12999: Re: 12963: Aug 28 - 2002 BRIEFING STATE DEPT (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stephen Ewen <stephenewen@character4success.com>

Of course, I am not privy to the inner-workings of the State Department.
But knowing some
fair bit of their history in carrying out U.S. policy in Latin America, and
knowing that the foreign
policy goal of maintaining Latin America as the U.S. "sphere of influence"
is still the policy, I am
wondering if perhaps the following "filling in between the lines" perhaps
paints a more clear picture
of the prior forwarded dialogue:

..................

QUESTION: Richard, does the US have a plan for transition in the Haitian
Government that involves,
as its first step, the removal of President Aristide?

MR. BOUCHER: I think there have been some charges down there that
[we have greatly facilitated and] we'll look into [to see if they are at the
crushing
point yet], whatever this is that is being talked about [in keeping with our
strategy
and U.S policy goals within our "sphere of  influence"]. But I think I can
make clear,
absolutely clear from a policy point of view what we have said, what the
embassy in
Haiti has said repeatedly: We don't support the [overt] removal of any
democratically elected
[nationalistic] leader [when such removal can be tied directly to U.S.
action]. We and our partners
in the Organization of American States are working cooperatively towards
securing an
environment [that we can control and that is in our economic and seccurity
interest and] that's
conducive to the holding of ["]free and fair elections["] in Haiti, [but of
course, "elections" after
those not supporting our interest have long been intimidated and demoralized
by our actions
toward facilitating instability all around them].  And that has been the
goal of our policy
[historically] and the efforts that we've been engaged in [presently.  We
would not want
anything to snowball].

QUESTION: So the answer's no?

MR. BOUCHER: The answer is not [overtly] supporting the removal of
democratically elected
leaders [who are not in our interest and threaten to be an example to others
within our "sphere of influence."
We have long had better, "cleaner," ways of doing that].

.....................



----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Corbett" <corbetre@webster.edu>
To: "Haiti mailing list" <haiti@lists.webster.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 11:07 AM
Subject: 12963: Aug 28 - 2002 BRIEFING STATE DEPT (fwd)


>
> From: Stanley  Lucas <slucas@iri.org>
>
> QUESTION: Richard, does the US have a plan for transition in the
> Haitian Government that involves, as its first step, the removal of
> President Aristide?
>
> MR. BOUCHER: I think there have been some charges down there that
> we'll look into, whatever this is that is being talked about. But I
> think I can make clear, absolutely clear from a policy point of view
> what we have said, what the embassy in Haiti has said repeatedly: We
> don't support the removal of any democratically elected leader. We and
> our partners in the Organization of American States are working
> cooperatively towards securing an environment that's conducive to the
> holding of free and fair elections in Haiti. And that has been the
> goal of our policy and the efforts that we've been engaged in.
>
> QUESTION: So the answer's no?
>
> MR. BOUCHER: The answer is not supporting the removal of
> democratically elected leaders.
>
> QUESTION: Does the United States have some kind of a plan for a
> transition government in Haiti?
>
> MR. BOUCHER: The plan for Haiti is to work with the OAS, to work with
> the Haitian Government, to have elections that are truly free and fair
> where the Haitian people can decide on their government.
>
> QUESTION: You're talking about the senate elections, right? The
> disputed senate elections?
>
> MR. BOUCHER: The disputed senate elections, and then further, in the
> democratic process in the future.
>
>
>
>