Roots
of the Current Crisis in Haiti
March 11, 2004 by Vic Sadot
The
current crisis in Haiti was made in the U.S.A. by the depraved
administration of George W. Bush. They were out to destroy
the fledgling Haitian democracy from the beginning of their
occupation of the U.S. government in 2000. However, the roots
of the current 2004 coup crisis in Haiti can also be traced
to the way the United States intervened in Haiti under President
Bill Clinton to remove a terrorist military dictatorship backed
by the paramilitary group called the Tonton Macoutes. Roughly
translated this means “Uncle Machete”. These gangsters
got that name because they would drag outspoken citizens from
their homes at night. The Tontons would cut off their heads
with a machete. Other Haitians would find the decapitated
democracy advocate on the street the next day. It was meant
to intimidate the entire population into submission to the
dictatorship,
The US Congressional Black Caucus demanded that President
Clinton act to restore the first democratically elected President
in Haitian history, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A Haitian military
and CIA coordinated coup against Aristide during the George
Bush Senior presidency had sent Aristide into his first exile.
All during the Bush Senior Presidency there were killings
of about 4,000 Haitian citizens by their own military with
US arms and CIA intelligence. There was also the sad plight
of desperate, starving people taking to the high seas on small
boats to try to reach the United States, and the bizarre US
policy of turning them back over to the Haitian military while
receiving the Cuban boat people as “freedom fighters”.
(The song Vive Haiti!, that this website is named for, was
written at this time by Vic Sadot.)
.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was originally a priest who spoke out
for the poor. He was part of the Latin American liberation
theology movement that demanded the Catholic Church engage
its conscience, educational systems, and resources on behalf
of the dismally poor of the world by helping to educate and
empower them. Aristide considered the military and the Tonton
Macoute death squads to be agents of the US and Haitian elites
who had profited from the super-exploitation and repression
of the Haitian people under the decades of dictatorship of
Duvalier father and son. They had been installed after the
US invaded Haiti in 1915 and found it convenient to associate
with a comprador class rather than any representatives of
the masses. Labor unions, for example, were virtually underground
organizations. Clinton’s action was his deal with the
US Congressional Black Caucus and to show the nations of the
world that the post-Cold War USA was committed to constitutional
democracies rather than client dictatorships. It was former
President Carter who negotiated the departure of the Haitian
military leaders on US jets just as the Duvaliers had parted
when previous popular mass uprisings occurred. Carter offered
the Haitian generals amnesty and a free ride to freedom and
a way out of having to battle against incoming US troops.
The roots of today’s crisis are there in that agreement.
For President Aristide went on to wisely abolish the army
and the Tonton Macoutes much as Costa Rica had done when its
army had continually intervened with guns against the democracy.
These countries were pledged US support to set up civil government
infrastructure, such as legislative, judicial and executive
branches to facilitate Haitian progress.
From 1992 to 1994, Vic Sadot (the writer of this article)
was serving as liaison from the Philadelphia Area Alliance
on Central America to the Philadelphia Haitian Community.
Philadelphia Haitians were part of an international coalition
of groups calling for the overthrow of the brutal military
junta in Haiti, the restoration of their first democratically
elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the establishment
of a participatory democracy with a judicial system to put
the human rights violating military on trial for murder and
treason to the Constitution of the Republic of Haiti. They
had spirited demonstrations that were largely ignored by US
media while getting worldwide coverage otherwise. Many of
the terror leaders in Haiti were on the CIA payroll. Clinton
knew this and his deal was to get them out of the country
without having to crush them militarily. For they were a great
embarrassment to the US image around the world by this time,
and “we” would rather not like them speaking out
of script at public trials.
The 1994 article from the Philadelphia Inquirer, which follows,
will offer more insight into the actual history of Haiti that
has led us to this dismal day where the G.W. Bush/Dick Cheney
administration has brought back a whole snake pit of these
“good terrorists” into Haiti. They arrived from
the Dominican Republic with all manner of new issue camouflage
uniforms, explosive firepower, and brand new all terrain vehicles.
The first thing they did was to release all the murderers
doing time in the Haitian National Penitentiary. So now they
have more terrorists to go after Haitian democracy activists.
Thank you, George Bush and Dick Cheney! This administration
had been undermining the fledgling democracy from the start
by refusing to deliver the already negotiated aid for support
of the democracy infrastructure, and they even intervened
against Aristide’s attempt to hire more security from
a private US firm. It was shocking to see them back the old
terrorists and to watch our media rehabilitate these killers
as “rebels” while asking few questions about the
abduction of the elected President. They marched in lock-step
right past any question about his resignation and removal
from the country being accomplished literally under US guns
aimed on himself and his wife, Mildred. Fortunately, their
two daughters did not have to be absconded to some French
devil’s island of a country in middle Africa because
they were with relatives out of the country. This had to have
all been planned by the US and the former colonial rulers,
the French. The Chirac administration wants to hedge their
bets in case GW wins or gets selected again. And here is one
former colony that wants France to acknowledge it’s
past colonial history and make amends.
It is widely known that Aristide was calling for reparations
from France for the way they had bled the country dry under
their reign of slavery and exploitation. As the former terrorists,
now re-named “rebels” by the US press, came storm-trooping
into Haiti from neighboring Santo Domingo, the 43-member US
Congressional Black Caucus demanded to meet with the Supreme
Court Selected President G W Bush. They went to the White
House and there they were greeted by the two most prominent
Black Faces of the Bush Administration, General and Secretary
of State Colin Powell and the Director of National Security,
Condoleeza Rice. (Note: This former Chevron Oil executive
remains in office after presiding over the greatest failure
of security in US history known as 911.)
The so-called “President” explained to the Congressional
Black Caucus that the US commitment to democracy in Haiti
remained firm and that their were negotiations going on for
a political settlement, a shared power agreement that would
allow Aristide to finish the last two years of his term, and
that security would be enhanced by the nations of the Caribbean.
Five days later, the Congressional Black Caucus realized that
they were lied to and betrayed. (Note: Harry Belefonte, you
were so right about your plantation slavery remark!) The 15-nation
Caribbean group that participated in negotiations with the
US, Aristide, and the un-elected Haitian “opposition”
felt betrayed by the American/French coup in coordination
with the return of the Haitian terrorists. Classic Good Cop/Bad
Cop scenario! They have announced that they will “not
participate in an occupation” brought on by an illegal
military coup. South Africa and the U.S. Congressional Black
Caucus have called for an investigation into the circumstances
of Aristide’s forced removal to the Central African
Republic. Kofi Anan of the U.N. remains mysteriously ok with
this coup. Apparently the new President-Select for Haitian
Puppet Democracy is a former UN employee. Of course, this
is nothing like the violation of Kuwaiti sovereignty by Iraq
way back when sovereignty was as sacred as oil. The following
article gives a background of how we could arrive at this
dismal place in history. To quote the earlier Bush, “This
aggression will not stand!”
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Philadelphia
Inquirer - Commentary - Thursday, September 29, 1994
By Vic Sadot, Philadelphia Area Alliance for Central America,
Haiti Liaison
The media almost had me admiring Jimmy Carter – that
is, until his position gradually became clear. He was sent
with a mandate to negotiate only the time and method of the
departure of the murdering Haitian generals, or so we were
all told. But he exceeded that mandate.
Mr. Carter cannot offer the Haitian generals a “general
amnesty” because it is not his to offer and because
Article 147 of the Haitian Constitution forbids a general
amnesty as a way to escape from justice. This violates the
democratic sovereignty of the Haitian people and their elected
government. It is part of a pattern that caused US Rep. Ron
Dellums (D. CA) to say that the United States “continues
to attempt to strong-arm President Aristide into accepting
plans and positions that are not in his interests or those
of the Haitian people.”
The Carter deal is not surprising in view of the fact that
the United States has never acknowledged its responsibility
for backing dictators in Haiti, nor for the close collaboration
of our military – from the 1915 U.S. invasion, to the
recent return of boat people, to the repressive government
that we did not even recognize.
The fact that the last three dictators each took his turn
in going into exile on a jet provided by the United States
each time things got too hot to handle should make one question
whether an invasion or occupation was ever really necessary.
General Raoul Cedras & Co. stole the sovereignty of the
Haitian people when they accomplished their coup; when they
surrounded and terrorized the Parliament and drove many of
the legislators into exile or hiding; when they murdered Minister
of Justice Guy Malory, Jean-Marie Vincent, and some 4,000
other un-armed democracy advocates.
They also took money from Haitians wealthy from decades of
Duvalierist plunder, from the renegade CIA and from international
drug dealers to build their personal fortunes and to fund
their killing machine.
Even the Governor’s Island Agreement, which Gen. Cedras
signed with Jean-Bertrand Aristide and U.S. and U.N. representatives,
offered only a specific amnesty for the coup. The generals
lost that amnesty when they betrayed their own word, shot
Mr. Malory and continued to hunt down and kill suspected democracy
advocates.
If the United States wanted to restore a real democracy in
Haiti, it would have stood unequivocally with Mr. Aristide
and the democracy movement in Haiti. It would have heeded
U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy’s call for an investigation
into the ties between our C.I.A. and military and the Haitian
generals, especially after the revelations in the New York
Times: “Key Haiti Leaders Said To Have Been in CIA’s
Pay” (Nov. 1, 1993), and “U.S. Says Haiti’s
Military Runs Cocaine” (June 8, 1994).
When President Clinton dismissed a fabricated CIA report meant
to slander President Aristide, whom our own government supported,
Mr. Clinton should have fired those responsible for and exposed
the falsehoods. By not doing so, he allowed his critics to
repeat these same lies as facts at the critical moment of
“intervention”.
A “general amnesty” would not help to counter
acts of vengeance by the victims of military violence. The
best way to avoid such retribution by those who have never
known justice is to support the fledgling democracy’s
creation of a judicial branch that would investigate the crimes
of the generals and conduct a fair trial. Otherwise, it’s
like expecting a Jewish victim of the Nazi Holocaust to accept
a general amnesty for Hitler and his partners.
The foundation of a real democracy is real justice. Yes, Jimmy
Carter exceeded his mandate when he offered a Haitian amnesty
to these Haitian Nazis. But after all, these are now “honorable”
men who might reveal the extensive and anti-democratic role
that our military and intelligence agencies have had in Haiti
all along.
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Note
March 11, 2004: The U.S. under the G.W Bush administration
has itself removed the President of Haiti and brought back
these murderers who were convicted of these crimes in Haitian
courts. So much for their commitment to democracy... The Bush
Administration is committed to installing U.S. puppet regimes
wherever its corporate and military interests decide to go.
Aristide remains the only legal President of Haiti as he goes
into his second exile. The first one was compliments of George
Bush Senior.
Vic Sadot
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