U.S.-Sponsored Regime Change in Haiti
By Nirit Ben-Ari and Bill Weinberg
Alternet.com
Monday 01 March 2004
In the wee hours of March 1, US Marines landed in Haiti hours after President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide reportedly succumbed to demands from an armed opposition movement that he step down and
go into exile – although persistent rumors on the ground maintain he was actually arrested by US
forces. As rebel troops entered the capital Port-au-Prince, the UN Security Council approved a
resolution authorizing a multinational force to restore order, and French troops are also on the way.
The rebel army, cobbled together from anti-government gangs and militias and led by former army
officers, has achieved its aim of Aristide's ouster. It seems the cost will be the loss of Haiti's
sovereignty to foreign occupation troops – yet again.
Cycles of Destabilization
This overthrow had been in the making since December 1990, when Haiti's first free election was
held. The winning candidate, with two-thirds majority, was the populist priest Aristide, backed by a
vigorous grassroots movement known as Lavalas. But seven months later, Aristide's government was
overthrown in a military coup. No government on earth recognized the military junta, but as Noam
Chomsky noted: "Washington maintained close intelligence and military ties with the new rulers while
undermining the embargo called by the Organization of American States, even authorizing illegal
shipments of oil to the regime and its wealthy supporters."
In July 1993, Aristide was made to sign the Governor's Island Accord, a US-backed "peace accord"
with the illegal military junta that terrorized Haiti for three years. The Accord forbade Aristide from
running for re-election once he was restored to power, and gave amnesty to the death-squad terrorists
of the junta. The junta then refused to abide by the accord, prompting President Clinton to send in
troops in September 1994.
Aristide finished his term, although conditions imposed on him as the cost of returning to power –
such as an IMF-style "free market" reform of the economy – eroded his popularity. But Aristide
continued to stand up to the IMF and international creditors, demanding a better deal that would not
impose yet harsher austerity on Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
In 1995 Rene Preval, a close friend of Aristide, was elected as president. His government faced
serious political deadlock, and in 1999 Preval declared that Parliament's term had expired and began
ruling by decree.
The last elections took place in November 2000. Aristide won his second non-consecutive term –
amid allegations of irregularities by the US and the opposition. Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official
backed by the White House, won only 14 percent of the votes. To the dismay of Washington, Aristide
was president again.
The US and international donors blocked financial aid, alleging the elections were "flawed." Aristide,
in need of funds to implement his social plans for the country, was immobilized. Only in July 2003, the
Inter-American Development Bank resumed loan programs.
At the same time, the arming and funding of Aristide's opposition – including the same paramilitary
leaders who were at the forefront of the campaign of terror during the 1991-94 military junta – continued.
Ira Kurzban, general counsel to the Haitian government, told Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now Feb. 25
that the US government was directly involved in a new military coup attempt against Aristide – and that
the rebels fighting to overthrow his government are being backed by Washington. "This is a military
operation," he said, "it's not a rag-tag group of liberators, as has often been put in the press." Kurzban
denied media reports that the armed groups were using weapons originally distributed by Aristide.
Among the weapons used by the paramilitaries are M-16s with armor-piercing ammo and
rocket-propelled grenade launchers, he said.
France was the first to call for Aristide's resignation as the rebels seized the northern half of the
country in late February. The French hold grudges against Aristide for his demand last April that
France pay back the $22 billion (adjusted for inflation and interest) that Haiti had to pay in 1863 for
French recognition of the republic, which became independent in 1804 – the second in the hemisphere
after the US in 1776, and the first independent black republic in the world. Ironically, the new uprising
came weeks after Haiti had celebrated the bicentennial of its independence.
U.S. State Department Behind Coup?
In a Feb. 12 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, US Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) wrote: "Our
failure to support the democratic process and help restore order looks like a covert effort to overthrow a
government. There is a violent coup d'etat in the making, and it appears that the United States is aiding
and abetting the attempt to violently topple the Aristide Government. With all due respect, this looks
like 'regime change.' How can we call for democracy in Iraq and not say very clearly that we support
democratic elections as the only option in Haiti?"
And US Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA), also in a letter to Powell, said she was "outraged" at the State
Department willingness to sabotage democracy and the rule of law in Haiti. "It has been clear to me for
some time that the state department has been trying to undermine President Aristide... I am convinced
that this effort to force President Aristide out of office by any means is a power-grab by the same
forces that staged a coup d'etat and forced him out of office in 1991. The opposition that claims to be
peaceful is not peaceful and they are responsible for the violence in Gonaives and other parts of Haiti.
Should these actions by Andre Apaid and his Committee of 184, thugs and violent protestors receive
support or encouragement from the United States, thereby increasing the risk of a coup d'etat, there
may well be a bloodbath on the streets of Haiti." She called the State Department to "discontinue" its
actions in support of "violent protesters and thugs" in Haiti.
The New York Times reported Feb. 12 that US officials "hint[ed]" the Bush administration might
support replacing Aristide – although he had two years left in office and was elected democratically.
Who Is André "Andy" Apaid?
The Haitian political opposition – allied with the armed rebels – was led by André "Andy" Apaid,
also head of Alpha Industries, one of the oldest and largest assembly factories in Haiti. As New York's
Haiti Progress reported in November, Apaid's father was a close friend to dictator Jean-Claude "Baby
Doc" Duvalier. Apaid was born in New York and claims to be a Haitian citizen, although Haitian law
does not allow dual-nationality and he has not renounced his US citizenship. In a recent interview
broadcast by the BBC Caribbean Service, Apaid voiced support for rioters in Gonaives who had torched
government buildings. He is also known for pulling a gun on demonstrators organized by the Batay
Ouvriye trade union who tried to picket in front of his plant. Apaid lead the opposition's "Group of 184,"
a supposedly broad front of "civil society" organizations modeled on similar anti-government coalitions
in Chavez's Venezuela and Allende's Chile.
Reuters reported Feb. 21 that the armed rebel leadership includes Louis Jodel Chamblain, a
prominent death-squad leader from the country's 30-year Duvalier dictatorship. In 1993, Chamblain
joined with Emmanuel "Toto" Constant – now exiled in New York – to form the Front for the
Advancement of Progress of the Haitian People, (FRAPH), which terrorized Haiti following the first coup
against Aristide. He recently crossed back into Haiti from exile in the Dominican Republic to lead
paramilitary units. Several other exiled figures of the junta that deposed Aristide in 1991 are also
among the rebel leadership.
Otto Reich and the Contra Connection
Kevin Pina of Berkeley's KPFA Radio, writing for the on-line Black Commentator last April, noted
that Otto Reich, President Bush's envoy for Western Hemisphere Initiatives, had arrived in Haiti the
same week bombs began falling on Iraq. Reich came as part of a delegation representing the
Organization of American States and the Caribbean Community Council with a stated mission of
brokering an agreement between the Haitian government and the opposition. His visit coincided with
reports from the Haitian police that uniformed soldiers of Haiti's abolished army had begun regular
armed incursions into the Central Plateau region of the country from the Dominican Republic.
Otto Reich is a veteran of another US-sponsored armed insurgency against a popular government in
a small, impoverished Latin American nation. Reich was the director of the State Department's Office of
Public Diplomacy (OPD) for Latin America and the Caribbean from 1983 to 1986 – at the height of the
Reagan administration's covert wars in Central America. In 1987, he was accused by the
Congressional probe into the "Contragate" scandal of engaging in "prohibited, covert propaganda
activities" in his efforts to promote the Reagan administration's "contra" guerilla army in Nicaragua. He
is today a top ideological and strategic mastermind of the counter-insurgency war in Colombia, and has
been named as a behind-the-scenes figure in the failed April 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez
in Venezuela.
Police Out-Gunned, Out-Numbered
Haitian police – a force of fewer than 5,000 in a country of 8 million – were outnumbered and
outgunned in many areas by the rebel forces, and the traditionally conservative army had been
abolished by Aristide following his return to power in 1994. In mid-February, as rebels seized
Cap-Haitien, the second-largest city, and numerous other town across the country, police stations and
government offices were looted and burned.
At least 70 people had been killed in three weeks of internal war as February drew to a close, about
40 of them police officers. "Should those killers come to Port-au-Prince, you may have thousands of
people who may be killed," Aristide told the AP. "We need the presence of the international community
as soon as possible."
Late on Feb. 29, as government loyalists and opponents of the paramilitary gangs were preparing
resistance in Port-au-Prince, the international press reported that Aristide had fled by plane to the
Central African Republic, announcing that he would seek asylum in South Africa.
Guy Philippe, a former police chief who has emerged as public voice of the armed rebellion, told
CNN he would welcome foreign troops. Philippe, who fled into exile in 2000 after being charged in a
coup plot, insists he has no desire to rule Haiti, but does seek to restore the military, which Aristide
disbanded.
Haitian Refugees Denied Entry
On Feb. 25, the Dominican Republic repatriated to Haiti 37 police and local officials who had fled
the country, while Dominican leaders worry that the conflict – or a flood of refugees – could spill over
the border. The UK Guardian reported Feb. 26 that the number of Haitians fleeing the deadly uprising in
their homeland has escalated, with the US Coast Guard saying it has intercepted 546 people at sea
over three to four days. US officials, however, denied the seriousness of the increase, saying it "doesn't
signal a mass exodus." For years, Haitian refugees detained by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS, now reorganized under the Homeland Security Department) have been forcibly repatriated
upon landing at US shores – unlike Cuban refugees, who are granted political asylum automatically
upon arrival.
Given the violence and intimidation prevailing in Haiti, the new Haitian boat people are clearly war
refugees and not economic migrants, as Washington has traditionally claimed.
Go to Original
Aristide Tells AP He Was Forced to Leave
By The Associated Press
Monday 01 March 2004
In interview arranged by Rev. Jesse Jackson, exiled leader says U.S. military
removed him from power
ATLANTA, Ga. -- Jean-Bertrand Aristide said in a telephone interview today that he was "forced to
leave" Haiti by U.S. military forces who said they would "start shooting and killing" if he refused.
Aristide was put in contact with The Associated Press by the Rev. Jesse Jackson following a news
conference, where the civil rights leader called on Congress to investigate Aristide's ouster.
When asked if he left Haiti on his own, Aristide quickly answered: "No. I was forced to leave.
"Agents were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting and killing in a matter of time,"
Aristide said during the brief interview via speaker phone. He spoke with a thick Haitian accent and was
interrupted at times by static.
When asked who the agents were, he responded: "White American, white military.
"They came at night. ... There were too many, I couldn't count them," he added.
Aristide told reporters that he signed documents relinquishing power out of fear that violence would
erupt in Haiti if he didn't comply with the demands of "American security agents."
"They were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting and be killing in a matter of
time," he said.
Aristide said he was in his palace in Port-au-Prince when the military force arrived. He said he
thought he was being taken to the Caribbean island of Antigua, but instead he has been exiled to the
Central African Republic.
Aristide described the agents as "good, warm, nice," but added that he had no rights during his
20-hour flight to Africa.
Aristide's wife, Mildred, initiated Monday's telephone call, said Shelley Davis, a special assistant to
Jackson. She said the reverend and the president's family have been close for about a decade.
Jackson said Congress should investigate whether the United States, specifically the CIA, had a
role in the rebellion that led to Aristide's exile.
Jackson encouraged reporters to question where the rebels in Haiti got their guns and uniforms.
"Why would we immediately support an armed overthrow and not support a constitutionally elected
government?" Jackson said.
Aristide, who fled Haiti under pressure from the rebels, his political opponents, the United States
and France, arrived Monday in the Central African Republic, according to the country's state radio. He
has claimed that he was abducted from Haiti by U.S. troops who accompanied him to Africa.
The White House, Pentagon and State Department have denied allegations that Aristide was
kidnapped by U.S. forces. |
