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<font size=4><u>HOW USAID UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY IN
HAITI</u></font><font size=3> by Leslie Mullin<br>
<br>
<i>The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is an arm of the
US State Department. Founded in 1961, USAID serves as a "velvet
glove" for US foreign policy. The political bias of its operations
in Haiti goes back decades. Here are ten things to know about USAID in
Haiti:<br><br>
</i><b>USAID PAID MILLIONS TO HAITI'S RUTHLESS DICTATOR, FRANCOIS
"PAPA DOC" DUVALIER</b>, aimed at shoring up US influence in
the region after the Cuban revolution. Thirty to fifty thousand people
were killed under Duvalier’s regime while aid funds were siphoned into
the private coffers of the Duvalier family. Under Duvalier,
assembly production for American corporations became the blueprint for
Haiti’s economic dependence on the US. The formula, essentially unchanged
to this day, backs Haiti’s ruling elite while turning Haiti into a
low-wage export-focused economy that creates profitable business
opportunities for foreign investors. Haitians call it “the death
plan.”<br>
<b>USAID BACKED DUVALIER'S SON, JEAN-CLAUDE "BABY DOC</b>,"
when he took over in 1971, with plans to promote Haiti as the “Taiwan of
the Caribbean.” American taxpayers provided millions to build an
infrastructure to lure US manufacturers to open assembly plants, taking
advantage of Haiti’s high unemployment, political repression, and wages
of 14 cents an hour. The consequences were profits for US business and
the Haitian superrich. By the time of Duvalier’s fall, Haiti was
the world’s ninth largest assembler of goods for US consumption, and the
largest producer of baseballs.<br>
<br>
<b>USAID SABOTAGED HAITI'S DOMESTIC FOOD PRODUCTION</b>. USAID has
a major impact on Haiti’s economy, both directly and as an agent for big
financial institutions like the IMF. Nowhere is this more clearly
demonstrated than Haiti’s food system. As recently as 30 years ago, Haiti
<a href="http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/sakvidpakanpe.pdf">produced
most of its own food</a>. Then, in the early 1980s,
<a href="http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/210.html">USAID
undertook a plan to redirect Haiti’s domestic food production</a> towards
export crops. The idea, tied to Ronald Reagan’s Caribbean Basin
Initiative, was to integrate Haiti into the world market via
agro-industry and export manufacturing. <br>
<br>
With full awareness of its dire impact on Haitian peasants, USAID experts
set about to shift 30% of Haiti’s cultivated land from food produced for
local consumption to export crops. As Haiti's rural economy
unravelled, impoverished peasants fled to the capital city. Competition
from cheap imports and the absence of policies to promote production led
to a rapid decline in Haiti’s food production. By 2008, local food
production amounted to 42% of Haiti’s food consumption, compared to 80%
in 1986. At the same time the value of US agricultural exports to Haiti
began to increase - from $44 million (1986) to $95 million (1989).
Recently, USAID was helping agriculture officials boost Haiti's
production of mangoes -- for export to the United States.<br><br>
<b>USAID ENFORCED TRADE LIBERALIZATION POLICIES THAT UNDERCUT HAITI'S
RICE INDUSTRY WHILE PROMOTING AMERICAN RICE</b>.
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley04212008.html">In 1986,
USAID</a> conditioned aid to the ruling military junta on lowering rice
tariffs, while advising the government to remove the little
assistance it gave to Haitian farmers. Haiti slashed its rice tariff from
<a href="http://jbs.sagepub.com/content/40/5/974.full.pdf">35% to 3.5%
(1986)</a> and to 1.5% (1995). Not only were Haitian farmers hurt, but
American producers and grain sellers profited. Cheap, heavily subsidized
“Miami” US rice flooded Haitian markets, and Haitian rice production
began to drop. Until the early 1980s, Haiti produced the majority of its
own rice, but Haiti is now the fourth largest importer of American
rice. <br><br>
One beneficiary was the
<a href="http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/210.html">Rice
Corporation of Haiti</a> (RCH), owned by Erly Industries - a massive US
agribusiness and the largest marketer of American rice. In 1992, RCH
secured a 9-year contract to import rice from Haiti’s illegal coup
government – a military junta responsible for the deaths of thousands of
Haitians. RCH was managed at the time by the former director of the
Caribbean Basin Initiative (1982-1988), with powerful friends in
Washington like Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms
(R-NC). <br><br>
Erly Industries gained another foothold in Haiti after the 2010
earthquake when USAID awarded an Erly subsidiary, CHEMONICS, the contract
to implement the 2009 USAID “WINNER”
program.<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haitian-companies-bypassed-in-favor-of-dc-area-contractors-with-poor-track-records">
CHEMONICS</a> is an international consulting firm that
<a href="http://projects.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=8">
relies on USAID for 90%</a> of its business. WINNER is another example of
USAID’s reckless assault on Haitian agriculture. After the 2010 Haiti
earthquake,
<a href="http://haitijustice.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/winner-bad-for-haiti/">
WINNER championed</a> the introduction of Monsanto hybrid seeds at cheap
prices to Haitian farmers, despite the recommendation of the
International Center for Tropical Agriculture to halt all seed donations
as both unnecessary and harmful. WINNER undermines Haitian seed
distribution networks, and will leave Haitian farmers dependent on
Monsanto seeds when the program expires in 2015. <br><br>
<b>USAID "FOOD AID" IS GOOD FOR US AGRIBUSINESS, NOT FOR
HAITIAN FARMERS</b>. Haiti’s domestic rice production was
undermined even more by the vast amounts of “free” American rice that
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11472874">USAID
dumps on Haiti</a> every year in the form of
“<a href="http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/sakvidpakanpe.pdf">food
aid</a>.” A recent report,
<a href="http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/sakvidpakanpe.pdf">Sak Vid Pa
Kanpe: The Impact of US Food Aid on Human Rights in Haiti</a>, explains
how food aid is given to the poor as direct food assistance or sold by
NGOs to support their overhead and operating costs (a process known as
“monetization”). The report examines how US food aid benefits the
American companies who provide and
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/barriers-to-reform-the-big-business-of-shipping-food-aid">
transport it</a>, but has a negative impact on local Haitian economies
which would benefit instead from agricultural assistance or cash to boost
local production. In its most recent budget request, USAID proposed
spending $1.2 billion globally on helping poor farmers grow more food,
while asking Congress for $4.2 billion for food aid, almost all of which
will be spent on purchases from American farmers.<br><br>
<b>USAID DESTROYED THE HAITIAN CREOLE PIG</b>. The 1982 swine flu
outbreak in the Dominican Republic provided the justification for USAID
to condemn Haiti’s 1.3 million pig population, promising to replace them
with “better” pigs. Over a period of 13 months, enforced by
Duvalier militia, the Creole pig was wiped out. A Haitian woman
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-flynn/not-even-the-past_b_813172.html">
recalls the era</a>: “When the armed forces of Jean-Claude
Duvalier's regime set about exterminating Haiti's Creole pigs, they would
come to Haiti's rural villages, seize all of the pigs, pile them up, one
on top of the other, in large pits and set fire to them, burning them
alive.” In monetary terms Haitian peasants lost $600 million dollars.
Haiti’s former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide analyzed the outcome in
his book, <u>Eyes of the Heart</u>, explaining the small, black, Creole
pig was at the heart of the peasant economy and constituted the primary
savings bank of the peasant population. Pigs were sold to pay for
emergencies, special occasions and to pay school fees and buy books for
the children. What followed was a 30% drop in enrollment in rural
schools, a dramatic decline in protein consumption in rural Haiti, and a
negative impact on the soil and agricultural productivity. When
“better pigs” arrived from Iowa two years later, they could not survive
Haiti’s rural life, requiring clean drinking water (unavailable to 80% of
the Haitian people), imported feed (costing $90 a year when the per
capita income was about $130), and special roofed pigpens. <br><br>
<b>USAID HAS CONSISTENTLY OPPOSED MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES IN
HAITI</b>. In 1991, USAID used US tax dollars to oppose a minimum
wage increase from $.33 to $.50 per hour proposed by the Aristide
government, claiming it was bad for business. The agency also countered a
plan for temporary price controls on basic food so people could afford to
eat. According to
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/161057/wikileaks-haiti-let-them-live-3-day">
secret State Department cables</a>, after the 2010 earthquake, the U.S.
Embassy in Haiti worked closely with factory owners contracted by Levi's,
Hanes, and Fruit of the Loom to block a small minimum wage increase for
Haitian assembly zone workers, the lowest paid in the hemisphere. The
factory owners, with backing of USAID and the US Embassy, refused to pay
62 cents an hour, or $5 per eight hour day, a measure unanimously passed
by the Haitian parliament in June 2009.<br><br>
<b>USAID PROMOTED AND FUNDED THE 2004 OVERTHROW OF DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED
PRESIDENT ARISTIDE</b>. While millions of American dollars have propped
up Haiti’s dictators, aid shifted abruptly away from the democratically
elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Under the guise
of
“<a href="http://rt.com/usa/news/democracy-promotion-usa-regime/">
democracy promotion</a>,” USAID and USAID-funded organizations like the
National Endowment for Democracy and the
<a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2004/11/coup-connection">
International Republican Institute</a>, funneled millions to organize
political opposition to Aristide and build conservative alternatives
aligned with US interests. After the 2004 coup, USAID funded the
integration of former death squad forces into the Haitian National Police
to quell resistance among Haitians to the illegitimate coup government.
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/cepr-criticizes-us-funding-for-elections-in-haiti">
USAID paid millions</a> to fund the
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/10/haiti-oas-election-runoff">
fraudulent</a> Nov 2010 and March 2011 elections that excluded Haiti’s
largest political party, <i>Fanmi Lavalas</i>, the party of President
Aristide.<br><br>
<b>USAID EXTENDS ITS FAR-REACHING INFLUENCE IN HAITI BY FUNDING NGOs</b>
(non-governmental organizations) which receive
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/02/24/haiti-and-the-aid-racket/">
70% of their budgets</a> from the agency. Over 10,000 NGOs operate in
Haiti with authorization to bypass the elected government and serve as a
permanent form of “soft” invasion. As far back as 1995, Clinton’s Deputy
Secretary of State Strobe Talbott reassured members of the Senate Foreign
Affairs Committee that,
“<a href="http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199809--.htm">even after our
(military) exit in February 1996</a> we will remain in charge by means of
the USAID and the private sector.”<br><br>
<b>USAID BOASTS THAT 84 CENTS OF EVERY DOLLAR OF ITS FUNDING IN HAITI
RETURNS TO THE US</b> in the form of salaries, supplies, consulting
fees, and services. As the lead US agency for Haiti reconstruction,
just
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/161469/wikileaks-haiti-post-quake-gold-rush-reconstruction-contracts">
2.5% of USAID’s $200 million</a> in post-earthquake relief and
reconstruction contracts had gone to Haitian firms by April 2010.
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/hait-relief-money-critic_n_487976.html">
USAID paid at least $160 million</a> of its total Haiti-related
expenditures to the Defense Department, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, two US search and rescue teams and, in at least two instances,
itself. US Ambassador Merten reported to Washington that the
post-quake “gold rush” was on, according to a secret cable that described
disaster capitalists flocking to Haiti for contracts to rebuild the
country.<br><br>
Sources:<br>
Aristide, Jean-Bertrand (2000). Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the
Poor in the Age of Globalization. Common Courage Press, pp 13-14.<br>
<br>
Center for Economic and Policy Research (Dec 13 2010). Haitian companies
bypassed in favor of DC area contractors with poor track records.
Available at:
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haitian-companies-bypassed-in-favor-of-dc-area-contractors-with-poor-track-records">
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haitian-companies-bypassed-in-favor-of-dc-area-contractors-with-poor-track-records</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
Center for Public Integrity, Windfalls of War: Chemonics, International.
Available at:
<a href="http://projects.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=8">
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=8</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Partners in Health, RFK
Center for Justice & Human Rights (December 2010). Sak Vid Pa Kanpe:
The Impact of US Food Aid on Human Rights in Haiti. Available at
<a href="http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/sakvidpakanpe.pdf">
http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/sakvidpakanpe.pdf</a> (Accessed Nov
10, 2011)<br><br>
Coughlin, Dan and Ives, Kim (2011). “Wikileaks Haiti: Let them live on $3
day.” The Nation, June 1, 2011. Available at:
<a href="http://projects.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=8">
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=8</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br><br>
DeWind Josh and Kinley David H (1994). U.S. Aid Programs and the Haitian
Political Economy: Export-Led Development. IN The Haiti Files, Ridgeway J
(ed). Essential Books/Azul Editions. Washington, DC. P125<br><br>
Diederich, Bernard and Burt, Al (2009). Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoutes,
3rd edition. Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, NJ.<br><br>
Doyle, Mark (Oct 2010) US urged to stop Rice Subsidies. BBC news, Latin
America & the Caribbean. Available at:
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11472874">
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11472874</a> (Accessed Nov
10, 2011)<br><br>
Farmer, Paul (2006). The Uses of Haiti, 3rd edition. Common Courage
Press.<br><br>
Flynn, Laura (Jan 2011). In Haiti, Reliving Duvalier, Waiting for
Aristide. Huffington Post. Available at:
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-flynn/not-even-the-past_b_813172.html">
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-flynn/not-even-the-past_b_813172.html</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
Gros, Jean-Germaine. Indigestible Recipe: Rice, Chicken Wings, and
International Financial Institutions: or Hunger Politics in Haiti.
Journal of Black Studies 2010 40: 974 originally published online 29
September 2008. Available at:
<a href="http://jbs.sagepub.com/content/40/5/974.full.pdf">
http://jbs.sagepub.com/content/40/5/974.full.pdf</a> (Accessed Nov 10,
2011)<br><br>
Haiti Info (Sept 1995) Vol 3, #24. Neoliberalism in Haiti: The case of
rice. Available at:
<a href="http://www.afaceaface.org/blog/2010/09/neoliberalism-in-haiti-the-case-of-rice/">
http://www.afaceaface.org/blog/2010/09/neoliberalism-in-haiti-the-case-of-rice/</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br><br>
Hallward, Peter (2007). Damming the Flood. New York: Verso.<br><br>
Herz, Ansel and Ives, Kim (June 16, 2011). Wikileaks Haiti: The Post
Quake Gold Rush for Reconstruction Contracts. The Nation. Available at:
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/161469/wikileaks-haiti-post-quake-gold-rush-reconstruction-contracts">
http://www.thenation.com/article/161469/wikileaks-haiti-post-quake-gold-rush-reconstruction-contracts</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
Katz, Jonathan (March 2010). Haiti Relief Money: Criticism of Nonprofits
Abounds. Huffington Post. Available at:
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/haiti-relief-money-critic_n_487976.html">
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/haiti-relief-money-critic_n_487976.html</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
Kurklantzick, Joshua. (Dec/Nov 2004). The Coup Connection. Mother Jones.
Available at:
<a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2004/11/coup-connection">
http://motherjones.com/politics/2004/11/coup-connection</a> (Accessed Nov
10, 2011)<br><br>
McGowan, Lisa (January 1997). Democracy Undermined , Economic Justice
Denied: Structural Adjustment and the Aid Juggernaut in Haiti. The
Development Group for Alternative Policies, Inc. Available at:
<a href="http://www.developmentgap.org/foriegn_aid/Democracy_Undermined_Economic_Justice_Denied_Structural_Adjustment_%26_Aid_Juggernaut_in_Haiti.html">
http://www.developmentgap.org/foriegn_aid/Democracy_Undermined_Economic_Justice_Denied_Structural_Adjustment_%26_Aid_Juggernaut_in_Haiti.html</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br><br>
NACLA (1995). Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads. South End Press, Boston, MA.
Chapter 19, p. 190<br>
Quigley, Bill (April 2008). Thirty years ago Haiti Grew All the Rice It
Needed. What Happened? Counterpunch. Available at:
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/04/21/the-u-s-role-in-haiti-s-food-riots/">
http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/04/21/the-u-s-role-in-haiti-s-food-riots/</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
Smith, Ashley (24 Feb 2010). Haiti and the AID Racket. Counterpunch.
Available at:
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/02/24/haiti-and-the-aid-racket/">
http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/02/24/haiti-and-the-aid-racket/</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
Weisbrot, Mark (14 Oct 2010). CEPR Co-Director Criticizes US Funding of
Flawed “Elections” in Haiti. Press Release. Available at:
<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/cepr-criticizes-us-funding-for-elections-in-haiti">
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/cepr-criticizes-us-funding-for-elections-in-haiti</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
Weisbrot, Mark (10 Jan 2011). Haiti's Election: A Travesty of Democracy.
The Guardian. Available at:
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/10/haiti-oas-election-runoff">
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/10/haiti-oas-election-runoff</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
Yaffe, Nathan. (June 2011) USAID's Assault on Haitian Agriculture. Haiti
Justice Alliance. Available at:
<a href="http://haitijustice.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/winner-bad-for-haiti/">
http://haitijustice.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/winner-bad-for-haiti/</a>
(Accessed Nov 10, 2011)<br>
<br>
*************<br>
Haiti Action Committee<br>
<a href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net/">www.haitisolidarity.net</a> and
on FACEBOOK<br><br>
<br>
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