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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/protests-in-haiti-like-frances-yellow-vests-threaten-oligarchic-structure/255009/">https://www.mintpressnews.com/protests-in-haiti-like-frances-yellow-vests-threaten-oligarchic-structure/255009/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Protests in Haiti, Like France’s Yellow
Vests, Threaten Oligarchic Structure</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">by Whitney Webb - February
12, 2019<br>
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<p><b><span>P</span>ORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI –</b><span>
Throughout recent Latin American history, it is hard
to find a country that has been as thoroughly
manipulated and plundered by the United States as
Haiti has. After over a century of U.S. intervention —
from the </span><a
href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/haiti-us-occupation-hundred-year-anniversary"
target="_blank"><span>19-year-long U.S. military
occupation</span></a><span> that began in 1915 to
the 2010 election </span><a
href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/clinton-e-mails-point-to-us-intervention-in-2010-haiti-elections"
target="_blank"><span>rigged by</span></a><span> the
Hillary Clinton-run State Department — Haiti has
become the ultimate neoliberal experiment that has
forced its people to live in conditions so horrible
that rivers of sewage often run through the city
streets. </span></p>
<p><span>Even Haiti’s own president, Jovenel Moise — who
has presided over the most recent phase of U.S.-backed
plunder — recently called the entire country a
“latrine.”</span></p>
<p><span>Yet — much as in </span><span>1791, when </span><span>Haiti
was the site of the first successful slave revolt in
the Americas — today the people of Haiti seem to have
finally had enough of being slaves in all but name and
are taking to the streets en masse in an effort to end
the rule of the Haitian Bald-Headed Party (PHTK), the
U.S.-backed political party with close ties to the
Clintons.</span></p>
<p><span>For</span><a
href="https://www.dw.com/en/haiti-thousands-protest-against-corruption/a-47421473"
target="_blank"> <span>six days</span></a><span>,
thousands of Haitians have marched through the
country’s capital of Port-au-Prince and other major
cities, calling for Moise’s ouster for corruption and
gross economic mismanagement in recent years, much of
which can be traced directly back to the 2010
earthquake and the subsequent U.S.-UN “relief” effort
that let to </span><a
href="https://blackagendareport.com/clinton_haiti_elections"
target="_blank"><span>rigged elections</span></a><span>,
</span><a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/09/world/americas/haiti-un-cholera-lawsuit/"
target="_blank"><span>caused a deadly cholera outbreak</span></a><span>
and </span><a
href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/clinton-foundation-haiti-117368_Page4.html"
target="_blank"><span>sought to turn</span></a><span>
the entire country into </span><a
href="http://www.tanbou.com/2010/HaitiNeoliberalismBarrelGun.htm"
target="_blank"><span>one massive sweatshop</span></a><span>
for American clothing companies. </span></p>
<p><span>More specifically, Moise has ignited popular ire
after being implicated in the embezzlement of a $4
billion loan given to the Haitian government to
develop the country via Venezuela’s PetroCaribe
program and for his failure to combat the double-digit
inflation that has further impoverished the Caribbean
nation.</span></p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1093618778041012224">https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1093618778041012224</a></p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1093615947829567488">https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1093615947829567488</a></p>
<p><span>President Moise has thus far responded to the
protests much like the president of Haiti’s former
colonial ruler, France, where President Emmanuel
Macron has sought to disperse the Yellow Vest popular
protest movement with police violence. Similarly,
Moise has ordered police to shoot tear gas and live
ammunition into crowds of unarmed protesters, killing
at least four people, including</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094373992402567168"
target="_blank"> <span>a 14-year-old boy</span></a><span>
who was not even a part of the protests, and injuring</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094544815054700544"
target="_blank"> <span>scores more</span></a><span>.</span></p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1095032526433792002">https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1095032526433792002</a></p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094979965324414976">https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094979965324414976</a></p>
<p><span>Despite the violent response from the Moise-led
government, protesters have continued to come out in
force, even</span><a
href="https://www.dariennewsonline.com/news/article/Protesters-stone-home-of-Haiti-president-clash-13604313.php"
target="_blank"> <span>stoning</span></a><span>
Moise’s personal home on Saturday. That same day,
Moise declared that he would “</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094370210482536448"
target="_blank"><span>clean the streets</span></a><span>”
of every protester by Monday.</span></p>
<p><span>Yet the mass protests continued through Monday,
when police were seen standing down in Carrefour (a
suburb of Port-au-Prince), no longer willing to fire
on protesters. In</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094975397119184896"
target="_blank"> <span>a video</span></a><span> of
the incident shared on social media, one female
protester yells that “the police are afraid.” Late
Monday afternoon,</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1095041315803299841"
target="_blank"> <span>local reports</span></a><span>
asserted that PHTK ruling elite were evacuated via
helicopter from the wealthy enclave of Petionville to
the Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport,
apparently planning to flee the country — at least
temporarily. Other reports </span><a
href="https://www.postbulletin.com/news/world/haiti-business-leaders-ask-president-to-break-gridlock-after-another/article_0d850754-6c5c-59f9-b6a6-33390525fac7.html"
target="_blank"><span>stated</span></a><span> that at
least one police officer had been shot during Monday
demonstrations that turned violent and saw several
businesses looted.</span></p>
<p><span>Local media on Tuesday</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1095144865246064640"
target="_blank"><span> reported</span></a><span> high
turnout for protests in several cities.</span></p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094975397119184896">https://twitter.com/HaitiInfoProj/status/1094975397119184896</a></p>
<p><span>The international response to the protests in
Haiti has been limited, with the UN warning Haitian
protesters </span><a
href="https://www.postbulletin.com/news/world/haiti-business-leaders-ask-president-to-break-gridlock-after-another/article_0d850754-6c5c-59f9-b6a6-33390525fac7.html"
target="_blank"><span>on Sunday</span></a><span> that
“in a democracy change must come through the ballot
box, and not through violence.” This unintentionally
ironic statement ignores the documented meddling of
the United States in </span><a
href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/clinton-e-mails-point-to-us-intervention-in-2010-haiti-elections"
target="_blank"><span>massaging vote totals</span></a><span>
and </span><a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/former-candidates-moise-j_b_14602702.html"
target="_blank"><span>other manipulative tactics</span></a><span>
in the last two presidential elections. This, combined
with the fact that the U.S. </span><a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2004/03/hait-m01.html"
target="_blank"><span>has kidnapped and overthrown</span></a><span>
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a left-leaning populist
politician, each time he won an election — first in
1991 and then in 2004 — has greatly reduced Haitians’
faith in their “democracy.”</span></p>
<h2><b>The U.S. knows something about election meddling</b></h2>
<p><span>Since he came to power in February 2017, Moise’s
policies have resulted in several mass protests —
including last July, when protesters forced Moise’s
government to </span><a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/haiti-suspends-fuel-price-hike-deadly-protests-180708054947059.html"
target="_blank"><span>abandon</span></a><span> a
planned hike in fuel prices; and last November, when
protesters </span><a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/11/21/hait-n21.html"
target="_blank"><span>demanded</span></a><span>
Moise’s ouster for the embezzlement of PetroCaribe
funds. With so many protests in such a short span of
time, the anger among the Haitian population at this
unpopular president is pungent and will likely prove
difficult to placate this time.</span></p>
<p><span>A large part of Moise’s unpopularity is likely
related to the fact that he was never popularly
elected to begin with. The 2016 election that Moise
allegedly won was disorganized and had turn-out so
dismal that Moise, the “winner,” received only around
600,000 votes out of a national population of over 11
million. Prominent Haitian politicians </span><a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/former-candidates-moise-j_b_14602702.html"
target="_blank"><span>called the election</span></a><span>
an “electoral coup.”</span></p>
<p><span>In addition, that election was</span><a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/former-candidates-moise-j_b_14602702.html"
target="_blank"><span> overseen</span></a><span> by
Ken Merten, former Obama administration ambassador to
Haiti and then Obama’s Haiti Special Coordinator, and
was wracked by accusations of vote-buying and
-stealing and other fraudulent activities. Merten’s
involvement is particularly nefarious given that he
oversaw the previous Haiti election (2010) where the
U.S. State Department had altered the vote count.</span></p>
<p><span>If that were not enough, in addition to the
election fraud, Moise was widely believed to have been
ineligible for office soon after having been
“elected,” after it was </span><a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/former-candidates-moise-j_b_14602702.html"
target="_blank"><span>revealed</span></a><span> that
he had laundered money through his personal bank
account and was tied to a drug-trafficking operation.</span></p>
<p><span>Ultimately, Moise’s unpopular rule is the
continuation of that of his predecessor, Michel
Martelly, who chose Moise — then a political neophyte
— as his successor. Martelly’s rise to power was
similar to Moise’s but even more fraudulent. In the
2010 election that saw Martelly “win,” the Hillary
Clinton-run State Department </span><a
href="http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/clinton-e-mails-point-to-us-intervention-in-2010-haiti-elections"
target="_blank"><span>changed the vote totals</span></a><span>
in order to place Martelly in a runoff election for
which he hadn’t in fact qualified. When the previous
Haitian government resisted, </span><a
href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-hillary-helped-ruin-haiti"
target="_blank"><span>Clinton herself traveled</span></a><span>
to Haiti and threatened to withdraw all U.S. aid from
Haiti if Martelly did not replace the second runoff
candidate, Jude Celestin.</span></p>
<p><span>After coming to power, it took little time for
observers to realize why the U.S., particularly the
Clinton-led State Department, had chosen Martelly. Not
only was Martelly an avid supporter of </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/05/haiti-the-neoliberal-model-imposed-on-the-country-is-failing-its-citizens"
target="_blank"><span>neoliberal policies</span></a><span>
that impoverished his people, he also </span><a
href="http://www.tanbou.com/2010/HaitiNeoliberalismBarrelGun.htm"
target="_blank"><span>supported</span></a><span> the
outright theft of Haitian land by wealthy foreign
corporations to create so-called “Free Trade Zones,”
and </span><a href="https://archive.fo/SNCUW"
target="_blank"><span>brokered a deal</span></a><span>
with the Clintons to release Americans who had been
arrested for child trafficking. </span></p>
<p><span>Furthermore, Martelly also </span><a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/can-haitis-corrupt-president-hold-on-to-power/"
target="_blank"><span>helped squander</span></a><span>
much of the foreign aid that did make it into Haiti,
cementing his reputation as notoriously corrupt,
although most of that aid </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/22/haiti-aid"
target="_blank"><span>never even made</span></a><span>
it to Haiti and instead remained in the hands of
corrupt foreign contractors. </span></p>
<p><span>In addition, Martelly was also a supporter of the
Duvalier family — which ruled Haiti with an iron fist
during the dictatorships of “Papa Doc” Duvalier and
his son “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Indeed, when “Baby Doc”
Duvalier returned from exile in France to attend a
Haitian government ceremony, Martelly — along with
Bill Clinton, who was also in attendance – </span><a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/in-haiti-the-former-dictator-duvalier-thrives/2012/01/13/gIQAaYbM6P_story.html?utm_term=.654cea93e65f"
target="_blank"><span>rose to greet him</span></a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>Martelly’s government included several officials
who were connected to the Duvalier dictatorship,
including his prime minister, </span><a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/in-haiti-the-former-dictator-duvalier-thrives/2012/01/13/gIQAaYbM6P_story.html?utm_term=.654cea93e65f"
target="_blank"><span>Garry Conille,</span></a><span>
whose father held a cabinet position in the Duvalier
dictatorship. In addition, Conille served with Bill
Clinton on the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission and
had previously worked as a development manager for the
United Nations before receiving his prominent position
in the government installed by both the U.S. and the
UN. </span></p>
<p><span>Thus, Haiti under Martelly and Moise has been
little different in practice from the Duvalier era.
Indeed, as Amy Wilentz noted in </span><a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/why-baby-docs-death-doesnt-mark-end-haitis-duvalier-era/"
target="_blank"><span>a 2014 article</span></a><span>
in </span><i><span>The Nation</span></i><span>, “[The
Duvalier] political toolbox — authoritarianism,
trumped up elections, distrust of free speech,
corruption of the forces of order, and no justice —
are the methods by which Haiti’s ruler [Martelly]
still controls the country.” With Moise serving as the
new face of PHTK and Martelly’s chosen successor, this
neo-Duvalier era in Haiti that has largely been
orchestrated by the U.S. is now in danger of falling
apart.</span></p>
<h2><b>Haiti puts the neo-colonial oligarchy on edge</b></h2>
<p><span>If the movement to oust the U.S.-backed and
illegally installed rulers of Haiti is successful, it
could easily send shockwaves through the power
structures of the United States and its client states,
much as the Haitian revolution did to the colonial
powers two centuries ago. Indeed, the Haitian
revolution instilled fear in European colonial masters
throughout the Americas and the world and inspired
countless slave revolts in the United States alone.
Today, it still serves as a reminder that the most
repressed class of a society can rise up to declare
their equality and independence — and win. Perhaps
that is why the current oligarchical system has
invested so much in robbing Haitians of their economic
and political power.</span></p>
<blockquote data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">For decades upon decades, they've
painted <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Haiti?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
target="_blank">#Haiti</a> as a charity case – a
people incapable of governing ourselves. But the truth
is <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Haiti?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
target="_blank">#Haiti</a> is the epicenter of
resistance against colonial / imperial rule, hence the
billions upon billions spent to try and quell the
fire. <a href="https://t.co/SQKMRroGR6"
target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/SQKMRroGR6</a></p>
<p>— Madame Boukman – Justice 4 Haiti</p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Though today is unlike the late 18</span><span>th</span><span>
century in the sense that those at the bottom of the
rung are no longer called “slaves” and those at the
top are no longer called “masters” and “kings,” the
record inequality that now exists throughout the
world, the U.S. included, has recreated in today’s
power structures an ethos eerily similar to that of
the feudal-colonial systems of centuries past.</span></p>
<p><span>As both Haiti and France have become the new
epicenters of popular unrest against predatory elites,
much as they were two centuries ago, it is time to see
both of these current movements as part of the same
struggle for basic human dignity in an era of
neocolonialism, imperialism and global oligarchy.</span></p>
<p>Top Photo | A young Haitian protestor wearing a Petro
Caribe, a Venezuelan state-subsidized oil company,
shirt, walks past a makeshift barricade during recent
anti-government protests in Haiti. Photo | <a
href="http://www.johnsonsabin.com/" target="_blank">Sabin
Johnson</a></p>
<p><em><strong>Whitney Webb</strong> is a staff writer for
MintPress News and has contributed to several other
independent, alternative outlets. Her work has
appeared on sites such as Global Research, the Ron
Paul Institute </em>and<em> 21st Century Wire among
others. She also makes guest appearances to discuss
politics on radio and television. She currently lives
with her family in southern Chile.</em></p>
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