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<h1><font size=4><b>WikiLeaks' lesson on
Haiti</b></font></h1><font size=3><b>Dec 17, 2010<br>
</b><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/markweisbrot">Mark
Weisbrot</a> <br>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/17/haiti-wikileaks" eudora="autourl">
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/17/haiti-wikileaks<br>
<br>
</a>What the US embassy cables reveal about Washington's malign influence
should make Latin American nations quit the UN force<br><br>
The polarisation of the debate around WikiLeaks is pretty simple, really.
Of all the governments in the world, the United States government is the
greatest threat to world peace and security today. This is obvious to
anyone who looks at the facts with a modicum of objectivity. The Iraq war
has claimed certainly hundreds of thousands, and, most likely, more than
a million lives. It was completely unnecessary and unjustifiable, and
based on lies. Now, Washington is moving toward a military confrontation
with Iran. <br><br>
As Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell,
<a href="http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5988">
pointed out in an interview recently</a>, in the preparation for a war
with Iran, we are at about the level of 1998 in the buildup to the Iraq
war. <br><br>
On this basis, even ignoring the tremendous harm that Washington causes
to developing countries in such areas as economic development (through
such institutions as the International Monetary Fund and World Trade
Organisation), or climate change, it is clear that any information which
sheds light on US "diplomacy" is more than useful. It has the
potential to help save millions of human lives.<br><br>
You either get this or you don't. Brazil's president Lula da Silva, who
earned Washington's displeasure last May when he tried to help defuse the
confrontation with Iran, gets it. That's why he
<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-09/lula-defends-wikileaks-offers-brazil-s-solidarity-with-jailed-founder.html">
defended and declared his "solidarity"</a> with embattled
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, even though the leaked cables were not
pleasant reading for his own government. <br><br>
One area of US foreign policy that the
<a href="http://www.mediahacker.org/2010/11/wikileaks-cablegate-and-haiti/">
WikiLeaks cables help illuminate</a>, which the major media has
predictably ignored, is the occupation of Haiti. In 2004, the country's
democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown
for the second time, through an
<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/04/opinion/oe-sachs4">
effort led by the United States government</a>. Officials of the
constitutional government were jailed and thousands of its supporters
were killed. <br><br>
The Haitian coup, besides being a repeat of Aristide's overthrow in 1991,
was also very similar to the attempted coup in Venezuela in 2002 which
also had Washington's fingerprints all over it. Some of the same people
in Washington were even involved in both efforts. But the Venezuelan coup
failed partly because Latin American governments immediately and
forcefully declared that they would not recognise the coup government.
<br><br>
In the case of Haiti, Washington had learned from its mistakes in the
Venezuelan coup and had gathered support for an illegitimate government
in advance. A UN resolution was passed just days after the coup, and UN
forces, headed by Brazil, were sent to the country. The mission is still
headed by Brazil, and has troops from a number of other Latin American
governments that are left of centre, including Bolivia, Argentina and
Uruguay. They are also joined by Chile, Peru and Guatemala from Latin
America.<br><br>
Would these governments have sent troops to occupy Venezuela if that coup
had succeeded? Clearly, they would not have considered such a move, yet
the occupation of Haiti is no more justifiable. South America's
progressive governments have strongly challenged US foreign policy in the
region and the world, with some of them regularly using words like
imperialism and empire as synonyms for Washington. They have built new
institutions
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/unasur-emerging-geopolitical-force/">
such as UNASUR</a> to prevent these kinds of abuses from the north.
Bolivia expelled the US ambassador in September of 2008 for interfering
in the country's internal affairs.<br><br>
Is it because Haitians are poor and black that their most fundamental
human and democratic rights can be trampled upon?<br><br>
The participation of these governments in the occupation of Haiti is a
serious political contradiction for them, and it is getting worse. The
<a href="http://www.mediahacker.org/2010/11/wikileaks-cablegate-and-haiti/">
WikiLeaks cables illustrate</a> how important the control of Haiti is to
the United States.
<a href="http://213.251.145.96/cable/2007/03/07PORTAUPRINCE408.html">A
long memo from the US embassy</a> in Port-au-Prince to the US secretary
of state answers detailed questions about Haitian president Rene Preval's
political, personal and family life, including such vital national
security questions as "How many drinks can Preval consume before he
shows signs of inebriation?" It also expresses one of Washington's
main concerns:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>"His reflexive nationalism, and his disinterest in managing
bilateral relations in a broad diplomatic sense, will lead to periodic
frictions as we move forward our bilateral agenda. Case in point, we
believe that in terms of foreign policy, Preval is most interested in
gaining increased assistance from any available resource. He is likely to
be tempted to frame his relationship with Venezuela and Chαvez-allies in
the hemisphere in a way that he hopes will create a competitive
atmosphere as far as who can provide the most to Haiti."<br><br>
</dl>This logic is why they got rid of Aristide who was much to the
left of Preval and won't let him back in the country. This is why
Washington funded <a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/elections/">the
recent "elections"</a> that excluded Haiti's largest political
party, the equivalent of shutting out the Democrats and Republicans in
the United States. And this is why
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/minustah/">Minustah is still
occupying the country</a>, more than six years after the coup, without
any apparent mission other than replacing the hated Haitian army which
Aristide had abolished as a repressive force.<br><br>
People who do not understand US foreign policy think that control over
Haiti does not matter to Washington, because it is so poor and has no
strategic minerals or resources. But that is not how Washington operates,
as the WikiLeaks cables repeatedly illustrate. For the state department
and its allies, it is all a ruthless chess game, and every pawn matters.
Left governments will be removed or prevented from taking power where it
is possible to do so; and the poorest countries like
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/top-ten-ways">
Honduras last year</a> present the most opportune targets. A
democratically elected government in Haiti, due to its history and the
consciousness of the population, will inevitably be a left government
and one that will not line up with Washington's foreign policy priorities
for the region. Thus, democracy is not allowed.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/minustah-responds-to-day-of-protests-by-tear-gassing-idp-camp">
Thousands of Haitians have been protesting</a> the sham elections, as
well as Minustah's role in causing the cholera epidemic, which has
already taken more than 2,300 lives and can be expected to kill thousands
more in the coming months and years. Judging from the rapid spread of the
disease, there may have been gross criminal negligence on the part of
Minustah that is,
<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXnA1Hxq9FM3EuY_FSOZ7GTA0y-Q?docId=e02d10ba8abe485bb2702a97b%20%20b1c6845">
large-scale dumping of fecal waste</a> into the Artibonite river. This is
another huge reason for the force to leave Haiti.<br><br>
This is a mission that costs over $500m a year, when the UN can't even
raise a third of that to fight the epidemic that the mission caused, or
to provide clean water for Haitians. And now the
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/wikileaks-reveals-minustah-fatigue-among-minustah-members">
UN is asking for an increase</a> to over $850m.<br><br>
It is high time that the progressive governments of Latin America quit
this occupation, which goes against their own principles and deeply-held
beliefs, and is against the will of the Haitian people.<br><br>
<br><br>
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