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THE HAITI REDUX<br><br>
<br><br>
By Saul Landau<br><br>
<br><br>
One of my students asked me about the current unrest in Haiti.
"Reading the<br>
news accounts," she offered, "I can't figure out who stands for
what. And<br>
what role is US policy playing in the ongoing events?"<br><br>
<br><br>
I, too, find it difficult to extract meaning from the news
accounts.<br>
Newspapers and wire service reports ran headlines about "Rebels
Occupying<br>
Haiti's Second and Third Largest Cities," without identifying the
rebels or<br>
explaining what they stood for.<br><br>
<br><br>
Other than their expressed hatred for and desire to overthrow the
elected<br>
government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, I found in the news
reports<br>
not the barest trace of Haitian history that would help people get a
context<br>
for the current conflict.<br><br>
<br><br>
For example, 200 years ago, President Thomas Jefferson refused to
recognize<br>
the first black and second oldest republic in the Hemisphere. In the
early<br>
1790s, inspired by the French Revolution, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a
former<br>
slave, led an uprising and overthrew the French masters.<br><br>
<br><br>
In 1862, almost sixty years later, Abraham Lincoln finally recognized
Haiti.<br>
In 1888, the United States began its habit of intervention when US
forces<br>
responded to the Haitian authorities' seizure of a US ship that had
landed<br>
illegally. In 1891, US troops landed "to protect American lives
and<br>
property .when Negro laborers got out of control."<br><br>
<br><br>
Woodrow Wilson deployed the Marines in 1914 and again in 1915 "to
maintain<br>
order during a period of chronic and threatened insurrection." They
remained<br>
as an occupation force under Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and
Franklin<br>
Roosevelt.<br><br>
<br><br>
In 1934, FDR ended the two decades of occupation by turning the reins
of<br>
government over to a clique who looted the country until in 1956
Francois<br>
Duvalier (Papa Doc), staged a military coup and declared himself
president<br>
for life.<br><br>
<br><br>
Papa Doc created a brutal dictatorship backed by the Tontons Macoute,
a<br>
Haitian Praetorian Guard. Upon his death, Jean Claude or Baby Doc
Duvalier<br>
replaced his father until his overthrow in 1986. Both mouthed the<br>
anti-communist line, brutalized their own people and received US
support.<br><br>
<br><br>
In 1990, Haitians overwhelmingly elected as President Jean-Bertrand<br>
Aristide, a populist Catholic priest. He served nine months before
a<br>
military coup, led by General Raoul Cedras, backed by the CIA, ousted
him<br>
and instituted three years of military rule: political violence against
all<br>
opponents and looting.<br><br>
<br><br>
President Clinton procrastinated. Finally, in 1994, he dispatched troops
to<br>
reseat Aristide as president. But Clinton limited the military's goals.
He<br>
did not order the troops to disarm members of the illegal military gangs
or<br>
train new security forces to protect Haitians in the countryside,
where<br>
paramilitary thugs harassed the farmers.<br><br>
<br><br>
Aristide's most prominent enemies and flagrant human rights abusers --
fled<br>
to the United States or the Dominican Republic. But they had stashed
weapons<br>
on the island and waited for the opportune moment. Human rights
violators<br>
like Col. Emanual Constant, a former CIA agent, walked confidently
through<br>
the streets of Queens, New York. Some former army and Tonton
Macoute<br>
officials have returned and "joined" the
"opposition."<br><br>
<br><br>
The media has identified Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former army officer
and<br>
member of FRAPH, Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, during
the<br>
post-1991 military coup. But little has been reported about the nature
of<br>
the atrocities committed by this "leader" of the
rebels.<br><br>
<br><br>
Although such hooligans more than cloud the political
"opposition's"<br>
legitimacy, large numbers of Haitians do feel disappointed with
Aristide.<br>
The three year wait before Aristide resumed his legitimate place as<br>
president, seemed to have changed him and the inchoate, populist
Lavalas<br>
Party he leads. By 1994, following the Pope's order, he had shed his
collar.<br>
The secular Aristide no longer showed the same assurance. The exile
years<br>
had taken their toll.<br><br>
<br><br>
By the late 1990s, those democratic and progressive minded people around
the<br>
world who saw him as "the deliverer" also felt disheartened.
Aristide's<br>
religious charisma seemed to dissolve in frustration. First, the man who
had<br>
vowed to build a new, developing Haiti, free of corruption, got
IMF'd.<br><br>
<br><br>
He refused to privatize the public's wealth as The IMF and World Bank --
and<br>
US loan agencies demanded. Aristide had seen what these policies had done
to<br>
the desperately poor in the third world. His refusal to obey led
the<br>
dictates of the imperial financiers led to his punishment and to
his<br>
inability to accomplish even minimal reforms.<br><br>
<br><br>
The cynical "expectations" went side by side with a double
standard on which<br>
to judge Aristide. While the Colombian government on the western side of
the<br>
Caribbean received increased US aid for bad behavior, Aristide was held
to<br>
standards that no third world country could have maintained.
Washington<br>
offered meager resources and then deemed his effort to improve
police<br>
training inadequate. When violence occurred, the details somehow
became<br>
obscured, the perpetrators unnamed and the blame fell on
Aristide.<br><br>
<br><br>
Neither news stories nor editorials asked the obvious question:
What<br>
resource-starved, infra-structurally underdeveloped and politically
chaotic<br>
third world country could accomplish economic development, social order
and<br>
political stability in a few years?<br><br>
<br><br>
In 1989, I interviewed Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley. I asked
him<br>
what reforms he would make now that he had regained political power (he
won<br>
as a Democratic Socialist in 1972 and 76, was defeated in 1980 and won
a<br>
third term in 1989, no longer a socialist, but a supporter of IMF
policies).<br><br>
<br><br>
He laughed scornfully. "My budget has no flexibility," he said.
"The DEA<br>
offers a $29 million grant to burn ganja [marijuana] fields. I have
a<br>
choice: use the money to open the roads blocked by Hurricane Andrew or
raise<br>
teachers' pay and keep the schools open. I can't do both. No
agrarian<br>
reform. No health care." He shook his head. "Political power
without money<br>
in the budget is an illusion."<br><br>
<br><br>
He invited me to accompany a joint Jamaican Defense
Force-DEA who<br>
planned to raid a ganja plantation on the island's western side.
The<br>
helicopters landed, the troops and DEA agents jumped out and, as if in
real<br>
combat, unleashed their flame throwers on the ample crop. Within
twenty<br>
minutes the soldiers and agents began to giggle uncontrollably as
they<br>
inhaled the fumes of their labor.<br><br>
<br><br>
Watching the event, the extended family whose livelihood had just gone up
in<br>
smoke, did not share the celebration. The Member of Parliament who had
also<br>
accompanied the strike force lectured them: "This is what happens
when you<br>
grow illegal crops."<br><br>
<br><br>
"What else can we grow?" asked the grandfather of the clan.
"With the roads<br>
destroyed we cannot get crops to market. With ganja, the airplane
comes," he<br>
pointed to the landing strip in the middle of the burning field,
"takes the<br>
crop and gives us cash. Now what?"<br><br>
<br><br>
The MP lost his pot-induced ebullience.<br><br>
<br><br>
"Well, maybe you could start up a small factory or something,"
he responded<br>
weakly.<br><br>
<br><br>
"Dis imperialism, mon," a dread locked young man
opined.<br><br>
<br><br>
"Huh?" I said.<br><br>
<br><br>
"California ganja growers take over Jamaican market," he said.
"America<br>
balance of trade improve."<br><br>
<br><br>
Back in Kingston, the DEA agents and JDF officers invited me for a drink.
I<br>
declined. Manley would have his $29 million and raise teacher pay to
keep<br>
schools open. What a price he was paying! He resigned shortly afterwards
a<br>
tacit admission of political impotence.<br><br>
<br><br>
Place the current rioting in Haiti in this political and economic
context,<br>
one missing from mainstream reporting. Add the explicit or implicit
twisting<br>
of news reporting to make Haitian civil strife appear to be
Aristide's<br>
fault.<br><br>
<br><br>
The media should have smelled the proverbial "destabilizing
rat" when<br>
reporting that on December 5, 2003 50 armed men broke into the university
in<br>
Port au Prince and began to provoke students and professors.
Aristide<br>
backers responded by demonstrating. The armed unit attacked. One<br>
pro-Aristide man let loose a sling shot and connected with the head of
an<br>
anti-Aristide militant. But onlookers, mostly students, bore the brunt
of<br>
the ensuing violence.<br><br>
<br><br>
On January 12, the anti-Aristide gang organized a protest march in
the<br>
capital Port-au-Prince. Reports from non-US sources maintain that
some<br>
students joined this demonstration after receiving cash incentives
or<br>
promises to get tickets for foreign travel.<br><br>
<br><br>
US dailies did not mention this information. Instead, the media focused
on<br>
Aristide's inability to answer "security concerns," while
anti-Aristide<br>
officials in the Bush Administration like Assistant Secretary of
Western<br>
Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega and Otto Reich, Presidential envoy to
the<br>
Americas, promoted a policy of embargo against the Aristide
government.<br>
Noriega carried an old vendetta from his former boss, retired North
Carolina<br>
Senator (R) Jess Helms, who despised Aristide's leftish
disobedience.<br><br>
<br><br>
The chaos that reins in Haiti, is far from spontaneous. Thugs who
illegally<br>
seized power and raped Haiti from 1991-94 have returned to the island
to<br>
join with people who have legitimate grievances.<br><br>
<br><br>
Aristide may have overestimated his own support, relied on a weak
police<br>
force and underestimated the treachery of his foes. But Aristide's
mistakes<br>
or even character flaws do not invalidate his legitimacy as an
elected<br>
president of Haiti, the poorest country in the Hemisphere.<br><br>
<br><br>
Reasonable political sense, I told my student, dictates that we
should<br>
support Aristide's offer to compromise with the political opposition and
put<br>
down the ruffians who want full dictatorial power, reminiscent of
their<br>
illegal rule 1991-4.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
Landau's newest film, SYRIA: BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE is
available<br>
through Cinema Guild 1-800-723-5522. His new book, THE PRE-EMPTIVE
EMPIRE: A<br>
GUIDE TO BUSH'S KINGDOM, was published in November 2003 by Pluto
Press.<br>
Landau teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University and is a fellow of the<br>
Institute for Policy Studies. His essays in Spanish are on<br>
<a href="http://www.rprogreso.com/" eudora="autourl">www.rprogreso.com</a>.<br><br>
<br><br>
Saul Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International
Outreach<br>
Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences
California<br>
State Polytechnic University, Pomona 3801 W. Temple Avenue Pomona, CA
91768<br>
tel: 909-869-3115 fax: 909-869-4858
<a href="http://www.saullandau.net/" eudora="autourl">www.saullandau.net</a><br><br>
<br><br>
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