{"id":69251,"date":"2016-02-01T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=69251"},"modified":"2016-02-01T11:15:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T11:15:09","slug":"sure-washington-has-always-supported-democracy-in-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/02\/sure-washington-has-always-supported-democracy-in-haiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Sure, Washington Has Always Supported Democracy in Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

American politicians\u2019 rhetoric on Haiti remains woefully disconnected from reality.<\/em><\/p>\n

26 Jan 2016 – <\/em>\u201cAs in the past, the United States is taking great interest in how elections in Haiti are unfolding,\u201d a State Department spokesperson announced<\/a> a few days ago; \u201cThe United States reaffirms its support for credible, transparent, and secure elections that reflect the will of the Haitian people.\u201d George Orwell couldn\u2019t have said it better: \u201cWe\u2019ve always been at war with Eastasia.\u201d And we have always supported democracy in Haiti.<\/p>\n

The remark was in response to the country\u2019s current political crisis\u2014a crisis largely created by Washington\u2014that forced the\u00a0postponement<\/a> of a runoff presidential election. The first-round vote, last October, was so marred by fraud, corruption, and violence that all other candidates, save Washington\u2019s favored and handpicked successor to the current president, Michel Martelly\u2014Jovenel Mo\u00efse\u2014were boycotting the second runoff round.<\/p>\n

In other words, the runoff had only one candidate: Washington\u2019s. For months, the Obama administration insisted that the runoff take place, working hard<\/a> to discredit the fraud charges. The goal of the United States, the State Department said in a \u201cFact Sheet<\/a>\u201d updated just last week as street protests were gaining force, was \u201ccredible, inclusive, and legitimate elections that genuinely reflect the will of the Haitian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martelly\u2014who was also installed by Washington in rigged elections in 2010\u2014wants his would-be successor Mo\u00efse to complete the Duvalierist-death-squad restoration<\/a>, which has been underway since the country\u2019s devastating 2010 earthquake. A key supporter of Mo\u00efse (and hence de facto ally of the White House) is Guy Philippe<\/a>. Philippe has all the right qualifications to serve as Washington\u2019s man in Haiti. He has deep ties to paramilitaries and is wanted (but somehow never captured) by the Drug Enforcement Administration<\/a> for drug running and money laundering. In 2004, he helped<\/a> the George W. Bush administration (via the International Republican Institute, a public-private organization that receives its funding from both the US government and corporations like Halliburton and Chevron) to overthrow Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. (At the time, Jeffrey Sachs was offering some of the best analysis of the motives for that coup, writing<\/a> that Bush came into office hoping to oust Aristide).<\/p>\n

Now, Philippe, himself running for a seat in parliament, is calling<\/a> for a civil war against the \u201canarchists of Port-au-Prince<\/a>\u201d\u2014by which he means the coalition (including Aristide\u2019s old political party, Fanmi Lavalas) that has demanded that Martelly step down as scheduled in early February and that new elections be held. Philippe\u2019s threatening<\/a> to lead his regional stronghold, Grand\u2019Anse<\/a>, in a breakaway separatist movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs in the past.\u201d When it comes to the US memory hole, perpetual war produces historical amnesia, which, in turn, is a requirement for perpetual war. Haiti\u2014which, as the second republic in the Americas and the first (and only) nation forged out of a slave rebellion, simultaneously affirms and reveals the hypocrisy of enlightenment values\u2014has long been at the center of this obliviousness. Here\u2019s a quick primer on all the ways the United States has, \u201cin the past,\u201d been concerned about Haitian democracy (a good part of which is drawn directly from Joel Dreyfuss\u2019s \u201cHaiti in U.S. History: A Timeline<\/a>,\u201d at the Root):<\/p>\n

1915\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>U.S. Marines enter Haiti, ostensibly to protect US citizens from violence during political turmoil. They fight and defeat a resistance movement and establish military rule that lasts 19 years. <\/em><\/p>\n

1917\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Woodrow Wilson\u2019s secretary of state, Williams Jennings Bryan, sharing his newly acquired knowledge of Haiti, declares: \u201cImagine that! Niggers speaking French!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

1934\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>US Marines withdraw from Haiti after 19 years and return the country to civilian rule. <\/em><\/p>\n

1957\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Fran\u00e7ois \u201cPapa Doc\u201d Duvalier is elected president of Haiti; his government becomes a bloody dictatorship. The United States supports him because of his anti-Communist stance. <\/em><\/p>\n

1971\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Duvalier dies; his son Jean-Claude, known as \u201cBaby Doc,\u201d takes over and becomes president-for-life. <\/em><\/p>\n

According to the indispensable<\/a>\u00a0Ha\u00efti Libert\u00e9<\/em>: \u201cThe U.S. had curtailed military aid and sales to Haiti after Fran\u00e7ois Duvalier expelled a U.S. Marine Mission from the country in 1963. But following Papa Doc\u2019s death in April 1971, his son \u201cBaby Doc\u201d inherited the \u201cPresidency for Life\u201d and began to repair and improve relations with the U.S., from which he wanted aid and investment.\u2026 Indeed, U.S. military aid was resumed, specifically to train units like the Leopards, which was described by the National Coalition for Haitian Rights in a 1986 report<\/a> as \u201cparticularly brutal in dealing with civilians.\u201d Researcher Jeb Sprague explains in his new book<\/a> Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti<\/em> that the Leopards were trained and equipped \u201cby former U.S. marine instructors who were working through a company (Aerotrade International and Aerotrade Inc) under contract with the CIA and signed off by the U.S. Department of State. Baby Doc himself trained with the Leopards, forming particularly close bonds with some in the force. A U.S. military attach\u00e9 bragged that the creation of the force had been his idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

1981\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Between 1981 and 1990, 22,940 Haitians are interdicted at sea. Only 11 qualified for asylum. <\/em><\/p>\n

1986 <\/em><\/strong>Jean Claude Duvalier is ousted by popular uprising. The United States provides transportation out of the country. <\/em><\/p>\n

1991 <\/em><\/strong>Jean-Bertrand Aristide, elected president of Haiti in the most democratic election in the country\u2019s history, is ousted in a coup after seven months in office. He goes to the United States in exile. <\/em><\/p>\n

1994<\/em><\/strong> Backed by a UN resolution, the Clinton administration uses military force to restore Aristide to power. His term ends in 1995, and he is succeeded by Ren\u00e9 Preval. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Clinton administration demands that, in return for his restoration, Aristide impose on his country a set of economic policies\u2014in particular tariff removal\u2014broadly known as \u201cneoliberalism.\u201d They devastate the country\u2019s already impoverished economy\u2014a fact that Clinton himself, after the 2010 earthquake admitted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Since 1981, the United States has followed a policy, until the last year or so when we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so, thank goodness, they can leap directly into the industrial era. It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. It was a mistake that I was a party to. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. I did that. I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did. Nobody else. <\/em><\/p>\n

OK, then.<\/p>\n

In 2000 Aristide is reelected; then in 2004 there is a\u00a0Bush-led coup against Aristide, worked on the ground by Guy Philippe. Aristide, his ability to govern already restricted due to the devil\u2019s bargain he made with Bill Clinton, now faced this, as described by Jeffrey Sachs:<\/p>\n

Mr. Aristide\u2019s foes in Haiti benefited from tight links with the incoming Bush team, which told Mr Aristide it would freeze all aid unless he agreed with the opposition over new elections for the contested Senate seats, among other demands. The wrangling led to the freezing of $500m in emergency humanitarian aid from the US, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.<\/em><\/p>\n

On January 12, 2010 an earthquake leaves 250,000 dead and an estimated $11.5 billion in damages.<\/p>\n

It would be comforting to think this shameful century-long history ended with the election of Barack Obama, followed by the earthquake, which shocked even Bill Clinton into a moment\u2019s contrition. It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Since 2010, Hillary Clinton\u2019s State Department, with the aid of Brazil, France, and Canada and in league with the Clinton Foundation and other \u201cphilanthropists<\/a>,\u201d put into place something like a never-ending coup, an everlasting intervention<\/a>. (Read this Jonathan Katz piece<\/a> on Bill and Hillary\u2019s \u201cpersonal\u201d relationship with Haiti, nicely titled \u201cThe King and Queen of Haiti\u201d). The United States disenfranchised a large swath of Haitian voters, including Aristide supporters<\/a>, and installed Martelly in fraudulent elections<\/a>, while private capital<\/a> and charity<\/a> backed him to the hilt.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a UN occupying force\u2014led by a corrupt Guatemalan politician, Edmond Mulet (implicated<\/a> in an illegal international adoption racket)\u2014brought cholera<\/a> (still raging<\/a>), and sexually abused<\/a> hundreds of women and men. An internal investigation<\/a> by the UN said that \u201ctransactional sex\u201d allowed \u201cwomen and their families to continue schooling and improving their future prospects. For rural women, hunger, lack of shelter, baby-care items, medication and household items were frequently cited as the \u2018triggering need\u2019\u201d leading to the \u201ctransaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haiti is on the brink. Washington\u2019s bid to legitimate October\u2019s fraudulent<\/a> first-round presidential election and force last week\u2019s runoff has collapsed. The State Department is now saying<\/a> it expects Martelly to leave office on February 7 without a clear successor, handing off power to a yet-to-be-determined interim government.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs in the past, the United States is taking great interest\u201d in events as they unfold. Washington \u201creaffirms its support for credible, transparent, and secure elections that reflect the will of the Haitian people<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thenation.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American politicians\u2019 rhetoric on Haiti remains woefully disconnected from reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}