------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 15, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
HAITI: U.S. TRIES TO STABILIZE COUP REGIME
By G. Dunkel
April 5--The de facto "government" that took over Haiti after the U.S. ousted democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is pretending that normality is being reestablished--that schools are open, food is being distributed, justice is being done.
No major demonstrations are taking place, but this is because there has been bloody repression of those demanding Aristide's return. And while the schools are open, many students are staying home and the situation is still extremely tense.
On the international level, CARICOM--15 Caribbean nations united in a free-trade zone--refuses to recognize the new government. This decision was strenuously opposed by the United States, which called the prime ministers of the CARICOM countries on their personal cell phones just before the vote was taken. Venezuela, however, heartily endorsed the CARICOM decision.
The African Union announced that it has "decided to undertake immediate consultation with both CARICOM and eventually the United Nations in order to discuss the conditions for a quick return to constitutional democracy" in Haiti. Aristide's ouster, they said, "sets a dangerous precedent for duly elected persons." The AU represents 53 African nations.
In Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, many parents in poor neighborhoods are keeping their children at home because of fears generated by the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that from time to time is filled with gunfire. (Ha�ti-Progr�s, March 31)
This curfew makes life very difficult when illness or other emergencies hit at night. When Louis Balmir, with his friend Marcel Lucmane, went looking for some asthma medicine for his son during curfew on March 20, they ran into an ambush by U.S. Marines, who opened fire on their car without warning. Lucmane was shot once, but Balmir was shot at least seven times. He wants to sue but doesn't know where to begin.
Outside the capital, where the Marines and the French Foreign Legion enforce what they call "order," the country is ruled by rebels and gang leaders, armed and trained by U.S. Special Forces.
G�rard Latortue, who was made prime minister after the U.S. forced Aristide out of the country, has frozen Aristide's party, Fanmi Lavalas, out of any government posts and has even kept out those who have been touted by the U.S. media as the "democratic opposition." At the same time, he has praised the death-squad leaders who shot their way into the country as "liberation fighters." Latortue spent almost all his adult life outside Haiti and is a retired UN bureaucrat. He was plucked out of a comfortable retirement in Boca Raton, Florida.
Perhaps indicating the direction he wants to go, Latortue appointed retired Gen. Herard Abraham as interior minister in charge of the police. Abraham openly supports the re-establishment of the Haitian Army, which has a long history of repressing the people.
Bernard Gousse, another appointee who is now called Justice Minister, told Reuters on April 2, "The justice system is not very healthy. ... It will take some months to rebuild. You can see the derelict situation in which the police is, the justice system, even the buildings."
Gousse has appeared at public functions with Louis-Jodel Chamblain and Jean-Pierre Baptiste--both convicted in a Haitian court of participating in a mass murder in Raboteau--and with other leaders of the armed uprising against Aristide who are wanted on drug-related charges. The beefed-up police force he envisions won't be arresting them.
Secretary of State Colin Powell made a one-day visit to Haiti on April 5, supposedly to discuss the need to bring "stability" and international aid. His visit is basically an admission that the situation in Haiti is not stable and that Latortue's public embrace of mass murderers and drug dealers is creating political problems for the Bush administration.
Dominic de Villepin, France's foreign minister, may also visit Haiti soon. It is obvious that France and the United States have come to some kind of deal on Haiti that protects France's considerable interests in the Caribbean and Latin America, while the United States gets help in its second occupation of Haiti in the past decade.
The occupation of Haiti by imperialist troops continues. More and more Haitians --like the contingents that marched in the March 20 demonstrations against war and occupation in the United States--are seeing that their struggle against neocolonial occupation is part of a worldwide struggle.
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