[RAICES] Insurrection in Haiti

[Sydney M. Hoover]

hi everyone,

if you don't want me to send these out to folks, please let me know. i 
understand that inboxes get full very quickly and i definitely want to respect 
people.

however, in light of recent events in Haiti, i thought people might want a bit 
of context about the political / social / economic / lived situation in haiti. 
i am still learning about how to support people of color and indigenous folks' 
struggles and i hope that people find the following helpful / useful. it's a 
MADRE backgrounder. link included.

thanks,
soo na

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http://www.madre.org/country_haiti_crisis.html
Insurrection in the Making:

A MADRE Backgrounder on the Crisis in Haiti
by Yifat Susskind, Associate Director
February 2004

   A political crisis that has been brewing in Haiti since 2000 exploded
during the second week of February 2004. Members of an armed movement
seeking to overthrow Haiti’s President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, went on a
rampage in a dozen Haitian towns, killing more than 60 people. The towns
remain under siege by criminal gangs led by former paramilitary members.

   There is great concern for the families in these areas, since the armed
vigilantes have cut road and telephone access to communities, emptied
prisons and blocked convoys of food aid from reaching impoverished areas.
The blockade of food aid is particularly worrisome since, according to the
UN Food and Agriculture Organization, nearly half of all Haitians lack
access to even minimum food requirements. Hospitals, schools, police
stations and other government buildings have been burned and looted.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security has begun preparations for
the internment of up to 50,000 Haitian refugees at the US naval base in
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, signaling that the US expects a much greater
escalation of violence in Haiti.

------------------------------------------------

What is the Political Backdrop to the Conflict?
   a.. The crisis dates back to a political stalemate stemming from a
contested election. In 2000—the same year that George Bush stole the US
presidency—Haiti held elections for 7,500 positions nationwide. Election
observers contested the winners of seven senate seats. President Aristide
balked at first, but eventually yielded and the seven senators resigned.
Members of Haiti’s elite, long hostile to Aristide’s progressive economic
agenda, saw the controversy as an opportunity to derail his government.

   b.. Since 2001, human rights activists and humanitarian workers in Haiti
have documented numerous cases of opposition vigilantes killing government
officials and bystanders in attacks on the state power station, health
clinics, police stations and government vehicles. The US government did not
condemn any of these killings.

   c.. In January 2004, the opposition escalated its protests. At some
demonstrations, government supporters, who represent Haiti’s poorest
sectors, attacked opposition activists. Only then did US Secretary of State
Powell issue a one-sided condemnation of “militant Aristide supporters.”

   d.. In a country as poor as Haiti, control over the institutions of the
state is one of the only sources of wealth, making national politics an
arena of violent competition. Similarly, in an environment of 70 percent
unemployment, the prospect of long-term work as a paramilitary fighter leads
many young men to join these forces.

Who is the Opposition?
   a.. Like the so-called opposition to the Chavez government of Venezuela,
Haiti’s opposition represents only a small minority (8 percent of the
population according to a 2000 poll). With no chance of winning through
democratic elections, they rely instead on armed violence to foment a
political crisis that will lead to the fall of the government. Using their
international business connections, especially ties to the corporate media,
the opposition has manufactured an image of itself as the true champion of
democracy in Haiti.

   b.. The gangs that have placed thousands of Haitians under siege are
reportedly armed with US-made M-16s, recently sent by the US to the
government of the Dominican Republic.

   c.. The gangs are directly linked to two groups financed by the Bush
Administration: the right-wing Convergence for Democracy and the
pro-business Group of 184.

     a.. The Convergence is a coalition of about two dozen groups, ranging
from neo-Duvalierists (named for the Duvaliers’ dictatorship that ruled
Haiti from 1957-1986) to former Aristide supporters. These groups have
little in common except their desire to see Aristide overthrown.

     b.. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the opposition’s
“only policy goal seems to be reconstituting the army and the implementation
of rigorous Structural Adjustment Programs.”

     c.. The Convergence is led by former FRAPH paramilitary leaders
(including Louis Chamblain, Guy Phillipe and Jean Pierre Baptiste) who
carried out the bloody 1991 coup d’etat, in which the CIA-trained
and -funded FRAPH overthrew Aristide, killed 5,000 civilians and terrorized
Haiti for four years.

     d.. The Convergence is supported by the Haitian elite and the leadership
of the US Republican Party (through the National Endowment for Democracy and
the International Republican Institute).

     e.. The Group of 184 is represented by Andy Apaid, a Duvalier supporter
and US citizen who obtained a Haitian passport by fraudulently claiming to
have been born in Haiti. Apaid owns 15 factories in Haiti and was the main
foe of Aristide’s 2003 campaign to raise the minimum wage (which, at $1.60 a
day, was lower than what it had been 10 years earlier).

   d.. By demanding that the opposition be included in any resolution of
Haiti’s political impasse, the US has greatly empowered these forces. While
the opposition perpetuates Haiti’s political deadlock, the US embargo (see
below) guarantees the island’s economic strangulation. Aristide’s opponents
hope that these combined tactics will achieve what they cannot win through
democratic elections: the ouster of Aristide.

Why is it so hard to get a clear picture of what's happening in Haiti?
   a.. Media Manipulation

   o One reason is that the opposition has succeeded in mobilizing the
mainstream media to create an image of Aristide as a tyrant and the
opposition as democratic freedom fighters. For example, international media
have run several stories comparing the opposition to the movement to
overthrow Haiti’s long-time Duvalier dictatorship. Although the Haitian
government has condemned attacks by its supporters on opposition forces,
mainstream media did not report the condemnations


   o Most international coverage of the crisis in Haiti comes from the large
wire services, Reuters and the Associated Press. These wire services rely
almost exclusively on Haiti’s elite-owned media (Radio Metropole,
Tele-Haiti, Radio Caraibe, Radio Vision 2000 and Radio Kiskeya) for their
stories. The outlets are owned and operated by the opposition. For example,
Andy Apaid, spokesman for the Group of 184, is the founder of Tele-Haiti.


   o Progressive journalists have accused these stations of exaggerating
reports of violence by government supporters and ignoring violence by
opposition forces. These stations air commercials inciting Haitians to
overthrow the government.

   b.. US Double-Speak

   o Another reason for confusion is that the Bush Administration is
upholding a long US tradition of talking about respect for democracy in
Haiti while supporting the country’s most anti-democratic, pro-business
forces.
   o The US has encouraged the opposition to refuse to participate in
elections and, at the same time, declared that elections in Haiti will only
be considered legitimate if the opposition participates.

   o Powell says that the US is “not interested in regime change.” But the
Administration is supporting a disinformation campaign in the US media,
maintaining an embargo that is intensifying hunger and disease amongst Haiti
’s poorest and supporting the sponsors of armed, vigilante violence that has
already killed scores of people.

What is the role of the US in Haiti?
   a.. The US was the main supporter of the Duvalier dictatorship. In 1986,
when Haiti’s pro-democracy movement finally succeeded in overthrowing the
hated dictator, he was ferried to safety by the Reagan Administration.

   b.. Only with the rise of Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected
president, did US support shift from the Haitian leadership to those who
orchestrated the 1991 coup d’etat.

   c.. In 1994, public pressure and fear of an influx of Haitian “boat
  people” led the Clinton Administration to reverse the coup d’etat and
restore Aristide to power.

   d.. The Republican leadership strongly opposed the intervention. In 1995,
when Republicans took control of Congress, they pushed to cancel US aid to
Haiti and to finance the opposition by reallocating federal funds to Haitian
non-governmental organizations opposed to Aristide.

   e.. In 2000, the Republicans exploited Haiti’s electoral controversy as an
opportunity to discredit Aristide. The Bush Administration pressured the
Inter-American Development Bank to cancel more than $650 million in
development assistance and approved loans to Haiti -- money that was slated
to pay for safe drinking water, literacy programs and health services.

   f.. The seven contested senators are long gone, but the embargo remains in
place, denying critical services to the poorest people in the hemisphere.

What is Aristide's record?
   a.. The US allowed Aristide to be reinstated on the condition that he
implement a neoliberal economic agenda.

   b.. Aristide complied with some US demands, including a reduction of
tariffs on US-grown rice that bankrupted thousands of Haitian farmers and
maintenance of a below-subsistence-level minimum wage.

   c.. But Aristide resisted privatizing state-owned resources, because of
protests from his political base and because he was reluctant to relinquish
control over these sources of wealth.

   d.. Aristide eventually doubled the minimum wage and -- despite the
embargo -- prioritized education and healthcare: he built schools and
renovated public hospitals; established new HIV-testing centers and
doctor-training programs; and introduced a program to subsidize schoolbooks
and uniforms and expand school lunch and bussing services.

   e.. Aristide has tried to walk a line between US demands for neoliberal
reforms and his own commitment to a progressive economic agenda. As a
result, he has lost favor with parts of his own political base and Haitian
and US elites.

   f.. Aristide has also been criticized for turning a blind eye to human
rights abuses committed by his supporters and by advocates of good
governance for rewarding loyalists with government posts regardless of their
qualifications. (a patronage system even more extensive than the one that
has filled the Bush Administration with former CEOs and corporate
lobbyists.)


So Should Progressives Support Aristide?
The current crisis is not about supporting or opposing Aristide the man, but
about defending constitutional democracy in Haiti. In a democracy,
elections—and not vigilante violence—should be the measure of “the will of
the people.” Aristide has repeatedly invited the opposition to participate
in elections and they have refused, knowing that they cannot win at the
polls.



How Should the Crisis be Resolved?
   a.. MADRE supports the proposal of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM, a
consortium of Caribbean governments) which:

     a.. Rejects any violent overthrow of the government and insists that any
change in government be in compliance with Haiti’s constitution.

     b.. Calls on the opposition to accept Aristide’s offer to take part in
elections in order to break the impasse that has frozen Haiti’s government
for the past several years.

     c.. Calls on the international community to provide economic assistance
to Haiti in order to alleviate the country’s grinding poverty and create
some foundation for economic and political stability.

   b.. MADRE also calls on the Bush Administration to:

     a.. Unequivocally denounce the opposition and cease any financial,
political or military support for its forces.

     b.. Lift the embargo that is denying urgently needed development aid and
health programs to Haitian women and families.

           Some Statistics on Haiti
           · The richest 1% of the population controls nearly half of all of
Haiti’s wealth.
           · Haiti has long ranked as the poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere and is the fourth poorest country in the world.
           · Haiti ranks 146 out of 173 on the Human Development Index.*
           · Life expectancy is 52 years for women and 48 for men*.
           · Adult literacy is about 50%.*
           · Unemployment is about 70%.*
           · 85% of Haitians live on less than $1 US per day.*
           · Haiti ranks 38 out of 195 for under-five mortality rate.*

           *Source: “Investigating the Effects of Withheld Humanitarian Aid,”
a report of the Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center.

*************
Sydney M Hoover
Hampshire College
Box 1060
Amherst, MA 01002
(413) 559-5128

"There's little point in beating our breasts and feeling betrayed. Lula and 
Mandela are, by any reckoning, magnificent men. But the moment they cross the 
floor from the Opposition into Government they become hostage to a spectrum of 
threats - most malevolent among them the threat of capital flight, which can 
destroy any government overnight. To imagine that a leader's personal charisma 
and a c.v. of struggle will dent the Corporate Cartel is to have no 
understanding of how Capitalism works, or for that matter, how power works. 
Radical change will not be negotiated by governments; it can only be enforced 
by people."
-Arundhati Roy, 2004