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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14px"><i>Recently
the New
York Times published an article about the increasing power
of Haitian
gangs. The article was correct in describing how the gangs
operate, and how
they are financed by business and political elites, but it
falls into the Times’s
historical pattern of disparaging Aristide and the <a
href="https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.155.106/65c.874.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/We_Will_Not_Forget_2010.pdf"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">accomplishments
of the Lavalas administrations</a>. Haiti Action
Committee member
Charlie Hinton sent the Times a 173-word condensed version
of the letter
below, but they haven’t published it, so we want to share
the letter with you
in an expanded form:</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14px">To the Editor:
I’m
writing to clarify two misrepresentations about Haiti’s
former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide in your article on the advance of Haitian gangs.<span
style="background-color:white"> The gangs plaguing Haiti
today started to form after the 1986
overthrow of Baby Doc Duvalier, during the 5-year period
of military
dictatorships before Aristide’s presidency began. Known in
Haitian <i>Kreyol</i>
as </span><i>zenglendo</i><span
style="background-color:white">s, they included members of
Duvalier’s <i>tonton macoutes</i> death
squad and the Haitian military. They carried out robberies
and home invasions,
and assassinated democracy activists. Residents formed
neighborhood watch
groups for protection and self defense.</span> These were
not “gangs,” as the <i>Times</i>
article maintains. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14px">On the other
hand,
<span style="color:rgb(54,54,54)">Chérizier’s G9 gangs, per
your article, are supported by
business and political elites, and use rape, murder, and
terror, <i>even burning
people alive,</i> to suppress protests, steal property,
and force people to
vote a certain way. </span>The origin of these gangs was
not under Aristide, and <a
href="https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.155.106/65c.874.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Hidden-from-the-Headlines-2-2016.pdf"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">there
is no evidence of systematic state sponsored violence
during the Aristide years
(see pp. 5-10),</a> unlike today. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14px">The situation
has now become so out of control that gangs control
the major highways running north and south out of
Port-au-Prince and from the
port into the city, forcing Haitians to pay a ransom to move
goods almost
anywhere in the country. <span style="color:rgb(54,54,54)">These
gangs continue to be
allowed to flourish by the administration of Ariel Henry,
who was appointed Prime
Minister by the assassinated president Jovenel Moise and
has zero popular credibility.
He’s maintained in power by the US and the <a
href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/how-canadas-role-in-the-core-group-is-weakening-haitian-democracy"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Core
Group</a> that control Haiti, despite ongoing
demonstrations calling for his removal
that are met with intense repression. At the same time, </span>for
land grabs,<span style="color:rgb(54,54,54)"> Haitians
</span>are being terrorized
to leave poor neighborhoods, creating both an internal and
external refugee
crisis. The fact that the actions of these gangs
historically target the
neighborhoods that support Aristide makes clear their
differentiation from the
Aristide/<i>Lavalas</i> administrations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14px">Second in your
article, Aristide did not “flee” Haiti. He and his wife were
kidnapped in the
dead of night by US military forces, flown on a US military
plane, and dumped
in the Central African Republic. One of the reasons was his
call for France to
repay its $21.7 billion debt to Haiti, which the <i>Times</i>
documents in its
exposé, <i>The Ransom.</i></span><br>
</p>
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<div>Haiti Action Committee</div>
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<div><span>Celebrating 30
years of solidarity with
the anti-colonial
grassroots struggle for
dignity, democracy and
self-determination of
the Haitian people!<br>
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