------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 15, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FROM DEALTH ROW: BEHIND THE COUP D'ETAT IN HAITI
Make no mistake, we are witnessing a coup taking place on the island nation of Haiti. The forced departure of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was something that the Bush administration has been trying to do for years. It saw the opportunity, and--wham!-- it took it.
Now, it has installed a puppet as prime minister, and tries to install a president to its liking. This is what American "democracy" means: the power to impose U.S. imperial will on a sovereign government.
Several years ago, writers for the Ha�ti-Progr�s newspaper wrote:
"The destabilization campaign against the Haitian government is being led by the Bush faction of the U.S. bourgeoisie, which is arch- reactionary and hostile to regimes which even pay lip-service to a progressive agenda, as Aristide once did. Two conservative retreads from the previous Bush administration, Undersecretary of State for the Americas Otto Reich and Ambassador to the Organization for American States (OAS) Roger Noriega, are spearheading the campaign to uproot Aristide, whom they charge is becoming an 'illegitimate president' of a 'parish state,' even as other OAS states stand by wringing their hands at the plight of the besieged president." (From "Haiti--A Slave Revolution: 200 Years After 1804," Ramsey Clark et al. Article by Kim Ives, "Class Analysis of a Crisis.")
Ha�ti-Progr�s newspaper published this article in October 2002. They warned that elements of the Haitian bourgeoisie would ally themselves with their very rivals, the land-rich "grandons," and the latter would bring forth the same forces that held sway under the Duvalier dictatorship.
Lo and behold--within days of the coup against Aristide, who emerges but Gerard Latortue, a man who served as ambassador in the short-lived military-backed government of Leslie Manigat, back in 1988. Manigat was overthrown by Gen. Henri Namphy some six months after his term began. Now, a face from that government is installed as PM--and what are his first words?
"Bring back the army!" He has called Aristide's disbanding of the army "unconstitutional."
We are now watching the re-emergence of neo-Duvalierists, who want to reinstate the power of the Macoutes.
The Bush regime calls this "democracy," but the Haitian people have another idea. They have seen the U.S. come in before, using words like "democracy," and saw, instead, occupation and humiliation.
Haitian poet Paul Laraque in his poem, "Reign of a Human Race," gives a poignant definition that arises from Haitian history:
You say democracy
and it's America to the Yankee
it's the rape of nations
It's Sandino's blood
And Peralte's crucifixion
You say democracy
and it's the plunder of our wealth
from Hiroshima to Indochina
you spread the slaughter everywhere
and everywhere ruin ....
(See "Haiti--A Slave Revolution," pp. 163-64. Charlemagne Peralte was the leader of the Cacos Rebellion against the U.S. occupation in Haiti of 1915-1919. Peralte was captured and slain by U.S. Marines, his nearly nude body chained to wood, with his arms outstretched, like in crucifixion.)
Slowly, but surely, Americans are giving the people of the world a bad taste for the word "democracy." It means, simply, that the rest of the world must submit to American business will.
Haiti is facing dire times as the "grandons" and the bourgeoisie launch another war of exploitation against the Haitian poor.
That's what it's all about. Who will profit from the exploitation of the Haitian peasantry?
Who shall rule?
The U.S. seems determined to make sure that the Haitian people will have little say in the matter. That's why they sent Aristide into a forced exile--the man who won some 85 percent of the Haitian people's vote!
Down with U.S. meddling! Let the Haitian People govern themselves!
- END -
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