[News] In Haiti - Aristide Lives

[Anti-Imperialist News]

In Haiti ARISTIDE LIVES! by Charlie Hinton
http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=315

Four elections prove it. In 1990 and 2000, overwhelming majorities 
elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide president, but military coups 
overthrew him both times. In 2004, the U.S., France, and Canada led 
an occupation force that kidnapped and exiled him from the Americas. 
A United Nations military occupation force followed, led by Brazil, 
and continues to occupy Haiti today, with the mission, under the name 
of "peacekeeping," of suppressing the popular movement and preventing 
the return to power of Aristide's Lavalas Party.

The coup government held an election for president in 2006, and 
although security conditions did not permit Lavalas to run 
candidates, Rene Preval, a former Lavalas president, ran. Under the 
banner of a new party, Lespwa or "Hope," Preval received a huge 
majority, because Haitian voters thought they were voting for an ally 
of President Aristide and his policies, which had prioritized 
improving the lives of the Haitian majority. After vote-counting 
fraud almost forced a run-off, massive street demonstrations backed 
up the popular vote. The Election Council relented and announced 
Preval the winner.

Preval, however, has ignored the wishes of those who voted for him, 
and joined with the occupation forces to consolidate the policies of 
the coup. His government scheduled elections for 12 Senate seats on 
April 19, but the Election Council rejected all Lavalas candidates. 
In response, Lavalas called for a boycott of the election. Fewer than 
10%, and by some accounts as low as 3% of Haitians voted, once again 
demonstrating their love and respect for their president and what he 
stands for.

Haiti's majority have now demonstrated four times, in every way they 
legally can, their support for President Aristide and a Lavalas 
government. Seemingly the whole world has allied against them, not 
unlike during the war to end enslavement 200+ years ago, when 
Haitians had to defeat English and Spanish expeditionary forces as 
well as Napoleon's army to free themselves and establish an 
independent country, which all slave-owning nations then boycotted 
for fear Haiti's example might spread.

That same fear of a powerful, independent movement for freedom and 
democracy exists today, as Preval and the "international community" 
suppress and repress all those they cannot buy off. Lavalas prisoners 
languish in prison 5 years after the coup without charges. The 
disappearance of grassroots leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, kidnapped 
in August, 2007, has never been investigated. Rigged food prices have 
led to food riots, starvation, and a diet of mud cookies for the most 
destitute. Tens of thousands of victims of devastating killer 
hurricanes receive zero support. U.N. military troops terrorize the 
neighborhoods most supportive of Lavalas.

If the United States government truly supported democracy and free 
elections, President Aristide would have served out both his terms, 
and U.N. troops would not be occupying Haiti. U.S. ambassador Janet 
Sanderson, a Bush appointee, would not be pressuring the Preval 
administration to issue arrest warrants for 42 of the organizers of 
the election boycott, including five hunger strikers who were forced 
out of the parliament building by police the day after the election. 
She would not be calling the boycott an "obstruction of democracy."

This election demonstrates the power of the electoral boycott. 
Lavalas almost boycotted the 2006 presidential elections called by 
the coup government, but the grassroots had hope that Preval would 
govern to benefit them and voted for him, en masse. When he betrayed 
their hopes, and Lavalas candidates were not allowed to run for the 
Senate seats in 2009, they called for the boycott, completely 
destroying the credibility of the elections on one hand, and 
demonstrating the overwhelming support for Aristide and Lavalas 
principles, on the other.

Haiti's people need solidarity right now. They are clear in their 
demands: an end to the occupation, the release of Lavalas prisoners, 
the return of President Aristide (currently exiled in South Africa), 
and a government that serves those most in need, which in Haiti is at 
least 80% of the population. If the "international community" is part 
of the problem, it is up to the freedom-loving peoples of the world 
to be part of the solution. Does that mean you?




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