13412: Pina: Ina ruminates on ANADIPP and parallels with Venezuela (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: Kevin Pina       <kpinbox@hotmail.com>


Fast on the heels of Ambassador Brian Dean Curran's statement that
"Democracy in Haiti is threatened, and the government will not be invited to
a world conference of democratic nations next month", comes a notice in the
Le Nouvelliste by the Association Nationale des Distributeurs de Produits
Petrollers(ANADIPP). The notice calls for a "Convocation en Assemblee
Generale Extradordinaire" or the Convocation of an Extradordinary General
Assembly to be held at its headquarters today at 3:30pm. The agenda is to
discuss the business climate for petroleum products and questions of general
interest. The mmeting is not only called "extraordinary" but "important and
urgent" as well.

While there appears to be no lateral connection between these two events,
one cannot help but be circumspect given the slowly emerging blueprint of US
foreign policy for handling populist movements in Latin America and the
Caribbean. Despite the obvious differences, nowhere is the outline for said
policy more apparent then in the parallels between US foreign policy towards
Haiti and Venezuela. They both have duly-elected presidents brought into
office by populist movements that threaten the status quo of traditional
political and economic elites with strong ties to international commerce and
big business. The Lavalas movement and the Bolivarian Circle movement have
both been attacked by the "business sector","civil society" and the US State
Department as violent mobs manipulated by would be dictators in the
hemisphere.