18146: radtimes: U.S. pushes for 'regime change' in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

U.S. pushes for 'regime change' in Haiti

-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 29, 2004
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

U.S. PUSHES FOR "REGIME CHANGE" IN HAITI

By G. Dunkel

The opposition to Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide may have
failed in its violent attempt to prevent the celebration on Jan. 1 of
Haiti's bicentennial of its victory over slavery and colonial rule, but
it is continuing its campaign to drive him from power.

Aristide was elected president for a second time in 2000 with 92 percent
of the vote and has vowed to complete his mandated term. He has the
overwhelming support of the poor in a country that has the lowest
standard of living in the Western Hemisphere. At the same time, he is
calling for "national unity and reconciliation."

The character of the opposition was revealed in a lynching carried live
on Haitian National Television on Jan. 7. Opposition demonstrators could
be seen savagely beating a government supporter with fists, rocks, steel
bars and broken bottles, then throwing him 15 feet down into a ravine.
He reportedly died. (Haïti-Progrès, Jan. 14-20)

While this beating was not mentioned in the U.S. and European press, the
death of an anti-government protester, the attempt of her funeral
cortege to storm the Presidential Palace, Haiti's White House, and
attacks on an anti-government protest on Jan. 18 are all well reported.

Other news is also distorted. The "Group of 184," headed by U.S.-born
sweatshop magnate Andy Apaid, called for a "general strike" on Jan. 7
and 8. As in past "general strikes," the gasoline stations, stores and
businesses controlled by the Haitian bourgeoisie closed, while the rest
of the country went about its business as usual. The "general strike"
made the North American press but the response to it didn't.

"It's not really a strike," said Ben Dupuy on TNH, "It's more like a
lockout." Dupuy is secretary general of the National Popular Party, a
major party on the left in Haiti.

Social tension in Haiti is growing so high that many Haitians say that
if Haiti still had an army, there would have been at least one coup by
now. Aristide dissolved the army in 1995, just before his first term
ended.

U.S. support for the opposition is growing so open that even the
Associated Press admitted on Jan. 15 that the International Republican
Institute, an affiliate of the Republican Party that gets funding from
official government sources, is giving money to the organization headed
by Apaid, as well as to other Aristide opponents. The European Union,
which is also playing an imperialist role in Haitian politics, appears
to be backing the "Civil Society" opposition group.

The situation among opposition groups is very fluid, with shifts and
maneuvers breaking out as the political winds move this way and that,
depending on what the State Department or the EU says. President George
W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell met Aristide during the
Monterrey summit of the Organization of American States in early January
and urged him to set up a government of "national reconciliation," a
plan that Haiti's Catholic bishops are pushing. (State Department Press
Briefing, Jan. 14)

An EU statement issued Jan. 15 concentrated on attacks on "peaceful"
protesters and the fact that the term for Haiti's parliament has
expired. Under Haitian law, the opposition would have had to join the
councils setting up the elections. But they boycotted them as part of
their campaign against Aristide. Now they can claim he is ruling
"undemocratically" without a legislature.

France, Haiti's former colonial ruler, is leading the EU efforts there.
It is concerned with maintaining its two present Caribbean colonies of
Martinique and Guadeloupe and perhaps extending its influence while the
U.S. is preoccupied in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Washington has been determined to put Haiti under its complete control,
get rid of President Aristide and install someone who will fully
represent U.S. corporate interests. It has pursued this course ever
since Aristide first won a smashing victory over the pro-U.S. candidate,
Marc Bazin, in 1990. That was much more than a electoral victory--it was
a mass movement that put into office someone the Haitian people wanted.
U.S. policy since then has been set on reversing this defeat for U.S.-
managed "democracy" in Latin America.

Even though Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,
economic pressure from the EU and the U.S.--shutting off promised aid,
forbidding the Development Bank from distributing loans--hasn't been
enough to dislodge Aristide. He still has a tremendous base of support
among the poorest people.

Progressives in the United States and other developed countries who want
to support Haiti must realize that the media are waging a massive
campaign of disinformation against the Haitian people and their
government.

.