{"id":239746,"date":"2023-07-24T12:01:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T11:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=239746"},"modified":"2023-07-20T06:19:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T05:19:21","slug":"haitians-protest-un-occupation-and-pending-foreign-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/07\/haitians-protest-un-occupation-and-pending-foreign-intervention\/","title":{"rendered":"Haitians Protest UN Occupation and Pending Foreign \u201cIntervention\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Black Agenda Report<\/p><\/div>\n

19 Jul 2023 – Haitians protest oligarchic rule, UN occupation, and foreign military “intervention.” <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The US and Canada have been arguing for a multilateral military intervention in Haiti led by the army of a third country, possibly even Rwanda, to support the puppet regime that they installed. They are using \u201cgang violence\u201d as the racist excuse, but there are actually more gang killings in Jamaica. In fact, the people of Haiti have been protesting in the streets to get the UN <\/a> and the Core Group <\/a> out of Haiti and get the US to stop supporting the illegitimate, unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry.<\/p>\n

I spoke to Haiti Action Committee <\/a> activist Seth Donnelly, a public school teacher who has traveled to Haiti over 20 times since the 2004 coup that removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.<\/p>\n

ANN GARRISON:<\/strong> Seth Donnelly, can you tell us what you see going on in Haiti?<\/p>\n

SETH DONNELY:<\/strong> Yes, absolutely. The current situation is one of a neocolonial dictatorship, installed primarily by the United States, under the UN occupation.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> That’s the UN mission <\/a> that the UN Security Council renewed on July 14, right? Not the foreign military force that the US and Canada are pushing for.<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> Right. So since the US-orchestrated coup in 2004 against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and hundreds of other democratically elected officials at all levels, Haiti has been under occupation. And within that context, in 2011 the US installed the current regime that is in power in Haiti, that of the Haitian T\u00e8t Kale Party <\/a> (PHTK).<\/p>\n

When I say installed, there’s extensive evidence that Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, literally intervened <\/a>, went to Haiti and maneuvered Michel Martelly into power after US-sponsored elections that were already fraudulent, given that the the largest political party in the country, Fanmi Lavalas, wasn\u2019t allowed to participate.<\/p>\n

Martelly is like the godfather of the PHTK, a very right-wing powerbroker connected to the Haitian oligarchy. He handpicked a successor, Jovenel Moise, who took power after more fraudulent <\/a> US-sponsored elections in 2016.<\/p>\n

Readers may know that Jovenel Moise was then assassinated in the summer of 2021. Based on the evidence <\/a> that keeps being unearthed, this was quite possibly a US-backed assassination involving elements within the PHTK, including the current US-backed, unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry.<\/p>\n

So under this current Ariel Henry regime, we have seen a proliferation of massacres carried out by the police and what US media calls gangs. They’re more accurately understood as paramilitaries, heavily armed paramilitaries, many of which work closely with the police, such as the G-9 Federation, led by the ex-police officer, Jimmy Ch\u00e9rizier, popularly known as \u201cBarbecue.\u201d A few notorious examples of such massacres include the 2018 Lasalin massacre <\/a> (see this video <\/a>) and the 2019 massacres <\/a> in the Tokyo and Site Vensan (Cite Vincent) neighborhoods. The Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic documented this pattern in its 2021 report \u201cKilling with Impunity: State-Sanctioned Massacres in Haiti.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n

These paramilitaries and the police have laid siege to popular neighborhoods of resistance to the regime. They’ve destroyed them, burned down houses, and massacred men, women, and children.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> And what has the International Monetary Fund been doing amidst all this?<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> The PHTK regime has loyally implemented IMF dictates. For example, removing the fuel subsidy <\/a>. And that has resulted in cost-push inflation, which has created the worst hunger crisis in Haiti in many generations. Over half the population is now suffering from extreme food insecurity and malnutrition. Children are once again eating mud cookies. By March 2023, a record 4.9 million people <\/a> were experiencing acute hunger, nearly half the population. Haiti\u2019s food inflation is among the highest in the world, increasing by 48% <\/a> between February 2022 and February 2023.<\/p>\n

AG: <\/strong>There haven’t been any recent elections, have there?<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> There’s not a single official legitimately left in office, because the regime is incapable of holding free and fair elections. All formerly elected officials are legally termed out.<\/p>\n

So this is the situation in which the Biden administration is arguing for yet another \u201cintervention,\u201d which is really more of an invasion, as if that’s the solution. It\u2019s akin to pretending that the arsonists will put out the fire they started.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> Canada too, right? Both US and Canadian mining companies are heavily involved in Haiti.<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> Right. Canada too, and that\u2019s clearly one of the main reasons the US and Canada have both been pushing this intervention.<\/p>\n

AG: <\/strong>And what about the Haitian people?<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> The Haitian people have been out in the streets protesting the idea of a foreign intervention. Operating at the base of the mass movement of the poor majority is Fanmi Lavalas, the most significant political party in Haiti, which has consistently been the target of US-backed political repression and terror. The mass movement demands that there be no foreign intervention. The Haitian people are struggling today to complete the revolution of 1804, to affirm their right to self-determination, to dismantle this hated neocolonial regime, and install a genuine transition government <\/a>.<\/p>\n

So that’s where we’re at, and the Biden administration has doubled down in supporting the government, despite opposition from even some Democrats in Congress. Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken continue to treat Ariel Henry as if he’s a legitimate leader that needs to be at the table for negotiations. They continue to fund <\/a> the police hand over fist despite massive evidence that the police are linked to the gangs and paramilitaries.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> Biden has been mercilessly deporting Haitians too, hasn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n

SD: <\/strong>Biden has deported <\/a> more Haitians than the last three presidents combined. That\u2019s Trump, Obama, and Bush Jr.<\/p>\n

Haitians are fleeing hunger and violence, and if they make it to the US\/Mexico border, they\u2019re rounded up en masse, as we saw in the photos of the US Border Patrol chasing refugees, border patrol agents on horses using the reins as whips.<\/p>\n

So this is an absolute humanitarian disaster. It’s arguably the worst human rights crisis in the Americas. And it’s made in the USA.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> What about Biden\u2019s support for the police?<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> The police in Haiti are deeply connected to the repression and to the massacres, as well as targeted killings of journalists. There’ve been a lot of journalists, independent journalists, killed by the police. For example, on October 30th, 2022, police shot an unarmed journalist <\/a>, Romelo Vilsaint <\/a>, in the head, and killed him during a protest at the Delmas police station where he and other journalists were demanding the release of a jailed colleague, Robest Dimanche. Police had previously detained Dimanche when he was covering a street protest.<\/p>\n

And we can contrast the Biden administration support for the police with how the administration sanctioned the Cuban police after a relatively minor crackdown in Cuba after the protests in July 2021. I think there may have been one fatality in that, whereas in Haiti, the police killings are epidemic, and all the US does is shower them with more money.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> The news is reporting that there are only 9000 police in Haiti, and more are needed. This proposed international intervention is supposed to help them. I don’t think those pushing it are likely to get it past the Security Council, and they know that, so they\u2019re talking about some sort of multilateral force organized and sent in without UN Security Council approval.<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> Right. One of President Aristide\u2019s greatest accomplishments\u2014 before the second US-backed coup d\u2019\u00e9tat in 2004\u2014was to dissolve the Haitian military. The military had been a backbone of US control during the Papa Doc and Baby Doc dictatorships throughout the 20th century.<\/p>\n

President Aristide instead sought to develop a small, professional police force, with training from countries such as Switzerland, that could protect, rather than terrorize, the Haitian people. Since the 2004 coup, the US has supported the reintegration of former military and death squad elements back into this police force, funding its transformation once again into an agent of terror.<\/p>\n

The narrative being put out in the US media, and by the US and Canadian governments and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres\u2014who is very much involved in this occupation\u2014is that the police are outgunned by the \u201cgangs\u201d and that the police need more equipment and weapons and training and the support of foreign intervention.<\/p>\n

What that narrative misses is that the police are heavily weaponized against the people, and overwhelmingly, at very high levels of command, working with the paramilitaries to terrorize the population.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> How are people on the ground resisting all this?<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> There was an interesting development that started this past spring. The population rose up against the paramilitaries or \u201cgangs\u201d who had been occupying their neighborhoods. This became known as the \u201cBwa Kale\u201d movement. And then, within a matter of weeks, the population brought the level of violence and the kidnappings down dramatically.<\/p>\n

This did involve violence by ordinary people who have just been pushed to the brink, but what Bwa Kale shows you is that when the people organize at a base level, they can tackle the problem of insecurity. So clearly funding the police is not working to bring down crime. What brings down crime is people taking power.<\/p>\n

AG:<\/strong> What sort of privilege is the regime getting from being in power?<\/p>\n

SD:<\/strong> Well, first, it’s your classic neocolonial regime, in the most direct sense that it was literally installed by the US. Hillary Clinton, who, like I said, maneuvered the first PHTK leader, Martelly, into power, so there’s that classic architecture of colonialism.<\/p>\n

Second, Haiti is mineral rich. It\u2019s got bauxite. It’s got petroleum, gold, and more. Because of the racism in the US media and the ignorance it inflicts, Americans are always asking, \u201cOh, why is Haiti so poor?\u201d but Haiti is not poor.\u00a0 Haiti is resource <\/a> rich. It’s just the most plundered country in the Americas, similar to the Congo.<\/p>\n

The regime has even been trying to change the mining law to give it more power. As it is now, the parliament has to approve mining concessions, but the PHTK regime wants to make that an executive decision, so that gold mining companies from Canada and the United States can just come in without having to go through Parliament.<\/p>\n

Regime officials also accumulate wealth by:<\/p>\n