14677: Miale" Forwarded article from www.zmag.org (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Walter Miale <wmiale@acbm.qc.ca>

Torturing Demcoracy
An interview with Noam Chomsky on Haiti

by Faiz Ahmad and Noam Chomsky
January 25, 2003

INTERVIEWS
The richest country in the hemisphere, the United States of America, has a
long history of interventions in Haiti- the poorest country in the
hemisphere. On November 8th, 2002 Faiz Ahmad sat down with Noam Chomsky,
MIT professor and world renowned critic of American foreign policy, to
discuss the current situation in Haiti.

I'd like your opinion on a situation quite close to home a situation which
really hasn't received much press at all in Canada.  The US government has
vetoed the delivery of $500 million in approved aid loans to Haiti from the
Inter American Development Bank.  These loans were earmarked specifically
for improving education, health, and clean water.  Ostensibly the loans are
being withheld because the US government and the OAS believe that the votes
for 8 senate seats were not counted properly in the May 2000 Haitian
elections.  Despite the fact that all senators involved have resigned their
seats, the embargo remains.

It's totally outrageous.  Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere.
It's in miserable condition.  It also happens to be the leading target of
US intervention in the 20th century.  Ever since Woodrow Wilson occupied
it, restored slavery, overthrew the parliamentary system and basically
turned it into a US plantation; ever since then the US has supported brutal
dictators, a murderous national- all of whom never had an embargo on them
no matter how many atrocities they were carrying out.  In the early 90's
Haiti had its first democratic election.  To everyone's surprise they
elected a populist priest who [won] through large scale organization and
activism in the slums and the hills (who nobody was paying any attention
to).  The US moved in immediately to undermine the regime: it cut off aid,
supported anti-Aristide elements, and a couple of months later a coup
came.

The Bush administration, and later the Clinton administration supported the
coup.  They broke the OAS embargo that was an effort to oppose the coup
leaders who were carrying out horrible atrocities and torture.  Actually I
was there at the time and I don't think I've ever seen such terror; the
people were really terrified.  The Bush and Clinton administrations
supported [the coup], they even secretly authorized illegal dispatches of
oil (in violation of presidential directives) to the military junta and its
wealthy supporters.

When the United States government thought that the Haitian population had
been tortured enough, they moved in and carried out what is called a
"liberation."  In fact they did allow the elected government to come back,
but on very strict conditions; namely that it accept the policies of the
candidate the US had supported in the 1990 Haitian election, who only won
14% of the vote, and who the population had voted against.  So the Aristide
government was allowed back in under the condition that it accept US
demands for an extremely harsh neo-liberal regime which has pretty well
devastated what's left of the country. And now they have the gall to impose
an embargo.

Did they ever impose an embargo when the dictator Duvalier was in power?
Even in the 90's when the OAS did impose an embargo the US was undermining
it.  This is so outrageous that it's hard to find words.

In fact it's kind of striking that the only two countries in the hemisphere
that are under embargo are the former slave countries; Cuba and Haiti.
There's talk about paying reparations for slavery (not that it will ever
get anywhere); but what's going on is the opposite: the former slaves have
to pay us.  Those are the two countries under embargo.  There's a third
which had plenty of slaves, Brazil; and today the US and Canada and other
rich countries are desperately trying to undermine democratic elections by
compelling the government through financial and other pressures to follow
the policies the population voted against.  If we had any honesty, we'd be
looking at these things.

What do you think the US objective is in maintaining this embargo against
Haiti?

Partially just revenge against an independent populist leader.  Certainly
not corruption.  I'm sure it's corrupt, and brutal, and everything else
they say, but not more than other countries that the US supports.  If we
start running down the list of countries the US supports, Haiti looks
pretty good by comparison.

Faiz Ahmad is a medical student at McGill University.  He is coordinator of
the McGill International Health Initiative.

For information on the current attack on Haiti, and to help fight against
it please contact:
Let Haiti Live Campaign - Melinda Miles, at Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center.
She is the campaign coordinator:

Melinda Miles, Coordinator
Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center
P.O. Box 5206
Hyattsville, MD 20782
(301)699-0042, fax: (301)864-2182
email: melinda@haitireborn.org
website: www.haitireborn.org

Or Partners in Health, Boston:

Juan Javier Salazar
Partners In Health
641 Huntington Ave., 1st floor
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 432-6003
email: juan_salazar@hms.harvard.edu
website: www.pih.org