23500: Holmstead: Brazilian general in Haiti campaigns for Bush (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>

Brazilian general in Haiti campaigns for Bush

Commentary by the Haiti Information Project (HIP)

October 17, 2004

Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno, the Brazilian commander for
the U.N. peacekeeping troops in Haiti, has plunged
headfirst into the waters of the U.S. presidential
campaign on behalf of George Bush.  It seems the good
general wants to blame John Kerry for recent unrest in
the Caribbean nation.

According to Heleno, in an interview given with the
tacit approval of President Lula to the Brazilian
government's official news agency, "Statements made by
a candidate to the presidency of the United States
created false hopes among pro-Aristide supporters. His
(the candidate's) statements created the expectation
that instability and a change in American policy would
contribute to Aristide's return.'' Heleno was clearly
referring to statements made by Kerry to the New York
Times on March 7. It’s a good thing Kerry isn’t a
Haitian living in Haiti because such an accusation
would most likely result in his arrest or worse by the
Haitian police with “assistance” by Lt. Gen. Heleno’s
forces.

It’s clear that the good general’s statements are
intended to deflect his own responsibility for the
current unrest in Haiti. The truth is Heleno is
covering his own hide and negligence by allowing his
forces to standby while the Haitian police shot and
killed unarmed demonstrators on September 30th
sparking this latest crisis.

The good general would also have us forget his lame
excuses for allowing a few hundred former Haitian
soldiers to take control of cities and towns in
northern Haiti. He must have known how feared and
hated they are by a majority of the population and
that this would contribute towards edging Haitian
society towards disaster. Heleno’s excuse is that his
few thousand heavily armed UN forces, minus those
providing security in flood ravaged Gonaives, couldn’t
possibly have stopped a ragtag band of former soldiers
despite his troop’s superior firepower.

More recently, the good general has all but given the
former military the keys to the capital of Port au
Prince. While Heleno has more than adequate force to
assist the Haitian police in making armed incursions
into pro-Aristide slums, he appears helpless in
stopping the former Haitian military from parading
around the capital carrying semi-automatic weapons and
threatening to kill anyone who utters President
Aristide’s name.

With all of Heleno’s excuses one wonders how the
Brazilian military earned its reputation for decisive
action when, after Brazil’s military coup in 1964, the
armed forces managed to dominate the political system
for twenty-one years (1964-85). Perhaps today’s Haiti
reminds Heleno of those good old days in Brazil. Those
were times when the wealthy elite could count on the
Brazilian military to restore order and arbitrary
arrests, murder and torture were justified as a
necessary evil.

Finally, the good general isn’t content just with
making Haiti a campaign issue for George Bush in the
upcoming presidential elections. From his lofty
parapet in Port au Prince he decides the fate of 8
million Haitians and proclaims, “Any hopes of an
Aristide comeback were completely unfounded.”

Thank you Generalissimo Heleno.






--- Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu> wrote:

>
>
> John,
>
> Send it back then and I'll read it again.  It
> appeared to me to be much
> more about the U.S. election than it was about
> Haiti.
>
> You note about bias gave me lots of giggles.  I
> doubt if there is one
> single person on the whole list who cares less about
> Haitian politics than
> I do.  I come out of a strong anarchist position and
> haven't the SLIGHTEST
> interest in any politics anywhere in the world.
> They all seem nothing but
> a group of self-interested people who care nothing
> for truth, but only for
> self-aggrandizement and self-protection in their
> careers.
>
> For me a pox on them all.
>
> Bob
>
>
>




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