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<div dir="ltr"><b><font size="4">Haiti: “The Truth Speaks for
Itself”</font></b><br>
<b>by Robert Roth, Haiti Action Committee</b><br>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>On December 16th, 2022, Fanmi Lavalas – the people’s party
of Haiti – released a statement commemorating the 32nd
anniversary of the first democratic election in Haiti’s
history. In that election, the Haitian people chose
Jean-Bertrand Aristide as their president, only to see their
historic victory overturned seven months later as the result
of a bloody U.S.-orchestrated coup d’etat. Drawing on the
lessons of that period, the Lavalas statement connected the
events of 1990-1991 with the crisis facing Haitian society
today:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<i>“The truth speaks for itself: If there had not been a coup
d’etat, today many of the beautiful dreams of the Haitian
people would have already materialized. With justice,
transparency, participation, there would be food for everyone,
housing for everyone, schools for all and health care for
all.”<br>
“32 years after the victory of December 16, 1990, we are
witnessing how the anti-democratic forces have failed. They
have failed because the country has become a hell on earth.
Everywhere is kidnapping, insecurity, misery, hunger,
excessive cost of living, corruption, economic crimes,
political crimes in a hell that is called a country.”</i><br>
<br>
Today, the situation in the country could not be more dire. The
unelected and illegitimate <i>de</i> <i>facto</i> prime
minister Ariel Henry remains in power despite continuous mass
protests demanding his ouster. Henry was hand-picked by the
U.S. and its allies in the so-called Core Group of foreign
occupiers that exercises colonial control over Haiti. Like the
series of U.S.-imposed governments that have infected Haiti
since the 2004 coup against the second Aristide administration,
the Henry government has proven to be a disaster for the Haitian
people. Following the dictates of the IMF and its structural
adjustment policies, the Henry regime <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/14/haiti-sees-more-protests-as-fuel-price-hike-worsens-public-anger"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">removed government
subsidies on fuel prices, resulting in dramatic hikes in the
cost of gas, food and other basic necessities.</a> In
response, Haitians took to the streets by the tens of thousands
in a series of militant and powerful protests. <br>
<br>
With collapsing infrastructure and a defunded health care
system, Haiti is once again confronting a cholera epidemic.
Food insecurity now threatens nearly 5 million people, including
2.4 million children, in a country of 12 million.
Government-supported paramilitary groups continue to terrorize
opposition neighborhoods, with kidnappings at an all time
high. <br>
These crises have their roots in the 2004 coup and the
subsequent imposition of foreign occupation, coordinated through
the United Nations. And yet, without a trace of irony, the same
foreign powers and corrupt rulers responsible for this situation
are now asking Haitians to believe that more intervention and
more elite anti-democratic rule will somehow change all of
this. <br>
<br>
Fearful that the Henry regime is on its last legs, the U.S. and
the U.N. have been lobbying other countries, including Canada,
Mexico and the CARICOM nations, to become the face of yet
another round of military intervention to insure that Haiti’s
popular movement is kept from power. In a sign of things to
come, the Canadian government, which was a key organizer of the
2004 coup d’etat, <a
href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/canada-send-navy-ships-haiti-trudeau-announces-caricom-summit"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">has just sent warships
to patrol off the coast of Haiti</a>. Speaking to a reporter
from NPR, one Haitian activist made clear the anti-intervention
sentiments of so many as he recounted the track record of the UN
occupation that descended on Haiti in the wake of the 2004 coup:
"<a
href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/04/1131254613/haiti-sanctions-foreign-intervention-protests-gangs-cholera"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">All they brought was
kidnappings and rape and cholera," he said. "If the U.N. sends
troops to Haiti, the fighting will get even more intense</a>."<br>
<br>
Trotting out the familiar argument that “gang warfare” is the
root of Haiti’s problem, the U.S. and Canada are also ramping up
funding and training for Haiti’s notorious and corrupt national
police force, <a
href="https://mronline.org/2022/10/20/haitians-intensify-protests-against-foreign-military-intervention-while-us-seeks-authorization-for-international-mission/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">including sending
tactical and armored vehicles</a>. The same militarized
policing that has produced a wave of murders of unarmed Black
people in the United States will continue to be exported to
Haiti to bolster an already brutally repressive police force. <br>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Just this past week, the people of Bele - a Lavalas
stronghold that has been under constant attack for the past
three years - have had to defend themselves against a
paramilitary assault by the G-9 federation headed by Jimmy
Cherizier, otherwise known as Barbecue. According to
eyewitness reports, over 60 people were killed and more than
50 others disappeared. Similar to the Lasalin Massacre in
2018, community residents reported seeing three police armored
personnel carriers shooting residents, burning homes and
transporting G-9 members. All of this was accompanied by a
deafening silence from the Henry regime. These crimes took
place one day after a CARICOM delegation visited Haiti,
promising increased support for the Haitian National Police.
</div>
<br>
<div>As his government teeters on the brink, Ariel Henry has
rolled out his own hand-picked transitional council, which
would supposedly organize elections in 2024. Orchestrated by
the U.S. State Department, this plan keeps in power the same
dictatorship that has created the terror now engulfing Haiti.
In the name of “transition”, it maintains the same system in
place, setting up the foundation for more stolen elections and
the further destruction of civil society. Fanmi Lavalas and
other opposition parties have rejected the phony transition
promoted by the Henry government and its imperial backers,
with Lavalas calling for an authentic popular transition:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<i>“The transition that the Haitian people want cannot take us
from bad to worse. No. The transition that the Haitian people
want is a complete break with this system of corruption to put
an end to this ever-boiling cauldron of misery.” </i><br>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Adding fuel to the fire, the Biden Administration has just
announced <a
href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/21/biden-trump-migration-policy-asylum-00083873"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">a new, draconian
anti-migrant plan</a> to be instituted when Title 42,
Trump’s Covid-19 era vehicle used to block refugees from
seeking asylum, comes to an end on May 11. Biden’s plan would
summarily deport any migrant who comes across the Mexican
border without hearing any claims for asylum. Haitians are a
primary target of the new directive, which Immigrant rights
advocates have condemned as “Trumpism without Trump.” Even a
former Biden White House official, Andrea Flores, denounced
the move, stating that, “<a
href="https://twitter.com/Arosaflores/status/1628125864096370726?cxt=HHwWzMC4sZz2oZgtAAAA"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">the Biden
Administration has resurrected a transit ban that normalizes
the white nationalist belief that asylum seekers from
certain countries are less deserving of humanitarian
protections.</a>” More than 25,000 Haitians have been
deported since Biden took office and those numbers will surely
swell. As the U.S. stokes the flames in Haiti, it will have
the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard standing ready to make
sure that Haitians cannot flee the fire. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Nineteen years after the February 29, 2004 coup that
overthrew democratic and progressive governance in Haiti, the
Haitian popular movement remains powerful and dynamic. As the
people of Haiti deepen their fight to end this oppressive
system, the U.S. is orchestrating a new series of maneuvers to
keep it squarely in place. The crisis is sharpening and the
stakes could not be higher.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>Support the popular movement in Haiti.</b></div>
<b>Demand an end to U.S. funding for the Haitian National Police
and military. <br>
Demand an end to the Biden Administration’s unconscionable
attacks on refugees.</b><br>
<br>
For more information, please visit our website at: <a
href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">www.haitisolidarity.net</a> <br>
and our facebook page at: <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/HaitiActionCommittee/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.facebook.com/HaitiActionCommittee/</a><br>
<br>
Robert Roth is an educator and a co-founder of Haiti Action
Committee<br clear="all">
<br>
<span>-- </span><br>
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<div>Haiti Action Committee</div>
<div>PO Box 2040</div>
<div>Berkeley,CA <span>94702</span></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>
</span></div>
<div><a
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