21314: radtimes: Mumia: Behind the coup d'etat in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Mumia: Behind the coup d'etat in Haiti

-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 15, 2004
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FROM DEALTH ROW:
BEHIND THE COUP D'ETAT IN HAITI

Make no mistake, we are witnessing a coup taking place on the island
nation of Haiti. The forced departure of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was something that the Bush administration has been trying to
do for years. It saw the opportunity, and--wham!--
it took it.

Now, it has installed a puppet as prime minister, and tries to install a
president to its liking. This is what American "democracy" means: the
power to impose U.S. imperial will on a sovereign government.

Several years ago, writers for the Haïti-Progrès newspaper wrote:

"The destabilization campaign against the Haitian government is being
led by the Bush faction of the U.S. bourgeoisie, which is arch-
reactionary and hostile to regimes which even pay lip-service to a
progressive agenda, as Aristide once did. Two conservative retreads from
the previous Bush administration, Undersecretary of State for the
Americas Otto Reich and Ambassador to the Organization for American
States (OAS) Roger Noriega, are spearheading the campaign to uproot
Aristide, whom they charge is becoming an 'illegitimate president' of a
'parish state,' even as other OAS states stand by wringing their hands
at the plight of the besieged president." (From "Haiti--A Slave
Revolution: 200 Years After 1804," Ramsey Clark et al. Article by Kim
Ives, "Class Analysis of a Crisis.")

Haïti-Progrès newspaper published this article in October 2002. They
warned that elements of the Haitian bourgeoisie would ally themselves
with their very rivals, the land-rich "grandons," and the latter would
bring forth the same forces that held sway under the Duvalier
dictatorship.

Lo and behold--within days of the coup against Aristide, who emerges but
Gerard Latortue, a man who served as ambassador in the short-lived
military-backed government of Leslie Manigat, back in 1988. Manigat was
overthrown by Gen. Henri Namphy some six months after his term began.
Now, a face from that government is installed as PM--and what are his
first words?

"Bring back the army!" He has called Aristide's disbanding of the army
"unconstitutional."

We are now watching the re-emergence of neo-Duvalierists, who want to
reinstate the power of the Macoutes.

The Bush regime calls this "democracy," but the Haitian people have
another idea. They have seen the U.S. come in before, using words like
"democracy," and saw, instead, occupation and humiliation.

Haitian poet Paul Laraque in his poem, "Reign of a Human Race," gives a
poignant definition that arises from Haitian history:

You say democracy

and it's America to the Yankee

it's the rape of nations

It's Sandino's blood

And Peralte's crucifixion

You say democracy

and it's the plunder of our wealth

from Hiroshima to Indochina

you spread the slaughter everywhere

and everywhere ruin ....

(See "Haiti--A Slave Revolution," pp. 163-64. Charlemagne Peralte was
the leader of the Cacos Rebellion against the U.S. occupation in Haiti
of 1915-1919. Peralte was captured and slain by U.S. Marines, his nearly
nude body chained to wood, with his arms outstretched, like in
crucifixion.)

Slowly, but surely, Americans are giving the people of the world a bad
taste for the word "democracy." It means, simply, that the rest of the
world must submit to American business will.

Haiti is facing dire times as the "grandons" and the bourgeoisie launch
another war of exploitation against the Haitian poor.

That's what it's all about. Who will profit from the exploitation of the
Haitian peasantry?

Who shall rule?

The U.S. seems determined to make sure that the Haitian people will have
little say in the matter. That's why they sent Aristide into a forced
exile--the man who won some 85 percent of the Haitian people's vote!

Down with U.S. meddling! Let the Haitian People govern themselves!

.