#301: Mole St. Nicolas: Many responses

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: LeGrace Benson <legracebenson@clarityconnect.com>

Anecdote on Mole St. Nicholas from 1981.  Perhaps several Corbettlanders
will have more robust information:  A long-time resident of Cap Haitian
said,"We are all supposing the US is going to move the operations now at
Guantanamo to Mole St. Novholas.  The US Navy is doing a considerable
amount of sea-floor mapping. When we ask the Navy guys about it, they just
say it has to do with their comprehensive research on water current and
weather relationships. None of us relly believe them. We thank that much
effort must be related to more than weather.  You know the funding for
weather research has not been so magnificent. Actually we are worried about
things other than the possibility of a base.  Already we are experiencing
drug problems we did not have before the arrival of the Navy. Marijuana
grows wild here but we actually don't know anyone who ever uses it. It's
not part of our culture."   This is verbatim.
I had and have no basis for confirmation or refutation of this story, but
perhaps someone else on this list does.  For sure, it was and is a part of
some Haitians' perceptions of U.S. plans.  LeGrace Benson.

=======================
From: Jocelyn McCalla <JMcCalla@nchr.org>

The
Mole-St.-Nicolas-as-a-US-military-base-to-replace-Guantanamo-when-the-lease-
runs-out is a myth that just won't die, will it? I don't know whether the
alleged activities reported are associated with the US Military. But the
basis for speculation, as in this instance, is simply wrong-headed.

First,  the "lease" that allows US military presence in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
is not about to run out. The fact is that at the turn of the century the US
got the Cuban leaders to agree to hand over the bay FOR LIFE, in exchange
for a few dollars a year. Consequently, giving up Guantanamo is not
contingent on a time-limited lease, it will be based on any new accomodation
that the US and Cuba can work out. The Haitians tried to hand over Mole St.
Nicolas at the time the US was shopping for a naval base. The US planners
estimated that it would cost more to build in Haiti, so Cuba won the bid.

There has been much progress since the early 1900s which renders the
Guantanamo naval base strategically and militarily USELESS. That is why it
was possible to transform it into a refugee camp for Haitians and Cubans.
The base is a relic of  the cold war and the animosity nurtured against
Cuba.

By the way, if anyone on the list has any idea how the name McCalla (I am
not referring to me here) came to be associated with Guantanamo, I would
appreciate the information.

Jocelyn McCalla
Executive Director
National Coalition for Haitian Rights
Jmccalla@nchr.org
www.nchr.org

=========================

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>

One can only conclude that such activities are taking

place within the framework of a formal agreement between

The Haitian State and the US. Could it be part of the agreement

relating to the stationing of 500 or so American troops in Haiti?

Or is there more to it?

=========================

From: "Henry F. Chip Carey" <polhfc@langate.gsu.edu>

Governor Pedro Rossello has welcomed the US Southern Command to Puerto Rico, which bid on and won the the new location of the US Southern Command.  There have often been rumors that Haiti is the new Guantanamo, but the latter has been kept primarily to sp
ite Fidel, not because the US has needed the base.  The US already guards the Caribbean through sevearl naval bases in PR.  Is it not possible that the construction in Haiti is civil in nature?  Afterall, there are US military guarding all the projects co
nducted by civliians, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers.

******************
Henry F. (Chip) Carey
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA 30303
tel: 404-651-4845
fax: 404-651-1434

==========================
From: Louis Foxwell <l.foxwell@worldnet.att.net>

 I heard reports of just such activity last December. Large earthmovers 
and shipments of earth 
 were reported to be moving in the night across patrolled roads in the 
same area. A suspicion 
 was that valuable minerals were being mined to be processed elsewhere. A 
mineralogist 
 assured me that there are adequate deposits of titanium and other 
valuable ores to warrant such efforts.
  The Guantanamo option would require some official acknowledgement but 
it is plausible.
 Whatever is happening it is clear that a highly secret and major 
operation has been underway for about a year. 


Louis Foxwell
291 LaCosta St.
Nokomis, FL 34275
Visit our website at:
http://www.homestead.com/foxwell/deafworldministries.html
941/480-1230