22042: Esser: Bushwhacked in the Caribbean (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Counter Punch
http://www.counterpunch.com

May 22 / 23, 2004

America's Contempt for the World

Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
By RANDALL ROBINSON

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts.

On Feb. 29 the legally elected government of Haiti was driven from
power by armed force. Its president, after being taken against his
will to the Central African Republic, was given refuge in Jamaica.
The Bush administration's response has been to demand that the
democratic countries of the Caribbean (1) drop their call for an
investigation into the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
(2) push the Aristide family out of Jamaica and the region, and (3)
abandon their policy of admitting only democratically elected
governments into the councils of Caricom (a multilateral organization
established by the English-speaking Caribbean countries 31 years ago
to promote regional cooperation).

In addition, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice has warned
Caricom leaders that if one U.S. soldier is killed in Haiti,
Caribbean governments will be held responsible because the Aristide
family was granted sanctuary in the region. In short, the Bush
administration is strong-arming the Caribbean to confer on Haiti's
new "government," headed by Gerard Latortue, a legitimacy it has not
earned and does not deserve. Indeed, 33 of the 39 members of the
Congressional Black Caucus stayed away from a recent Washington
meeting arranged by two congressmen for Latortue.

The United States' demand that Caricom abandon its long-held
insistence on democratic principles is psychic poison to the region.
When Eastern Europe was going through its totalitarian nightmare,
when coups and despotic rule were "normal" in Central and South
America, and when civil strife and dictatorship wracked much of
Africa and Asia, the Caribbean steadfastly upheld its democratic
traditions -- and it continues to do so today.

This is because of the region's well-educated populace and the
caliber of its leaders; no military thugs in business suits here.
 From Rhodes Scholar-Prime Minister Percival J. Patterson of Jamaica
in the north, to professor-lawyer Prime Minister Ralph Gonslaves in
the south (St. Vincent-Grenadines), and from the physician Prime
Minister Denzil Douglas in tiny St. Kitts-Nevis to the economist
Prime Minister Owen Arthur in Barbados, Caribbean heads of government
understand the lessons of history. They recognize the supremacy of
the ballot.

And they know that only democratic values will keep the Caribbean a
zone of peace. Reinhold Niebuhr warned that man's capacity for
justice makes democracy possible, but that man's inclination to
injustice makes democracy necessary. Yet the United States has
unleashed its venom on Caribbean governments because they have
proclaimed Caricom's democratic principles to be inviolable.

Haiti was welcomed as a full member of Caricom because its people had
established a democratic form of government. After the recent
shattering of that democracy, Caribbean heads of government decided
to maintain support for the people of Haiti but allow democratic
elections to determine who will represent Haiti in the councils of
Caricom. "We are the children of slaves," one Caribbean national
explained. "And so, we stay away from the tyranny of the unelected. .
. . If America thinks that an unelected government is fine for Haiti,
when will they say that an unelected government is best for my
country?"

The Bush administration, however, has been implacable. Its officials
were to have come to the Caribbean in April and May to discuss, among
other things, terrorism, but the administration presented Caribbean
governments with an ultimatum: no recognition of Latortue, no
meetings between the United States and the Caribbean leaders. Caricom
reminded U.S. officials that Latortue was not elected by anyone. And
so the meetings are off. Why is the unelected Latortue more important
to the Bush administration than the Caribbean's 14 democratically
elected governments?

Americans must speak out against their government's behavior abroad.
And they must recognize that the atrocities inflicted by U.S.
soldiers on Iraqi prisoners grow out of a hubris and contempt that
far too many U.S. officials display when dealing with much of the
rest of the world. If stable Caribbean democracies are being slapped
around by America because they uphold democratic values, who is safe
in this unipolar world? Certainly not the American people, who are
being made targets of global rage because of these tactics.

Randall Robinson, foreign policy advocate and author of "Quitting
America" and other works, lives in St. Kitts. He can be reached at:
rr@rosro.com
.