a149: Who are the Real "Gangsters"? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

Who are the Real "Gangsters"?

It seems that every time I get my news, or check on Usenet discussion groups 
related to Haiti, I see the Lavalas movement denounced as "gangsters", 
"voyous", "deliquants", and so forth.

But who are the REAL gangsters?

I am sometimes accused of beating a dead horse, but the coup d'etat years
of 1991 - 1994 are not so long ago that we should forget the 5000
Haitians who died at the hands of the right wing!  The Haitian Army, now
defunct, did their dirty work for them, as did terrorist organizations
like FRAPH.  Over and above the killings, tens of thousands more were the
victims of beatings, politically motivated rape (the same thing as a
murder if your rapist has HIV), arbitrary arrests, warrantless searches,
all sorts of terror tactics.

In the meanwhile, of course, the right wing gutted the Haitian economy, 
looted the coffers of the state, ousted government workers from their jobs in 
order to replace them with right-wing cronies and cousins of Army corporals!

Aristide was elected, he never came to power by a coup.  He was driven from 
office in the bloody events of September 30, 1991, and returned to power in a 
remarkably bloodless United Nations / Organization of American States 
intervention.

When his mandate expired, he surrendered power, and Rene Preval was 
democratically elected.  When Rene Preval's mandate expired, President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was again democratically elected.  Say what you will 
about low voter turnout, occasioned by fears of right-wing violence - both 
elections which brought Aristide to power reflected the will of the majority 
of Haitians.  Those political parties who "boycotted" the elections claiming 
that they were too afraid for their lives or that the elections were unfair 
or whatever could never have won anyhow!  There was no viable, popular 
opposition crushed by the Lavalas party, that's absurd.

NEVER did Aristide or the Lavalas movement go door-to-door grabbing and 
murdering anti-democracy individuals, raping their female family members, 
murdering their children!  NEVER did the Lavalas regime institute a reign of 
terror comparable to that of 1991 - 1994.  

Now we see the right wing attempting coups, and characterizing the Lavalas 
movement as "gangsters", while in the same breath they scream for the 
abrogation of constitutional government and the overthrow of President 
Aristide!  What kind of civil society is that?  Their tactics are lies and 
slander, a publicity campaign aided and abetted by the American right, and 
intimidation when possible.

I have sat in an Internet cafe in Jacmel listening to pro-right-wing 
"journalists" (and I use the term loosely) fabricating out of whole cloth 
accounts of anti-Aristide upheavals in Cayes Jacmel, and an anti-Aristide 
graffitti blitz in the town of Jacmel itself (equally untrue).

"Journalists" in three separate towns make reports like this, and the next 
thing you know, you will read headlines declaring "Anti-Aristide sentiment 
spreading like wildfire".  Then, when said "anti-Aristide sentiment" fails to 
materialize, the Lavalas is said to have 
"crushed" the opposition.

It's enough to make a person sick!

Does anyone doubt what would happen if the right wing took over tomorrow?  
Only by violence equal to or worse than that of 1991 - 1994 could they 
possibly hope to gain and hold power.  So tell me now, who are the real 
"gangsters"?

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

"Se bon ki ra" - Good is rare
     Haitian Proverb

The VODOU Page - http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html