19206: Haiti's Second Coup... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Anthony Fenton <apfenton@ualberta.ca>

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-06.htm

Published on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 by The Progressive
Haiti's Second Coup
by Matthew Rothschild
 
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.

apfenton@ualberta.ca