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<a id="gmail-label" href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/oas-or-ministry-colonies" rel="bookmark"><b><font size="4"><span>The OAS, Or the “Ministry of Colonies”</span></font></b>
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<span><a href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Columnist">Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Columnist</a></span>
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27 Apr 2022
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<div class="gmail-field gmail-field--name-body gmail-field--type-text-with-summary gmail-field--label-hidden gmail-field--item"><p><em>In
the wake of the expulsion of the Organization of the American States
from Nicaragua, we need to revisit one of its major crime scenes: Haiti.</em></p>
<p>On April 24, 2022, Nicaragua’s Sandinista government <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/04/26/nicaragua-formally-withdraws-from-the-oas/" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">officially booted<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
the Organization of American States (OAS) out of their country. Foreign
minister Denis Moncada called the OAS a “deceitful agency of the State
Department of yankee imperialism” and in an official statement, the
Nicaraguans proclaimed that they “will not recognize this Instrument of
Colonial Administration, which does not represent at any time, the
Sovereign Union of Our Latin and Caribbean America, and that…violate[s]
Rights and Independences, sponsoring and promoting interventions and
invasions, [and] legitimizing coups.”</p>
<p>In response to Nicaragua’s break with the OAS, many in the
imperialist west will undoubtedly speak self-righteously about the
Central American republic’s lack of “democracy.” Others, on the left,
will correctly point to the OAS’s long-standing role in undermining
democracy – to the support the organization has given to regime change
in Bolivia, Honduras, and, especially, Venezuela, where the OAS
recognized unelected stooge Juan Guaido as president.</p>
<p>However, to really understand the undemocratic, demagogic, and racist
history of the OAS, we need to return to one of its major crime scenes:
Haiti.</p>
<p>In no small part because of the OAS, Haiti is currently a de facto
colony administered and controlled by foreign, white rulers: the U.S.,
France, Canada, and the European Union. With an outsized involvement in
Haiti’s political bureaucracy, it has had a clear and incontrovertible
role as a tool of western imperialism and white supremacy. A brief
review of the past two decades reveals its meddling in Haiti’s politics
and democratic processes, all to support US interests while undercutting
Haitian self-determination and sovereignty.</p>
<p>In 2010, in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti,
with hundreds of thousands dead or displaced, many counseled against
holding national elections. Yet the US, France, and Canada forced Haiti
to carry on with the vote, pumping $29 million dollars into the country
for logistical support. But, in the run up to the elections, Haiti’s
partisan electoral provisional council (CEP) banned the most powerful
political party - Fanmi Lavalas, founded by former president, Jean
Bertrand Aristide. The first round of the elections was notably flawed
(because of the exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas, voter turnout was low, with
71% of registered voters staying away from the polls). Those displaced
because of the earthquake were disenfranchised. Moreover, of those votes
cast, a high percentage were irregular. Nevertheless, the first round
of elections saw the first place go to conservative candidate Mirlande
Manigat, and second place to Jude Celestin (who was endorsed by sitting
president Rene Preval). US-backed, <a href="https://blackagendareport.com/content/fools-and-sycophants-haiti%E2%80%99s-presidential-selection?page=831#sdendnote10anc" rel="nofollow">neo-Duvalierist</a>
Michel Martelly, of the new PHTK party, came in third place. Members of
the Haitian political and activist community called for the
cancellation of the elections. However, according to <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/wikileaks-haiti-cable-depicts-fraudulent-haiti-election/" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">Wikileaks<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>, the US demanded that Martelly replace Celestin in the run-off despite his third place position.</p>
<p>For this to work, however, the white rulers mobilized the OAS. The
OAS was the first organization to affirm the integrity of the flawed and
dubious election of 2010. It put together an “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKcp6Da52OQ&t=465s" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">Expert Electoral Verification Team,<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>”
composed of seven members, six of which came from three western
countries - US, France, Canada - and one from Jamaica. It must be
remembered that it was these same three western countries that were
behind the 2004 coup d'etat that overthrew Haiti’s democratically
elected president, ushering in the subsequent UN military occupation,
which was ongoing at the time of this presidential selection. These
countries are also key members, along with the OAS and the European
Union, of the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t6RmBawvRCIY9VPYdv1ng_4fdEtor_zZp6njuzbBhlw/edit" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">Core Group<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
(of foreigners) that continues to be Haiti’s colonial master. The OAS
“Verification Team” discarded some votes and changed the results to
ensure that Martelly came in second place, affirming his position on the
run-off ballots, thus ensuring two right wing candidates as finalists
in the election. Haitian officials at first refused to accept the OAS
recommendation. However, the US and other Core Group countries
threatened to withhold post-earthquake relief. To consolidate this
position, Barack Obama’s Secretary of State <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/11/hillary-clinton-and-electoral-coup-haiti" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">Hillary<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/08/24/hait-a24.html" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">Clinton<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>, <a href="https://cepr.net/clinton-e-mails-point-to-us-intervention-in-2010-haiti-elections/" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">flew<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
down to Haiti and threatened Preval with exile if his government did
not change the results of the election to allow Martelly on the run-off
ballot.</p>
<p>This is how Haiti came to be under the corrupt and murderous “Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale” (PHTK) neocolonial government.</p>
<p>The OAS would strike again in the effort to help the white rulers
keep their PHTK puppets in power. This time, it was during the political
and electoral crisis of 2015-2016. As Jake Johnston of the Center for
Economic and Policy Research correctly <a href="https://cepr.net/the-oas-picks-sides-in-haiti-again/" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">stated<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,
“The brazen intervention, backed up by threats of aid cutoffs and visa
sanctions, has inextricably tied the fate of the OAS in Haiti with
Martelly and his political party, Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale (PHTK). The
2015/2016 electoral process did little to dispel those concerns.”</p>
<p>Haiti’s “sham elections,” as they were called, occurred in August and
October of 2015, after massive public protests forced Martelly to
organize legislative, local, and presidential elections. By this time
Martelly was running the country by decree - a move that the OAS and
Haiti’s other rulers supported - after allowing the terms of the
Haitian senate to expire without elections. The result of Martelly’s
actions were to leave Haiti without a functioning government. Despite
extreme low voter turnout, electoral fraud, violence, and the
destruction of ballots, the OAS, along with the UN (and the Core Group),
immediately congratulated the country for its peaceful and
“well-organized” elections. The OAS would later verify the election of
Martelly’s handpicked successor, Jovenel Moïse as he proclaimed victory
in a set of fraudulent elections in 2016.</p>
<p>Moïse’s tenure was marked by nonstop protests, both for corruption
and theft of PetroCaribe funds, and for refusing to step down at the end
of his mandate, which many in Haiti argued was in February 2021. Moïse,
whose rule continued the legacy of PHTK’s corrupt and kleptomaniac
practices, seems to have received the most direct support from the OAS.
His relationship with OAS’s Secretary General, Luis Almagro, helped him
survive his lack of legitimacy. The OAS provided <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article231731618.html" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">cover<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
for Moïse during the PetroCaribe protests, offering to put together an
“OAS-sanctioned commission” to investigate claims of corruption. In
return, Haiti voted against Venezuela’s democratically elected
government of Nicolas Maduro, and in favor of the unelected Juan Guaido.</p>
<p>When the Haitian masses were protesting Moïse’s refusal to step down
at the end of his term, on February 7, 2021, Almagro released a
statement unilaterally determining that Moïse’s term actually was to end
in February 2022. This move went directly against the OAS’s own <a href="https://cepr.net/the-oas-picks-sides-in-haiti-again/" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">charter<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
that declares that the organization does not have the power to
“intervene in matters that are within the internal jurisdiction of the
Member States.” Haitian leaders <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nD3KlJPi0ncJeMRAorHSV7tmfiOp3Yc3/view" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">protested<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,
arguing, “President Moïse cannot determine the duration of his term of
office, in the same way that the Secretary General himself could not
define his own mandate according to his interpretation of the OAS
Charter.” Nevertheless, Moïse stayed in power, ruling by decree, until
he was assassinated in July 2021.</p>
<p>The forced elections in Haiti, in 2010/2011 and 2015/2016, are only
the most recent in active OAS actions to deny the people their human and
political rights.</p>
<p>It must also be remembered that since 2004, Haiti has been under <a href="https://blackagendareport.com/haiti-interventions-and-occupations" rel="nofollow">foreign occupation</a>
that began as full fledged military control and continues through the
political/colonial control of the country by the UN's Core Group. The <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t6RmBawvRCIY9VPYdv1ng_4fdEtor_zZp6njuzbBhlw/edit" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">Core Group<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,
an unelected, self-styled council of foreign western representatives,
“plays an active, interventionist role in Haiti’s everyday political
affairs.” The OAS is an active member of the Core Group.</p>
<p>Going back slightly further in time, Haiti would not be under western
colonial rule by 2004 without the aid of the OAS in 2000, when its
representatives interfered in Haiti’s legislative elections under
President Aristide. Here, after admitting that the May 2000 elections
were, as Yves Engler <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/22/organization-of-american-states-in-bolivia-and-haiti/" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">reported<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,
“a great success for the Haitian population which turn out in large and
orderly numbers to choose both their local and national governments,”
the OAS did an about face and labeled the elections “deeply flawed.” The
reason? Because the US and the other western powers did not like the
election results and their clear affirmation of the popularity of the
Aristide government. The Haitian opposition and the western powers then
used the OAS claims to not only undermine these democratically elected
officials, but to also call into question Aristide’s presidential
mandate. Anxious to dispense with Aristide, the US imposed an economic
embargo on his government, while organizations such as the National
Endowment for Democracy and USAID funded youth and other “opposition”
groups against his government. This led directly to the 2004 coup
d’etat, and the full destruction of Haiti’s sovereignty.</p>
<p>When recounting the history of the OAS’s unending assault on Haitian
democracy and Haitian people, we see clearly an organization that acts
in the service of the US-led white western imperial order. In this
sense, we have to understand that the OAS is but one of the many western
“international” organizations that uphold an unequal racial and
economic order. To the OAS, we can add the UN, the IMF, the ICC, the
WTO, NATO, and others. </p>
<p>Nicaragua’s <a href="https://kawsachunnews.com/nicaragua-expels-the-oas" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">decision<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>
to kick out the OAS should be saluted. The rest of our people in the
region - a region that Joseph Biden arrogantly calls “America’s
backyard” - could only be so lucky. Instead we are stuck with an
organization that Fidel Castro <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-castro-oas-sb-idUKTRE53E07K20090415" rel="nofollow" class="gmail-0" target="_blank">called<span class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> a “Ministry of Colonies,” that “has a history that collects all the trash of 60 years of betrayal of the people.”</p>
<p><strong><em>Jemima Pierre is an editor and columnist for Black Agenda
Report, the Haiti/Americas Team Co-Coordinator for the Black Alliance
for Peace, and a Black Studies and anthropology professor at UCLA.</em></strong></p>
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