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a21: You call that a coup attempt? (fwd)
From: Karioka9@cs.com
Could a commando of 30 plus men overthrow the government in place? I don't
think this was their actual intention. Lavalas jubilation notwithstanding, I
think that the commando carried out its mission most successfully. They went
smoothly into the palace, made whatever point they came to make, and moved
out with relative ease. At most, it was only a practice run.
What happened yesterday was in fact more than predictable. I posted an
editorial about three weeks ago on this list, which warned against this kind
of action and correctly predicted that it would come from the Dominican
border. The good news is that this particular attempt only went so far. The
bad news is that it's only a matter of time and organization before one of
them hits the bull's eye. And then what? Another cycle of chaos in what Big
Leslie (Manigat) calls Haiti's "dynamic of backwardness."
So Lavalas wins across the board this time around, but only if you actually
believe that the Convergence people are really responsible for what happened.
My guess is that the people mobilized spontaneously against another coup,
providing the cover for the Lavalas shock troops to smash the democratic
opposition. Titid of course did the right thing at the end of the day by
calling for "peaceful" resistance. But it was already too late for his
critics.
Some Lavalas supporters have blamed the Convergence for not issuing early
condemnations of the so-called coup attempt. This kind of
condemnation/denial is standard practice for politicians in the US, and
people generally understand that it's just posturing for the mass media.
Haiti is a different reality. The sad thing is that the opposition is
apparently so convinced that Lavalas will never surrender its absolute grab
on power, that the democratic forces are now willing to let the chips fall
where they may. This was not the case during the last coup, when the
democratic opposition rallied behind Lavalas and in fact led the fight for
Aristide's return.
Daniel Simidor