20231: radtimes: What led to the U.S.-engineered coup? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

What led to the U.S.-engineered coup?

http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-1/490/490_06_Aristide.shtml

Behind Aristide's fall

March 12, 2004 | Page 6

HELEN SCOTT and ASHLEY SMITH look at how Jean-Bertrand Aristide arose as a
leader of the mass movement against dictatorship in Haiti--and why his
compromises with U.S. imperialism set the stage for his overthrow.

IN 1986, Haiti's dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier was driven out of
power by a mass movement called Lavalas, which means "cleansing flood." The
main leader of Lavalas' alliance of peasants, urban workers, the poor and
liberal capitalists was a priest called Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who--in the
face of the dictatorship's repression--courageously championed the Haitian
masses in church and on the radio.

Aristide combined liberation theology and anti-capitalist rhetoric, though
his politics were far from socialist and focused on attaining relatively
moderate reforms. Washington wasn't pleased. After whisking its long-time
ally Baby Doc--along with the money he looted from Haiti--to safety, the
U.S. launched a hysterical campaign against Aristide, exaggerating his
radicalism and questioning his mental stability.

In the 1990 elections, Washington backed former World Bank official Marc
Bazin against Aristide--hoping both to quell Lavalas and give a democratic
veneer to an unchanged system. Haiti's army and the Tonton Macoutes death
squads terrorized supporters of Lavalas.

But Aristide nevertheless won an astonishing 67 percent of the
vote--against 14 percent for Bazin--in the first free and fair elections in
Haiti's history. As one U.S. official put it, "Aristide--slum priest,
grassroots activists, exponent of liberation theology--represents
everything that the CIA, DOD and FBI think they have been trying to protect
this country against for the past 50 years."

Fearing that Aristide and Lavalas could set an example for the whole
region, the U.S. government launched a destabilization campaign as Aristide
took office. Washington helped build up the FRAPH death squads--and
covertly backed the 1991 military coup that drove Aristide from office.

Haiti's military and paramilitary murderers killed 7,000 people in the next
three years--and caused an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees who
tried to sail to the U.S. on rafts. George Bush Sr. and then Bill Clinton
returned the refugees to the coup regime--or kept them in detention centers
in Florida and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Both presidents maintained an
embargo against the coup regime--but it was enforced selectively so that
the coup leaders could enrich themselves while the poor suffered.

Facing domestic and international pressure, Clinton got United Nations (UN)
approval in 1994 for an invasion and occupation of Haiti, supposedly to
restore the democratically elected president Aristide. The real goals of
"Operation Uphold Democracy" were to stop the flow of refugees, restore
order in Haiti and legitimize the use of the U.S. military.

This was the turning point in Aristide's career. In exchange for his return
to power, he signed a deal with the devil, agreeing to an International
Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank structural adjustment program. He accepted
former Duvalierists into his administration and gave up the three years of
his term lost to the coup.

"Aristide should not have come back under those conditions," said Clement
Francois, a member of the executive committee of Tet Kole Ti Peyizan
Ayisyen, a national peasant association. "He should have stayed outside and
let us continue the struggle for democracy. Instead, he agreed to deliver
the country on a platter so that he could get back into office."

U.S. troops removed the coup leaders to a comfortable retirement--and then
set about repressing the popular movement. Washington didn't disarm the
death squads, it gave little aid to rebuild the country, and it used
Aristide to co-opt and control Lavalas.

Back in power, Aristide's government ruled by U.S. permission. Camille
Chalmers, a former aide to Aristide when he was in exile, said that the
post-coup government in Haiti "completely submits itself to the order given
by the United States, a government ready to do whatever it takes as long as
it can remain in power."

Aristide did punish the coup leaders by disbanding the military. He balked
at some privatizations demanded by the IMF, raised the minimum wage and
demanded $21 billion in reparations from Haiti's former colonial master,
France. But these were the exceptions.

When forced to step down in 1995, Aristide selected his René Préval as his
successor--and effectively continued to rule from behind the scenes. By
1996, the contradictions within the Lavalas cross-class alliance erupted
into a major split.

Amid accusations of election irregularities, Aristide was voted into the
presidency again in 2000. By this time, his growing authoritarianism had
alienated most of his former allies on the left, while the deepening social
crisis undermined his popular support. The U.S. took the opportunity to
impose an aid embargo, intensifying the crisis.

Over the last four years, Aristide and many of his allies enriched
themselves, driving around in SUVs and living in big houses. Corruption
spread, and drug trafficking became a major growth industry. To maintain
his grip, Aristide relied on his own armed thugs, the Chimeres.

Aristide was still despised by the U.S. and Haitian ruling class, who
formed the Democratic Convergence and the Group of 184 to oppose him from
the right. Meanwhile, the death squads regrouped in the Dominican Republic.
Aristide's base of support among the poor had become demoralized and
desperate. Some former allies of Aristide joined the right wing-led
opposition, but no organized opposition came from the left.

Last month, as the rebels swept the country, France and the U.S. called for
Aristide's resignation and, with UN approval, gave a democratic veneer to a
coup that they hoped would deliver a remilitarized neoliberal regime. The
current situation was inevitable from the moment that Aristide accepted the
conditions for his return to power--he would either become a full-fledged
lackey of the U.S. or be driven from power.

Meanwhile, the deteriorating conditions in the country have created despair
and cynicism. "The same social deterioration that ended up giving us this
invasion has also hit the popular movement," said former Aristide ally Jean
Francois. "The movement is incapable of even articulating its disapproval
or of offering an alternative."

Tragically, some on Haiti's left have allowed their disgust with Aristide
to blind them to the real character of the opposition--which is run by
Haiti's ex-military and big business, backed up by the U.S. government.
This opposition must be opposed. We have to expose the U.S.-engineered coup
and defend Aristide's government and the right of Haiti's people to
self-determination--while challenging Aristide from the left.

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