20653: Esser: Washington and Paris overthrow Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

.From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

PETROLEUMWORLD Venezuela
http://www.petroleumworld.com

Washington and Paris overthrow Aristide
By Thierry Meyssan

Coup d'Etat in Haïti

Washington and Paris reconciled their colonial interests in the
Carribean by going on the attack with a cunning, well organized coup
d'Etat in Haïti to overthrow elected president Aristide. After
building an opposition that suited US interests, in the shape of
former Duvalier regime financial handyman Andre Apaid, Washington
then created armed opposition headed by former putschist officer Guy
Philippe. Meanwhile, French powerbrokers Regis Debray and Veronique
de Villepin-Albanel tried to force Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign.
Eventually, as the street remained loyal to Aristide, the "rebels"
did not sweep into Port-au-Prince. It was left to US special forces
to kidnap the president, in a dawn raid on the presidential palace.

On Sunday, 29 February, Aristide resigned as president of the
republic of Haïti, and fled in a US airplane, first stop the Central
African Republic. Before that and in a few days, chaos had spread
through the country and popular outrage at his regime's corruption
sealed Aristide's fate. The United States, officially suspecting him
of being the new Caribbean cocaine baron, was obliged to make sure of
his rapid departure. The movement was lightning fast: Washington and
Paris urgently deployed their first peacekeeping forces, even before
the niceties of a UN Security Council vote for the dispatch of
international troops. This was the scenario crafted for media
consumers worldwide. Reality is rather different.

Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected by a 67,5% landslide vote
in 1990. At the time, he was the first democratically elected
president in Haiti's history. He chose René Préval as Prime Minister.
But the arrival of a liberation theology activist in the next door
island to Cuba hinted at failure for the United States' Caribbean
communism containment strategy. Aristide was therefore overthrown
eight months later, by general Raoul Cedras and the FRAPH death
squads led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain [1], with the support of the
first Bush administration. To justify this operation, the putschists
declared they were liberating Haiti from a dictatorship that
seriously infringed human rights - claims that were not supported by
facts, and which were denied later on. Exiled to the United States,
Aristide gathered support from the black bourgeoisie to bring help to
the "negro republic". The CIA then attempted to discredit him by
leaking well-crafted, fake medical files presenting him as mentally
incapable. Nevertheless, the growing support for Aristide within the
black American community, even more than the impopularity of Haïti's
military regime, made Bill Clinton back off from his predecessor's
brutal policy and negociate a compromise: Washington offered a
resignation of the junta and Aristide's return in exchange for his
promise he would back off from class struggle, but work to 'reconcile
rich and poor'. No longer would Aristide blame capitalism as a
"deadly sin", but comply with IMF austerity adjstment, in the western
hemisphere's poorest nation.

So Aristide returned in 1994, along with 20 000 GIs in the baggage of
the "Restore Democracy" operation. As Haiti watchers note, Aistide
was in a position of respecting his commitments towards Washington,
or betraying the hopes of his voters. Heading his party, as provided
by a constitution that bars two successive mandates as party head, it
was his Prime Minister, Rene Preval, who ran for party chief, and was
elected with 88% of the votes. Since Preval was not tied to
Aristide's engagements he dissociates himself from New Econimics
orthodoxy. In November 2000, thirteen officers trained in Ecuador
seized the opportunity of Preval's trip to Asia, and made a coup
attempt, but failed. Their leader, the spirited Guy Philippe, then
fled to the US embassy in Port-au-Prince. When Preval's mandate
ended, Aristide ran for president again, and again received a 91%
landslide, in a troubled context and with massive abstention.
Aristide then sealed his fate by turning back to anti-imperialist
policy, among other things demanding that France refund the 90
million gold Francs extorted from Haïti between 1825 and 1885 [2].

The Bush-2 administration made its decision to overthrow him at the
end of 2002, and found a good community of views with France on this
subject, since both nations have traditionally seen Haiti as needing
common control. Paris, conversely, did not set its stance until
summer 2003. By then, a common plan was laid down for the coup that
was coming.

Act 1: "democratic" destabilization

On the American side, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
built a "democratic opposition" through financing "civilian" action
groups. Under-Secretary Roger Noriega [3] implemented a work group
"for the restoration of democracy" at the Brookings Institution (see
our investigation "The CIA destabilizes Haïti").

Act 2: Diplomatic coercion

On the French side, the operation was supervised by Régis Debray and
Véronique Albanel. The latter is listed as president of the
"Universal Brotherhood" which carries out charitable action in Haïti,
linked with the catholic church. Albanel is also the sister of
Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin, wife of France's foreign secretary
de Villepin, and the wife of French airforce general Baudoin Albanel.

On July 15, 2003, Andre Apaid [3], a former financial handyman of the
Duvalier regime [5] and the leader of Group 184 [6], started raising
the pressure, with a meeting organized in a slum devoted to Aristide,
the Cite Soleil. Apaid asked for aid and protection from France, who
provided him with armed escorts, and the presence of French embassy
first secretary Stephane Grumberg. As hoped and planned, the meeting
soon turned into riot, leaving 6 dead and 40 wounded by gunfire.
Witnesses blamed French guards as solely responsible for the
slaughter, which of course was denied by the embassy [7].

On December 17, 2003, at 3 pm, Regis Debray showed up at the
presidential palace to demand that elected president Jean-Bernard
Aristide resign. This was refused, and was followed a few days later
by the public release by Debray and Villepin-Albanel of their report
to Foreign secretary Dominique de Villepin. The report noted: "Let us
not fool ourselves. The resignation of President Aristide will not
make the country more prosperous overnight, nor will it make it more
productive." (p. 35). "Many persons imagine rivalry exists where
there is in fact complementarity [i.e. between the USA. and France],
and though our means of influence are not the same, they can and must
add up, for the good of Haiti. It may be the [French] President's
task, or at least the Foreign Affairs Minister's, to define from the
beginning, at the best level, the methods and spirit of this
combination. A stronger implication [by France] in Haïti could indeed
not run against the interests of the United States, but should
operate in a well-balanced and cautious spirit." (p. 52). To sum up,
the goal was to overthrow Aristide to defend the common interests of
a large American empire and a small French empire. However, following
the Iraq crisis and in a context of growing German-French alliance in
Europe, Berlin must also had to be brought onside in this joint
effort, and also find its interest within France's tiny empire. The
report continued: "One cannot help thinking of the advantages, not
only symbolic, that would be brought by opening a common French and
German diplomatic mission in Port-au-Prince, which would naturally
echo, on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, by [later] opening of
French-German missions, for example in Windhoek, Namibia, or
elsewhere" (p. 57).

The United States and France put pressure on various Caribbean and
Latin American states to not take part in the the 200th aniversary
ceremonies of the "first Negro republic of America" [8], held on 1
January, 2004, in Port-au-Prince. Only South African president Thabo
Mbeki defied the great powers by attending it.

On 2 January, the Group 184 proposed an 'alternate' transition, of
course including the ouster of Aristide. On 7 January, a street
demonstration turned ugly, and immediately Washington accused the
Aristide government of undemocratic ways. On 13 January, the mandate
of the National Assembly deputies, and two-thirds of Haiti's senators
came to its term, but as the opposition refused to provide any
delegates to the electoral comission, Aristide was unable to organize
elections. He was then accused by the media of being unwilling to
hold them, and imposing a dictatorship.

Act 3: Military destabilization

This rapidly cobbled "democratic" opposition, plus diplomatic
coercion in the background proved ineffective, leading Washington to
set armed activity out of the Dominican Republic, led by Guy
Philippe. The "rebels" quickly took control of several cities and
threatened to march on Port-au-Prince. They aalso refused various
peace plans, whether of the episcopate or that of the Organization of
American States.

The "democratic" opposition headed by Group 184 at all times kept
close contact with US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. On his
instructions, it then dissociated itself from the rebels, so as to
remain clean handed for holding power, and not be tainted by any
atrocities that might have been committed in its name.

On 21 February, the international community's crisis plan was
accepted by Aristide, but rejected by the opposition, which persisted
with its demand that he resign.

On 23 February, fresh troops crossed the Dominican border with
Louis-Jodel Chamblain at their head. AFP commented: "In
Port-au-Prince many think the Dominican army allowed these former
Haitian army soldiers to cross the border with the approval of the
United States, which provided most of its equipment, trained its
leadership and has very close links to Dominica's political
establishment. The Dominican Republic is the only country in the
Carribean that has sent (some 300) soldiers to Iraq when asked by
Washington to do so." [9]

Act 4: The removal

On 26 February, Baudoin Jacques Ketant, a cocaine smuggler handed
over by Aristide on the request of the DEA was tried is Miami,
Florida [10]. In a plea bargain giving him a 27-year reduced prison
sentence, Ketant admitted smuggling more than 30 tons of cocaine to
the United States. He then claimed: "Aristide is a drug baron who
controls Haiti's trafficking (...) He turned his country into a
crossroads for drug dealers".

On 29 February, between 2 am and 3 am, US special forces invaded the
presidential palace. They told Aristide he was to be taken to Miami
and tried for drug trafficking, unless he accepted to resign.
Otherwise, he could wait for Guy Philippe to arrive, who had been
instructed to shoot him. Aristide managed to reach California
representant Maxine Waters by phone, to enable her to testify the
real events, and prevent him from ending in an Allende-type
"suicide". Under the threat of M16s and in the presence of James B.
Foley, ambassador of the United States, and Thierry Burkard,
ambassador of France, Aristide signed a previously-drafted resignatin
statement "to head off a bloodbath". He was then taken by the special
forces to an unmarked, white-colored jetliner, and toof off for
Bangui (Central African Republic), where French agents awaited his
arrival.

While the UN Security Council was called into emergency session to
make a decision on the dispatch of peackekeeper troops, the United
States and France, without waiting for the meeting, had already
dispatched their forces.

In Washington, Otto Reich and Under-Secretary Noriega supervised the
ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. From now on, the Commission for the
Assistance to a Free Cuba, which they also lead, will work to make
use of Haïti as a strategic base to get over the 'unfinished
business' of Fidel Castro, perhaps this summer.

 

[1] The FRAPH is for example responsible for the assassination of
Antoine Izmery (Sept 11, 1993), of Minister of Justice Guy Malary's
execution (Oct 14th, 1993) and of the Raboteau massacre (April 23rd,
1994).

[2] Updated and including interest sums due, this would amount to
about 21 billion US dollars at 2004 parities.

[3] Former parliamentary assistant to far-rightwing senator Jesse
Helmes, Roger Noriega has devoted his life to the destruction of
Liberation theology activitis.

[4] With the aim of being set as Washington's puppet in Haiti, Mr
Apaid was given double Haitian and American nationality.

[5] François and Jean-Claude Duvalier, also known as "Papa doc" and
"Baby doc", established an anti-communist dictatorship from 1957
through 1986.

[6] Group 184 brings together union, press officials and employers,
under supervision of the National Endowment for Democracy, "overtly"
controlled by the CIA.

[7] A lawsuit against French state employees should be filed shortly
by Gilbert Collard in the name of the victims' families.

[8] On January 4th, 1794, the Convention abolishes slavery. The
decree applies to then-French colonial interests in Haiti. First
Consul Napoléon Bonaparte, was however then rushed by his wife's
family (which owned large plantations in the Carribean) to
re-establishes slavery. Toussaint Louverture, in the name of the 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, then proclaims the
autonomist constitution. Bonaparte sends his brother-in-law, general
Leclerc, to crush the rebels. The latter was defeated by Louverture,
Dessalines and Christophe. On the 1st of January 1804, the first
Negro republic of the Americas was proclaimed.

[9] Interviews in Port-au-Prince on the easy border crossing by
former soldiers into Haiti by Dominique Levanti, AFP International,
February 23, 2004.

[10] Baudoin Jacques Kétant is likely to be tried with colonel Michel
François. The latter was n°2 in Raoul Cedras' military regime that
overthrew Aristide. Liege man of the United States, he was trained at
the School of the Americas, and is now hiding in Honduras.

Thierry Meyssan is a Journalist and writer, president of Réseau
Voltaire. Its views are not necessarily those of PETROLEUMWORLD.

Petroleumworld News 03 21 04

Copyright ©Thierry Meyssan 2004, All rights reserved
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