a1022: US responsibility for drug trafficking through Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Charles Arthur writes:

The US State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for
2001 includes these words of summary:

>Haiti is a major transshipment point for drugs, primarily cocaine, moving
>from South America to the United States. Haiti's weakened democratic
>institutions, fledgling police force, and eroded infrastructure provide
>South American-based narcotraffickers with a path of minimal resistance.
>The ongoing political impasse resulting from the flawed 2000 elections
>further weakened the government and economy.

Further on there is more detail:

>As 2001 ended, Haiti's economy stagnated. Electricity rates rose but supply
>remained uncertain; imports of goods were down; domestic production fell,
>further reducing the number of jobs available; and the gourde-dollar gap
>widened. Haitians expressed their discontent through graffiti,
>demonstrations, and calls for general strikes. School attendance remained
>low, especially among the poor who could not afford the fees, and
>professionals and others with job skills left Haiti for Canada and the
>United States. As a result, drug trafficking was one of the few lucrative
>businesses in Haiti and represented a source of income for many Haitians.

and

>Official corruption, lack of a
>strong, independent judiciary, and an increasingly desperate population
>created a nearly risk-free environment for illegal traffickers.


As ample sources relate, the roots of today's drug-running operations were
put down by the post-1986 CNG and FADH, and grew deeper during the 1991-94
coup regime. There was extensive US overt and covert support for these
regimes.

In 1994, when US troops intervened, Haiti's top drug-trafficker, police chief
Michel Francois, was allowed to go into exile. General Cedras, who presided
over the drug-running military high command, was also handed a gilded exile
in Panama.

>From 1994 on, the key reform processes - building a new police force and
reforming the corrupt judiciary - were dominated by the US.

The task of building confidence in the judicial system in the form of a
settling of accounts for coup era human rights violations was undermined by
the US's refusal to hand back the FRAPH/FADH documents, the refusal to hand
over FRAPH leader Toto Constant, cooperation with former-General Avril, etc...

The abject deterioration of the economy since 1994 has been overseen by
USAID, the IMF, World Bank and Interamerican Development Bank.

The political impasse resulting from the 2000 elections has been nurtured and
encouraged by the US' support for the Democratic Convergence.

The ability of the central government to function, and the worsening economic
plight of the populaton are closely linked to the suspension of international
development aid that is supported by the US, directly through its bilateral
programme, and slightly less directly by its dominance of the international
financial institutions.


This is all old stuff but it's clear to me that Haiti's northern neighbour
really must take a good deal of credit for the increase in drug-trafficking.

Is it not more than a little ridiculous then that the US now uses the
increase in drug-trafficking as justification for continuing to suspend aid
to the government thus depriving that government of the resources that could
be used to strengthen the police force, the judiciary, and democratic
institutions, while at the same time it is prolonging the political impasse
by backing the opposition coalition which appears to have no interest in
resolving the dispute???
You can make yourself quite dizzy just thinking about this for a few minutes.