19159: Esser: Haiti's Second Coup (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Progressive
http://www.progressive.org

Web Exclusives
Editor Matthew Rothschild comments on the news of the day.

February 24, 2004

Haiti's Second Coup

What we're witnessing now in Haiti is the second coup against
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The first one occurred in 1991, shortly after Aristide was elected
president in a historic break with the Duvalier dictatorship, which
had brutally ruled for generations.

The new junta lasted until 1994, and during this time a CIA-funded
death squad called FRAPH killed 3,000 supporters of Aristide.

Finally, the Clinton Administration sent U.S. troops in and overthrew
the junta. But the Aristide who returned was not the same man who
came to power with so much promise and with vast popular appeal.

Instead, he bowed to the dictates of the World Bank and the IMF,
which further impoverished the country. He disbanded the army, only
to have groups of thugs loyal to him crush protests and engage in
extrajudicial killings. And he has opposed trade unions.

After Bush came to power, Haiti had to contend with a hostile United
States, which refused to give aid because of disputed elections back
in 2000. Those elections weren't perfect, but Aristide's supporters
did win most of the votes.

In February 2001, Aristide (after a few years of being only formally
out of power) was elected President for the second time, but he has
faced constant turmoil ever since.

The Bush Administration has been content to slowly strangle Haiti's
economy by maintaining an international aid embargo against the
country, an embargo that former Senator Jesse Helms helped initiate
in the final months of the Clinton Administration.

Rightwing ideologues in the Bush Administration have done all they
can to undermine Aristide. The Latin America team features Assistant
Secretary of State Roger Noriega, his deputy Daniel Fisk, and White
House adviser Otto Reich. All three "were protégés of ex-Senator
Helms," notes the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "It was this group
of zealots and hardliners who, off the record, let it be known to all
concerned that the Bush Administration would countenance regime
change in Haiti."

Secretary of State Colin Powell has been playing good cop to these
bad cops, as Bill Fletcher of TransAfrica has noted. Powell recently
said that the "elected president" should not be "forced out of office
by thugs."

But that appears to be in the works.

Today, the country is on the brink of a civil war, and the capital of
Port-au-Prince could be hit any day.

The opposition forces include some of the people who participated in
the coup in 1991 and others who committed brutal atrocities during
the junta's rule. While Aristide has accepted the need to compromise
and has even offered to share power, they have not, though they have
but 20 percent support in the country, according to the Council on
Hemispheric Affairs.

This is a delicate moment for Haiti. Aristide, for all his faults, is
the only legitimate leader of Haiti. If the rebels overthrow him,
much bloodshed is likely to flow.

And some of that will land on Bush's hands.

-- Matthew Rothschild