US officials led a far-reaching international campaign aimed at keeping former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exiled in South Africa, rendering him a virtual prisoner there for the last seven years, according to secret US State Department cables.<\/p>\n
The cables show that high-level US and UN officials even discussed a politically motivated prosecution of Aristide to prevent him from \u201cgaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti.\u201d<\/p>\n
The secret cables, made available to the Haitian weekly newspaper Ha\u00efti Libert\u00e9 <\/em>by WikiLeaks, show how the political defeat of Aristide and his Lavalas movement has been the central pillar of US policy toward the Caribbean nation over the last two US administrations, even though\u2014or perhaps because\u2014US officials understood that he was the most popular political figure in Haiti.<\/p>\n They also reveal how US officials and their diplomatic counterparts from France, Canada, the UN and the Vatican tried to vilify and ostracize the Haitian political leader.<\/p>\n For the Vatican, Aristide was an \u201cactive proponent of voodoo.\u201d For Washington, he was \u201cdangerous to Haiti\u2019s democratic consolidation,\u201d according to the secret US cables.<\/p>\n Aristide was overthrown in a bloody February 2004 coup supported by Washington and fomented by right-wing paramilitary forces and the Haitian elite. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 3,000 people were killed and thousands of supporters of Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas political party were jailed.<\/p>\n The United States maintained publicly that Aristide resigned in the face of a ragtag force of former Haitian army soldiers rampaging in Haiti\u2019s north. But Aristide called his escort by a US Navy SEAL team on his flight into exile \u201ca modern-day kidnapping.\u201d<\/p>\n Two months later, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was established, a 9,000-strong UN occupation force that still oversees Latin America\u2019s first independent nation.<\/p>\n Aristide has spoken forcefully against the UN occupation, particularly in his 2010 year-end letter to the Haitian people. \u201cWe cannot forget the $5 billion which has already been spent for MINUSTAH over these past six years,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnybody can see how many houses, hospitals, and schools that wasted money could have built for the victims\u201d of the January 12, 2010, earthquake that destroyed much of Port-au-Prince and surrounding regions.<\/p>\n Such positions are major reasons Washington fought to get and keep Aristide out of Haiti, the cables make clear. \u201cA premature departure of MINUSTAH would leave the [Haitian] government…vulnerable to…resurgent populist and anti-market economy political forces\u2014reversing gains of the last two years,\u201d wrote US Ambassador Janet Sanderson in an October 1, 2008, cable. MINUSTAH \u201cis an indispensable tool in realizing core USG [US government] policy interests in Haiti.\u201d<\/p>\n At a high-level meeting five years ago, top US and UN officials discussed how the \u201cAristide Movement Must Be Stopped,\u201d according to an August 2, 2006, cable. It described how former Guatemalan diplomat Edmond Mulet, then chief of MINUSTAH, \u201curged US legal action against Aristide to prevent the former president from gaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti.\u201d<\/p>\n At Mulet\u2019s request, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged South Africa\u2019s President Thabo Mbeki \u201cto ensure that Aristide remained in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n President Obama and Kofi Annan\u2019s successor, Ban Ki-moon, also intervened to urge Pretoria to keep Aristide in South Africa. The secret cables report that Aristide\u2019s return to Haiti would be a \u201cdisaster,\u201d according to the Vatican, and \u201ccatastrophic,\u201d according to the French.<\/p>\n But the regional and Haitian view was quite different. US Ambassador James Foley admitted in a confidential March 22, 2005, cable that an August 2004 poll \u201cshowed that Aristide was still the only figure in Haiti with a favorability rating above 50%.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, apparently referring to Haiti\u2019s revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture\u2019s kidnapping and imprisonment in the Jura mountains in 1802, warned \u201cthat a perceived \u2018Banishing Policy\u2019 has racial and historical overtones in the Caribbean that reminds inhabitants of the region of slavery and past abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n Keeping the Pressure On<\/strong><\/p>\n After Aristide left Jamaica for exile in South Africa on May 30, 2004, the US government worked overtime to keep him out of Haiti and even the hemisphere, even though the Haitian constitution and international law stipulate that every Haitian citizen has the right to be in his homeland.<\/p>\n When Dominican President Leonel Fern\u00e1ndez suggested at a hemispheric conference eight months after the coup that Aristide should return and play a role in Haiti\u2019s political future, the United States reacted angrily, saying in a cable that Fern\u00e1ndez had been \u201cwrong in advocating the inclusion in the process of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide.\u201d<\/p>\n The US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic \u201cadmonished\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez \u201cduring a pull-aside at a social event.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAristide had led a violent gang involved in narcotics trafficking and had squandered any credibility he formerly may have had,\u201d US Ambassador Hertell told him, according to a November 16, 2004, cable.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody has given me any information about that,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez replied.<\/p>\n The embassy followed up with a series of aggressive meetings insisting that the Dominican government renounce its support for Aristide. The meetings included a sit-down with the Dominican president specifically on the subject of Haiti with the British, Canadian, French, Spanish and US ambassadors.<\/p>\n No charges were ever filed against Aristide for drug trafficking, although the United States \u201cspent, literally, tens of millions of taxpayer dollars\u2026trying to pin something, anything on President Aristide,\u201d Ira Kurzban, Aristide\u2019s lawyer, told Pacifica Radio\u2019s Flashpoints<\/em> in July. \u201cThey\u2019ve had an ATF investigation, a tax investigation, a drug investigation, and now apparently some kind of corruption investigation…. The reality is they\u2019ve come up with nothing because there is nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n According to a report in Ha\u00efti Libert\u00e9<\/em>, other sources say that a US legal team is still angling to prosecute Aristide.<\/p>\n In 2005, the Fanmi Lavalas political party planned large demonstrations to mark Aristide\u2019s July 15 birthday and call for his return. The US Ambassador to France, Craig Stapleton, met with the French diplomatic official Gilles Bienvenu in Paris to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cBienvenu stated that the GOF [Government of France] shared our analysis of the implications of an Aristide return to Haiti, terming the likely repercussions \u2018catastrophic,\u2019\u2009\u201d Stapleton wrote in a July 1, 2005, cable. \u201cInitially expressing caution when asked about France demarching the SARG [conveying the message to the South African government], Bienvenu noted that Aristide was not a prisoner in South Africa and that such an action could \u2018create difficulties.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n Stapleton swiftly overcame Bienvenu\u2019s reluctance. Bienvenu agreed to relay US and French \u201cshared concerns\u201d to the South African government, saying that \u201cas a country desiring to secure a seat on the UN Security Council, South Africa could not afford to be involved in any way with the destabilization of another country.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ambassador went even further: \u201cBienvenu speculated on exactly how Aristide might return, seeing a possible opportunity to hinder him in the logistics of reaching Haiti,\u201d Stapleton wrote. \u201cIf Aristide traveled commercially, Bienvenu reasoned, he would likely need to transit certain countries in order to reach Haiti. Bienvenu suggested a demarche to Caricom [Caribbean Community] countries by the US and EU to warn them against facilitating any travel or other plans Aristide might have. He specifically recommended speaking to the Dominican Republic, which could be directly implicated in a return attempt.\u201d<\/p>\n Five days later in Ottawa, two Canadian diplomatic officials met with the US Embassy personnel. \u00a0\u201c\u2018We are on the same sheet\u2019 with regards to Aristide,\u201d one Canadian affirmed, according to a July 6, 2005, cable. \u201cEven before these recent rumors, she said, Canada had a clear position in opposition to the return of Aristide.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada shared the message with \u201call parties…especially the Caricom countries,\u201d as well with South Africa.<\/p>\n Vatican Blocks Post-Quake Return of Aristide<\/strong><\/p>\n The earthquake that killed tens of thousands and destroyed many parts of the city also threatened to upend the established political order, worrying diplomats.<\/p>\n US Embassy\u2019s Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) met with a Vatican official in the days after the earthquake to discuss Church losses and responses.<\/p>\n A January 20, 2010, cable reports, \u201cIn discussions with DCM over the past few days, senior Vatican officials said they were dismayed about media reports that deposed Haitian leader\u2014and former priest\u2014Jean Bertrand Aristide wished to return to Haiti…. The Vatican’s Assesor (deputy chief of staff equivalent), Msgr. Peter Wells, said Aristide’s presence would distract from the relief efforts and could become destabilizing.\u201d<\/p>\n Then the Vatican\u2019s Undersecretary for Relations with States, Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, conferred with Archbishop Bernardito Auza in Haiti, who \u201cagreed emphatically that Aristide’s return would be a disaster.\u201d \u00a0Balestrero \u201cthen conveyed Auza’s views to Archbishop Greene in South Africa, and asked him also to look for ways to get this message convincingly to Aristide. DCM suggested that Greene also convey this message to the SAG [South African government].\u201d<\/p>\n The Vatican\u2019s position on Aristide\u2019s return was augured in earlier cables. In November 2003, three months before the bloody February 2004 coup against Aristide, a US political officer met with the Vatican\u2019s MFA Caribbean Affairs Office Director Giorgio Lingua. He said that \u201ceffecting change in Haiti should be easier than in Cuba,\u201d reported US Charg\u00e9 d’Affaires Brent Hardt in a November 14, 2003, cable. \u201cUnlike Castro, Lingua observed, Aristide is not ideologically motivated. \u2018This is one person\u2014not a system,\u2019 he added.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after the coup, on March 5, 2004, US Ambassador to the Vatican James Nicholson wrote a cable reporting that the Holy See\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister had \u201cno regret at Aristide’s departure, noting that the former priest had been an active proponent of voodoo.\u201d<\/p>\n A Hero\u2019s Welcome<\/strong><\/p>\n Aristide ultimately returned to Haiti on March 18, 2011, despite personal calls by President Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to South Africa\u2019s President Jacob Zuma to stop him. They argued he would disrupt Haiti\u2019s imminent elections.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is exclusion, and the solution is inclusion,\u201d Aristide said during a brief return speech at the airport after landing. Then he made his only reference, however oblique, to that week\u2019s elections from which his party was barred: \u201cThe exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion of the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days later, the second round of Haiti\u2019s elections went off relatively smoothly, but with historically low voter participation. Some polling stations in Port-au-Prince were empty, with stacks of ballot sheets piled high, hours before they closed. \u00a0Less than 24 percent of registered voters went to their polls, according to official statistics. Other observers say the turnout was much less.<\/p>\n On the morning of Aristide\u2019s return in Port-au-Prince, thousands massed outside the airport in an exuberant, spontaneous demonstration. They jogged alongside his motorcade waving Haitian flags and placards bearing Aristide\u2019s visage, then scaled the fence surrounding Aristide\u2019s home and poured into its yard until there was no room left to move. The crowd even climbed the walls and covered the roof.<\/p>\n Sitting in an SUV just twenty feet from the door to his hastily repaired but mostly empty house, Aristide and his family waited until a crew of Haitian policeman managed to clear what resembled a pathway through the crowd. First his wife and two daughters emerged from the car and dashed inside the home.<\/p>\n Finally Aristide, diminutive in a sharp blue suit, stood up in the car doorway and waved. The crowd roared in excitement and surged around him. The path to the door vanished. His security grabbed him and shouldered their way through the sea of humanity until they got him to the house\u2019s door, through which he popped like a cork, clutching his glasses in his hands.<\/p>\n After a coup, kidnapping, exile, diplomatic intrigue and his rapturous welcome, Aristide was finally home.<\/p>\n