<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-taxonomy">
<a id="gmail-label"
href="https://blackagendareport.com/haiti-20-years-after-coup"
rel="bookmark" moz-do-not-send="true"><span><b><font size="4">Haiti:
20 Years After the Coup</font></b></span></a></div>
<div class="gmail-taxonomy"><a id="gmail-label"
href="https://blackagendareport.com/haiti-20-years-after-coup"
rel="bookmark" moz-do-not-send="true"><span><b><font size="4"><br>
</font></b></span>
</a>
</div>
<div class="gmail-author gmail-clearfix">
<div class="gmail-author-container">
<div class="gmail-author-details">
<span><a
href="https://blackagendareport.com/author/Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Columnist"
moz-do-not-send="true">Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and
Columnist</a></span>
</div>
<div class="gmail-authored-date">
28 Feb 2024
</div>
<div class="gmail-translated-by">
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-share-icons">
<a class="gmail-facebook"
href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://blackagendareport.com/haiti-20-years-after-coup"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
moz-do-not-send="true">
</a><a class="gmail-twitter"
href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Haiti: 20 Years After the Coup&url=http://blackagendareport.com/haiti-20-years-after-coup"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
moz-do-not-send="true"> </a>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div
class="gmail-field gmail-field--name-field-cover-image gmail-field--type-image gmail-field--label-hidden gmail-field--item"><a
href="https://blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/2024-02/JEMIMA%20HAITI%20ARTICLE.png"
title="Army in Haiti"
class="gmail-colorbox gmail-cboxElement"
moz-do-not-send="true"><img
src="https://blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/2024-02/JEMIMA%20HAITI%20ARTICLE.png"
alt="Army in Haiti" class="gmail-img-responsive"
style="margin-right: 0px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="408" height="193">
</a>
</div>
<div
class="gmail-field gmail-field--name-body gmail-field--type-text-with-summary gmail-field--label-hidden gmail-field--item">
<p><em><em>Jemima Pierre’s presentation at a forum to
commemorate the US-France-Canada-sponsored 2004 coup
d’état in Haiti. The forum was hosted by the Center for
Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto on
February 26, 2024.</em></em></p>
<p>My comments today focus on the general refusal to
acknowledge that since 2004, Haiti has been under a foreign
occupation initiated by a U.S./France/Canada-led coup
d’état, and adopted and managed by the machinery of the
United Nations. The simple facts of both the coup and the
violence of the international legal mechanisms used against
Haiti and its people have been shamefully ignored. What
enables the refusal to acknowledge the occupation of Haiti?
I demonstrate that it is both how the occupation was
established, and how it is administered that obscures the
occupation’s existence. I also argue that the 2004 coup
d’état – planned and enabled by the United States, France,
and Canada – has been one of the most consequential events
in Haiti’s history. It is singular in its significance, not
only for the history of Haiti, but also in how it signifies
a key victory for U.S. and western imperialism. In the
global struggle for decolonization, we ignore Haiti’s plight
at our peril.</p>
<p>I want to memorialize the 2004 coup d’état by presenting a
partial timeline of its history. I hope my reconstruction
of this timeline can serve to freeze, if only for a moment,
Haiti’s history in place, allowing us to assess and
understand Haiti’s complex, volatile, and changing status in
the context of a swirling set of international neocolonial
and imperial forces. I wish to also demonstrate how
consistent the imperial assault on Haitian people and
Haitian sovereignty has been, and still remains. </p>
<p><strong><em>A partial timeline. An Archive*</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>January 31–February 1, 2003</strong></p>
<p>It is dubbed the “Ottawa Initiative on Haiti,” and the
objective is to decide the future of Haiti’s governance. The
liberal Canadian administration of Jean Chretien organizes a
two-day conference at Meech Lake (a government resort near
Ottawa). The conference is attended by Denis Paradis,
Secretary of State of Canada for Latin America, Africa, and
La Francophonie; representatives of the OAS; members from
the European Economic Commission (EEC); French Minister for
Cooperation, Pierre-Andre Wiltzer; two high-ranking
officials sent by US Secretary of State Colin Powell; and
Maria Da Silva from El Salvador.</p>
<p>No Haitian government officials are invited.</p>
<p><strong>March 15, 2003</strong></p>
<p>Journalist Michel Vastel publishes one of the only reports
on the “<a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/31/remembering-the-overthrow-of-haitis-jean-bertrand-aristide/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Ottawa Initiative on Haiti<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>”
in <em>l’Actualite,</em> a magazine in Quebec. Vastel
writes that the real goal of the meeting was to plan for
regime change; the discussions included “the possibility of
Aristide’s departure, the need for a potential trusteeship
over Haiti”</p>
<p><strong><strong>April 7, 2003</strong></strong></p>
<p>On the bicentennial anniversary of the death of Toussaint
Louverture, Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide
announces he will ask France to pay back the “independence
indemnity.” (The indemnity is the payment of one hundred
fifty million gold francs that France demanded from Haiti in
1825, under the threat of military invasion). Aristide
states that the indemnity of ninety million gold francs
(adjusting for inflation and interest) is equivalent to
today’s $21,685,135,571.48. He declares that France
“extorted this money from Haiti by force and . . . should
give it back to us so that we can build primary schools,
primary healthcare, water systems and roads.”</p>
<p>In response to Aristide’s call for reparations, French
President, Jacques Chirac, in the summer of 2003, responded
with a threat:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Before bringing up claims of this nature… authorities of
Haiti the need to be very vigilant about…the nature of
their actions and their regime (Hallward 2004)</h5>
</blockquote>
<p> <strong><strong>14 November 2003</strong></strong></p>
<p><a
href="https://canada-haiti.ca/content/wikileaked-cables-reveal-obsessive-far-reaching-us-campaign-get-aristide-out-haiti-and-kee-0"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Secret cable:<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> the
Vatican’s Caribbean Affairs Office Director Giorgio Lingua,
approaches U.S. embassy officials to ask for further
international pressure on Haiti. Lingua states that the
problem is “the presence – in fact the omnipresence – of
Aristide.”</p>
<p><strong><strong>January 1, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>People in Haiti as well as Haitians worldwide celebrate the
two hundredth anniversary of the country’s revolutionary
founding. <span>South African President Thabo Mbeki and his
foreign minister, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, are among the
guests of honor at the country's Bicentennial
celebrations. In his <a
href="https://dirco1.azurewebsites.net/docs/speeches/2004/mbek0102.htm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">speech<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> to
the crowd, Mbeki says: </span></p>
<blockquote>
<h5><span>We celebrate the heroic deeds of these Africans
who single-mindedly struggled for their freedom and
inspired many of us to understand that none but
ourselves can defeat those who subject us to tyranny,
oppression and exploitation. We celebrate the Haitian
Revolution because it dealt a deadly blow to the slave
traders who had scoured the coasts of West and East
Africa for slaves and ruined the lives of millions of
Africans.</span></h5>
</blockquote>
<p>It must be noted that no other African or Caribbean head of
state attended the celebrations.</p>
<p><strong><strong>Late January – Early February 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>There are protests of several groups against President
Aristide. The protests are widely covered by the Western
media. There are also numerous and much larger rallies (and
counter-rallies) by supporters of the Aristide government,
with the largest one occurring on February 7, 2004 (Farmer
2004; Hallward 2007; Podur 2012; Sprague 2012). The Western
media barely mention the rallies in support of the
government.</p>
<p>During Aristide’s first and second terms, the government
created enemies both to the left and to the right of the
political spectrum. Leftist groups “condemned the Fanmi
Lavalas [the political party founded by Aristide] for its
cooperation with structural adjustment and accused it of
becoming ‘anti-populaire” (Hallward 2004). At the same
time, Fanmi Lavalas has always been—and remains—the largest
and most popular political voting bloc in the country
(Hallward 2007; Sprague 2012).</p>
<p>The major forces on the political right are the traditional
Haitian elite (businesspeople and intellectuals) and the
various institutions of the US government, particularly the
international non-governmental institutions (NGOs) it
supports through funding agencies such as the US Agency for
International Development (USAID).</p>
<p>A fifteen-party anti-Aristide coalition was formed. Known
as “<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/387/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Convergence<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>” it
includes almost every faction of the Haitian dominant class.
Despite anemic support from the voting, they were able to
converge around three million dollars-a-year in funding in
from the International Republican Institute, a Republican
party backed arm of the National Endowment for Democracy.</p>
<p>Haitian American political scientist Robert Fatton explains
that “among the Haitian elite, hatred for Aristide was
absolutely incredible, an obsession” (Hallward 2004). Thus,
it was members of this right wing “convergence” that had
funded, over the ten years of Aristide’s tenure as
president, a growing armed resistance.</p>
<p>One of the leaders of this armed resistance was Guy
Philippe, a former member of the Haitian military who was
incorporated into the new National Police Force when
Aristide dissolved the military in 1995. Phillip later moved
to the Dominican Republic, where he gathered ammunition to
stage attacks on the Aristide government. This group was
initially trained by agents in the Dominican Republic and
later by US special forces. And, between 2001 and February
2004, the paramilitary group had been staging incursions
into the countryside – rural towns ill-equipped to deal with
armed invasions. By the late 2003m their attacks had
intensified. Some analysts claim that this was possible
because of the foreign infusion of cash and military-grade
arms (Sprague 2012).</p>
<p><strong><strong>February 22, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>A BBC headline <a
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/%203511829.stm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">reads<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> “Haiti
rebels capture key city,” with a report that around two
hundred fighters entered the port city of Cap Haitian,
seized control of the airport, attacked, looted, and set
fire to four police stations, and set free hundreds of
prisoners.</p>
<p><strong><strong>February 23, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>Fifty US Marines land in Haiti, purportedly to protect US
interests, property, and the lives of its citizens.18 Around
the same time, there are news reports of the United States,
France, and Canada asking democratically elected President
Aristide to step down.</p>
<p><strong><strong>February 25, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>French Foreign Affairs Minister, Dominique Villepin, sends
a formal <a
href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/516107?ln=en"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">statement<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> to
other members of the UN Security Council asking the UN to
prepare for regime change in Haiti through two things: 1)
“The immediate establishment of a civilian peacekeeping
force. This international force would be responsible for
guaranteeing the return to public order;” 2) preparing a
presidential election in Haiti by establishing an electoral
commission and organizing international observer missions.”</p>
<p><strong><strong>February 26, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>As the threat looms of an armed attack on Haiti’s
government by the small band of US-sponsored Haitian
paramilitary soldiers (led by Guy Philippe), CARICOM (the
organization representing the fifteen-nation Caribbean
community) appeals to the United Nations Security Council
for the help of international peacekeeping forces to protect
the Haitian presidency—and Haitian sovereignty. France, a
permanent member of the Security Council, flatly rejects
this call.</p>
<p>On that same day, the Guardian (UK) newspaper runs a <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/feb/27/sibyllabrodzinsky1"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">celebratory article<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> on
Guy Philippe entitled, “A Family Man and a Fan of [G. W.]
Bush” and describes him as having received instruction from
French troops and the US secret service at a military school
in Ecuador.</p>
<p><strong><strong>February 27, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>CARICOM quietly negotiates with some friendly nations to
provide arms, ammunition, and riot control gear for the
underequipped Haitian National Police to protect President
Aristide.20 (Of note: One of Aristide’s first moves when he
returned in 1994 was to disband Haiti’s army and to
establish a civilian police force.21) The Republic of South
Africa, whose President Thabo Mbeki had just attended
Haiti’s bicentennial celebrations, <a
href="https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/haiti/weapons.htm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">agrees to send<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> one
hundred fifty R1 rifles, five thousand bullets, two hundred
smoke grenades, and two hundred bullet-proof vests to
re-supply Haiti’s embattled police.</p>
<p><strong><strong>February 28, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>The George W. Bush Administration issues a <a
href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/wha/rls/30043.htm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">statement<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> from
the White House on Haiti that reads in part:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>This long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide’s
making. . . His own actions have called into question his
fitness to continue to govern Haiti.</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><strong>February 28–29, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>In the early morning hours of February 29, 2004, US Deputy
ambassador to Haiti, Luis Moreno, accompanied by 12 heavily
armed US commandos come to the home of President Jean
Bertrand Aristide (in the Tabarre neighborhood of
Port-au-Prince) and order the democratically elected Haitian
president and his family into a car for a ride to the
Toussaint Louverture International Airport. The Aristide
family and a close aide are directed onto an unmarked US
jet, and President Aristide is flown out of Haiti and away
from power. (This would be two hundred years and twenty-six
days after the defiant founding of the Republic of Haiti.)</p>
<p>At the very moment that Aristide is taken out of the
country by US Marines, a Haiti-bound Boeing 747 filled with
South African <a
href="https://blackcommentator.com/105/105_pina.html"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">military equipment<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> refuels
on a tarmac in Kingston, Jamaica, less than three hundred
miles away.</p>
<p>That same early morning, after the Aristides are escorted
to the airport, Haiti’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface
Alexandre is picked up by US ambassador to Haiti, James
Foley, and driven to the Haitian Prime Minister’s house in
preparation for his ascension to power. Haiti’s Prime
Minister, Yvon Neptune, would later report, however, that he
did not have a say—nor did he participate, as dictated by <a
href="https://canada-haiti.ca/content/haitis-coup-and-constitution"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Haitian law<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>—in the
swearing in of Haiti’s US-installed new interim president.</p>
<p>By this time, <a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/21/the-military-occupation-of-haiti/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">2000<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> US,
French, and Canadian soldiers were already on the ground in
Haiti.</p>
<p><strong><strong>February 29, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>CARICOM chairperson and Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J.
Patterson, releases a <a
href="https://jis.gov.jm/speeches/statement-by-prime-minister-of-jamaica-and-chairman-of-caricom-on-the-haitian-crisis/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">statement<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>The removal of President Aristide in these circumstances
sets a dangerous precedent for democratically elected
governments anywhere and everywhere, as it promotes the
removal of duly elected persons from office by the power
of rebel forces. . .</h5>
</blockquote>
<p>In the meantime, at the behest of permanent members the
United States and France, the UN Security Council suspends
its normal 24-hour pre-vote consultation and pushed through
passes a resolution that authorizes “the immediate
deployment of Multinational Interim Force for a period of
three months to help to secure and stabilize the capital,
Port-au-Prince, and elsewhere in the country” (Hallward
2004).</p>
<p>UN 1529 (2004), is under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Unlike a Chapter VI resolution, which refers to peacekeeping
missions where the parties in conflict give their consent to
the presence of foreign forces, a Chapter VII resolution
demands no such consent. (It must be noted that Haiti is the
only place in the world that was not embroiled by civil war
that received a Chapter VII deployment, where UN forces are
allowed to use military force to “pacify” the population).
The UN Security Council resolution also officially
recognizes the swearing-in of Haiti’s Head of Supreme Court,
Boniface Alexandre, as acting President of Haiti. </p>
<p>Alexandre’s first act as interim President is to submit an
official request to the United Nations Security Council to
send multinational military forces to restore law and order
in the country. Unlike the earlier request by CARICOM for
the United Nations to send support for Aristide, Alexandre’s
request is immediately approved by the Security Council.</p>
<p>The Bush administration, through Donald Rumsfeld, initiates
“<a
href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/haiti04.htm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Operation Secure Tomorrow<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,”
a force of about one thousand extra US Marines that arrive
in Haiti within the day. Canadian, French, and Chilean
troops are expected to arrive the next morning.</p>
<p>CARICOM formally <a
href="https://archive.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/haiti/2004/0315consultation.htm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">protests<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> to the
UN and the United States about the conditions under which
Aristide left office, while expressing concern about “the
arrival of approximately 1,000 US soldiers in Haiti just a
few hours after the leader’s departure.”</p>
<p><strong><strong>March 1, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>President Aristide and family descend from the US military
plane in Bangui, the capital of the Central African
Republic. They had spent countless hours on the plane. From
Haiti, the unmarked (except for a US flag insignia) plane
had landed on the island of Antigua and remained on the
tarmac for hours. During this time, Antiguan government
officials were not made aware of the plane’s passengers, and
the Aristides were not allowed to move from their seats on
the plane or raise the window blinds (Farmer 2004).</p>
<p><strong><strong>March 1, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>It’s early morning in Washington, D.C. I wake up and turn
on the radio to local Pacifica Radio affiliate station,
WPFW, 89.3 FM. The news show, <em><em>Democracy Now!</em></em>,
has just come on with an “<a
href="https://www.democracynow.org/2004/3/1/exclusive_breaking_news_br_president_aristide"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Exclusive Breaking News<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>”
report: US Congresswoman and chairperson of the
Congressional Black Caucus, Maxine Waters, is speaking live.
She says that she has just finished speaking to President
Aristide by phone:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>He’s anxious for me to get the message out so people
will understand. He is in the Central Republic of Africa
at a place called the Palace of the Renaissance, and he’s
not sure if that’s a house or a hotel or what it is, and
he is surrounded by military. It’s like in jail, he said.
He said that he was kidnapped; he said that he was forced
to leave Haiti. He said that the American Embassy sent the
diplomats and they ordered him to leave…But one thing that
was very clear and he said it over and over again, that he
was kidnapped, that the coup was completed by the
Americans that they forced him out. . .</h5>
</blockquote>
<p>Later in its full broadcast, <em><em>Democracy Now!</em></em>’s
Amy Goodman speaks live to Randall Robinson, African
American lawyer, activist, and founder of the prominent
TransAfrica Forum.</p>
<p>Robinson also relays his recent conversation with President
Aristide:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>The president called me on a cell phone that was slipped
to him by someone—he has no land line out to the world and
no number at which he can be reached…The president asked
me to tell the world that it is a coup, that they have
been kidnapped. That they have been abducted. He did not
resign.</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><strong>March 4, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>The Jamaica Observer <a
href="https://archive.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/186-haiti/34351.html"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">reports<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> an
Associated Press story, “CARICOM calls for UN probe of
Aristide’s ouster”:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>Caribbean leaders yesterday called for a United
Nations-led investigation into Sunday’s ouster of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the Haitian presidency…CARICOM
. . . felt betrayed by the United States, France and
Canada . . . [and] were further angered that these
countries refused to support a UN-peacekeeping force for
Haiti after the rebels took over several towns and cities,
but yet pushed through the authorizing resolution at the
Security Council only hours after Aristide’s departure.</h5>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><strong>March 5, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>In addition to the US troops, around 2000, a new contingent
of <a
href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/haiti04.htm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">foreign troops<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> arrives
in Haiti. There are five hundred French troops, one hundred
sixty Chilean troops, one hundred Canadian troops, and
“assorted other<strong> </strong>nationals.”</p>
<p><strong><strong>March 9, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>Breaking with the Haitian constitution, the so-called
International Community—that is, the United States, France,
and Canada—sets up a “<a
href="https://www.wral.com/story/haiti-fast-facts/17004096/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Council of Sages<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>,”
made up to choose a new prime minister. Gerard Latortue, a
UN bureaucrat, and business consultant who had been living
in the United States the past thirty years (and was still
living in the United States at the time), was selected as
prime minister and appointed head of the new Haitian
government.</p>
<p><strong><strong>March 12, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>Gerard Latortue is sworn in as Haiti’s provisional prime
minister. Latortue’s administration is immediately
recognized by the United Nations, the United States, Canada,
and the European Union.</p>
<p>Several governments—Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis,
Venezuela, and Cuba—as well as the African Union do not
recognize his administration. Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez <a
href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/04/heartache-haiti/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">declares<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<h5>My government does not recognize the one government
placed by the United States in Haiti and we call on the
other countries of the continent, as the Caribbean
Community and Common Market (CARICOM) has already done, to
pronounce this.</h5>
</blockquote>
<p>It is important to note that one of Latortue’s early acts
in office is to <a
href="https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/haiti/reparations.htm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">drop the reparations claim<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> made
by the Aristide government for the $21 billion restitution
from France. Latortue described Aristide’s call for economic
reparations as “foolish” and “illegal” (Robinson 2007, 254).</p>
<p><strong><strong>April 30, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>After receiving a report by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
that the situation in Haiti is a “threat to international
peace and security in the region,” the United Nations
Security Council passes and unanimously adopts Resolution
1542.53 This resolution establishes the United Nations
Stabilization Force in Haiti (<a
href="https://www.blackagendareport.com/content/fools-and-sycophants-haiti%E2%80%99s-presidential-selection?page=1"
moz-do-not-send="true">MINUSTAH</a> is the acronym of the
French translation).</p>
<p>The military component is said to be responsible for
maintaining the mission’s primary mandate of “enforcing
security in Haiti.” The civilian leadership of MINUSTAH is
made up of a team of three “counsels” of the UN
Secretary-General: men from Guatemala, the United States,
and Canada. (At the same time, the resolution also
establishes a “Core Group” that includes leaders of mission
as well as “international financial institutions and other
major stakeholders, in order to facilitate the
implementation of MINUSTAH’s mandate.”</p>
<p>The Core Group would ultimately consist of representatives
from the United States, France, Canada, Brazil, the European
Union, and the OAS.). The Security Council decides to send
an 8,300- strong UN Stabilization Force from June 1, 2004.</p>
<p>The military component has 6,700 troops from 167 countries
including Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Jordan, France, South
Korea, and the United States and police from forty-one
countries including Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt,
Russia, and Spain. The government of Brazilian President
Lula Ingacio da Silva provides the military leadership of
these troops.</p>
<p>MINUSTAH will not be subject to Haitian laws.</p>
<p><strong><strong>June 1, 2004</strong></strong></p>
<p>MINUSTAH begins its official mandate in Haiti. It is the
first security mission in the region to be led by Brazilian
and Chilean militaries, and almost entirely composed of
Latin American forces, particularly from Brazil, Argentina,
Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Uruguay.</p>
<p><strong><strong>August 2, 2006</strong></strong></p>
<p>A <a
href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06PORTAUPRINCE1407_a.html"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">secret cable<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> to
Washington, sent by US Ambassador to Haiti Janet A.
Sanderson reports on a high-level meeting of top US and UN
officials in Haiti that occurred on July 25th. Under the
heading, “Aristide Movement Must Be Stopped,” Sanderson
relays that Guatemalan Edmond Mulet, UN Joint Secretary
General for MINUSTAH, “urges US legal action against
Aristide to prevent the former president from gaining more
traction with the Haitian population and returning to
Haiti.”</p>
<p>Kim Ives and Anzel Herz (2011), in their “<a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/wikileaks-haiti-aristide-files/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Wikileaks and Haiti<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>”
series for the Nation magazine, report that, “at Mulet’s
request, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges South
Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki ‘to ensure that Aristide
remains in South Africa.”</p>
<p><strong><strong>November 2007</strong></strong></p>
<p>One hundred fourteen members of the 950-member Sri Lanka
contingent in MINUSTAH are accused of <a
href="https://infotel.ca/newsitem/cb-un-peacekeepers-child-sex-ring/cp131761702"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">sexual misconduct and abuse of
Haitian women and girls<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>. Not
one of these soldiers is charged with a crime.</p>
<p><strong><strong>January 12, 2010</strong></strong></p>
<p><a href="https://thepublicarchive.com/?p=5305"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">4:53:09 PM, local time in Haiti<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>.
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hits. Its epicenter is near the
town of Leogane, sixteen miles west of Port-au-Prince. The
southern cities and towns crumble. An estimated three
hundred thousand people perish. A million and a half are
left homeless.</p>
<p><strong><strong>November 28, 2010</strong></strong></p>
<p>The first round of presidential election in Haiti takes
place. The timing of the elections was difficult. The
earthquake posed many challenges, the most serious of which
are the millions of people who are displaced and
disenfranchised. The United States, France, and Canada,
however, insist that the Haitian government hold elections
and provide $29 million in logistical support. When
elections are set, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP),
Haiti’s electoral authority, bans “Fanmi Lavalas,” the
political party founded out of the social movement that
elected Aristide, and the largest and most popular party in
the country.</p>
<p>Michel Martelly, the entertainer turned presidential
contender under the new political party, PHTK, comes in
third place, but not into the decisive second round.</p>
<p>A study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research <a
href="https://cepr.net/report/haitis-fatally-flawed-election/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">demonstrated<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> that,
out of all registered voters, 71% did not vote, and the
ultimate runoff candidates received less than 11% of the
votes combined.</p>
<p>In between the first- and second-round elections of
2010–11, <a
href="https://cepr.net/clinton-e-mails-point-to-us-intervention-in-2010-haiti-elections/"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">Hillary Clinton travels<span
class="gmail-0"><span class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> from
the Middle East (at the height of the Arab Spring) to Haiti
to demand the removal of Jude Celestin from second place so
that the second round would be a contest between the United
States’ preferred candidates Martelly and Mirlande Manigat.
Despite protests from the Haitian government, members of the
electoral council, and Haitian activists, the Obama
administration insisted. Martelly was placed on the ballot
for the runoff of the presidential elections.</p>
<p><strong><strong>March 20, 2011</strong></strong></p>
<p>The second round of the presidential elections occurs. Half
of the members of the provisional electoral council refuse
to ratify the results of the first round. Less than 23% of
Haiti’s registered voters had their vote counted in either
of the two presidential rounds. It is the lowest electoral
participation rate in the hemisphere since 1945, according
to the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy
Research.</p>
<p><strong><strong>April 4, 2011</strong></strong></p>
<p>Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly is declared president of
Haiti. He reportedly receives less than 20% of the vote from
the registered 4.5 million registered voters.</p>
<p><strong><strong>JULY 7, 2021</strong></strong></p>
<p>Jovenel Moïse, the installed successor to Michel Martelly
as Haiti’s president, is assassinated.</p>
<p><strong><strong>July 11, 2021</strong></strong></p>
<p>The Core Group issues a <a
href="https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/politics/1655660-core-group-signals-support-for-haitis-designated-pm"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">statement<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> declaring
that Ariel Henry, who had been named but not officially
installed by the time of Moise’s assassination, would assume
the official role of Prime Minister of Haiti.</p>
<p><strong><strong>October 2, 2023</strong></strong></p>
<p>The US manages to get the UNSC to overwhelmingly vote to <a
href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1141802"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">authorize<span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a> a
“non-UN” security mission to Haiti – presumably to take care
of an internal “gang” problem. It must be noted that the US
had been trying for more than 2 years to get an
UN-sanctioned build-up of the military presence in Haiti to
protect the puppet government of the unelected and unpopular
Ariel Henry. Importantly, Resolution 2699, was <em><em>passed</em></em> under
Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, which, like the
resolution that began the occupation in 2004, allows the use
of deadly force against individual states.</p>
<p><strong><strong>Not a Conclusion: 2024 - … </strong></strong></p>
<p>Haiti officially lost its nominal sovereignty in late
February 2004 through the U.S./France/Canada-led coup d’état
and an occupation that has been managed by the machinery of
the United Nations.</p>
<p>The nature of the legitimization of the coup by the UN
(through the deployment of “peacekeeping troops” and via
long-term occupation) allows it both to not be perceived as
a coup and for the foreign occupation to not be understood
as occupation. </p>
<p>Three important points need to be made about the deployment
of the UN “Peacekeeping mission” to Haiti that established
the occupation. First, it was permanent members of the UNSC,
France and the U.S., which played the key role in backing
and aiding the removal of Haiti’s sitting president. The
UNSC, it must be remembered, is the only body with the power
to deploy a multinational “peacekeeping” mission. Second,
the narrative used to justify the coup and occupation was
concocted by France and the U.S. Despite all evidence
pointing to the reality that Aristide was kidnapped, all the
UN security documents and resolutions about Haiti during
this time – and especially about the deployment of UN
military forces – used Aristide’s “resignation” as
justification for intervention. Finally, and perhaps the
most egregious point, the so-called Haitian “interim”
government that the UNSC claimed to have asked for a
stabilization force in 2004, was illegitimate.</p>
<p>In other words, the UN deployment and occupation - based
on a coup d’état sponsored by two states of the UNSC, the
claims that the president resigned, and the illegal swearing
in of an illegitimate head of state – were fraudulent. To
add insult to injury, most of the UN resolutions refer to
securing Haiti’s “sovereignty,” as if this sovereignty could
coexist with foreign political control and military
occupation. This is especially since the UN’s Core Group
continues to be the arbiter of <em><em>colonial</em></em> (not
“neocolonial”), direct rule of Haiti.</p>
<p>But another reason that the current occupation of Haiti is
not deemed an occupation as such, is that while it was
initiated and largely funded by the U.S., France, Canada,
and the United Nations, Haiti’s sovereignty has been
extinguished by a multiracial coalition of Caribbean, Latin
American, and African countries. This may be the most
sinister and effective aspect of the occupation. The current
U.S. goal is to use Kenya and other Caribbean countries in
the effort. How do you hide an occupation? Diversify it! </p>
<p>We must also point to the coordinated work among many US
institutions – the U.S. State Department, the US
intelligence apparatus, and its mammoth “aid” network. For
example, it is no secret that the CIA-front, National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) funded several Haitian “civil
society groups” against the country’s elected president.
There is also he western media which is predisposed to very
certain racist textual and pictorial representations of
Haiti (and of the African continent). A review of more than
200 years of western media coverage of Haiti would reveal
the same language about Haitian as a place of violence,
chaos, savagery, anarchy, etc. </p>
<p>US, France, and Canada’s actions in Haiti over the past
twenty years demonstrate the country’s critical place as a <a
href="https://nacla.org/haiti-empire-laboratory"
class="gmail-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
moz-do-not-send="true">laboratory <span class="gmail-0"><span
class="element-invisible"> </span></span></a>of US
and western imperialism. And US imperialist actions in Haiti
have and continue to fundamentally shape <em><em>internal </em></em>dynamics
- the national terrain of class and color conflict, of
politics and culture, of accommodation and resistance. </p>
<p>The occupation of Haiti that began in 2004, and that
continues, should, as Peter Hallward (2004) argued, be
considered the “most successful exercise of neo-imperial
sabotage.” The US, France, and Canada were able to remove a
democratically elected and popular president, bypass the
country's constitution and, over the past twenty years,
install prime ministers, and presidents, while overseeing
the complete dismantling of the Haitian state. This was all
done with the support, however unwitting, of the world.
Perhaps this is the most shocking aspect of the coup. Today,
most people in the world do not understand that Haiti is
currently under occupation!</p>
<p>The struggle continues.</p>
<p><em><strong>Jemima Pierre is an Editor and Columnist to
Black Agenda Report and a Co-Coordinator for the
Haiti/Americas Team, Black Alliance for Peace.</strong></em></p>
<p><strong><strong>REFERENCES</strong></strong></p>
<p>Dupuy, Alex. 2007. <em><em>The Prophet and Power:
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and
Haiti.</em></em> Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers.</p>
<p>Farmer, Paul. 2004. “Who Removed Aristide? Paul Farmer
Reports from Haiti.” London Review of Books 26(8): 28–31.</p>
<p>Hallward, Peter. 2007. <em><em>Damming the Floods: Haiti
and the Politics of Containment</em></em>. New York:
Verso Books.</p>
<p>Podur, Justin. 2012. <em><em>Haiti’s New Dictatorship: The
Coup, the Earthquake and the UN Occupation</em></em>.
London: Pluto Press.</p>
<p>Robinson, Randall. 2007. <em><em>An Unbroken Agony: Haiti,
from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President.</em></em> New
York: Basic Civitas Books.</p>
<p>Sprague, Jeb. 2012. P<em><em>aramilitarism and the Assault
on Democracy in Haiti</em></em>. New York: Monthly
Review Press.</p>
<p><em><em>*This presentation draws in part from my article,
“Haiti: An Archive of Occupation, 2004 - …” which was
published in the academic journal, </em></em>Transforming
Anthropology<em><em>, Vol. 28, Number 1, pp. 3–23 (2020).</em></em></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>