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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">Haiti
in Crisis: </span></b><span
style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">What Next After The
Stolen Election?<br>
by Robert Roth<br>
</span></b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">Addressing
an overflow
audience in Oakland in late April, Dr. Maryse Narcisse,
presidential candidate
of <i>Fanmi Lavalas</i>, the party of former president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, spoke
about the necessity of reforming the justice system,
investing in education and
health, and the decisive role of women in the fight for
democracy. Reflecting
on the devastation wrought by both the 2010 earthquake and
Hurricane Matthew,
she focused on the growing threats posed by climate change
to the island nation
and the need for a vigorous environmental campaign to meet
that threat. She
emphasized that the <i>Lavalas</i> movement “places human
beings at the center.”</span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">Dr.
Narcisse spoke in the
wake of the selection of Haiti’s new president, Jovenel
Moise, a right-wing
businessmen and protégé of former president Michel Martelly,
who took office
via an electoral process so replete with fraud and voter
suppression that
opposition forces called it an “electoral coup.” She
denounced the stolen
elections and the corrupt electoral commission that
validated the outcome.
But she reiterated that the deteriorating economic and
social conditions
in Haiti would be the catalyst for renewed protest in the
days and months
ahead. “There is no choice”, she stated, “but for the people
to resist. And
<i>Lavalas</i> will be there to support them.”</span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">We
can see the truth of
this throughout Haiti. Market women – the very heart of
Haiti’s economy and the
foundation of so many Haitian families’ ability to survive –
have been targeted
by police trying to move them off the streets of
Port-au-Prince, where they
have been selling their goods for generations. When the
women organized
themselves and refused to move, police burned down their
stalls. </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(26,26,26)">On
July 10 - 12, 2017, during three
days of peaceful protest for an increase in the minimum
wage, Haitian police
attacked the workers from the industrial park in
Port-au-Prince with tear gas,
batons and cannons shooting a liquid skin irritant. They
beat a woman who had
recently returned to work from giving birth. A few days
later, a young book
vendor was shot to death in Petionville, on the outskirts of
Port-au-Prince, by
a police officer in front of horrified witnesses, who tried
to prevent the
police from quickly removing the body and covering up the
crime.<span> </span>They were attacked with batons and tear
gas. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">There
has been a 35 cents
increase in the price of gasoline – which was already higher
than what we pay
here in the United States. The government has also announced
plans to reduce
government subsidies for oil and gas, which will send the
price even higher.
The rise in the cost of transportation combined with a hike
in the price of
food has made already untenable living conditions even worse
for the vast
majority of Haitians. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">Former
president Michel
Martelly came to power in 2011 touting his plan to build new
schools and make
education free for all. Instead, investment in public
education has
remained stagnant while tuition for private schooling has
skyrocketed. Teachers
have been on strike for months, demanding that they be paid
after not receiving
their salaries for up to two years. This despite the fact
the Haitian
government adds a surcharge to every international phone
call and money
transfer, supposedly to fund education.</span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:red"> </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">Students
have also protested, both in support of their teachers and
to denounce the failure of the government to invest in their
education. They too
have been met with violent repression, exemplified by a
recent incident when
the rector of the National University of Haiti used his SUV
to run over a
student protester, landing the student in the hospital in
critical condition.
A video captured the gruesome sequence. No charges have been
filed in the
case. </span><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">The
Haitian government has
a solution for the crisis in education – more prisons. There
are now more than
10,000 Haitians locked up in prison, the majority of whom
have never been
charged or sentenced. Prisoners are frequently beaten,
receive no health
care, and live in overcrowded cells, where epidemics spread
rapidly. When
United Nations soldiers from Nepal introduced cholera to
Haiti in 2010, the
disease swept through Haiti’s prisons, killing hundreds. At
the recent opening
of a new prison in Haiti’s central plateau, the head of
Haiti’s national
police, Michel-Ange Gedeon, boasted about the increase in
prison construction,
saying: “In every society, whenever schools fail in their
mission,
prisons are built in a cascade to try to right the ship. If
offenders are
to be neutralized, then prisons are needed to contain them.”
This is
Haiti’s version of mass incarceration, so well known to
Black and Brown
communities here in the U.S.</span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">Now
there are new political
prisoners – many of them associated with the <i>Lavalas</i>
movement – who were
arrested during the sustained wave of protests over the
stolen elections.
As living conditions worsen and protests sharpen, the
prisons will fill
even more. </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">All
of this, added to the
impact of Hurricane Matthew (the biggest storm to hit Haiti
in 50 years) has
led more Haitians to flee the country.<span> </span>In
early July, the Coast Guard intercepted and sent back to
Haiti 107
Haitians in a small, dangerously overcrowded boat south of
the Bahamas. There
are over 4,000 Haitians right now in Tijuana, living in
refugee camps.
Recruited by occupying forces of Brazil to work in the Rio
Olympics, they were
pushed out after the Games ended.<span>
</span>Hoping for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the
United States, which
has been granted to Haitians since the 2010 earthquake, they
instead have been
deported or placed in detention camps if they cross the
border.<span> </span>When Haitian president Moise traveled
to the United States and met with Vice President Mike Pence
in June, he refused
to meet with Haitians worried about the changes in their TPS
status, telling
them to “calm down.”<span> </span>In their
joint communiqué, Pence and Moise did not mention the
migration crisis but did
pledge to jointly pursue “an economic reform agenda to
attract investment and
generate growth.<span> </span>Moise’s handshake
with Pence symbolized just how much of a compliant partner
his regime is with
the U.S. government as it seeks even more control over
Haiti’s economy and
future. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">The
United Nations Military
Occupation Forces (MINUSTAH), which has functioned as a
colonial overseer since
the 2004 coup, is set to scale down its operation, but will
remain in Haiti
under its new acronym MINUJUSTH (United Nations Mission For
Justice Support).
MINUJUSTH will consist of 1185 police officers, and will
continue to
train and support the Haitian National Police – the same
police who beat,
tear-gassed and shot pro-democracy protesters during the
last electoral cycle. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">Lieutenant
General Cesar
Lopes Loureiro, the head of the Brazilian forces that have
been in command of
MINUSTAH since the beginning of the occupation, recently
issued a glowing
report on the accomplishments of MINUSTAH. But he was silent
about UN
responsibility for the cholera outbreak, and failed to
mention the numerous
cases of rape and other sexual assaults by UN soldiers. The
UN has still not
compensated the victims of the cholera epidemic, and it has
given impunity to
the many soldiers charged with raping Haitians during the
long occupation.
And there was not one word about the killings by UN
soldiers of people in
pro-Lavalas neighborhoods like Cite Soleil and Bel-Air, or
in the
Port-au-Prince prison. Whether the UN calls its operations
MINUSTAH or
MINJUSTH, the continued presence of its forces, even in the
guise of a reframed
mission, is a clear assault on Haiti’s sovereignty. </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">What
now looms on the
horizon is the resurrection of the Haitian military. This
has been a key goal
of right-wing Haitian forces since President Aristide got
rid of the army in
1995. Jovenel Moise has stated that he wants the army in
place within two
years. The beginnings of that new army have been in the
works for years,
training at military bases in Ecuador.</span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">In a
statement to the Miami
Herald, the president of the Haitian Senate, Yuri Latortue,
who was a central
organizer of the 2004 coup, said, “In Haiti we are used to
having an army.” Referring to the U.S. occupation of Haiti
from 1915-1934, which created the
modern Haitian army, Latortue went on to say, “The Americans
understood that if
we have the police but not an army, we will not get
anywhere.” </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">When
Haitian activists
speak of the Haitian Army, there is a chill in the air.
Before Aristide
disbanded it, 40% of Haiti’s budget went to the military. In
a country with
fewer than two doctors per 10,000 people, there was one
soldier per 1,000
people. The Army has long been Haiti’s central institution
of repression; the
main organizer of coups against elected officials, helping
to enforce the
Duvalier dictatorships and those that followed before the
rise of <i>Lavalas</i>.
It was the Haitian Army that overthrew Aristide in 1991 and
initiated a
reign of terror that took over 5000 lives before Aristide
returned in 1994.
</span><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">The
goal of the 2004 coup,
like the 1991 coup that preceded it, was not only to topple
the Aristide
government, but also to rid the country of the powerful
grassroots movement
that has activated, energized and given voice to Haiti’s
poor. That goal has
not been accomplished. A stolen election cannot hide this
reality. </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">Throughout
her campaign,
Dr. Narcisse, often accompanied by former President
Aristide, was greeted by
tens of thousands of supporters in the poorest communities
of Haiti. A vibrant
<i>Lavalas</i> presence was evident across the country. In
the face of decades of
COINTELPRO-style counterinsurgency, including imprisonment,
the killing and
exile of thousands, attempts to buy off activists and
encourage internal
strife, <i>Lavalas</i> once again showed its significant
base among Haiti’s majority
population. In or out of government, this strength will
serve as a
bulwark against the harsh austerity program already being
put into place by
Moise and his U.S. sponsors. </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">At
the end of her speech in
Oakland, Dr. Narcisse highlighted the grassroots work of the
Aristide
Foundation for Democracy. In the midst of the cholera
epidemic, mobile health
clinics from the Foundation treated patients who had nowhere
else to go.
After the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew,
President Aristide and
<i>Lavalas</i> activists went to Les Cayes, Jeremie and
other hard-hit areas to
provide medical support, food and clothing. On Haitian
Mother’s Day, hundreds
of women filled the Foundation to get medical care for
themselves and their
children. <span> </span>Other clinics took place
in mid-July, including on President Aristide’s birthday on
July 15<sup>th</sup>.
<a
name="m_-3228343291620944387_m_7640733781778883820_m_-6089070354906053693__GoBack"
moz-do-not-send="true"></a>And the University of the
Aristide Foundation (UNIFA)
continues to grow, providing higher education for over 1,200
students, most of
whom could never afford other universities in Haiti. </span><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Calibri;color:black">This
is a movement that is
not going away. As <i>Lavalas</i> digs in for the long
haul, those in solidarity with
Haiti have to do so as well. <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">-------------</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Haiti Action Committee</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">www.haitisolidarity.net</a>
<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">@HaitiActionCommittee <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">@HaitiAction1</p>
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