19509: Esser: Forces behind the ouster (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

New York Newsday
http://www.nynewsday.com

Forces behind the ouster

BY RON HOWELL
STAFF WRITER

March 1, 2004

The departure of Haiti's Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a victory for a
Bush administration hard-liner who has been long dedicated to
Aristide's ouster, U.S. foreign policy analysts say.

That official is Roger Noriega, assistant U.S. secretary of state for
Western Hemisphere affairs, whose influence over U.S. policy toward
Haiti has increased during the past decade as he climbed the
diplomatic ladder in Washington.

"Roger Noriega has been dedicated to ousting Aristide for many, many
years, and now he's in a singularly powerful position to accomplish
it," Robert White, a former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador and
Paraguay, said last week.

White, now president of the Center for International Policy, a think
tank in Washington, said Noriega's ascent largely has been attributed
to his ties to North Carolina Republican Jesse Helms, an
arch-conservative foe of Aristide who had behind-the-scenes influence
over policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean before retiring
from the Senate two years ago.

"Helms didn't just dislike Aristide, Helms loathed Aristide because
he saw in Aristide another Castro," said Larry Birns, director of the
Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which has been
strongly critical of the Bush administration's policy on Haiti.

Working hand in hand with Noriega on Haiti has been National Security
Council envoy Otto Reich, who, like Noriega, is ardently opposed to
Cuban leader Fidel Castro, say analysts such as Birns. Washington
diplomats have seen Aristide as a leftist who is often fierce in his
denunciations of the business class and slow to make recommended
changes such as privatizing state-run industries.

"On a day-to-day basis, Roger Noriega [has been] making policy, but
with a very strong role played by Otto Reich," Birns said.

Reich is a controversial Cuban-American criticized by some who have
lingering concerns about his contacts with opposition figures who
plotted a short-lived coup against Venezuela's leftist president,
Hugo Chávez, two years ago. Reich also is linked to the Iran-contra
scandal of two decades ago that was part of President Ronald Reagan's
policy of defeating Marxists in Central America.

Noriega's involvement with Haiti dates back more than a decade. In
the early 1990s he was an adviser at the U.S. mission to the
Organization of American States. Between 1994 and 1997, he served as
a senior staff member on the House of Representatives' Committee on
International Relations. Then, in 1997, he went to work for the
Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations as a top aide to Helms.

Helms was passionate in his dislike of Aristide and tried mightily to
stop President Bill Clinton from sending troops to restore Aristide
to power in 1994 after his violent ouster three years previously. In
an attempt to forestall that military action, Helms released a
now-discredited CIA report purporting to show Aristide was
"psychotic."

Helms found a like-minded official in Noriega, who fed the senator's
hostility toward Aristide, said Robert Maguire of Trinity College in
Washington.

"Roger Noriega always sought to have a long leash when it came to
Haiti, and Helms was more than happy to accommodate anti-Aristide
feelings," Maguire said.

In 2001, with Helms' strong backing, Noriega, a Kansas native of
Mexican descent, was appointed U.S. permanent representative to the
Organization of American States.

In their various foreign policy postings during the past several
years, Noriega and Reich became behind-the-scenes leaders of "a
relatively small group of people" who developed strategies toward
Haiti, Maguire said.

Reich and Noriega had no comment. State Department spokesman Gonzalo
Gallegos said Noriega "likes to stick to the business of the
department," and requests for comments from Reich made by fax to Fred
Jones, a National Security Council official, were not answered.

Who will rise from the chaos?

The departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide leaves a power
vacuum in Haiti. Here are some of the important players in the
country's future:

PRESSURE at home and abroad forced him to flee

Boniface Alexandre

Supreme Court Chief Justice Declared yesterday that he is now in
charge. He is next in line under the Haitian Constitution after
approval by parliament, but most legislators terms expired earlier
this year. A longtime jurist, Alexandre has a reputation for honesty.

Andy Apaid

The most Outspoken leader of the opposition coalition that has
pressed for Aristide's ouster but says it is not aligned with rebel
forces.

Guy Philippe

Leader of a motley band of rebels controlling the northern half of the
country.

Joined the rebellion from neighboring Dominican Republic, where he
fled in 2000 amid charges he was plotting a coup.

Louis-Jodel Chamblain

Rebel leader, former army sergeant and leader of notorious death
squad blamed for murder, torture and maiming of hundreds of Haitians.
Fled to the Dominican Republic when U.S. troops intervened in 1994.
Returned to Haiti two weeks ago to join the rebellion.
.