually, he offered three: "privatization, privatization and privatization."

Haiti's UN Occupation Forces Carry Out Massacre of Poor in Port-au-Prince. (POSTED: July 12, 2005)

UN troops storm Haiti shanty town. (POSTED: July 7, 2005)

Haiti gunmen wound U.N. troops, aid workers. (POSTED: June 11, 2005)

Into the fire: Haiti Would Welcome U.S. Troops. (POSTED: June 9, 2005)

25 die after Haiti slum raids. (POSTED: June 6, 2005)

Residents said the dead were shot by police and accused police of setting slum homes on fire.... "The police arrived, they started shooting. There were other people shooting too, but they managed to flee," said Ronald Macillon, a Bel-Air resident. "The police killed a lot of people and set several homes on fire," Macillon said. Several other witnesses gave similar accounts.

Death and despair plague Haitians in one of hemisphere's worst slums, despite UN's presence. (POSTED: May 25, 2005)

5,000: Aristide backers march in Haiti. However: Three Unarmed Haitians Shot To Death on Haiti's Flag Day. (POSTED: May 21, 2005)

Congressman: Ex-Haiti PM's Health Weakened. (POSTED: May 18, 2005)

UN accommodates human rights abuses by police in Haiti. (POSTED: May 10, 2005)

Diplomacy By Death Squad: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers. (POSTED: May 4, 2005)

Haiti's jailed ex-PM wants freedom or death. (POSTED: May 4, 2005)

Ex-Haiti PM to Go to Dominican Republic. And his response: Yvon Neptune forced into exile. (POSTED: May 2, 2005)

Gunfire kills five people in demonstration in Haiti. (POSTED: April 30, 2005)

Letter from Yvon Neptune: Haiti: Yvon Neptune Former Prime Minister To Continue Hunger Strike (POSTED: April 29, 2005)

Congresswoman Waters Demands That The Senate Investigate (Bolton) Arms Shipment To Haiti. (POSTED: April 29, 2005)

US admits 2,600 weapons sent to Haiti. (POSTED: April 25, 2005)

Ousted Haitian President Aristide Accuses U.S. and France of a "Black Holocaust". (POSTED: April 21, 2005)

International Case Filed For Haitian former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. (POSTED: April 21, 2005)

Brian Concannon, Jr.: Justice and Injustice in Haiti: Immaculate Evasions. (POSTED: April 20, 2005)

Haiti's Aristide Seeks Return to Office. (POSTED: April 20, 2005)

Bush administration 'broke its own embargo to sell arms to Haiti police'. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 18, 2005)

Haitians rally to populist priest Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste. (POSTED: April 18, 2005)

Marguerite Laurent: The UN Security Council Goes To Haiti To Stop The Call For Resignation Of The Latortue Regime. (POSTED: April 18, 2005)

“Democracy”, the people of Haiti are saying, means the process by which they get better access to literacy, health care, a living wage, Elections is not a means in and of itself. It must represent a believable-by-the people, for-the-people push towards portable water, peace, justice, freedom of expression, end of social repressions, summary executions!

Representative Delahunt, stymied in Haiti, has a plan to bring rivals here. (POSTED: April 17, 2005)

Wrapping up a two-day visit to this impoverished nation, Delahunt said he hoped to persuade a contingent of Haiti's feuding political and civic leaders to come to Cape Cod or another regional location. His goal is to encourage them to work together to tackle the country's social and political troubles, including high poverty and a festering distrust among political factions....
''There is fear," said the Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, a prominent local priest active in Aristide's Lavalas Party. ''We are still being persecuted. We have no place to meet." Many in the party say they will not vote this fall because they refuse to accept Aristide's exile. This could lead to a turnout so low that it would imperil the credibility of the election results, observers say. [Note the implicit admission of Lavalas popularity. Otherwise their abstention wouldn't affect the turnout so dramatically.]

Police kill Haitian rebel leader (POSTED: April 10, 2005)

Haitian police have killed a prominent rebel leader in a suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Ravix Remissainthe was one of the key figures in a three-week uprising that ousted former President Jean-Bernard Aristide, who fled Haiti last year.

Haiti Mobilization. (POSTED: April 6, 2005)

Pro-Aristide protesters burn effigy of Haiti's interim leader. (POSTED: March 30, 2005)

On hunger strike: Haiti's Prime Minister Yvon Neptune rushed to hospital in critical condition. (POSTED: March 12, 2005)

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters says free him now: U.S. Politician Urges Haiti to Free Former Premier. (POSTED: March 7, 2005)

Haiti Information Project: Aristide's Lavalas puts UN duplicity to the test in Haiti. (POSTED: March 6, 2005)

Letter From Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. (POSTED: March 4, 2005)

I am sure that the spectacle of my slow and certain death would be much more palatable to the Government and its cohorts. To facilitate their purpose I have undertaken a hunger strike so that one day my brothers and sisters who are made to wallow in abject misery will no longer be disdained, starved, scorned and ostracized.

Tom Reeves: Disguised Coup, Hidden Abuses: The Haitian People Won't Give Up. (POSTED: March 4, 2005)

Haitian police open fire on nonviolent march for democracy Feb. 28. (POSTED: March 4, 2005)

Congresswoman Maxine Water: Thousands die since US regime change in Haiti. (POSTED: March 4, 2005)

Haitian soldiers, police accused of mass rape. (POSTED: March 4, 2005)

Andrew Buncomb: Death of a democracy. Gangs of killers roam freely, rape is systematic and the poor eat mud to survive. In Port-au-Prince, Andrew Buncombe finds a people crushed by the dark hand of US foreign policy. (POSTED: March 1, 2005)

Kevin Pina interviewed by Dennis Bernstein: Haiti Massacre and the UN. Descripes the plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. (POSTED: March 1, 2005)

According to him, it was already prearranged, that he knew when the attack was going to happen on the prison, and that his job was to whisk the Prime Minister away, and to kill him, to assassinate him. But according to him, he changed his mind and he decided that he couldn’t go through with it, and now he wants to go public and let everyone know that this was an inside job that was created, that was orchestrated by certain individuals within the U.S. installed Prime Ministers office....
ust to be clear, so the idea, in sort of a parallel structure, is that at one point you try and cut the head of the leadership off as in the Prime Minister, the Interior Minister, who are with Aristide, and then you go into the community and you try and knock off the community leaders, and intimidate the rest of the family.

Two killed in Haiti protest clash. (POSTED: March 1, 2005)

Gunmen Take Haiti Ex-Prime Minister from Prison. A later report says Neptune was recaptured and taken back to his prison cell. (PUBLISHED February 19 and POSTED: February 20, 2005)

A new report from the Center for the Study of Human Rights of the University of Miami documents the extent of human rights abuses in post-coup Haiti: Human Rights Report: Haiti is Now "More Violent and More Inhuman". Press Release and Executive Summary: Haiti Human Rights Investigation Released. Full Report [pdf]. (POSTED: January 30, 2005)

After ten months under an interim government backed by the United States, Canada, and France and buttressed by a United Nations force, Haiti’s people churn inside a hurricane of violence. Gunfire crackles, once bustling streets are abandoned to cadavers, and whole neighborhoods are cut off from the outside world. Nightmarish fear now accompanies Haiti’s poorest in their struggle to survive in destitution. Gangs, police, irregular soldiers, and even UN peacekeepers bring fear. There has been no investment in dialogue to end the violence.
Haiti’s security and justice institutions fuel the cycle of violence. Summary executions are a police tactic, and even well-meaning officers treat poor neighborhoods seeking a democratic voice as enemy territory where they must kill or be killed. Haiti’s brutal and disbanded army has returned to join the fray. Suspected dissidents fill the prisons, their Constitutional rights ignored. As voices for non-violent change are silenced by arrest, assassination, or fear, violent defense becomes a credible option. Mounting evidence suggests that members of Haiti’s elite, including political powerbroker Andy Apaid, pay gangs to kill Lavalas supporters and finance the illegal army.
UN police and soldiers, unable to speak the language of most Haitians, are overwhelmed by the firestorm. Unable to communicate with the police, they resort to heavy-handed incursions into the poorest neighborhoods that force intermittent peace at the expense of innocent residents.
The injured prefer to die at home untreated rather than risk arrest at the hospital. Those who do reach the hospital soak in puddles of their own blood, ignored by doctors. Not even death ends the tragedy: bodies pile in the morgue, quickly devoured out of recognition by maggots.

The Dictatorship of Debt: The World Bank and Haiti. (PUBLISHED January 14 and POSTED: January 15, 2005)

UN works to squash followers of Aristide in Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: January 9, 2005)

Bill Fletcher Jr.: If elections can happen in Iraq, why not Haiti? (PUBLISHED and POSTED: January 4, 2005)

So, what about Haiti? The violence is certainly not on the scale that is taking place in Iraq, but more importantly, the violence can be contained largely because it is being carried out by supporters of the government, otherwise known as allies of the USA. Thus, it does not take an Einstein to understand that should the Bush administration truly wish to end the killings in Haiti and provide the groundwork for elections, that it could do this with a bit of pressure on both the puppet government and the thugs running around the countryside.

Haiti Information Project: Haiti: Blood, faith and tears. Democracy is not just a word. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: January 1, 2005)

Haiti Information Project: Christmas 2004 in Haiti. (PUBLISHED December 27 and POSTED: December 29, 2004)

Haiti Information Project: US-installed regime in Haiti compensates former brutal military (PUBLISHED and POSTED: December 29, 2004)

Democracy Now! Freed Haitian Priest Gerard Jean-Juste: Aristide Supporters "Are Not Only Targeted, We Are Being Chased". (PUBLISHED and POSTED: December 20, 2004)

Yeah. I snuck into the morgue. They're not letting people into the morgue anymore. Because the bodies have been piling up so much. And so many human rights observers have been seeing the bodies. They don't let people into the morgue. The second part of it is, I talked to some morgue workers, and they said that the police are now even skipping the morgue phase. So when there is what they call an operation in one of the poor neighborhoods and there's a lot of bodies, the police just take the bodies and instead of dumping them at the morgue, bring them to the morgue only to get dump truck, which they load up with the bodies and they head off to a secret burial ground which hasn't been discovered yet.

More butchery: Revealed: Haiti bloodbath that left dozens dead in jail. Reed Lindsay is the only journalist to get into the Port-au-Prince prison since a riot three weeks ago when, it is said, guards executed inmates (PUBLISHED and POSTED: December 19, 2004)

Haiti: Colin Powell's Crime in Progress. (POSTED: December 13, 2004)

As TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson said on learning that Powell had stabbed Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the Haitian nation in the back: “Colin Powell is the most powerful and damaging black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime.” Any Black person who calls Powell a role model is a scoundrel or a fool. Most likely, both.

Brian Concannon Jr.: Haitian Government Mounts Illegal Arrests of Priest and Dissidents. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: November 17, 2004)

Ben Terrall: "We Must Kill the Bandits!": Lula's Troops in Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: November 17, 2004)

In an interview broadcast October 8 on Haiti's Radio Metropole, UN Commander General Augusto Heleno Ribero Pereira of Brazil showed his true colors. Discussing police raids in poor neighborhoods, he declared, "we must kill the bandits [i.e. Aristide supporters] but it will have to be the bandits only, not everybody." The general ignored the killers and thugs freed by anti-Aristide paramilitaries who broke open jails as they took over a number of towns in the winter of 2004. UN forces cooperate with these paramilitaries, many of whom helped overthrow Aristide in 1991. The Haiti Accompaniment Project cited "numerous reports that the UN military command in the North coordinates its activities with Guy Philippe, the rebel leader who is responsible for major human rights violations ­ including assassinations ­ in the period preceding the coup."

Kevin Pina interviewed by Solange Echevarria: Latortue's House of Cards Crumbling in Haiti (PUBLISHED November 11 and POSTED: November 13, 2004)

The Republican Coup Connection. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: October 26, 2004)

Anthony Fenton: Media Disinformation on Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: October 25, 2004)

Repression in Haiti: Kevin Pina interviewed by Dennis Bernstein (PUBLISHED and POSTED: October 25, 2004)

From Democracy Now! The Forgotten Coup: Violence Erupts in Haiti, Activists and Political Leaders Arrested. (PUBLISHED October 19 and POSTED: October 20, 2004)

Political violence leaves scores of people dead in Haiti as activists and top Lavalas leaders are arrested. We speak with Rep. Maxine Waters and we go to Haiti to hear from Bill Quigley, lawyer for Father Gerard Jean-Juste who was arrested last week and Miami to hear from Haitian community activist Lucie Tondreau.

Thom Hartmann reminds us that the horror of Haiti started with Columbus: Columbus Day Celebration? Think Again... (PUBLISHED October 11 and POSTED: October 12, 2004)

Haiti Violence: Kevin Pina interviewed by Dennis Bernstein. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: October 11, 2004)

Bernstein: And finally, I have to give you a crack at this, Kevin Pina. We are now hearing Secretary oif Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the whole administration saying flawed elections are better than no elections in Iraq and of course we're now hearing from Jimmy Carter that he's almost guaranteeing flawed elections again in the United States. And, of course you know that they came and got Aristide, kidnapped him and took him out of the country on a phony deal about flawed elections. I'm sure you didn't miss this.

Haiti slums under siege. (PUBLISHED October 4 and POSTED: October 5, 2004)

Pro-Aristide protesters threaten to behead Haiti's police and prime minister. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: October 5, 2004)

Paramilitaries shoot Aristide supporters. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: October 4, 2004)

Haiti Violence Rages For 3rd Day. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: October 3, 2004)

Where's the outrage? Unrest hampers Haitian flood aid. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 28, 2004)

Laura Flanders says: Haitian Blood is on our Hands. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 28, 2004)

After overthrowing the government, US says "drop dead" to flood victims: Washington turns its back on Haitian catastrophe. (PUBLISHED September 25 and POSTED: September 27, 2004)

Haitians unwelcome in the US: Deportations anger advocates. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 26, 2004)

Kevin Pina on: The Tragedy of Haiti: Victims of the Storms. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 26, 2004)

More on the after effects of tropical storm Jeanne: Shots fired as Haiti chaos spreads: Death toll reportedly tops 1,5. And Armed gangs rob Haiti's starving children. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 26, 2004)

Haiti 'to evacuate flooded city'. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 25, 2004)

Deteriorating situation as relief efforts falter: Storms bring more misery to Haiti: Death toll nears 1,200, with 1,250 more missing and Gunmen steal food from Haiti flood victims. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 25, 2004)

Horror spreads as magnitude of disaster hits: Panic erupts in flood-ravaged Haiti: Farmer: 'We can only drink the water people died in'. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 23, 2004)

Kevin Pina interviewed on the background to the flood disaster: Haiti Floods: Flashpoints interviews Kevin Pina. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 23, 2004)

First the coup, now the hurricane: More than 600 dead in Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 21, 2004)

Rolling Haiti Back to Colonialism: Charles Boylan of Vancouver Co-op Radio interviews Kevin Pina. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 21, 2004)

Independent journalist Kevin Pina [see next article] defends himself from scurrilous attacks: The Double Standard of NCHR. (POSTED: September 18, 2004)

One Man’s Democracy Is Another Man’s Chains: The Untold Story of Aristide’s Departure From Haiti by Kevin Pina argues that Aristide was prepared to fight, so the US Marines forced him out of the country, thus overthrowing the elected government. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 16, 2004)

This new information means that Aristide and his advisors were actively pursuing means to defend his government by force of arms, and that the image the U.S. State Department promulgated of a defeated president reconciled to his fate would no longer play with the media. It was determined that they had to act fast before Aristide regrouped for the final showdown.... A far cry from the image presented by the governments of Washington, Paris and Ottawa of a defeated leader resigned to his fate, it is now clear that Aristide was prepared to fight to the end to continue his democratic mandate and the right of Haitians to run Haiti. The U.S. Marines intervened to insure this would never happen.

Emergency Alert! From Kevin Pina: School Attacked by Opposition Thugs. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: September 8, 2004)

Democracy Now! asks: Did the Bush Administration Allow a Network of Right-Wing Republicans to Foment a Violent Coup in Haiti? (PUBLISHED and POSTED: July 20, 2004)

We speak with Max Blumenthal contibutor to Salon.com and author of a new investigative piece that examines the role of the United States in destabilizing the democratically-elected government of Jean Bertrand-Aristide through the International Republican Institute, a federally-funded, nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration.

Emir Sader wonders: What is Brazil Doing in Haiti? (PUBLISHED June 29 and POSTED: July 1, 2004)

The Brazilian government found itself pressured, both from within the Security Council and from outside, to assume the role. As a key Latin American country, and more importantly, as a candidate for permanent membership to the Security Council, the Brazilian government accepted the leadership of a contingent of troops in Haiti....
A federally-funded group called the International Republican Institute, or IRI, has funneled some $3 million into Haiti to destabilize the democratically-elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide. The IRI, a nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration, initiated the destabilization of Aristide's government by imposing harsh sanctions, training Aristide's political opponents and encouraging them to reject internationally-sanctioned power-sharing agreements.

Rep. Maxine Waters on The New Haiti: Arrest, Murder and Repression. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: June 30, 2004)

Prison consultant who last year "reformed" Abu Ghraib is now helping with his skills in Haiti: Haiti and Abu Ghraib: The US is to "clean up" Haiti's prisons -- just like it did Iraq's (PUBLISHED and POSTED: June 19, 2004)

Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was arrested Sunday after living in hiding since the March 12 installation of the new US-backed interim Prime Minister Gererd Latortue....
In the cell next to Neptune is Jocelerme Privert, the interior minister under Aristide, who said he hadn't seen a judge since being detained in April on similar accusations. At least five other Aristide officials are in the same prison....
1
Since President Aristide's removal, the new US-backed Haitian regime has unleashed a campaign of terror, particularly supporters of Aristide's Lavalas party. One report from the National Lawyer's Guild found that over a thousand bodies were dumped in a mass grave by the state morgue in March.

Haitians get the Iraq treatment: Haitians Seized, Abused by US Marines: Women, Children Subjected to Hood Treatment. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: May 15, 2004)

Surprise! Now that the US has pulled off its coup, things are getting worse, a New york Times report. Now that the coup is safely over, the NYT can start reporting about the miracles performed by the Aristide government. Isn't a free press wonderful? Deepening Poverty Breeds Desperation in Haiti. By the way, where is the US aid to help the new government? (PUBLISHED May 5 and POSTED: May 12, 2004)

Skeptical Haitians view the unelected government and its foreign backers with a suspicion as brittle as the clay biscuits they now eat....
To many people here, Mr. Aristide remains the only legitimate leader they have. "We believe in democracy, and we have a democratically elected leader," said Alix Jean, a Lavalas partisan, at a recent rally at the church in La Saline, the slum where Mr. Aristide once preached his fiery sermons of liberation. "His name is Jean-Bertrand Aristide...."
Privately, ministers of the new government marvel at how Mr. Aristide was able to keep Haiti's government going. Leslie Voltaire, who was Mr. Aristide's minister for Haitians living abroad, said Mr. Aristide made the country work through sheer force of will. He likened the country now to a heart-transplant patient. "They have removed the heart, Aristide," Mr. Voltaire said in an interview. "We are now waiting on the operating table for a transplant, and the operation is being done without anesthesia." Haitians who have suffered through decades of misrule say their patience with the interim government is wearing thin. Derilus Joseph Érine, a 42-year-old mason who lives in Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, warned darkly that dissatisfaction could turn violent quickly.

Anthony Fenton discusses the US plans for Haiti: Plan Haiti Emerges. (PUBLISHED April 20 and POSTED: April 25, 2004)

VICTORY IN THE SOKOWA WORKERS' FIGHT FOR RE-INSTATEMENT! (PUBLISHED April 18 and POSTED: April 25, 2004)

LUCSON PIERRE-CHARLES on: Haiti's Return to the Future: The Repression of Dissent (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 24, 2004)

Take our word for it! Don't investigate, the big guys say: U.S., France Blocking Haiti Probe. (PUBLISHED April 13 and POSTED: April 14, 2004)

The United States and France have intimidated Caribbean countries into delaying an official request for a probe into the murky circumstances under which Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted from power in February, according to diplomatic sources at the U.N.

An attorney with the National Lawyers Guild reports seeing: Hundreds of Corpses Fill Haiti Morgues. He "describes bodies coming in with plastic bags over their heads and hands tied behind their backs, piles of corpses burning in fields and pigs eating their flesh." (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 13, 2004)

Witch Hunt in Haiti by the Bush and ‘Boca Raton’ Regimes. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 7, 2004)

“Right now there is a political climate in Haiti where anyone can get on the radio stations and accuse anyone else of a crime or with being associated with violent Lavalas gangs. It means that without proof they can say this about you and immediately you have to go into hiding, and immediately you have to be concerned with your own welfare; and immediately the death threats begin. That’s the political climate that you have in Haiti today.”...
Aristide apparently left “to prevent a bloodbath”. Emerging from a recent trip to Haiti there is widespread testimony that the US is actually carrying out bloodbaths of their own

From Democracy Now! Witnesses: U.S. Special Forces Trained and Armed Haitian Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries in D.R. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 7, 2004)

Now that the elected government has been removed by coup, Haiti will hold "elections". Presumably the US will tell them who to elect. Perhaps they will fill out the ballots too: Haiti to Elect New Leader in 2005; U.S. Vows Support. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 5, 2004)

Action Alert! Contribute to aid Haitian workers under brutal attack. For more information: Support the Sokowa union at the Ouanaminthe free trade zone. (POSTED: April 3, 2004)

Avi Steinberg continues the series: Haiti Update VI: Out with the Bad, In with the Worse. (PUBLISHED March 31 and POSTED: April 3, 2004)

If Aristide was a failed or tragic democrat, then this new regime seems to be something worse yet: cynical democrats.

The new boss comes to convey orders: Powell to Visit Haiti Following Aristide Departure. (PUBLISHED April 2 and POSTED: April 3, 2004)

Amy Wilentz, in the Nation, analyzes: Haiti's Occupation. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 1, 2004)

Those who have watched the slow-cooked coup against Aristide over the past three years have observed with interest that not a single prominent member of the entrenched opposition to Aristide has been given a place in the new government. This opposition--made up of leaders of tiny political parties, former brief presidents, longtime presidential hopefuls and nongovernmental organization directors--was coddled, financed and trained in "democracy" by US organizations and groups funded by the United States. The lack of such a presence in the new Cabinet could lead to the suspicion that the supposedly democratic opposition, which for those three years refused all overtures for negotiation by Aristide and his party, was being used to foment and mask what was essentially a coup against democracy by the island's elite, in concert with right-wing elements of the Republican Party. (Latortue has also pointedly not included anyone from Aristide's party in his government.
The opposition whines now about how it has not been welcomed into the bosom of the new regime, but if you successfully oppose a democratically elected government (and Aristide made repeated if not wholehearted offers of inclusion), you can't expect that the autocrats you've empowered will then include you in.

Meanwhile: Political reprisals linger in post-Aristide Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 1, 2004)

The rebels, many of them former criminals, mass murders, and drug dealers, are negotiating to be integrated into the "new" police: Rebels negotiate for role in Haiti's police force. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 1, 2004)

Aristide launches kidnap lawsuit against French and US officials he said kidnapped him. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: April 1, 2004)

Claims that the US trained rebels in the Dominican Republic: US accused of training Haitian rebels in Dominican Republic. (PUBLISHED March 29 and POSTED: March 31, 2004)

The US allows massacres of Aristide supporters to go on: Aristide Supporters Still Fear Reprisals while a known mass murderer runs around threatening to kill Aristide: Haiti rebel leader wants to kill enemy Aristide. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 28, 2004)

Caribbean Won't Accept Haiti's New Gov't. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 26, 2004)

Reuters reports: Aristide Party Emerges from Hiding, Demands Peace. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 25, 2004)

"We're ready for the peace, we're ready for a democratic country, but we need everybody to disarm," Sorel Francois, a Lavalas Family leader, told Reuters. "We already put the guns down, we asked all the members of Fanmi Lavalas to put their gun down. But we still see all the terrorists, they still have their gun, they still walking on the street," he said, referring to rebels who helped push Aristide out on Feb. 29....
In the slums where Aristide is still seen as a champion of the country's poor [Question: What percent of the country's population are poor, and live in slums?], supporters of the former president say they have faced intimidation, raids and killings since he fled abroad.

Avi Steinberg provides a post-coup: Haiti Update IV: On Roots, Trees and Liberty. (PUBLISHED March 17 and POSTED: March 25, 2004)

Conservative Robert Novak supports the coup and the thuggish "Freedom Fighters": Haiti after Aristide. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 25, 2004)

Aristide said to get asylum in South Africa: Now in Jamaica, former Haitian leader expected next month. This after the US threatened Jamaica for hosting Aristide: Condoleezza Rice Threatens Jamaica Over Aristide. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 25, 2004)

I have learned from a White House source that Condoleezza Rice has pointedly threatened the Jamaican Government, telling it to expel President Aristide or face the consequences. The administration wants President Aristide out of the region. As this is a clear measure of how much broad support the president still enjoys as the democratically elected leader of Haiti inside the country, because the U.S. apparently views his mere presence in Jamaica as a threat to their control along with the thugs and the installed government in Haiti. Jamaica has not buckled.

"Liberation" at work: With police outnumbered, Haitians turn to rebels for order. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 24, 2004)

By day, a convicted assassin judges petty criminals and supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who say bodies are still turning up in the city's bay....
Business owners -- who have helped pay the rebels' bills for food and lodging -- now turn to the rebels when there's a problem, not the police. Sitting cross-armed at a wooden desk beneath an almond tree at the police headquarters his fighters torched, Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former army death squad leader and convicted assassin, has become de facto judge in Cap-Haitien. Chamblain's former soldiers and ragtag recruits have jailed dozens of people accused of everything from petty thievery to fighting for Aristide.

Action Alert! Vanguard Public Foundation has set up an Haiti Emergency Relief Fund "which supports organizations giving humanitarian aid to the people of Haiti." (POSTED: March 23, 2004)

Alarm at Haiti PM’s ‘unholy alliance’ with rebels. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 23, 2004)

According to this Reuters dispatch, chaos and killers control much of rural Haiti, weeks after the US forced out President Aristide and took control. Presumably poor farmers are not worth protection from the US rulers: Convicts Rule Haiti Town, Executions Plague Another. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 23, 2004)

The northeast Haitian town of Fort Liberte lives up to its name for 150 murderers, rapists and thieves freed from the local jail. They run the place.... "The town is virtually deserted. There is no market. Many houses have been burned. Prisoners control most parts of the city," said U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs.
Far to the southwest, in the seaside town of Les Cayes, armed rebels who helped oust Haiti's first democratically elected leader carry out public executions, unchallenged by police or foreign troops. In the main square every morning, they shoot accused thieves before an expectant crowd, according to reports sent to the United Nations from nongovernmental organizations "There is no trial," Byrs said....
Neither the French soldiers nor the police have taken any action to free Aristide supporters illegally detained by the rebels, or to confiscate weapons.

New fighting, plus Lavalas protests: Fresh violence erupts in Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 23, 2004)

Valerie Kaussen & Flore Zephir, in the Columbia, MO newspaper, question received wisdom: United States has a hand in Haiti’s trouble . (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 23, 2004)

The United States publicly has demonstrated its support of one of Haiti’s most destructive traditions: violent seizure of power. If the truth of U.S. foreign policy matched the rhetoric, the Bush administration would have protected Aristide and allowed him to finish out his term, a move that effectively would have required the opposition to agree to the power-sharing plan outlined by members of the Caribbean Community organization. Aristide signed the agreement, though it diminished his powers considerably. The opposition, confident of U.S. support, knew it just had to wait for history to repeat itself. Just as Bush senior had supported the coup d’état that deposed Aristide in 1991, so "Baby Bush" would follow suit. Meanwhile, the Haitian people witness the hypocrisy of "democracy" as it is pursued in U.S. foreign interventions.

Nigeria agrees to grant Aristide temporary asylum, but Aristide declines offer: Aristide not interested in Nigeria asylum. (PUBLISHED March 22 & 23 and POSTED: March 23, 2004)

Thugs to keep weapons, US general says: Head of Haiti Force Says Won't Disarm Gunmen. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 22, 2004)

A Washington demonstration against the Coup and occupation: Haiti Human Rights Protest on Wash. Mall. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 21, 2004)

The Washington Mall tourists were witness today to a small but adament crowd of roughly a hundred protesters to the US's recent assault on democracy in Haiti. This event was organized by 10th DOHE, 10th Department Organization for Haitian Empowerment, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that seeks to strengthen transnational ties between the Haitian Diaspora, Haiti and international communities for the empowerment of Haitian people throughout the world.

Stan Goff thinks its: Time for Kerry to Step Up on Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 21, 2004)

While it is certainly an exercise of the latent political power of African America to ensure Kerry a victory in November – even at the cost of once again swallowing all critiques of him – a far more significant exercise of that power, and one that would signal a break with making deals for scraps and the intention to pursue self-determination, would be forcing John Kerry, as the most visible member of the Democratic Party, to tell the truth on Haiti… and damn the consequences. The real exercise of real power entails real risks.
Black voters and white allies need to start right now confronting John Kerry at every turn with questions and demands on Haiti.

The Miami Herald reports on the economic and humanitarian aftermath: Haiti paying dearly for revolt: Haiti's social systems and infrastructure have suffered for decades, but the violent chaos of the anti-Aristide revolt has increased an already desperate people's pain. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 21, 2004)

A reminder of what happened last time Aristide was overthrown: 'Political Rapes' of 1991 Still Haunt Haitian Democracy Activists . (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 21, 2004)

The new PM praises the narco-terrorists who led revolt: Haiti's Latortue praises gunmen who began revolt. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 21, 2004)

Sharing a platform with rebel leaders, Haiti's interim leader Saturday praised the gunmen who began the uprising that chased Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power and paid tribute to an assassinated gangster.
Latortue paid tribute to Amiot Metayer and those killed in the fighting to oust President Aristide. Metayer's Cannibal Army gang ran the docks at Gonaives and was said to control drug trafficking through the port.

Must Read! An amazingly thoughtful, reflective piece by BBC correspondent Daniel Lak: Poverty and pride in Port-au-Prince (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 20, 2004)

I became a journalist originally because, as one of my US muckraking heroes said, I wanted to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. But here in Haiti, I am one of the comfortable. And my contact with the afflicted? It is sporadic, from behind the windows of a sumptuous sports utility vehicle that cost more than most Haitians will earn in a lifetime. I am one with the Haitian rich, up here on my hilltop, and it is decidedly uncomfortable....
But when, for a couple of hours each day, along with my colleagues from the international media, I venture a few hundred metres down the hill into Port-au-Prince proper, I hear vastly different views.... Haiti's poor viewed Aristide as their man and they gave him a lot of scope, and two terms in office. Their lives barely improved in that time, something that isn't entirely Aristide's fault, at least not as the poor see it.
When you meet them, they confess to disappointment with his time in office, but they point out that he had two more years and should have finished his term. You get the impression that they would have enjoyed holding him to account themselves, rather than having some ragtag rebel militia they believe was backed by France and the US topple the man they call Titide. He was theirs to punish, or to reward, as they saw fit. Yet again the Haitian rich - Paris and Washington as they see it - had robbed them of a birthright... the right to vote.
The poor of Haiti can be forgiven for viewing the French and US soldiers who are here to keep the peace with a somewhat sceptical eye. These are the two countries that have long intervened in Haiti, usually say the poor, to prevent good things from happening.

Action Alert! TransAfrica Forum, Foreign Policy in Focus, and several other groups has launched a: Petition to Congress on the Plight of Haiti in Light of Destabilization. Please sign on! (POSTED: March 19, 2004)

Caribbean journalist Rickey Singh is critical of the new Haitian government's decision to freeze relations with its Caribbean neighbors: Our Caribbean: This Unwise Decision by Haiti Regime. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 19, 2004)

After a coup against a defenseless elected government, the police chief wants the arms embargo lifted. Presumably it will help avoid any future outbreak of democracy: Arms Embargo - a Hitch in Haiti Security Plans. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 19, 2004)

In recent years, the police force trained by foreign officers after 20,000 U.S. Marines occupied Haiti in 1994 to restore Aristide to power, had to seek its weapons in much the same way as the criminals it was supposed to fight.

Refugees International, in its report: Haiti: Getting it Right is critical of how the occupation is being carried out but appears to have no problem with the US coup or with long-term US control of Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 19, 2004)

US General makes clear who's boss in Haiti. Tells Aristide to shut up: Top U.S. officer tells Aristide to keep quiet. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 19, 2004)

"It would be a lot more helpful if Mr. Aristide was a statesman ... and he could do that by keeping his mouth closed," Gen. James T. Hill said Thursday during a speech at a security conference in Miami.

Thugs engage in international kidnapping: Rebels take hostages, trade them for leader. (PUBLISHED March 17 and POSTED: March 19, 2004)

Justin Felux claims: Condi Rice, in a Sense, Makes a Fool of Herself. In a similar vein, Mary Turck argues Aristide's Fall was Really a U.S.-led Coup. (PUBLISHED March 17 & 18 and POSTED: March 19, 2004)

Not much success so far: U.S.-led force in Haiti tries to disarm population. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 19, 2004)

U.S. troops - who number fewer than 1,800 - have recovered two shotguns. Their Chilean counterparts have confiscated three weapons.

A further interview with President Aristide by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!: About the Leaders of the Coup and U.S. Funding of the Opposition in Haiti. (POSTED: March 18, 2004)

Here is the text of HR 3919 IH: To establish the Independent Commission on the 2004 Coup d'Etat in the Republic of Hait introduced in the House of Representatives, March 9, 2004. (POSTED: March 18, 2004)

UPI reporter Carmen Gentile says he believes Aristide's account of the US-led coup: Can Aristide's Tale Be True? (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 17, 2004)

Is it really so implausible that a Bush administration that never really liked Aristide decided to flex its muscle in its own backyard and frog-march Aristide right out of town? His supporters at home believe Aristide's story. So does this reporter.

More on the polarization Cabinet: New Haitian Cabinet draws criticism. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 17, 2004)

The large segment of the Haitian population that supported Aristide left out of new government: Aristide Backers Left Out of Coalition. (PUBLISHED March 16 and POSTED: March 17, 2004)

Jamaica and Venezuela refuse to fall in line behind US coup: Regional rift deepens over Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 16, 2004)

First US casualty: U.S. Marine Shot, Wounded in Haiti (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 15, 2004)

Democracy Now! reports that Aristide is on his way to the Jamaica: Defying Washington: Haiti's Aristide Heads Back to the Caribbean. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 15, 2004)

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is on his way back to the Caribbean. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman is onboard a chartered Gulfstream jet with Aristide, his Haitian-American wife Mildred, and the delegation of US and Jamaican officials that is accompanying the Aristides to Jamaica, which has offered to temporarily host them. Goodman is one of only two journalists traveling with Aristide. In returning to the Caribbean, Aristide is defying the Bush administration, which has stated clearly it does not want Aristide in the Western Hemisphere....
Throughout Sunday, Goodman reported on the stand-off in the CAR over the fate of Aristide and his wife Mildred. She indicated that there was some question among the visiting delegation on what role Washington was playing in the situation. What is clear is that US officials have declared very publicly that they do not want Aristide to return to the Western Hemisphere.

A US delegation begins the trip to accompany President Aristide to Jamaica: THE RETURN OF ARISTIDE: Democracy Now!'s Exclusive Reports on the Haitian President's Return to the Caribbean. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 14, 2004)

The Iron Heel comes to Port-au-Prince Top US military commander touches down in Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 14, 2004)

"Violence will not be tolerated and will dealt with," Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said after visiting with US troops in Port-au-Prince.

The BBC reports: Haiti health system 'devastated'. (PUBLISHED March 11 and POSTED: March 14, 2004)

From Pacific News Service. Is the terror back? Through These Trees, I See Haiti's Murderous Army Reborn. (PUBLISHED March 12 and POSTED: March 13, 2004)

Editor's Note: A mayor from northern Haiti currently in hiding says that the Haitian army is back in force, shooting people and burning homes. How could this happen, he asks -- and where are they getting the all the heavy weaponry?
The journalists are in Port-au-Prince, but here in the north no one is reporting what's going on, that the former Haitian military is killing people. They are killing about 50 people a day in Cap Haitian. It's happening not just in the northern department but also in the central plateau, in the Artibone region.
Can you imagine that on Monday at 2 p.m. the former military declared a curfew that would start at 4 p.m.? The peasants, many of them are poor and do not have a radio, so how could they hear of this curfew? So what happened at 4 p.m.? The former military took to the streets and anyone they saw on the streets they shot. This is the kind of stuff that is going on. Can you imagine this?

Jim Lobe Is the Haiti intervention "another major foreign-policy blunder--or worse"? Role in Haiti Events Backfiring on Washington (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 12, 2004)

''There are a lot of Latin American governments that are very shaky. People who aren't happy with their governments will see this as a way to get rid of them if the Bush administration doesn't like them either. So there's no incentive to engage in the give-and-take in democratic politics and trying to find a peaceful solution,'' he said.

From Democracy Now1 In-Depth: The Full Story of Aristide's Kidnapping. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 11, 2004)

Just back from the Central African Republic, Kim Ives, an editor of the Haitian newspaper Haiti-Progres, discusses the events surrounding President Aristide's overthrow. Ives spoke with Aristide in his native Creole and was able to piece together what is probably the most comprehensive picture of what Aristide says happened to him and his wife the morning they were forced out of Haiti.

Must Read! Repetition compulsion. Greg Guma examines the 1915 US invasion of Haiti: Occupational Hazards: The First US Takeover of Haiti set the Stage for Later Interventions (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 10, 2004)

Clearly, a Haiti run by rebels and peasants was not acceptable to the US, which considered the nation an endangered investment property. The National City Bank controlled the country's National Bank and railroad system, and sugar barons viewed the country's rich plantations as promising takeover targets. Thus, on July 29, 1915, after several weeks of observation from cruisers anchored offshore, two regiments of Marines landed. Their initial objective was to make certain that the US choice, Senator Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave, was installed as head of state. A snap-election was staged less than two weeks later.
"When the National Assembly met, the Marines stood in the aisles with their bayonets until the man selected by the American Minister was made President," recalled Smedley Butler, the Marine hero who led the decisive military campaign and administered Haiti’s local police force during the following two years. "I won't say we put him in," Butler wrote later. "The State Department might object. Anyway, he was put in...."
In September 1915, less than two months after the invasion, President Dartiguenave signed a treaty giving the US the right to administer Haiti for the next 20 years....
In the country's interior, wrote Archer, Marines "talked as casually of shooting 'gooks' as sportsmen talked of duck-hunting. Patrolling against the Cacos, some Marine officers looted the homes of native families they were supposed to protect. Others talked of ‘cleaning out’ the island by killing the entire native population. Prisoners were beaten and tortured to make them tell what they knew about Cacos' whereabouts.

US puppet council picks new Prime Minister chose, from the US: S. Florida TV host named premier of Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 10, 2004)

A former Haitian foreign minister and popular South Florida television talk-show host was selected Tuesday to become Haiti's next prime minister. Gerard Latortue, a critic of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was chosen after two days of painstaking deliberations by a U.S.-backed ''council of sages'' to fill the power vacuum created Feb. 29 when Aristide resigned. Latortue will lead a transitional government that will pave the way for presidential elections early next year.

Dispute continues as to whether Aristide resigned: Aristide reported signing formal resignation. (PUBLISHED March 9 and POSTED: March 10, 2004)

Democracy means a US chosen government: US looking for new prime minister for Haiti: Powell. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 9, 2004)

The African Union has condemned Aristide's ouster: Aristide's 'Removal' from Haiti 'Unconstitutional': African Union. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 9, 2004)

Must Read! Noam Chomsky, as always, puts the current crisis in a broader context of the US and international organizations' plans to control the Haitian economy for their benefit and the benefit of the tiny business class, while totally ignoring the suffering of the vast majority of the population: US-Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 9, 2004)

Reviewing what was taking place in Haiti shortly after Clinton "restored democracy" in 1994, I was compelled to conclude, unhappily, in Z Magazine that "It would not be very surprising, then, if the Haitian operations become another catastrophe," and if so, "It is not a difficult chore to trot out the familiar phrases that will explain the failure of our mission of benevolence in this failed society...."
The threat of democracy in Haiti in 1991 was even more ominous because of the favorable reaction of the international financial institutions (World Bank, IADB) to Aristide's programs, which awakened traditional concerns over the "virus" effect of successful independent development....
The Bush I administration reacted to the disaster of democracy by shifting aid from the democratically elected government to what are called "democratic forces": the wealthy elites and the business sectors, who, along with the murderers and torturers of the military and paramilitaries, had been lauded by the current incumbents in Washington, in their Reaganite phase, for their progress in "democratic development," justifying lavish new aid. The praise came in response to ratification by the Haitian parliament of a law granting Washington's client killer and torturer Baby Doc Duvalier the authority to suspend the rights of any political party without reasons. The law passed by a majority of 99.98%. It therefore marked a positive step towards democracy as compared with the 99% approval of a 1918 law granting US corporations the right to turn the country into a US plantation, passed by 5% of the population after the Haitian Parliament was disbanded at gunpoint by Wilson's Marines when it refused to accept this "progressive measure," essential for "economic development...."
[E]fficiently suppressed [by the US press] were the crucial conditions that Clinton imposed for Aristide's return: that he adopt the program of the defeated US candidate in the 1990 elections, a former World Bank official who had received 14% of the vote. We call this "restoring democracy," a prime illustration of how US foreign policy has entered a "noble phase" with a "saintly glow," the national press explained. The harsh neoliberal program that Aristide was compelled to adopt was virtually guaranteed to demolish the remaining shreds of economic sovereignty, extending Wilson's progressive legislation and similar US-imposed measures since....
The Aristide government, once again, was undermined by US planners, who understood, under Clinton, that the threat of democracy can be overcome if economic sovereignty is eliminated, and presumably also understood that economic development will also be a faint hope under such conditions, one of the best-confirmed lessons of economic history. Bush II planners are even more dedicated to undermining democracy and independence, and despised Aristide and the popular organizations that swept him to power with perhaps even more passion than their predecessors.

The most detailed Aristide interview President Aristide Speaks To Democracy Now!: And a BBC story: Haiti's Aristide defiant in exile. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 8, 2004)

Gary Younge in the Guardian: The ouster of democracy: In Haiti, Washington confirmed a foreign policy that is driven by self-interest and delivered through force. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 7, 2004)

Two key lessons emerge from this, which go beyond Haiti. The first is that military force is not just the most important element in US foreign policy, it is the beginning and the end of that policy. For the past 10 years, since the US restored Aristide to power, it could have trained the Haitian police and judiciary, invested in projects that shore up civil society and help create a democratic culture, increased aid and encouraged fair trade - all of which would have given Haiti a fighting chance of building a sustainable democracy. Instead, it imposed conditions by the IMF and the World Bank, followed it up with an embargo on the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and when none of that worked, sent in the marines against a nation with no army.
The second is that the US supports democracy when democracy supports the US. When it is inconvenient, as in Aristide's case, Washington will turn its back on it in a heartbeat....
This latest intervention did not prevent a bloodbath - more people were killed on the day Aristide left than on any other - and crushed what was left of democracy.

Alleged pro-Aristide militia fired on a crowd of protestors, killing 4 and wounding many: Gunmen shoot dead Haiti marchers. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 7, 2004)

David Pratt writes of: Aristide's Final Hours. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 7, 2004)

This was no Castro entering Havana after the overthrow of the Batista regime . This was a revolution that never was. A stage-managed coup d’état, whose real instigators – the US military – had only to stand on the steps of the same National Palace where just a few days earlier President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had held his last press conference, and watch as ‘regime change’ was implemented in Haiti yet again.

US withdraws support for democratic leaders. Reserves right to help overthrow anyone it doesn't like: US Says Aristide Exit a Lesson for Failed Leaders. Notice, this is the "moderate" State Department speaking, not the Pentagon or White House. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 7, 2004)

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that even if the United States "recognized a leader had been elected," he could not rely on U.S. support against an armed revolt if America considered he had misgoverned. "We can't be called upon, expected or required to intervene every time there is violence against a failed leader," Boucher told reporters

Aristide is apparently being held prisoner, as a US delegation was refused access: Delegation Supportive of Aristide Blocked From Visiting Or Speaking With Him in Central African Republic. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 7, 2004)

Senator Kerry criticizes Bush's failure to support Aristide as the democratically-elected President: In Sweeping Critique, Kerry Condemns Bush for Failing to Back Aristide (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 7, 2004)

"Look, Aristide was no picnic, and did a lot of things wrong," Mr. Kerry said. But Washington "had understandings in the region about the right of a democratic regime to ask for help. And we contravened all of that. I think it's a terrible message to the region, democracies, and it's shortsighted."

Aristide's statement to the Haitian nation: First Address To Haitian People From Exile. It has a detailed account of his alleged "kidnapping". (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 6, 2004)

In overthrowing me, they have uprooted the trunk of the liberty. It will grow back because its roots are many and deep." In the shadow of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the genius of the race. I declare in overthrowing me they have uprooted the trunk of the tree of peace, but it will grow back because the roots are L'Ouverturian....
The 28th of February, at night, suddenly, American military personnel who were already all over Port-au-Prince descended on my house in Tabarre to tell me first that all the American security agents who have contracts with the Haitian government only have two options. Either they leave immediately to go to the United States, or they fight to die. Secondly, they told me the remaining 25 of the American security agents hired by the Haitian government who were to come in on the 29th of February as reinforcements were under interdiction, prevented from coming. Thirdly, they told me the foreigners and Haitian terrorists alike, loaded with heavy weapons, were already in position to open fire on Port-au-Prince. And right then, the Americans precisely stated that they will kill thousands of people and it will be a bloodbath. That the attack is ready to start, and when the first bullet is fired nothing will stop them and nothing will make them wait until they take over, therefore the mission is to take me dead or alive....
I took the risk of slowing down the death machine to verify the degree of danger, the degree of bluff or the degree of intimidation. It was more serious than a bluff. The National Palace was surrounded by white men armed up to their teeth. The Tabarre area -- the residence -- was surrounded by foreigners armed to their teeth. The airport of Port-au-Prince was already under the control of these men. After a last evaluation I made during a meeting with the person in charge of Haitian security in Port-au-Prince, and the person in charge of American security, the truth was clear. There was going to be a bloodbath because we were already under an illegal foreign occupation which was ready to drop bodies on the ground, to spill blood, and then kidnap me dead or alive.

New haven protests of US coup: NEW HAVEN — Local clergy members and peace advocates are demanding that the government welcome Haitians fleeing to the U.S. shores, and have called for an investigation into the U.S. government’s role in the ousting of Haiti’s president. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 6, 2004)

A different interpretation by Chris Floyd: Operation Sweatshop: Jean-Bertrand Aristide's move to raise Haiti's minimum wage was the last straw for American corporations and elitist U.S. factions. [The article is annotated with extensive references, most online.] (POSTED: March 6, 2004)

His real crime, of course, was not the Florida-style election follies or the reported "tyranny." Bush loves that stuff -- witness his eager embrace of the nuke-peddling dictatorship of Pakistan, the human-boiling hardman of Uzbekistan, the torture-happy tyrant of Kazakhstan, the drug-running warlords of Afghanistan and so forth. No, Aristide did something far worse than stuffing ballots or killing people -- he tried to raise the minimum wage to the princely sum of two dollars a day. This move outraged the American corporations -- and their local lackeys -- who have for generations used Haiti as a pool of dirt-cheap labor and sky-high profits...
For example, the Reagan-Bush plan forced Haiti to lift import tariffs on rice, which had long been a locally grown staple. Then they flooded Haiti with heavily subsidized American rice, destroying the local market and throwing thousands of self-sufficient farmers out of work. With a now-captive market, the American companies jacked up their prices, spreading ruin and hunger throughout Haitian society.

William Bowles provides another annotated analysis of US intentions and behaviors in Haiti: Haiti – Regime Change: Caught between a rock and a Bush. (PUBLISHED March 3 and POSTED: March 6, 2004)

Useful background on the current situation is provided by Chapter Seven: Private Interests and U.S. Foreign Policy in Haiti and the Caribbean Basin Ronald W. Cox , from the book Contested Social Orders, edited by David Skidmore, (1997). (POSTED: March 6, 2004)

Vigilantes hunting down and killing Aristide supporters. Isn't this what Aristide was accused of? Haitians taking justice into own hands (PUBLISHED March 5 and POSTED: March 6, 2004)

Resistance to the coup begins. Will this story get play in the US press? Aristide Supporters Denounce Haiti 'Occupation'. Notice, its the poor, so they won't matter much, despite the poor being the vast majority! (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 5, 2004)

Thousands of furious supporters of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide poured out of Haiti's slums and into the streets on Friday, marching on the U.S. Embassy to denounce the "occupation" of their homeland and demand Aristide's return....
A crowd estimated at more than 10,000 materialized suddenly in Port-au-Prince, seething at Aristide's flight to Africa five days ago, hurling slurs at U.S. Marines and calling President Bush a "terrorist...."
[T]he armed rebels who helped push their hero from office roamed the streets, hunting for Aristide's armed "chimere" supporters. Amid reports of reprisal killings, the Pan American Health Organization said the morgue at the main hospital in Port-au-Prince had accumulated nearly 200 bodies [in Port-au-Prince alone] since the outbreak of the revolt on Feb. 5.

A 1993 chapter by Noam Chomsky from his book Year 501: The Conquest Continues provides useful background on the current Haitian crisis: The Tragedy of Haiti (POSTED: March 5, 2004)

Amy Wilentz writes in the Nation about background of the: Coup in Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 5, 2004)

One thing about coups: They don't just happen. In a country like Haiti, where the military has been disbanded for nearly a decade, soldiers don't simply emerge from the underbrush; they have to be reorganized, retrained and resupplied. And of course, for something to be organized, someone has to organize it....
You will notice in the next few weeks that the Haitian people, who have been featured so prominently in recent weeks--those crowds demonstrating, or those bands of opportunists looting and pillaging, those people cowering as shots ring out or sprawled across a pavement--will fade from the scene, because they have been used to their full extent by the masters of the coup. Now the reconstituted Haitian army in all its machismo will maraud through the slums eradicating pockets of support for the deposed leader.

An interesting set of notes on the current crisis: Godfather Colin Powell: The Gangster of Haiti. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 5, 2004)

Colin Powell’s Big Lie was unraveling – and now it emerged that the Secretary of State had taken upon himself the role of Godfather. Ron Dellums, the distinguished former Congressman from the San Francisco Bay area who worked as a lobbyist for Aristide’s government, got a call from the Head-Negro-In-Charge on Saturday, warning in no uncertain terms that gunmen were coming to kill Aristide on Sunday morning. The U.S., said Powell, would not lift a finger to stop them. When the Americans come to call, Aristide must leave with them.

"Rebels" as union-busters! Haiti: Stop union-busting, respect workers' rights!. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 5, 2004)

US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 5, 2004)

Caribbean nations will not join Haiti peace force. (PUBLISHED March 3 and POSTED: March 4, 2004)

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said the Caribbean Community, or Caricom, was “extremely disappointed” at the involvement of “Western partners” in the hasty departure of Aristide. Speaking for the 15-nation trading bloc, Patterson claimed that the council failed to respond to its appeals to help Aristide by sending an international armed force to restore order in Haiti. “We believe that we put forward a very compelling case before the (U.N.) Security Council on Thursday of last week. The Security Council failed to respond then,” Patterson said. Aristide fled into exile on Sunday as rebels closed in on the capital following a weeks-long rebellion. Aristide claimed U.S. troops forced him to flee. “We could not fail to observe that what was impossible on Thursday could be accomplished in an emergency meeting on Sunday. We are disappointed in the extreme at the failure to act,” Patterson said.

This months coup is far from the first US intervention in Haiti, as Jane Regan reminds us: Haiti: US Soldiers' Boots Follow Footprints From the Past. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 4, 2004)

Rep. Maxine Waters "discusses President Aristide's treatment in the Central African Republic and her grilling of Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega about the return to Haiti of the paramilitary leaders who led the 1994 coup." Rep. Maxine Waters Says Aristide Is Being Held Like a Prisoner. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 4, 2004)

Mark Weisbrot comments: Regime Change in Haiti: A Coup By Any Other Name. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 3, 2004)

Death squad leaders play major role in new "army": Convicted Assassin Gets Role in Haiti. (PUBLISHED March 2 and POSTED: March 3, 2004)

Molly Ivins comments on the Haitian overthrow: Four wars and a cloud of dust: Administration's big trick plays help conceal dozens of smaller ones (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 3, 2004)

Anyone see any reason to think Haiti will be better off without Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Just another little gift from the Bush foreign policy team, straight out of the whacko-right playbook....
The Bush administration wanted this to happen -- it held up $500 million worth of humanitarian aid from the United States, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and International Monetary Fund. Without U.S. or multilateral help, the country spiraled downward.

Interview with Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. (PUBLISHED March 2 and POSTED: March 3, 2004)

Whoever has allowed those armed bandits in the opposition to get into Haiti and to sow violence and death, they should be in the position to control them

From the Guardian: Neo-con in Haiti cartoon. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 3, 2004)

CNN account, where Cheney gloats as the country descends into chaos: Haiti rebels threaten more strife. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 2, 2004)

[Dick Cheney:] "I'm happy he's gone." "I think the Haitian people are better off for it," he said. "I think they now have an opportunity to elect a new government, and that's as it should be."

From the New York Times, a chilling view of those now in charge: Haiti Rebel Says He Is in Charge, and Political Confusion Deepens (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 3, 2004)

"The army and the people with money always were against the poor," said Ernseau Bolívar, a 23-year-old student who lives in La Saline. "President Aristide made a lot of mistakes, it is true. But he was always representing people of the poor, people of my class. Traditionally the political class used the army to oppress us. That is what we fear." Mr. Bolívar said he thought Mr. Aristide had been forced out by American pressure. He called the president's fall a coup. "We elected Mr. Aristide; he was our choice, the overwhelming choice of the Haitian people," Mr. Bolívar said. "How can the Americans now come and take him away? What about our Constitution? What about our laws?..."
While many in the crowds greeting the rebels appeared joyous, they were also raucous. Early in the afternoon, Mr. Philippe appeared on the balcony of the former headquarters of the Haitian Army, which sits adjacent to the palace and was renovated into a museum in honor of Haiti's 2004 bicentennial. He flashed victory signs to the crowd. A moment after he stepped away, a soldier began tossing art from the museum into the street, beginning with a sculpture of a casket with a figurine inside. It shattered as it hit the ground and the crowd roared. More paintings followed, and someone set the pile of art aflame. Inorel Delbrun, an art collector who had come hoping to catch a glimpse of the rebel leader, was horrified. "This is Haitian art," Mr. Delbrun said. "It hurts to see it destroyed. This is our culture."

Phil Davison in the Independent: Haiti fears a repeat of the past as new rulers arrive. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 3, 2004)

They [the rebels] had locked themselves in, away from hundreds of curious passers-by, but the men we could see through the railings looked exactly like the men of the old Haitian army, the army of the Duvalier dictators, of the death squads, of the cocaine trafficking and of the 1991 coup that forced Mr Aristide to flee first time round. They had the same uniforms and, perhaps more frightening, the same dread-inspiring look.
Some of them had boasted on Monday that they were determined to root out Mr Aristide's chimères gunmen, who have now blended into the scenery of the city's seething slums. They did not beat around the bush. They wanted to execute such men on the spot. Staunch supporters of Aristide's Lavalas party have gone underground.
So Haiti is about to have an army again, perhaps the last thing it needs. And now we hear that ousted dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier wants to come home. Am I dreaming all this?

Yesterday, they would disarm when Aristide left. Today: Rebel leader Philippe declares himself 'military chief'. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 2, 2004)

Peter Hallward: Haiti's elected leader was regarded as a threat by France and the US. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 2, 2004)

Jim Lobe: Growing Controversy over Haiti's Rebels and Refugees. (PUBLISHED and POSTED: March 2, 2004)

[Describing coup leaders:] Tatoune and Chamblain, leaders of a notorious death squad that killed hundreds of Aristide supporters in the early 1990s, have both been convicted of murder. Philippe, a former army officer who led a failed coup against Aristide in 2001, has professed an admiration for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and earned a reputation for brutality as police chief of Cap Haitien.

Nirit Ben-Ari & Bill Weinberg: U.S.-Sponsored Regime Change in Haiti. (PUBLISHED March 1 and POSTED: March 2, 2004)

Jeffrey Sachs: The Fire This Time in Haiti was US-Fueled: The Bush Administration Appears to have Succeeded in its Long-Time Goal of Toppling Aristide Through Years of Blocking International Aid to his Impoverished Nation (PUBLISHED March 1 and POSTED: March 2, 2004)

Almost nobody, however, understands that today's chaos was made in Washington -- deliberately, cynically and steadfastly. History will bear this out. In the meantime, political, social, and economic chaos will deepen, and Haiti's impoverished people will suffer.
Return to Top
Complied by Stephen Soldz
http://soldzresearch.com/stephensoldz


If you find this site useful,
or if you have other ideas for what should be included,
please let us know by sending us .
Also check out our other web sites:

IRAQ Occupation and Resistance Report
Iraq Antiwar Resources
Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice
Anti-Bush Fun!
Progressive News Online
Where is the US Headed?

doteasy.com - free web hosting. Free hosting with no banners.