OPPOSE BUSH'S COUP IN HAITI
The A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
Coalition condemns the U.S.-led coup carried out today
against the elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, as well as the U.S. occupation of that country.
U.S. marines have entered Haiti tonight (February 29).
Whether President Aristide was actually kidnapped by U.S.
forces, as some sources have reported, or was just
presented with 'an offer he couldn't refuse,' there is no
question that Washington played the decisive role in this
regime change. The coup in Haiti is reminiscent of similar
deadly CIA operations in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, Chile
and numerous other countries in the last half-century.
The removal of President Aristide follows more than a
century of U.S. intervention in Haiti, and years of
destabilization designed to bring about the destruction of
the Aristide government. This negation of Haiti's
democracy and sovereignty by the U.S. comes as the country
is marking its 200th anniversary of independence which
followed the heroic revolt against slavery and the
creation of the first free Black republic in the Western
Hemisphere.
Since the election of Aristide to a second term in late
2000 with 92% of the vote, Washington has maintained
economic sanctions against the poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere. Sanctions have had the intended effect
of wearing down the people and popular support for the
Aristide government by denying food, medicine and other
necessities of life to the population. Haiti's poverty
today is a direct result of centuries of slavery and
exploitation for the benefit of corporate interests in
France and the U.S.
In addition, the U.S. has extended financial and political
support to the so-called "Democratic Convergence," the
right-wing opposition. According to a story in today's
Miami Herald, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
said today that the U.S. "facilitated" Aristide's
departure. Ira Kurzban, an Aristide spokesman in Miami,
said he believed "U.S. intelligence agencies were involved
in the ouster. ... This was a major operation by the
intelligence agencies of the U.S."
Congressperson Charles Rangel, a member of the
Congressional Black Caucus, said that the U.S. government
is "just as much as part of this coup d'etat as the
rebels, looters or anyone else." (ABC's "This Week," Feb.
29, 2004)
According to Reuters, U.S. civil rights leader Jesse
Jackson called Aristide's resignation an
"American-assisted coup," and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a
California Democrat, demanded to know where the Haitian
leader was being taken one day after he told her "he would
rather die than leave." "When I last talked to him
(Aristide) yesterday, he was not going to leave. He said
he would rather die than leave. And then I wake up this
morning and I find out that my government has landed at
his home with Marines. How did they get him to leave? What
did they do? And where is he?" Waters said in an interview
with CNN.
The Bush Administration has arrogantly and illegally
embarked on a policy of "regime change" in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Haiti and elsewhere. On March 20, the first
anniversary of the start of the unprovoked war of
aggression against Iraq, people around the world will take
to the streets in massive numbers. We will demand: Bring
the Troops Home Now and End Occupation from Iraq to
Palestine and Everywhere. We will also be marching to
oppose the criminal role of the Bush administration in
ousting the first democratically elected government in
Haiti's history. |
