19963: Esser: Haitian Democracy be Damned! (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.org

Weekend Edtion
March 6 / 7, 2004

A Shot Off the Bow
Haitian Democracy be Damned!
By JACK RANDOM

We have seen in Haiti what happens when a democracy goes against the
interests and ideology of the Bush administration. For all their talk
of democracy (the only surviving rationale for the war on Iraq), we
now know what we ought to have known all along: America's support is
contingent on cooperation in free trade policies; democracy be damned!

"It is clear to us who know Haiti that this is not an uprising of the
people against their government, but rather a military operation by
former soldiers and death squads with the support of shadowy sectors
in the US and Dominican governments," says Ray Laforest of the Haiti
Support Network.

Mr. Laforest is generous in his analysis. When true history makes its
account it will record that the shadows of this government began at
the top. It will reveal that special operations, with the expressed
support of the president, were dispatched to foster unrest and to
organize, supply, arm and finance opposition forces for the sole
purpose of overthrowing lawfully elected governments in Haiti and
Venezuela. It remains to be seen if Lula of Brazil has sufficiently
reformed his policies to avoid the same fate.

The action in Haiti is a shot off the bow. It is a warning to all
governments in the hemisphere: Drop your trade barriers and allow the
international corporations to move in or you will be replaced by any
means.

The arrogance of this administration has reached new heights. They
will proceed with their plans for global dominance even in an
election year. They will not so much as pretend to be peacemakers (or
rather their pretense is so blatantly fraudulent that it is offered
as a mere diplomatic courtesy). They will mock their glorified claims
to democracy and flaunt it like a drag queen at a gay pride parade.

The case against Aristide seems to be that he came to power in a
fraudulent election (he won with 90% of the vote) and his
administration was corrupt.

The audacity of the Bush White House is almost admirable. We had
heard about a fraudulent millennial election but it was several
hundred miles north of Port-au-Prince. Did Aristide disenfranchise
tens of thousands of registered voters? Did he purge the electorate
and blockade the polls? Did he hire partisan thugs to stop a mandated
recount? Was he appointed by a politicized Supreme Court? Americans
were instructed to forgive and forget the "shenanigans" of our own
politicians but the poor citizens of Haiti must endure another in a
long line of military coups.

Was there corruption in the Aristide government? Is there a third
world nation on earth that is immune to the charge? How would it
compare to the Enron debacle and the fraudulent west coast energy
crisis? Fifty billion dollars were stolen from the California economy
alone, bankrupting the state and triggering a nationwide recession,
yet none of the Bush supporting Texas corporations responsible has
been held to account. California was rewarded with a political coup
but at least we were spared a military occupation.

What really went down in Haiti? We know that economic sanctions were
imposed on the hemisphere's most impoverished state. We know that the
leaders of the insurgency - Guy Philippe, Jean Pierre Baptiste and
Louis Jodel Chamblain - are thugs, assassins and terrorists who
served the former Duvalier regime and the reversed 1990 coup. We know
that they were well armed and organized in military units. We know
that they returned to Haiti from exile and their numbers poured
across the Dominican border. We know that they converged on the
capital with machine-like precision, facing little resistance from a
stunned and desperate populace.

Who organized the operation: Haitian exiles or operatives in Langley,
Virginia? The operation bears all the markings of central
intelligence. In all but the outcome, it is a replay of the failed
Venezuelan coup of April 2002. For two days it appeared that that
coup had succeeded until the people rose up to demand democracy and
the military backed down. The battle goes on in Venezuela. What
prevents a similar reversal in Haiti is the absence of a Haitian
military (abolished by Aristide in 1995) and the imposition of a
clearly biased international force, lead by America with the
cooperation of France (both accountable for Haitian reparations).
What will follow are continued poverty, suffering and struggle.

The Bush administration is right in one regard: There is an inherent
desire for freedom and democracy. It may lie dormant under conditions
of extreme poverty and oppression but it will rise again.

For Americans, there are a great many questions and an obligation to
demand answers:

1. What role did our intelligence community play in the insurgency?
Did we provide planning, logistical support, arms and financing for
the uprising? Were our operatives on the ground in Haiti or in the
Dominican Republic? Did we engage in propaganda or "Cyclops" to
foster unrest? Did we act to destabilize the population?

2. What role did the US play in pushing Jean-Bertrand Aristide into
exile? Did we apply pressure? Did we threaten or otherwise influence
the lawfully elected president of a sovereign nation to leave his
country in the hands of terrorists?

3. When the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) plan for restoring peace
and stability within a democratic framework was rejected by the
rebels and accepted by Aristide, why did we then side with the
rebels? Why did this administration demand Aristide's removal from
office against all precepts of democratic transition?

4. What happens now? Have we assumed responsibility for nation
building in Haiti? We will detain Aristide's followers at Guantanamo
Bay or let them suffer retribution? Will we commit our troops, our
aid and assistance for the long term or was it just about getting rid
of Aristide?

5. What was and is our role in the continuing violence in Venezuela?
Under the blissful eye of a cooperative corporate media, have we
embarked on a murderous policy of covert operations reminiscent of
the Cold War era?

Under the administration of Ronald Reagan, when anti-Castro fanatics
such as Roger Noriega and Otto Reich (servants of the current
administration) ran terrorist operations throughout Latin America,
Congress finally found the courage to conduct hearings. The results
were a shock to the American psyche and a temporary halt to the
terrorist war in Nicaragua. We must demand that our congressional
leaders conduct comprehensive hearings now. Unlike their
predecessors, congressional oversight must not only be intensive but
ongoing. The Bush administration's campaign of covert operations in
contradiction to democracy and in detriment to the anti-terrorist
cause must end. We have too many enemies already.

It is not for us, as the most powerful nation on earth, to select
which kinds of governments are allowed to proceed from democracy. It
is our greater challenge and ultimate responsibility to embrace
democracy in all its diverse forms.


Jack Random is the author of Ghost Dance Insurrection (Dry Bones
Press 2000) and the Jazzman Chronicles, Volume One (Crow Dog Press
2003). He can be reached through: http://jackrandom.com.
.