23335: Simidor Re: 23303: Esser: Re: 23292: Stephenson: Re: 23251: (Chamberlain)Ousted Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Simidor <karioka9@mail.arczip.com>


Reading Esser’s post, I seriously wonder where Esser and his fellow Lavalas apologists were back in May 2002, when Aristide or one of his minions sent the helicopter that was always hovering over the capital to pick up a group of Guacimal workers who had been illegally arrested in St. Raphael and bring them to jail in Port-au-Prince.  The workers in question had been set upon by company goons, two of them had been killed, several others wounded, while protesting a breach of contract by the Guacimal bosses.  (BTW, where is that helicopter today, when it could be put to better use?)

You can defend Lavalas for what it was, but to speak of “the rule of law” under such a regime is laughable.  Lavalas WAS government by mob rule.  Remember Aristide’s “Zero Tolerance” speech, and the summary executions that followed across the country?  Remember Rene Civil’s and Ronald Cadavre’s Chimères in Port-au-Prince?  The Cannibal Army in Gonaives?  The Domi Nan Bwa gang in Petit-Goave?  The Bale Wouze militia in St. Marc?  The saintly So Anne and her shipment of rigwaz to whip bourgeois protestors?  The feces and bottles of piss hurled at peaceful demonstrators by so-called Lavalas OPs?

The young toughs breaking into food depots and people’s homes in Gonaives are the same thugs Lavalas empowered.  Some people have romanticized them because of their origin among the people and because of their connection with Lavalas, but these are not modern-day Robin Hoods stealing from the rich to feed the poor.  These are young jackals who prey on the most vulnerable, women and children, the old, the hungry, the sick, the poor.  Under different circumstances, they might have been influenced to play a more constructive role.  But given the desperate situation in Gonaives today, these jackals should be shot – along with the petty bureaucrats and poverty pimps who are conniving as we speak to divert relief food from the needy population.  This is not Aristide’s Zero Tolerance.  Emergency measures are justified in times of crisis, when the rule of law can no longer prevail.

Lavalas corruption and mismanagement are so well-established, it is shocking to read Esser’s blanket denial at this late date.  If the cooperative scandal, or the partitioning of Teleco among Lavalas insiders do not ring a bell, follow this link to one of the best exposures on the subject written by none other than Kim Ives of Haiti-Progrès: http://www.haiti-progres.com/2002/sm020206/ENG02-06.htm.  (And print a copy for yourself as this link is likely to vanish in the near future.)  Aristide was for a few years one of the richest and most powerful men in Haiti.  Questioned on the subject, he answered glibly that he was not THE richest person in the country.  And the source of all this wealth?  The royalties on his books, of course!

Together Baby Doc and Titid share a 25-year negative record on the environment.  Of course this doesn’t mean we should make fun of their crocodile tears....

Daniel Simidor