22757: Fuller on The Other Regime Change 22720 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Anne Fuller <affuller3@yahoo.com>

Like Guy, I find Blumenthal’s article, “Did the Bush administration allow a
network of
right-wing Republicans to foment a violent coup in Haiti?” very
interesting.  I’ve sent a short version of these comments to Salon.com.

Max Blumenthal has dug up some valuable stuff.  Certain of his points jibe
with my own recollections of IRI activities in the 2000s – I knew of
people, for instance, going to Santo Domingo for IRI training sessions,
members of student and women’s organizations as much as political
parties.  (The latest session was quite recent.)  And I recall Ambassador
Curran’s audacious speech to the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce where
he criticized the Washington chimères.  I hadn’t caught that he was
referring to IRI and Lucas but that makes perfect sense.

But unfortunately, Blumenthal makes so many mistakes, in particular with
his chronology, that his conclusions are bound to be questioned.  Here are
the errors I found.  My comments are in italics:

“In February 2003, as insurgents went on the offensive and Haiti began
descending into chaos….” This was in February 2004.

“In February 2002 the insurgents attacked, crossing into Haiti and
laying siege to its second largest city, Cap-Haitien.”  Again, this was
February 2004.

“But Aristide was overthrown a year later by FRAPH, a CIA-backed junta
led by Raoul Cedras….”  -and-  “By 1992, while the U.S.-friendly Cedras'
FRAPH death squads rampaged through Haiti's slums and slaughtered Aristide
supporters by
the thousands, Fauriol hired Haitian national Stanley Lucas to head IRI's
operations there.”  FRAPH was not a junta.  It was a death squad, but it
could not overthrow Aristide because it only emerged in 1993.

“With conditions deteriorating, Aristide clung to power using a mixture
of firebrand rhetoric and repression, surrounding himself with cronies and
hiring armed gangs to intimidate his opponents. Meanwhile, confronted with
a Clinton White House that preferred to hold its nose to Aristide's
corruption and focus on building Haiti's fragile democracy, a coalition of
Republicans used IRI as a Trojan horse.”  Blumenthal seems to have Clinton
in the White House in 2002-4!

“Despite IRI's efforts to create a credible opposition to Aristide, the
Convergence proved a lame horse; the party was blown out by Aristide's
popular Lavalas party in the 2000 local and parliamentary elections.”  -
and- “According to IRI's Scott, from 1998 to 2002, IRI bolstered
Convergence with "less than $2 million."’   The Democratic Convergence was
created shortly after the 2000 local and parliamentary elections, by
various parties united in their opposition to Aristide.  It has never been
a political party.

“IRI currently hosts Group of 184's home page on its Haiti policy Web site,
which features photos of anti-Aristide demonstrations in Port-au-Prince
last March.”  I looked at the IRI website and found no mention of the
G-184.  I think Blumenthal is thinking of the Haitian Democracy Group whose
website is haitipolicy.org and which certainly has supported the Group of
184, but not in connection with IRI as far as I know.

“According to a June 15 press release from the nonpartisan Council on
Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, in addition to many hundreds of Aristide
supporters murdered inside Port-au-Prince itself, convicted criminals,
former paramilitary leaders and other vigilantes retain effective control
of most of
the Haitian countryside.”  Blumenthal is distancing himself from this
information by citing the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, but there is
simply no credible evidence of hundreds of Aristide supporters murdered.

             Guy discusses the rumors that Ambassador Curran was gay.  I
remember hearing these, but the only way I saw them used politically was in
a rash of really nasty Lavalas graffiti all over Port-au-Prince, including
on the walls of the US embassy.  I don’t remember exactly when this was,
maybe early 2003, but it followed some statement or move of Curran’s
criticizing the government.

It seems likely that IRI and especially Stanley Lucas, helped hasten
Aristide’s departure. But was it a coup d’etat?   As Blumenthal says, and I
admit to taking his words out of context, Aristide was a “corrupt,
problematic leader,” “surrounding himself with cronies and hiring armed
gangs to intimidate his opponents.”  The opposition was nourished above all
by Aristide’s unfortunate behavior.  The main contribution of IRI was
likely in encouraging Haitian opposition forces to accept no
compromise.  But then, this is also a good Haitian tradition.

Anne Fuller