19711: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Aristide's ouster angers Haitians whom many say will now vote against Bush

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Aristide's ouster angers Haitians whom many say will now vote against Bush

By William E. Gibson
Washington Bureau Chief
Posted March 2 2004

President Bush alienated a small but determined bloc of voters by refusing
to help Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, except to usher him out of
Haiti.

Haiti's political crisis has galvanized Haitian-Americans in this country
and set off ripples of anger through other immigrant communities in Florida
and beyond. The brusque dismissal of Aristide, a controversial but
democratically elected leader, reinforced widespread perceptions that the
Bush administration cares little about Latin America and the Caribbean.


On the other hand, the administration so far has avoided a more potent
potential blow by steering clear of a costly commitment to Haiti and by
fending off a mass migration. In political terms, the most devastating
development for Bush would be another rafter crisis, with thousands of
Haitians headed for the coast of Florida in an election year.

Bush's arms-length Haiti policy nonetheless does come with a political
price.

"People are really angry, you could say radicalized," said Ray Laforest, a
labor organizer in New York and a coordinator for the Haiti Support Network,
an aid and advocacy group. "It's an end of innocence about this country's
respect for democracy, which is really quite expendable."

News about Aristide's departure -- and rumors that he was dragged out of the
country -- shook up New York's immigrant neighborhoods.

Protesters plan demonstrations outside the United Nations today.

"This is the buzz everywhere. This is the main topic of conversation,"
Laforest said. "There's a cynicism about the whole process. People are
saying, `This has to be the last term for this man, President Bush.' "

Haitian immigrants make up a tiny fraction of the electorate, though their
clout is enhanced by the fact that they tend to vote in blocs and are
clustered in big electoral states, mainly New York and Florida.

The 2000 Census put the number of Haitian-Americans nationwide at 548,190,
including 233,000 in Florida. That number is probably an under-count by at
least a fourth, said Alex Stepick, director of the Immigration and Ethnicity
Institute at Florida International University.

Haitian-Americans strongly tend to vote for Democrats regardless of their
feelings about Bush, which could minimize the political consequences. Also,
many Haitian-Americans had become disenchanted with Aristide and were happy
to see him go.

"It probably will intensify their Democratic Party tendencies," Stepick
said. "Maybe it would mean a few more will go to the polls. The way it could
really have implications is if it leads to a flow of people coming here, and
the administration moves to stop the flow. Then we will have comparisons
between Haitians and Cubans, and Haitians will get support from the much
larger black population."

The Haiti crisis also has reinforced a wider concern that Bush has abandoned
his neighbors in the Western Hemisphere while waging war and stretching U.S.
resources in the Near East.

His critics in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail cite the
Haitian policy as an example of scorn for international sensibilities and
neglect of nearby regions.

"I think it's incredibly ironic that here we are 600 miles off the [Haitian]
coast, and we are watching the foreign minister of France take the lead,"
Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, said after meeting with State Department
officials. "It's really a pathetic situation in terms of American
involvement in this hemisphere."

Bush came to office promising to foster relations with Mexico and other
neighbors as a top priority.

The administration has continued to pursue a hemispheric trade pact and an
immigration accord with Mexico, but its attention and resources for the most
part were diverted elsewhere after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

As a result, Bush's focus has shifted away from Latin America, and his
assiduous courting of Hispanic voters has been sidelined.

Most of all, Bush is intent on protecting U.S. citizens in Haiti while
preventing a mass migration for Florida shores -- a potential crisis that
would recall the waves of Cubans who came in 1980 and undermined
then-President Jimmy Carter. That is why the administration hurriedly urged
Americans to leave Haiti, discouraged visitors from going there and at the
same time sent fleeing Haitians back home.

"People should not be sent into a civil war zone where people are being
killed indiscriminately on the street," Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fort
Lauderdale, said on Monday after introducing legislation to grant temporary
protected status for undocumented Haitians.

"[The administration] ignored Haiti for several years, and I think
contributed to the crisis," he said.

The policy provided a rallying point for Haitian-Americans, who are
organizing to try to defeat Bush in the general election.

Some of the anti-Bush rallies in Miami-Dade County in recent days have drawn
non-Haitian participants.

"They are expressing their frustration," said Marleine Bastien, vice
chairwoman of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition.

Laforest, the labor organizer in New York, cited a Haitian saying: "Those
who give the blow forget. Those who carry the scar remember."

"And we carry major scars."

William E. Gibson can be reached at wgibson@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8256
in Washington.





Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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