22697: Haiti Action: COHA: The International Republican Institute: Promulgating Democracy of Another Variety (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haiti Action Committee <info@haitiaction.org>


1250 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 1C, Washington,
D.C.  20036    Phone:  202-216-9261  Fax:
202-223-6035
Email: mailto:coha@coha.org  Website: http://www.coha.org
Council On Hemispheric Affairs
Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic
Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere

Memorandum to the Press 04.40
To Be Released AM Thursday, July 15, 2004
Word Count: 6,461


"The International Republican Institute:
Promulgating Democracy of Another Variety"

  - The International Republican Institute's (IRI)
ostensible democracy-building mission serves only
as a screen for its energetic and unscrupulous
promotion of an ultraconservative Republican
foreign policy agenda.

  - The IRI is more a cloak-and-dagger operation
than a conventional research group.

  - Over the past five years the organization has
aligned itself with the most pro-U.S. and some of
the most antidemocratic factions in both
Venezuela and Haiti and contributed to the
fomenting of coups against leftist presidents
Hugo Chavez and Jean-Bertrand Aristide, all the
while claiming to be engaging in "party building"
and "educational seminars."

  - At the same time, the Institute's Cuba program
is a blatant attempt to funnel taxpayer funds to
boondoggle programs of some of the most hardline
factions of the Cuban-American community, who
have long been a crucial pillar of support for
the Republican party, especially in Florida.

  - The IRI's gross misuse of federal funds
(channeled through the National Endowment for
Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International
Development) to pursue partisan and highly
questionable democracy-destroying adventures
abroad, should be an immediate subject for
Congressional scrutiny and if necessary
curtailment.

  - If one thinks that IRI is a non-partisan
group, have a look at its Board of Trustees.



The International Republican Institute, an
organization that describes itself as being
dedicated to ìadvancing democracy, freedom,
self-government and the rule of law worldwide,î
has in the last two decades earned the
questionable distinction of being perhaps the
least-known of a group of lethal Washington
institutions devoted to the trade of
nation-building, or more accurately termed,
nation undermining.Ý Despite its elaborate
rhetoric and claims to nonpartisanship, the IRI
in fact operates as the powerful and well-funded
foreign policy arm of the ultra rightist wing of
the U.S. Republican Party.Ý It is far more
ideological and operational than its Democratic
Party counterpart, the National Democratic
Institute, and is less concerned with democracy
building than hunting down leftists and crushing
their causes.Ý It would not be too much to say
that the IRI engages in anti-populist witch-hunts
with far more enthusiasm than any of its research
efforts exploring the history or politics of
those countries where it wreaks its havoc. IRIís
seemingly innocuous activities, which are said to
include party-building, media training, the
organization of leadership trainings, the
dissemination of newsletters and the
strengthening of ìcivil society,î mask a far more
aggressive and calculated attempt by the
organization and affiliated hard right Republican
Party ideologues to destabilize liberal political
movements and governments (which it sees as
containing the germ plasm of communism) in this
hemisphere and around the world.Ý Its central,
though unstated, mission is to see to it that
such vanguard movements have leaders perceived as
being more agreeable to Washingtonís orientation
on a given issue.Ý

Not surprisingly, an IRI targeted regime is
characteristically headed by a leftist or
populist leader who is committed to ambitious
social programs and skeptical of the now
widely-discredited neoliberal reforms evoked by
the phrase ìWashington consensus.îÝÝ Entities
backed by the IRI, on the other hand, invariably
show marked solicitude for the interests of large
U.S. financial institutions and corporationsósuch
as Chiquita Banana, whose former chairman Carl
Lindner has long been one of the countryís
primary donors of soft money to the Republican
Party and was recently named a ìSuper Rangerî
fundraiser for the Bush-Cheney reelection
campaign.


<http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/04.40_IRI_Democracy.htm>TO
READ THE ENTIRE TEXT OF THIS PRESS RELEASE, CLICK
HERE


This analysis was prepared by Jessica Leight,
COHA Research Fellow, as part of a COHA/Yale
University project.

July 15, 2004

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in
1975, is an independent, non-profit,
non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information
organization. It has been described on the Senate
floor as being ìone of the nationís most
respected bodies of scholars and policy makers.î
For more information, please see our web page at
www.coha.org; or contact our Washington offices
by phone (202) 216-9261, fax (202) 223-6035, or
email coha@coha.org."