22741: Antoine: Re: 22720: The Other Regime Change (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <guyantoine@haitiforever.com>


Re: The Other Regime Change, Max Blumenthal, Salon.com

"The Other Regime Change" by Max Blumenthal is a very
interesting article in that the writer brings together a lot
of facts about the fall of Aristide. Most of those facts, if
not all, were previously known but rarely presented in a way
to provide a coherent background of operational maneuvers
leading to the political event of the decade (as far as
Haitians are concerned).  That is in sharp contrast to the
exchanges that have come about from competing ideologies,
left and right, progressive and reactionary, liberal and
conservative,  lavalas / convergence / human-rights / 184,
civil society and chimera, rebels and industrialists,
freedom fighters and terrorists... articulating their
visions
on behalf of 8 million people who cannot ever be trusted
to say the right thing at the dinner table.

Still one wishes to understand not only why it happens but
how.  Who has the recipe for a coup d'etat?  What goes into
the mix and in what proportions?  Retrace the chain of
command from foot soldier to general.  More compelling than
ready-made pre-written answers, an investigative tale would
allow us to look directly into the beast's eyes. Frightening
as it seems, the beast cannot sustain everyone's glare.
Something's got to give.  It usually happens around
November...

Even setting aside speculative accounts from dedicated
C-theorists, I have not met anyone, save perhaps one equally
stubborn anti/C-theorist, who would not agree that
successful coups against popularly elected governments are
carefully planned over time, sponsored by the rich and
powerful, and methodically (if not always smoothly)
executed.  In Blumenthal's text, the hand of the U.S. is
clearly revealed in one hundred and one ways.  All of which
are steeped in U.S. policy traditions, penchant for
underhandedness, and ultimate interference in the affairs of
countries that cannot defend themselves.

The storytelling is marred only by Blumenthal's seemingly
interchangeable use of dates, such as "February 2002",
"February 2003", and the unstated "February 2004".  If you
don't believe me, read the story more carefully.  If the
chronology is right, I will check in a mental hospital
tomorrow.

More forgiving is Blumenthal's reference to G. Latortue
as Haiti's president.  What's in a title anyway?  To most
people here or in Haiti, the guy in charge must be a
president of sorts, not a minister.  We would even settle
for vice-president.

Yet, I found the following passage highly interesting and
surprising:

{ Meanwhile, IRI's Lucas began to sabotage the U.S.
ambassador, Brian Dean Curran, a career diplomat and Clinton
appointee who had evidence that Lucas was undermining
diplomatic efforts to resolve Haiti's political crisis.
Seeking to weaken Curran politically, Lucas spread
destructive rumors about his personal life, according to a
close associate of Curran's who asked to remain anonymous.
A journalist with access to U.S. diplomats in Haiti offered
a similar account. Curran's associate also said that Lucas
threatened Curran and another embassy official, claiming
they would be fired "as soon as the real U.S. policy is
enacted." IRI refused to discuss Lucas' interactions with
Curran or embassy officials.  In response to Lucas'
freebooting, Curran demanded that USAID block him from
participating in IRI's Haiti program. During a March 10,
2004, Senate hearing on Haiti, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.,
pressed Noriega for details of Lucas' involvement. "The
approval of this new grant was conditioned on the IRI
[Haiti] director, Stanley Lucas, being barred from
participating in this program for a period of time because
the U.S. ambassador in Haiti had evidence that he was
undermining U.S. efforts to encourage Haitian opposition
cooperation with the OAS efforts to broker a compromise.
(...)  Lucas' continued role frustrated Curran; he resigned
in July 2003. In his farewell address in Port-au-Prince,
Curran remarked, "There were many in Haiti who preferred not
to listen to me, the president's representative, but to
their own friends in Washington, sirens of extremism or
revanchism on the one hand or apologists on the other,"
Curran said. "They don't hold official positions. I call
them the 'chimeres' [a Haitian slang term for "political
thugs"] of Washington." }

Interesting and surprising in that a Haitian would rise to a
level of influence considerable enough to undermine a U.S.
ambassador... a white one at that!  Imagine, a "nigger who
speaks French" earns enough mileage to "threaten
[ambassador] Curran and another embassy official, claiming
they would be fired as soon as the real U.S. policy is
enacted".  Heady stuff !  There must be something real about
minority power in Washington D.C. these days.  Should we
thank George, Colin, or Condi?

Did Stanley Lucas feel emboldened because he was pitting
himself against another "minority"?  "Lucas spread
destructive rumors about his personal life," says
Blumenthal.  The rumors about Curran's alleged homosexuality
certainly reached me all the way in the boondocks off the
Northeast's infamous turnpike, though I had no idea that
Lucas might have been the originator.  The rumor, as it
reached me, was that Curran openly lived a homosexual
lifestyle in Haiti.  I will make the small leap of
imagination required in assuming that Blumenthal is
referring to the same rumor. I have to confess that this
particular rumor surprised me greatly on two counts, even
though I could not possibly care less about the man's sexual
orientation: First, it would point to a rather sudden and
surprising level of maturity from the Haitian people, who
never made a fuss of it in the press and never wrote a
carnival song about it.  Very commendable, I thought, but
had I grown so much apart from my people that I would
misjudge their usually insatiable desire to have some fun at
the expense of highly placed people, especially one who'd
made himself a convenient target by being preachy about
Haitian morals and government ethics?  After all, while
homosexuality may be "in deed" more tolerated in Haiti than
elsewhere, there has never been any restraint on the Haitian
tongue when it comes to the cheapest of all activities,
talking about someone else's affairs, real or imagined. Even
more surprising, if that is possible, was the thought of a
U.S. ambassador casually entertaining same sex partners
while serving a government paid for by Ashcroft/Helms
Christian fundamentalists, who assimilate homophobia to one
of the Founding Fathers' constitutional precepts.  My
interlocutor assured me however that Curran was admired by
the diplomatic staff, precisely because of his honesty and
uncommon courage in being "outed" while representing an
ultra-conservative administration.  Until I read
Blumenthal's piece, I grudgingly accepted this version of
the story which goes counter to my cultural understanding.
Someone else had a theory: "Guy, you have no idea how
powerful those Americans have become.  Who would dare
mock them?  They control everything, down to the list
of admissible carnival songs."  I swallowed hard.  In that
vision, resistance was indeed futile.  The emperor had
become a deity.

I do not subscribe to divinity on Earth however.
Optimistically I think that one has to reach the zenith of
power before falling from grace.  There must be an
ostentatious parade before the child remarks that the
emperor has no clothes.  But someone had to fool the
emperor.  Could it have been the omnipresent Lucas?
Who truly is the Haitian Chalabi?

Let's read further:

{ By the time of Curran's departure, IRI's Haiti program was
flush with a $1.2 million grant from USAID for 2003 and
2004. According to IRI's Scott, "roughly $200,000" of that
grant was used to junket over 600 Haitian opposition figures
to the Dominican Republic and the U.S. to meet with IRI.
With IRI's help, they formed a new coalition called Group of
184 representing the "civil society" wing of the opposition.
IRI currently hosts Group of 184's home page on its Haiti
policy Web site... And Scott acknowledged that "IRI played
an advisory role in Group of 184's formation." }

Enough to chew on for a while in comparative analysis, but I
must rest here.  The story is unfolding and books will be
written.  It is my hope they will contain more facts than
opinions.   Facts are the corrective lenses we should reach
for to look squarely into the eyes of the beast.


Guy S. Antoine
Editor and content manager
Windows on Haiti, haitiforever.com