[News] Signs of the times in Haiti - The military, money and the meaning of an occupation

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Features


Signs of the times in Haiti


The military, money and the meaning of an occupation



Nia Imara
2012-06-28, Issue <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/591>591
<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83222>http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83222

There are periods in a country’s history when the 
signs and warnings that history will soon enter 
into a dramatically different phase are clear as 
day. Such is the period today in Haiti, where 
daily events portend an inauspicious development 
for the future: the Haitian Army may soon be returning.

For the past several months, paramilitary groups 
consisting of former military men, former death 
squad members, and new recruits have been 
planting themselves throughout Haiti. They are 
armed, they have new uniforms, and they are 
loudly demanding that Michel Martelly make good 
on his presidential campaign promise to formally 
bring back the army, which former President 
Aristide disbanded back in 1995 to near universal 
support. This past April, one of these groups of 
hopeful soldiers stormed Haiti’s parliament to 
voice their demands and their support for Prime 
Minister designate Laurent Lamothe. It is 
estimated that as many as 3,500 men and women are 
currently training in impromptu military bases across the country.

President Martelly, who was elected by only a 
small minority of the populace in March 2011, has 
publically denounced the armed men and asked them 
to disband. [1] But it strains the imagination to 
think that he is truly ingenuous, and anyone who 
honestly assesses his record would be hard 
pressed to assert that he is genuinely displeased 
with the activity of the renegade paramilitary. 
To the contrary, the reformation of the Haitian 
Army is in perfect alignment with his plans for 
Haiti’s future. Last year, Martelly announced a 
$95 million plan to form a new army. [2] To 
begin, the plan calls for the employment of 3,500 
soldiers, as well as a National Intelligence 
Service (SIN is the French acronym) that would be 
authorized to handle people accused of “terrorism”.

Yet the return of the army is far from what the 
majority of Haitians have expressed that they 
want for their country, which is still suffering 
from the January 2010 earthquake, from cholera 
introduced by the United Nations (UN), and from 
more than eight years of a debilitating military 
occupation by the UN, the United States, France, 
and Canada, with Brazil having nominal command of the UN troops.

Martelly’s entry into office gave the green light 
to the unofficial military, known as the Pink 
Militia in Haiti, which has since been actively 
organizing itself and even claiming authority 
over the law in some neighborhoods. This past 
year especially, a climate of fear and repression 
has descended, especially upon those who are 
active in Haiti’s most popular political 
organization, called Lavalas. Reports from Haiti 
indicate that pro-democracy grassroots activists 
are under attack by elements that are both 
officially and unofficially affiliated with 
Martelly and who would also like to see the 
return of the army. Due to the repression, 
intimidation, and threats to their lives, some 
activists have gone into hiding. Many in Haiti 
who are old enough to remember compare the period 
today with the Duvalier dictatorship, which used 
the army as an instrument of repression against the poor majority.

Martelly’s administration and the UN have 
permitted these paramilitary groups to act with 
near-impunity. [3] This should come as no 
surprise, however, since Martelly ­ a loyal 
supporter of the Duvalier regime who gained the 
eager support of the US State Department­has been 
unwavering in his promise to bring back the army, 
and because for the past eight years the UN has 
consistently sided with the forces that made the 
coup against the democratically elected Lavalas 
government in 2004. Each of these parties­the 
army, the Martelly administration, the US 
government, and the UN ­ have a common vision for 
the future of Haiti. In order for this future to 
be realized, it is necessary for the army to be reborn.

* * *

Since Haiti is often portrayed as a hopelessly 
impoverished nation with a history of political 
corruption and instability, why the United States 
is so interested in Haiti might seem 
inconceivable. “Why Haiti?” one is led to ask. 
Though the answer may be difficult to accept, the 
facts are incontrovertible: the United States 
provided the Duvalier dictatorship and it death 
squads with tens of millions of dollars; the US 
helped to fund and train the Haitian-born 
paramilitary that provided the cover to bring 
down Aristide’s democratic Lavalas government in 
2004; US organizations including USAID and the 
International Republican Institute have 
generously supplied anti-Lavalas groups with 
resources and sponsored anti-Aristide campaigns 
in the media; the US government aided and abetted 
the kidnapping and forced exile of Aristide from 
Haiti
.But what conclusions should we draw from 
all this? Why Haiti? What’s in it for the US?

Underlying the question “Why Haiti?” is the 
notion that Haiti, a small, desperately 
impoverished country of ten million souls, has 
little to offer such a powerful nation as the 
United States. It is not commonly known, however, 
that there is a vast amount of money to be made 
in Haiti. Anyone who has lived in poverty knows 
how incredibly costly it is to be poor. The 
reverse side of this coin: How enormously lucrative poverty can be.

The answer to the question “Why Haiti?” has been 
accurately summarized by Haitians who have 
witnessed the powerful, wealthy elite of this 
world tear apart their country since the 2004 
coup. Five or six years ago, in the early days of 
the occupation, many Haitians explained that the 
US sponsored the coup so that it could pave the 
way for its neoliberal agenda in Haiti, so that 
it could privatize Haiti. In order to do this, it 
was imperative that the Lavalas movement­the 
chief obstacle to this goal­be destabilized and 
repressed. This is precisely what has taken place 
in Haiti for the past eight years, and in recent 
years, it is clear that these efforts have borne 
much fruit. Here are a few examples:

•Promptly after Aristide was forced into exile in 
2004, the United States Congress began to 
deliberate on the HOPE Act, which provided for 
the duty-free export to the US of products 
manufactured in Haiti. It was passed in 2006.

•In 2007, President René Préval announced that 
the state-owned telephone company Teleco would be 
privatized. In a deal brokered by the World Bank, 
the plans were consummated in April 2010, and the 
company now belongs primarily to Viettel, a subsidiary of the Vietnamese Army.

•In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 
brokered a deal for the South Korean clothing 
company Sae-A Co. Ltd. to open up shop in Haiti. 
US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show 
that the US government worked with US clothing 
manufacturers to oppose a minimum wage increase 
for Haitian assembly line workers. [4]

•The Inter-American Development Bank, Sae-A Co., 
and the US government are presently constructing 
the Caracol Industrial Park in northern Haiti. 
Ground was broken last November, and the US has 
thus far committed $124 million to the project.

•In December 2011, the Dutch company Heineken 
announced its plans to increase its shareholding 
in the leading Haitian brewer from 22.5% to 95%. [5]

•After the 2010 earthquake, the Canadian firm 
Majescor Resources acquired all of the shares of 
a Haitian firm in order to begin searching for 
gold, copper, and other minerals. Within the past 
couple of years, US and other multinational 
investors­including Newmont Mining Corp., 
Eurasian Minerals Inc., and VCS Mining­have also 
acquired permits and spent millions of dollars 
for exploratory drilling campaigns for minerals in northern Haiti. [6]

Thus, the gold rush on occupied Haiti is both 
literal and figurative. But Haitians have long 
been aware of their human and material wealth. 
For instance, the platform of Fanmi Lavalas, 
Aristide’s political party, for his second term 
in office, included detailed accounts and plans 
for the gold and other mineral resources that 
have recently been “discovered” in Haiti. [7] The 
foreign companies and corporations that want to 
exploit Haiti invariably claim that their 
investments will create more opportunities for 
the people and that they will facilitate Haiti’s 
sovereignty. History, however, tells a different story.

For nearly a century, going back at least as far 
as the US military occupation of Haiti from 1915 
to 1934­US and international business interests 
have made duplicitous investments in Haiti that 
proved to be to the overwhelming disadvantage of 
the majority. Then, as during the Duvalier 
dictatorship of 1957 to 1986, these interests 
exploited repressive conditions to execute 
profitable business deals with undemocratic 
regimes in the service of the Haitian and foreign 
elite. The case of rice is an infamous example. 
In the 1980s, in compliance with international 
lending agencies ­ and while the country was 
still reeling from Duvalierism ­ Haiti lifted 
tariffs from rice imports, after which the US ­ 
where the rice industry was subsidized ­ promptly 
flooded the market with cheaper rice. Haitian 
farmers could not compete, and the price of rice 
steadily rose once Haiti’s dependence on the US 
for this staple was consolidated. This policy 
destroyed Haitian rice farming and severely 
crippled the country’s ability to be 
self-sufficient agriculturally. In 2010, former 
President Clinton, whose home state of Arkansas 
was one of the largest beneficiaries of this 
policy, publicly apologized for his role in this 
situation, which led to increased urbanization 
and an increasing dependence on sweatshop labor to fuel Haiti’s economy.

In his book, Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path 
for the Poor in the Age of Globalization, 
Aristide describes this and other salient 
examples of how foreign investors’ conditional 
investment in and privatization of Haiti have 
adversely impacted the society. He also provides 
solutions and a vision of the future for Haiti, 
which are simply reflections of the hopes and 
strivings of most Haitians, who elected him 
president by an overwhelming majority in 2000. 
During his first term in office in 1995, with 
overwhelming popular support, he disbanded the 
military, which had consumed 40 percent of the 
national budget. Today, the people have 
consistently expressed their desire for free and 
widespread access to education, employment, 
housing, an inclusive and democratic government, 
and an end to the UN/US occupation­not for an army.

The right thing for the United States government 
to do is to break with its odious foreign policy 
of supporting dictatorships in Haiti as well as 
its abhorrent treatment of the Haitian people. At 
the very least, it should withdraw its support of 
Michel Martelly and the occupation and to stop 
trying to control Haiti’s future, by economic or any other means.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! 
Become a 
<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/friends.php>Friend 
of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep 
Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!

* Dr. Nia Imara is a longtime member of Haiti 
Action Committee: <http://haitisolidarity.net/>http://haitisolidarity.net/
* Please send comments to 
<mailto:editor at pambazuka.org>editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org 
or comment online at <http://www.pambazuka.org/>Pambazuka News.

END NOTES

[1] Martelly was selected by les than 17% of the 
electorate. Funded in part by the US government, 
the fraudulent elections that brought him to 
power violated a number of Haitian laws­for 
instance, the most popular political party, 
Lavalas, was banned from participating­and were 
widely boycotted. See “The Emperor Has No Votes” 
by Charlie Hinton. 
<http://goo.gl/vlPgp>http://goo.gl/vlPgp . By 
comparison, in the 2000 elections, the voter 
turnout was at least 65%, and Aristide was 
reelected to a second presidency with 92% of the vote.
[2] “Haitians Train for a Future With a 
Military.” <http://goo.gl/BKCp6>http://goo.gl/BKCp6
[3] Time will tell how effectively the UN follow 
through with its very recent “crack downs” on the 
illicit army. “UN crack down armed men pushing to 
restoration of army.” <http://goo.gl/s7ofj>http://goo.gl/s7ofj
[4] “WikiLeaks Haiti: Let Them Live on $3 a Day.” 
<http://goo.gl/Sg5xx>http://goo.gl/Sg5xx
[5] “HEINEKEN to increase shareholding in leading 
Haitian brewer.” <http://goo.gl/57Tpa>http://goo.gl/57Tpa
[6] “Shock waves ­ Majescor flourishes in 
post-quake Haiti.” <http://goo.gl/46gkH>http://goo.gl/46gkH
[7] “Eurasian Minerals Provides an Update on 
Haiti Exploration Programs.” <http://goo.gl/g9iiq>http://goo.gl/g9iiq
[8] "Investir dans l'Humain, Livre Blanc de Fanmi 
Lavalas, Sous la Direction de Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide." Published by Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, Haiti. 1999.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20120706/79edb7d7/attachment.htm>