22814: radtimes: Occupied Haiti: Resistance Still Burns (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Occupied Haiti: Resistance Still Burns

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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 29, 2004
issue of Workers World newspaper
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OCCUPIED HAITI: MASSES CONTINUE TO RESIST U.S. COUP

By Pat Chin

Leaders of CARICOM, the association of Caribbean nations, at a July 6
meeting, refused to recognize the Washington-installed government of
Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. Under tremendous pressure from
the Bush administration, however, a CARICOM delegation is meeting in
Port-au-Prince for talks aimed at restoring future diplomatic ties with
Haiti.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government was overthrown on Feb. 29
by U.S.- and French-backed mercenaries working in collusion with sectors
of the Haitian bourgeoisie and non-governmental organizations funded by
the Ronald Reagan-created International Republican Institute. The U.S.
spent millions to topple Aristide, a popular leader who had been
overwhelmingly re-elected in 2000.

As of now, the Organization of Amer ican States still plans to execute
CARICOM's request for an investigation into Aristide's forced departure
from Haiti, following the United Nations' failure to do so.

Meanwhile, the neocolonial takeover of Haiti has been given a Latin
Americanized makeover. While U.S., French and Canad ian troops remain in
Haiti in reduced numbers, on June 25 the new UN mission MINUSTAH took
over, formally headed by a Brazilian. Argentina and Chile are also
playing leading roles. This has sparked criticism of these "progressive"
Latin American governments for collaborating with the occupation. Other
countries, including Sri Lanka and Pakistan, also plan to send troops
and police.

Not many Haitians have been fooled by the new façade and resistance
continues, led by the National Popular Party (PPN) and other grassroots
groups.

THREATENING TO REBEL

On June 29, residents of Cayes-Jacmel protested the lack of court
services.

In Grand-Goave on June 28, according to Haiti Progres newspaper,
"Traffic was paralyzed for several hours ... where burning barricades
were placed across the road."

In Cap-Haitien on June 25, people threatened a rebellion if the
government didn't respond to their needs.

In Labory, they also demanded "the authorities take action to deal with
the lack of drinking water ... electricity ... proper sanitation and
drainage." (Vision 2000)

Weeks earlier, despite the repression, thousands had rallied in Port-au-
Prince for Aristide's return and an end to the occupation.

Haiti Progres newspaper, the only openly critical news medium, continues
to publish. The anti-war movement should stand ready to defend this
courageous act of resistance should the U.S.-installed regime attempt to
close it down.

Under the new imperialist-installed puppet regime, Haiti has become a
cauldron of repression against the popular movement. An estimated 3,000
Haitians have been killed in Washington's bid to make the country more
sweatshop- and privatization-compliant for capitalist super-
exploitation.

Deposed Prime Minister Yvon Neptune went underground in March to avoid
assassination. After coming out of hiding he was arrested on June 27 and
will face trial on spurious charges. Neptune is the highest-ranking
Lavalas official to be taken in. Many Aristide supporters and members of
his Lavalas Family Party have also been arrested since the coup. Others
have fled into hiding or exile.

"This," said former Aristide spokes person Mario Dupuy, "confirms, for
those who still had doubts, the hideous and revolting character of this
tropical fascism." ("Haiti in Chains," www.blackcommentator.com, July 8)

U.S. ENGINEERED BLOODY RAMPAGE

Haiti's merchant class allied itself with the big landowners and others
to topple Aristide. The U.S.-engineered campaign included a bloody
rampage of terror by heavily armed former members of the brutal
disbanded military and paramilitary death squads, masquerading as
"freedom fighters." They violently seized a broad swath of Haitian
territory and threatened Port-au-Prince just prior to Aristide's being
forced on a plane into exile by U.S. Marines.

Aristide had implemented sections of the International Monetary Fund's
privatizing "death plan" for Haiti, which cost him some popular support.
This was particularly true among rice farmers who couldn't compete with
rice imported from the U.S. But Aristide had also initiated social
programs aimed at helping Haiti's poor majority, who have grown even
more impoverished since the coup and devastating floods that have caused
widespread death and destruction in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Despite making concessions to the IMF, Aristide was not viewed by the
imperialists as being sufficiently corporate friendly. Moreover, he
remained popular among the poor masses who resist, through popular
organizations and other means, domination by foreign capital.

After Aristide's re-election, the Bush administration had immediately
blocked more than $500 million in international loans and aid to Haiti.
Randall Robinson, founder of TransAfrica, retorted: "There may not be
the bullet-ridden bodies ... but there are the nameless, faceless poor,
who buckle under the weight of an embargo that--incredibly--denies their
elected government already-approved loans for safe drinking water,
literacy programs, and health care." (Quoted in "The U.S. War Against
Haiti Hidden from the Headlines," Haiti Action Committee)

Since Aristide's kidnapping and exile, thousands of people have been
killed or jailed.

In "In Defense of the Disinherited," Jamaican columnist John Maxwell
calls on progressives to come to Haiti's aid:

"The Haitians have managed to survive in the face of the most long-
lasting and purposeful genocidal campaign in history," he said. "They
suffered because they helped Bolivar ... because they understood the
indivisibility of freedom and liberty. They suffer because they defeated
and repudiated slavery. Had they been Euro peans, their valor and
nobility would be celebrated in song and story, in legend and myth."
(www.jamaicaobserver.com, July 3)

Huge numbers of Haitians in the U.S. will participate in protests around
the July Democratic National Convention in Boston. The ANSWER Coalition
has joined with Haitian groups in this mass effort that will demand an
end to colonial occupation of Iraq, Palestine and Haiti, among other
important issues.

For further information, e-mail the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
at Erzilildanto@aol.com, or call (917) 337-6702. Boston ANSWER can be
reached at (617) 522-6626, or info@answerboston.org.

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