The Unmaking of a President
Ives, Kim
Has the U.S. government lured Aristide into a new, hopelessly rigged game? The essence of U.S. strategy has been to drive Aristide to strike a deal with the coup leaders and invite military...
...The Defense Department...
...Despite the State Department-driven media campaign targeting Aristide's human rights record-which, Aristide correctly asserted, contained not a single case of government- Haitians protest against U.S...
...The meeting appointed a 10-member "Presidential Commission," a non-official negotiating body, headed by Father Antoine Adrien, which was to be set up in Haiti to search for avenues for negotiations and democratic openings...
...Even though the United States had been wary of, if not obsessed with Aristide the liberation theologian, the Lavalas bourgeoisie thought they could sell Aristide the statesman to the United States as the man L IC a ,E ii u Finally, the traditional bourgeoisie, which imports foreign manufactured goods and exports agricultural products, Svalas is also fighting for its economic survival against the onslaught of foreign capital, tnce which seeks to "modernize" and "Puerto Ricanize" the Haitian economy by introducing direct foreign investment, thereby aels cutting out the middleman...
...the Clinton quotation, from IPS on July 22, 1993...
...16 "Don't think, Mr...
...The rocky dirt route from Jimani on the Dominican border to Port-au-Prince became so travelled by trucks carrying fuel, arms, and other merchandise from the Dominican Republic that the coup-makers resurfaced it in smooth blacktop, making it far and away Haiti's best road...
...The ensuing document-the "Gover- r sector nors Island Accord"-was "the direct )sed...
...Also in attendance, though uninvited, was U.S...
...In deeds, the Bush Administration was largely lifting the threemonth-old trade embargo against the de facto regime...
...Foreign capi- tal, primarily North American, works with a rival sector of the Haitian bourgeoisie, called the "technocrats...
...This is not an accord between the military delegation and the constitutional government," said Chat J ec One group, the Front for the AdvanceDo ment and Progress of Haiti, has taken de facto control of the streets...
...fter Aristide's reluctant acceptance of Thdodore for prime minister, the United States began pushing hard for a meeting in Washington...
...The October 7 New York Times explained the dumbfounding rash of nationwide press reports attacking the 16NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 16REPORT ON HAITI beleaguered Haitian president: "American officials are beginning to quietly disclose a thick notebook detailing accounts of human rights abuses that took place during Father Aristide's rule" which "jeopardized his moral authority and popularity...
...They saw the gift of the Security Council's embargo as a trap for Aristide...
...plans...
...What next...
...government assault on his Administration, Aristide almost immediately sacrificed his popular prime minister, Ren6 Pr6val...
...He promised land redistribution and an end to the Duvalierist favoritism, corruption and violence which had so traumatized the Haitian people since Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier's rule began in 1957...
...In fact, he strengthened the naval blockade against the small wooden sail-boats fleeing Haiti's terror, an act which violates peace-time international law...
...intervention!," the troop carrier beat an ignominious retreat...
...neoliberal prescrip- tions for Haiti which sought to 1) privatize state-run enter- prises like the telephone com- pany, flour mill, and cement factory, 2) reduce taxes, duties, and wages to suit for- eign investors, 3) cut social spending and insure regular debt payments to foreign banks, and 4) foster an export-oriented economy, thereby increasing Haiti's allots in the 1990 elections...
...The Globe and Mail (Toronto), July 5, 1993...
...At one such rally, a group of men cluster around me, chanting "-"America, yes...
...The result was the putschists' Villa d'Accueil accord, which called for "a government of consensus," code for a power-sharing arrangement between the Lavalas coalition and hardline Duvalierists...
...In 1802, Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the successful 1801 revolution to abolish slavery in the French colony of St...
...He had up to that point rejected the idea of elections-especially U.S.-sponsored elections-until there Haitians line up to cast their were structural reforms...
...The dirty work of terror and consolidation had 22NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 22REPORT ON HAITI been done...
...The UN is trying to validate C6dras as a negotiating partner and force Aristide to bargain with him...
...The office of prime minister became the key bargaining chip in the negotiations...
...The corruption, incompetence and backwardness of the Duvalierist bureaucrats hindered the investment of foreign multinational corporations in agribusiness, mining and light manufacturing...
...government's official rhetoric and its true intent, Aristide took his first step down the slippery slope of negotiations...
...One of them, wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap, sports a rifle over his shoulder and two hand grenades on his belt...
...The result: C6dras was legitimized and Aristide's own return was rendered improbable...
...Most attaches are members of right-wing political organizations that have recently sprung up, proponents of an extreme nationalism...
...The treasury department began to allow shipping by assembly industries with plants in Haiti...
...He remained basically on the defensive, always trying to seem as reasonable and as inoffensive as possible to the U.S...
...President," Haiti's principal popular organizations wrote on July 9 after Governors Island, "today history places us, the popular organizations, at a crossroads where, with or without you, we are going to continue to struggle for the liberation of the country...
...The document was greeted with A bus-load of U.N...
...Within , but just a few months, the recommendations outlined in the secret document would n tactics...
...Should popular insurrection or guerrilla war break out and threaten the Duvalierists' present grip on power, U.S...
...15...
...I'm not certain the delegation got all the points of view and the view of the Haitian people...
...policymakers and the media which will counteract and nullify the propagans not da of the Lavalas organization...
...When C6dras and his delegation returned to Haiti on July 3, he received a hero's welcome from cheering crowds of soldiers and coup supporters at the airport...
...4 The delegation returned to Washington on October 6 to chastise Aristide for his political behavior and to advise negotiations with Haitian parliamentarians...
...mediator-"maybe Colin Powell...
...According to a document issued at the "Miami Meeting" opening, the Lavalas sought "to put in place a real government of concord...integrating the political parties, the diverse organized sectors of civil society and all the institutions likely to aid in the national renaissance...
...In Cite Soleil, the poorest of the sprawling slums of Port-au-Prince, the empty streets offer up a daily quota of bloody bodies left for days as a warning of the penalty for hope...
...Since the OAS has no enforcement arm, UN Ambassador Fritz Longchamps began pressing for direct intervention from the UN Security Council...
...Everyone who knows Aristide is absolutely amazed at the maturation that has occurred in the past two years," said Father Antoine Adrien, a close presidential advisor from the bourgeois sector...
...The Challenges Ahead...
...military intervention or popular revolution...
...Haiti's crisis as a radical democratic change that must come from within...
...1 0 VOL XXVII, No4 JAN/FEB 1994 23 VOL XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 23REPORT ON HAITI The popular sector remained completely opposed to all forms of foreign military intervention in Haiti, whether under the banner of the UN or the United States...
...We are not independent," Li-bon says...
...intervention...
...n October, 1990, as national presidential elections neared, the democratic sector faced a very grim political scenario...
...The traditional bourgeoisie, rather than calling on the Haitian masses to defend their nascent revolution after the coup, sought to compromise with the ruling powers in Haiti and the United States...
...Not until November 5, almost a month later, did President Bush decree U.S...
...The parliamentarians, with U.S...
...whites go away...
...Malval was a hybrid between the traditional bourgeoisie and the technocrats, a wealthy printer who was well-connected with the bourgeoisie, the oligarchy, and the Army...
...and multilateral lending agencies to loosen the grip of Haiti's Duvalierist landed oligarchy on state power and finances...
...policy in Hait endorsed or government-encouraged vigilante violence-international support and Haitian community mobilization remained very strong...
...The moderate Miamibased weekly Haiti en Marche described him as the "Th6odore bomb" who was part of a "plan carefully conceived on the banks of the Potomac and at Langley...
...Benoit was unceremoniously dumped, and Aristide became the presidential candidate of the FNCD...
...They in turn, along with Adams, branded him as "intransigent," a term which would become familiar to negotiation followers in the months ahead...
...Council' The logic of reconciliation led inevitably to direct negotiations and mul between Aristide and C6dras...
...Haiti Progres, July 7-13, 1993...
...Democracy Derailed," The 5th estate, CBC, October 26, 1993...
...2) respect of parliamentary legislation ratified after the coup, which included C6dras' appointment as head of the Army through 1994...
...government, particularly from the Pentagon and CIA, completely distrusted Aristide and were opposed to the venture of controlling him and the mass movement he commands...
...In parliament, hard-line deputies and senators brandished revolvers and started fistfights during the sessions which led up to the final non-ratification of the document...
...By requesting the Security Council to take up the case of Haiti, Aristide has surrendered his leadership and control over efforts for his own restoration to an international body controlled by the very nation which had a hand in the coup which overthrew him," wrote the New York-based Haiti Commission of Inquiry into the September 30th Coup d'Etat in a June 26 statement...
...5. New York Post, October 7, 1991...
...interests...
...The accord contains the elements of democracy, the return of the truly elected president of the Republic and the relinquishing of their command posts by the leaders of the coup," declared Ambassador Casimir...
...At the time of Clinton's victory, the Democrats were aware that the Lavalas bourgeoisie expected a radical shift in Haiti policy...
...Pro-coup Senator Serge Joseph affirmed that it "was not at all a question of President Aristide's return as some have said...
...Constant would like to see UN envoy Dante Caputo replaced by a U.S...
...The oligarchy's candidate Roger Lafontant, former head of the Tontons Macoute, was rallying Duvalierists and holding mass demonstrations in downtown Port-au-Prince...
...On October 11, over 100,000 Haitians marched six miles from central Brooklyn to a rally in downtown Manhattan, all but shutting down the Wall Street area...
...What about independence...
...2 5 These set-backs for the bourgeoisie's strategy should not be understood as a defeat for the people's movement overall...
...If you don't gic of come, it's as if you refuse the power...
...Embassy, who did not expect his candidacy...
...government seemed to unequivocally champion the return to power of the anti-imperialist liberation theologian priest...
...This combination of the people's candidate running under the bourgeoisie's banner unleashed the electoral outpouring that became known as the "Lavalas...
...What about 1915...
...The air was electric with TV lights, camera flashes, and official outrage...
...In any case, the deployment of the OAS observer force during the autumn of 1992 never exceeded more than 20 individuals, who essentially remained ensconced in the luxurious Hotel Montana in the cool heights of the wealthy Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville...
...After offering an olive branch, Aristide was now accused of blocking resolution of the crisis...
...Since 1986, the traditional bourgeoisie was represented politically by the "democ- Prc ratic sector," so called because of its focus on the mainstays of bourgeois democra- Arisl cy-a constitution and elections-while eschewing revolutionary tactics, sharp confrontation of Duvalierist and U.S...
...he beginning of the process was the deployment in March of a 250-member UN Civilian Mission to monitor and record human rights violations...
...The Pentagon and CIA used this backlash to try to scuttle the project of returning Aristide...
...It is imperative," he went on, "that we agree for the sake of Haitian democracy and the cause of democracy throughout the hemisphere, to act collectively to defend the legitimate government of President Aristide...
...The attack almost scuttled the process...
...This was the origin of the "tripartite meeting" in late May and early June among de facto Prime Minister Jean-Jacques Honorat, de facto President Joseph Nerette, pro-coup parliamentarians, and the Army...
...3. Washington Office on Haiti statement before the House Western Hemisphere Affairs Subcommittee on July 21, 1993...
...The tenacity and patience of the Haitian people has deep roots...
...Bazin was the favorite contender of the U.S...
...The coup's days seemed numbered...
...The slightest nuance in the U.S...
...U Voi XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 27 S 4 5 4 0 4 0 VoL XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 27REPORT ON HAITI people," noting in particular "points 5 and 10 of the accord which accept the entry of foreign troops into the country and gives to the United Nations the right to control the governing of the country...
...Although it acknowledged Aristide's presidential title, the accord fixed no date for the return of President Aristide...
...public opinion against U.S...
...Numerous statements emanating from the popular sector warned that Aristide was being outflanked and driven into unjustifiable compromises...
...Aristide sought to balance the two strategies, saying, with some justice, that they were symbiotic...
...But, over the weekend of October 5 and 6, the focus of U.S...
...He had been a fierce opponent of Aristide and others in the popular sector both before and after the December 1990 election...
...We cannot work, we cannot speak, we cannot live...
...stars and stripes...
...The Duvalierists, having effectively torpedoed the Washington Protocol, went on the offensive...
...Why not...
...strong-a "This is not diplomacy, but just It is the d strong-arm tactics," said Paul Dejean, a close Aristide advisor, who heads a of big human rights group in Haiti...
...On the second front, the traditional bourgeoisie had a symbiotic rivalry for political power with the land-owning oligarchy, called gwandon, going back almost two centuries...
...After October 11 and the assassination of Justice Minister Guy Malary on October 14, Aristide's chances of returning on October 30, which had been slim to begin with, evaporated altogether...
...The popular will triumphed-momentarily-with little violence or repression...
...In November and December 1992, U.S...
...But Aristide instead assumed a defensive posture, hoping to counteract the media message that he was a political bully...
...government soon began tempering its call...
...As the months passed, the completely porous embargo became a symbol of the U.S...
...Secretary of State Elliott Abrams lobbied hard behind the scenes...
...The bourgeois sector of Lavalas, on the other hand, sees diplomatic dialogue, reconciliation, and integration of the opposition as components of a new democracy...
...Embassy never protested the murder...
...Headlines announce what the UN has decided to do about Haiti today, while Aristide's calls are relegated to the foot- A Port-au-Prince mural t/ notes...
...They will get rid of the attaches...
...support, presented an agreement to lift the embargo in from the Dominican Republic to exchange for more negotiations, but the document acknowledged neither Aristide's presidency nor his return to Haiti...
...From the wharves, through the sea-side slums, up the road past the attaches' hang-out La Normandie, up past the Army headquarters, up, up past the mounds of trash into the wealthy hills of Petionville, and over the seas, to the suites of Washington, Haitians of every status were calculating the meaning of the most recent international maneuver...
...How can two Daily News reporters who have only visited Haiti on a few occasions learn beforehand of secret plans to sabotage the landing of our troops, while our vaunted officialdom claims it was caught flat-footed...
...Malval was ratified in a ceremony at the Haitian Embassy in Washington, DC on August 30 and installed in Port-au-Prince on September 2. His cabinet also reflected an opening toward the neoliberal technocrat sector...
...Farther on in Cite Carton, so named because the huts are constructed from cardboard and old U.S.AID food cartons, Dieudonne sits on the ground with the metal bowls he makes and says, "I am for the a soldier (right) in embargo, because we have to get artersAristide back...
...The popular movement leaders would also have been glad to see the USS Harlan County sail away with its anchor between its legs, so to speak, but for the fact that many of them were hiding out in the United States...
...A group of boys play soccer in the empty street, with deflated rubber balls...
...The day after the vote, President Clinton said in a press conference that he thought that the sanctions would not be sufficient and that the only solution to the problem in Haiti was some kind of multinational peace-keeping force...
...New York Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez was told of the October 11 port demonstration the day beforehand at a Duvalierist meeting at which U.S...
...In a New York area radio broadcast on March 1, Aristide urged the Haitian community in the United States to not succumb to the "disinformation machine" which characterized him as reneging on the agreement and to "maintain your mobilization and resistance, without which we could not apply pressure at all...
...Miami Herald, July 3, 1993...
...Embassy at the request of Army chief Gen...
...This UN force, with an initial term of deployment of six months, was not restricted in how large it could grow or how long it could stay...
...The international community must lift the embargo, because it is unimaginable and criminal to keep six million people hostage for one person...and we must have new elections according to Article 149 of the Constitution...
...Bazin, the putschists hoped, would be able to get the embargo lifted and soften up the United States to make Aristide strike a deal for the "government of consensus...
...They also hoped to negotiate a lifting of the embargo...
...Historically, whoever controlled power in Port-au-Prince took the lion's share of the profit stolen from the Haitian peasant...
...Domingue, was captured by French officers when he agreed to negotiate peace at Habitation Br6da...
...Perhaps the the course of events should have been foreseen, given the inconsistency of the troops' mission-to restore democracy-and their instructions to "run the other way" if they encountered opposi- by Catherini tion...
...The document also dismissed as illegal any puppet governments that the military might set up...
...Some ask for peace, others demand power, and some call for democracy...
...If the General Assembly judges that the violations of human rights are continuing despite the different initiatives of the UN and that the only way to guarantee and preserve these rights is a 'peacekeeping force,' it will consult the Haitian government...and it can then ask the Security Council to deploy this 'peace-keeping force' so as to stop [the putschists] from assassinating the Haitian people," Longchamps told a Haitian press conference in late November...
...This was a giant and crippling concession...
...Aristide, for his part, made the promise of amnesty long demanded of him more explicit than ever, saying at a White House meeting with Clinton in March, 1993 that "the departure of the authors of the coup d'dtat does not necessarily mean they would have to be in jail or have to leave the country...
...government for foreign military deployment in Haiti...
...This is delegations occupied separate buildings 100 yards apart with Argentine diplo- t the mat Dante Caputo, the UN special eoisie envoy who took over from OAS special envoy Augusto Ocampo, shuttling I and the between them...
...The traditional bourgeoisie would then sell that agricultural product on the world market...
...The OAS delegation, said Dufour, only "met with a solid line of politicians and businessmen who have been opposed to Aristide...
...The United States was ignoring supporters of the elected government," according to French Ambassador Raphael Dufour who was barred from the OAS meetings by the U.S...
...Newsday, July 4, 1993...
...3 Flowing from this logic, the recourse to foreign military intervention always lurked-unspoken and denied--just below the surface of the bourgeoisie's agenda...
...The Challenges Ahead," Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center, July 9, 1993...
...Forty-five of the current's key representatives went to Miami for a meeting in June, 1992...
...They were referred to, in official statements, either as "instructors" to "professionalize" the Haitian Armed Forces or "technicians" to help "rebuild the country" by bringing their technical expertise to bear on problems like road construction and justice-system reform...
...diplomats into a frenzy...
...The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, U.S.AID, and the United Nations Development Programme guided most of the conference with presentations of their plans to revive the Haitian economy, and of the errors that Aristide had made in his first eight months of administration...
...The democratic sector ridiculed the popular sector's revolutionary goals as utopian and unrealistic...
...power, PO and radical economic change.' Democracy was, for them, a means to overcome the Duvalierist grip on state power while channeling the revolutionary anger of the Haitian slum-dwellers and peasantry In this sense, the tradi- tional bourgeoisie has been fighting a war on three fronts...
...Throughout, the essence of the U.S...
...government's contempt for Aristide's return...
...After the devastating attack on U.S...
...Furthermore, if there is to be U.S...
...On October 2, OAS ministers met late into the night drafting and adopting a resolution to embargo and diplomatically isolate the renegade regime...
...Aristide had walked into a trap...
...Its political orientation matches that of North American businessmen and the U.S...
...Faced with flagging political fortunes, the traditional bourgeoisie turned to Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was identified with the popular movement and symbolized the Haitian masses' aspirations...
...We are in the middle of a long struggle...
...Such a program was revolutionary in Haiti...
...This, of course, was not the reality...
...Now it was time to try to sell it to the international community...
...But Aristide clung to the embargo, mainly because he was unprepared or unwilling to choose either of his other two alternatives: t a July 1992 demonstration in New York...
...convinced the exodus of boat people was largely economic, [was] quickly receptive to CLAA's arguments," the article reported...
...The United States is best served by a democratic and stable Haiti which is able to pursue economic and social development for its entire population," said Haitian Foreign Minister Claudette Werleigh, then with the Washington Office on Haiti, before Congress in July, 1993...
...The Army refused to act upon warrants for his arrest, and the Duvalierists were clamoring to be included in the 1990 elections, from which they were constitutionally barred...
...The sight was sweetened by the memory of 1915, when U.S...
...He had given the pro-coup parliamentarians the moral legitimacy to continue their diplomatic sabotage, when he might have been better off shunning them for their treason...
...The U.S...
...From the very start of the coup, the U.S...
...The apprehensions of the popular sector of the Lavalas movement were supported by the revelations of a document which was leaked in October by a Haitian U.S.-Embassy security guard, who was assassinated at his home by soldiers a few days later...
...Many of the 200 business-people in attendance had helped finance the 1991 coup and break the ensuing embargo...
...Oil tankers from Europe soon replaced those from Venezuela and Mexico...
...intervention overseas...
...2 3 Since Aristide's return via U.S...
...People who had returned to test the mission's effect have had to flee the area once again...
...It is the rule of democracy that we support," White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater announced on October 7. "We don't know [if Aristide will return to power] in the sense that the government in his country is changing and considering any number of different possibilities...
...Returning President Aristide to Haiti is going to be difficult for reasons to which he himself has greatly contributed," asserted an October 6 Washington Post editorial...
...policy with Haiti-they know what is in their own interest...
...The ineffectiveness of the OAS observers increased calls by the Lavalas bourgeoisie for a more forceful international role...
...The word means the "flood" and is a biblical image which had been evoked by popular organizations since 1986 to convey the purifying and sweeping nature of the popular uprising that would rid the country of the twin evils of Duvalierist terror and foreign domination...
...They should say loudly to the people, like us, that in the government of concord, Macoutes are not included" because "the Macoutes have never been and will never be interested in democracy...
...President Aristide is welcome back in my country," he says...
...But the U.S...
...ships had last come to Haiti and stayed for 20 years...
...For the time being, however, Warren Christopher has said that the re-establishment of democracy in Haiti is not on the U.S...
...imperialists or Macoutes...
...government reproach shifted 180 degrees from the coup d'6tat to President Aristide's human rights record...
...K.I...
...When asked by a French journalist if he was finally ready to call openly for foreign military intervention he responded: "I am sure that the Haitian people would be happy to be rid of the criminals, but if I ask for an intervention, I will be condemned by my Constitution...
...The key elements of the accord were: 1) an amnesty for the Army and other authors of the coup...
...embassy had a dream ticket in a dream situation, where Lafontant could be the "straw man" for Bazin to confront in the elections...
...military action which could range "from a special-forces type of operation aimed at quickly arresting several officers to a full-scale occupation of the country...
...He qn Jqu The bourgeoisie, counting on U.S...
...But the popular sector's warnings went unheeded, especially after the de facto government of Marc Bazin collapsed on June 8, 1993...
...He was the living embodiment of antiDuvalierism, having survived several assassination attempts from the Tontons Macoute...
...Aristide is not going to turn his mob on them...
...They sometimes have rallies outside the Palace of Justice, near La Normandie, where they march waving the Haitian blue-and-red flag, the revived Orenstein black-and-red flag of Duvalier, and the U.S...
...Embassy set up a tribunal condemning Aristide...
...14 Dante Caputo called the accord "a model for the future," and President Clinton called it "an historic step forward for democracy...
...In the face of the proposal, Aristide remained enigmatic...
...We want to see President Aristide returned to power," President Bush echoed two days later after a 20-minute discussion and a photo-op with Aristide at the White House...
...Foreign investors' associations like the Washington-based Caribbean Latin American Action (CLAA) and former Asst...
...He refused to sign the document and denounced the "bad faith" of the parliamentarians...
...The return of Aristide to Haiti is not worth even one American life," said Senator Bob Dole on October 24...
...As a citizen...
...Ari After the Villa d'Accueil accord, the Lavalas bourgeoisie formulated its riposte...
...The restrictions were jauntily breached by exporters and importers not only from Europe, but from the United States and Latin America too...
...The bourgeois sector sees the international community as a medium for resolving Haiti's crisis, reconciliation as necessary, and intervention as a possibility...
...A hush fell over the hall when it was addressed by U.S...
...We have seen more surprising things than that...
...troops in Somalia in early October, there was a backlash in U.S...
...should have been ordered to land...
...government lured Aristide into a new, hopelessly rigged game by letting him think he can win again...
...Thdodore had said in early February, 1992 that he agreed with Aristide's "political return" to Haiti, but that his "physical return, that is something else...
...If the traditional bourgeois sector and the petty-bourgeoisie in the Lavalas do not think that they are flirting with the putschists, then they shouldn't make demagogery," the APN said...
...or UN intervention would be quickly mounted...
...Haiti appeared like a country without a government, without a prime minister [after Bazin's resignation], without a president," said Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the MPP, who was a member of the Presidential Commission, explaining why Aristide accepted the UN invitation...
...But after a day-long Hait stand-off at the docks with a small gang of military attaches who bran- W ant dished clubs and guns, and screamed, "No U.S...
...As for Aristide, he was in so deep with the UN now, he did not want to hesitate...
...government's thinly cloaked subversion of Aristide's return was mainly Republican in nature and began to look for salvation in the election of Democrat Bill Clinton...
...Even parliamentarians who had signed the document disowned it, saying, like Senator Eddy Dupiton, ve at the Port-au-Prince airport that it was just a "proposal...
...This marked the end of the first phase of the coup d'6tat...
...2 4 The coup of September 30, 1991, like all decisive historical moments, provides a litmus test of its actors' convictions...
...Everyone will be happy when they come...
...As I walk back, a woman I don't know offers me her baby...
...The United States would agree to recognize a new prime minister and unblock the Haitian government assets in the United States," the document said...
...The military junta and its Duvalierist allies seek to maintain and consolidate their control, seeing in the United States an ally to prevent Aristide's return...
...Earlier that week at a press conference, Constant proclaimed, "Governor's Island is dead...
...This is peace-ke what the bourgeoisie counseled, and the popular sector opposed...
...This sector is essentially a managerial class tied to the ver assembly industries and agribusinesses...
...State Department and even Ti many of his own advisors...
...He says, "October 30 was only one date...
...9. Interview with Crowing Rooster Productions, July 23, 1992...
...When asked in July if he endorsed negotiations between Aristide and C6dras, Father Adrien responded: "Why not...
...I ask...
...The president is a hero to the desperate people who live in the slums of Port-auPrince...
...Trying to protect the oldest and most entrenched semi-feudal economy in the Western Hemisphere against the incursions of foreign capital, the Haitian oligarchy is arch-reactionary, opposed to all social, economic, or political reforms, even those advanced by the United States...
...Today, this past and Haiti's future lies within the Haitian people and their popular organizations, who have learned from the experiences of Habitation Br6da and of Cartagena, Washington, and Governors Island...
...Some were wary of what might replace them...
...position would be more weighty than the combined bombast of the OAS's other 33 member nations...
...9 Thus, on September 1, 1992, a meeting was arranged between Marc Bazin's "foreign minister" Franqois Benoit and Presidential Commission head Father Adrien at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC...
...But, in concert with the press, the U.S...
...The parliamentary delegation Aristide met with in Cartagena, Colombia in November, 1991, was almost exclusively made up of coup supporters...
...He dubbed his own inauguration "Haiti's Second Independence...
...Those are the ones who haven't been heard from...
...The embargo, however, was tough only on paper...
...6. The Guardian, January 22, 1992...
...In Port-au-Prince, rich families who had helped finance the coup made fortunes selling goods at inflated prices in the pseudo-black market...
...He was still not trusted...
...Aristide also embodied anti-imperialism...
...Fitzwater stressed that during President Aristide's near eight months in office-from a triumphant inauguration on February 7, 1991 to the start of the coup on September 29-he had relied on "mob rule," a theme which was bleated in dutiful unison throughout the mainstream media...
...5 On January 8, Aristide buckled under solutii the pressure and nominated Ren6 Thdodore...
...The Haitian masses had generally, since 1986, followed this bourgeoisie's political lead-most notably in campaigns for the March 1987 Constitution, the November 1987 elections, and the March 1990 appointment of President Ertha Trouillot...
...We hoped the Americans would come...
...The person the putschists chose to head this remodeled civilian front government was one they were sure the United States could not resist: Marc Bazin...
...He asserted that there would be in fact no amnesty for C6dras, since "common criminals" were excluded from the amnesty...
...made a lot of promises, and where are they now...
...It is the dictatorship of big powers which think which tl they can impose any solution they can im want...
...This was the first concrete and official proposal by the U.S...
...The U.S...
...as he had with the elections...
...Haiti Progrbs, July 7-13, 1993...
...New York Times, November 5, 1993...
...The popular organizations place their faith in the people who made the Lavalas possible and continue to defend the movement's original ideals of national independence and democratic rebirth...
...But since the proposal "to send a military police force to occupy the country," the popular organizations continued, "we cannot understand your silence and the silence of your government in this affair...
...It revealed the true cynicism of the U.S...
...He has organized them into an instrument of real terror...
...The hall gave up thunderous applause...
...It is represented on the political spectrum by the Duvalierists-whose armed expression is the league of thugs called Tontons Macoute-and the "hard line" in the Army...
...This junta is illegal," Baker solemnly declared...
...The whole project was shrouded in ambiguity...
...Aristide initially refused any deals with C6dras, saying the general and other coup leaders had no alternative but to go into exile or face justice upon his return...
...Aristide also had close contacts with the traditional bourgeoisie...
...At his home, FRAPH's Secretary General Emmanuel "Toto" Constant sits on his balcony overlooking an empty pool, the butt of a guard's gun visible over the wall...
...I ask Li-bon...
...The multitude then marched through rain another four miles uptown to the United Nations, where the 166 members of the General Assembly were unanimously voting a resolution which bolstered the OAS embargo and branded as "illegal" the junta of coup-leader Lt...
...Meanwhile, among the poor masses who don't have the luxury of idealism, many hope for peace at almost any cost...
...In July, his government hosted in Miami a "Haiti Government/Business Partnership Conference," with the support of organizations like the CLAA, which had so vigorously fought the embargo...
...One shot and we're out of there,' a Pentagon spokesman helpfully said of the mission of the good ship Harlan County, almost advising the Haitian military of the paltry risk it would run in breaching the Governors Island accord...
...First, the traditional bourgeoisie sought to hold down and harness the popular uprisings of the Haitian mass- es who were demanding radical economic and political change...
...But rather than judging his electoral victory as a fluke, Aristide has tried to universalize the tactic into a political strategy of trying to beat the system at its own game...
...Haiti Progrbs, July 14-20, 1993...
...There were never any real negotiations, but just the imposition of a plan designed by the international community...
...Shortly afterwards, Aristide nominated U.S.-leaning Robert Malval as prime minister...
...Pssst, blan...
...Nou pa independan...
...A member of President Aristide's entourage put it to me bitterly," Hitchens wrote...
...official called the President "a deal breaker...
...Blan al0...
...Meanwhile, Aristide, by sticking with these negotiations, has neutralized the only real weapon he has: the man in the street," a bitter Aristide supporter told the New York Times...
...Haiti's political turmoil since 1986-11 governments and three coups-is basically a map of the struggle between these four key sectors: the technocrat bourgeoisie, the traditional bourgeoisie, the feudal oligarchy, and the popular movement...
...The Presidential Commission had all the trappings of representing Aristide, yet it was distinct from the government per se, and Aristide called it an independent initiative...
...For the popular movement, the "solution" is radical democratic change-a social revolution with no room for compromise with the "U.S...
...The APN called Macoutism a "sickness without a cure...
...Even before his inauguration, Clinton reneged on his campaign promise to undo what he called during the campaign Bush's "immoral and illegal policy" of intercepting and repatriating Haitian refugees...
...Intervention, no...
...The document also notes that "what is needed presently is a broad, sustained, and very discrete approach from the U.S...
...However, once again, the concessions being formulated were to come from Aristide...
...When Trom joining, a member is given an identity card and the option to buy a gun...
...Many popular organizations complained that the presence of the mission provoked more violence from the Army...
...Raoul C6dras, Senate leader Ddjean Bl1izaire, and Jean-Jacques Honorat, the first de facto prime minister...
...7 Even detached observers said that Aristide had given away a lot for nothing in return...
...Would you take her to America with you...
...The question of intervention has bedeviled and paralyzed the organization for the 40 years of its existence," Friedman wrote, apparently unaware of OAS participation in the 1965 Dominican Republic invasion and acquiescence to numerous unilateral U.S...
...Aristide's entry into the presidential race only 60 days before the polling allowed him to outwit election strate- gists at the U.S...
...Thus, you who are the constitutional government, [the UN] writes you to say come, we are going to turn power over to you...
...In addition, Aristide, in siding with the bourgeois sector, has lost his political prestige in the popular sector...
...There is other evidence that the Pentagon and CIA encouraged the attaches to rampage to justify the Harlan County's pull-back...
...They could come in and shoot those guys," says Li-bon, whose name means "he's good" in Haitian Creole...
...State Department...
...We are dying alone in the streets...
...Americans, yes...
...We know America is not afraid of the Haitian army...
...Haiti Progres, December 2-8, 1992...
...Jean Bosco in the Port- au-Prince slum of La Saline...
...compliance with the trade and oil embargo recommended by the UN and OAS resolutions...
...State Department, horror from the popular sector, and contempt from the Duvalierists...
...Just sign it...
...And this was as a t the beginning of the real division in the Lavalas...
...We ask you Democracy (FNCD), it fielded a lackluster candidate, Professor Victor Benoit, in whom the masses were completely uninterested...
...He cannot be president because, you know, he is unstable, as a CIA file has said...
...the surprise of many, the U.S...
...2 tion led to The negotiations began June 27, 1993 on Governors Island, in New gotiations York City harbor, to avoid the massive Aristide demonstrations of Haitians outside UN headquarters in Manhattan...
...Others saw their last hopes retreating on the horizon...
...For the people of Haiti, and the people of the world, the lines demarcating democracy from dictatorship had never been so clearly drawn and the recourse to self-defense so justified...
...Over the two years since the coup, the mass movement behind President Aristide has gradually split into two distinct currents adhering to Aristide's diametrically opposed choices...
...Gonzalez asked on October 12...
...result of consistent pressure and threats on President Aristide," according to a point-by-point analysis of the accord made by the Haiti Reborn project of the Quixote Center...
...French cited an anonymous American diplomat who predicted that "ultimately the wrath of God will fall"-that is, U.S...
...The Caputo quotation is from the Inter-Press Service on July 7, 1993...
...All this double talk was simply to appease the popular organizations, since they were alarmed that one of the principles of the December 16 coalition-"makout pa ladann" (Macoutes are disqualified)-was being betrayed...
...Pssst," he says, juggling his hand grenades for me...
...The soldiers were to be under UN Security Council command, not that of the legitimate government...
...Secretary of State James Baker...
...Not only did Aristide not return on October 30, but the ministers of his entire government, including Prime Minister Malval, have been unable to perform their duties or even occupy their offices...
...This "thick notebook" of abuses was compiled by Jean-Jacques Honorat, whose human rights outfit, CHADEL, was a recipient of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding to the tune of about $40,000 a year...
...FRAPH's affinity for the United States indicates some- thing about U.S...
...On October 6, the Washington Post opined that the only way to guarantee Aristide's "respect for human rights and for a kind of democracy that goes beyond mob rule" was to send "a peacekeeping force sponsored by the OAS" to provide "a lot of Haitians...assurance that Mr...
...Despite the money Bazin distributed throughout the country in an attempt to buy votes and the $36 million spent on his campaign, thousands of Haitians poured into the streets during Aristide's gigantic campaign rallies chanting "Lipa lajan, non, se volonte, wi" (I'm not here for money, it's of my free will...
...On February 4, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutweiler tried to sell the measure as a "fine-tuning" of the embargo, arguing that "the sanctions on the assembly sector largely affect innocent Haitians only and have no serious impact on those behind the coup...
...Entreated by the bourgeoisie to run and seeing that the result of a Bazin/Lafontant contest would be a U.S./Duvalierist compromise similar to JeanClaude Duvalier's regime, he took the gamble of entering the race...
...Having previously 11 n Er a 9 a1 been branded an outlaw by the UN and OAS, C6dras was all too happy to be legitimized by negotiations...
...The democratic sector, meanwhile, was in disarray...
...military intervention, the conservatives favor the use of "overpowering force," as in Iraq, rather than disguised piecemeal deployments behind the fig-leaf of UN command...
...The essence of Aristide's promise was democracy and nationalism...
...Where the Bush Administration did its best to undermine all progress toward Aristide's return, the Clinton team-in particular, new Secretary of State Warren Christopher-began cautiously working towards Aristide's restoration to power, under the control of UN monitors and "peace-keeping" forces...
...Within the Lavalas coalition that brought Aristide to power, the popular movement has been at odds with the more liberal bourgeois sector on the issue of international intervention, both diplomatic and military...
...The oligarchy did not want Aristide's return under any t. conditions, and Thdodore's nomination seemed to be a step in that direction...
...The result was the February 23 signing in Washington of the "Protocol of Accord," the first major agreement to emerge from negotiations...
...In two years of negotiations, the putschists have given nothing of their usurped power, t depicts "popularjustice...
...Aristide's electoral victory-with 67% of the vote- was one of the most joyous periods in Haitian history...
...On April 23, President Clinton announced a plan to send a "multinational police force" of 500 to 600 to Haiti to "s Island Accord, which was "professionalize" the nm.professionalize" the Haitian Army...
...The key loophole was that the United States had to support his return and oppose the coup or else it would give a green light to generals throughout Latin America to start a new era of coup d'6tats against civilian regimes which were still servicing U.S...
...optique...
...2 0 But an open letter to President Aristide from ten of the most established popular organizations called the accord "an affront to the heroic struggle of the Haitian shows me his back, which is bruised...
...On June 16, 1993, the body voted Resolution #841, which called for a mandatory global embargo on oil and arms going to Haiti to take effect June 23...
...Citing anonymous "diplomats," the December 28 New York Times described what would happen if Aristide did not comply: "Failing an agreement...
...U.S.AID's $36.5 million "emergency recovery" package, which would largely go to repay bank debts run up during the coup, was the centerpiece of discussion...
...The White House also was receptive, especially the office of Vice President Quayle, who heads the Council on Competitiveness...
...With time, Aristide has even turned toward the more conservative and "pragmatic" of this group, who better understand and conform to the U.S...
...But by late 1990, the Haitian people were looking for alternatives...
...The majority of the people do not want Thdodore as prime minister, and their opinion is also mine," said Willy Romelus, the progressive Archbishop of Jeremie, in a December 23 radio broadcast...
...Until this time, the conflict between the two currents in the Lavalas-bourgeois and popular-remained mostly friction, as the former called for negotiations and the latter for mobilization...
...But the Lavalas bourgeoisie convinced Aristide that strength lay in the halls of Washington rather than the mountains of Haiti...
...press also raised the "option" of U.S...
...officialdom and finance...
...good will and support, expressed guarded satisfaction with the accord...
...The UN now did bring the "two parties" of the Haitian conflict to the bargaining table...
...As Duva28NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 28REPORT ON HAITI lierist violence grew in Haiti, right-wing campaigns in the United States-spearheaded by Senators Dole, Nunn, and Helms-smeared Aristide's psychological health, human rights record, and political affiliations...
...We hope that you will immediately take an official public position that is crystal clear in denouncing and condemning this plan...
...Until President Aristide's government is restored, this junta will be treated as a pariah, without friends, without support, and without a future...
...If Aristide comes back, it could not be earlier than a few months from now...and only so that he can be sent back, destitute, into exile shortly thereafter...
...However, Aristide, surrounded mostly by advisors from the democratic sector, leaned more towards the bourgeoisie's scheme...
...This sequence of events provided a unique opportunity to observe the different Haitian views of what role the international community and the United States should play in their country...
...John Sheehan 'yucking it up' with General C6dras at a reception in September," wrote Christopher Hitchens in the November 3 Nation...
...On November 9, Aristide himself seems to have finally cast aside all pretense as to the option he favors...
...The meeting was well-attended by both the merchant and the technocrat tendencies of Haiti's bourgeoisie...
...We are in a moral prison...
...On the afternoon of October 2, 1991, two days after the September 30th coup d'6tat against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Organization of American States (OAS) held an extraordinary emergency session at its headquarters in Washington, DC...
...4. Jean-Jacques Gilles, Haiti en Marche, January 1, 1992...
...In contrast, both the technocrats and the democratic sector had often proposed "reconciling" with the Duvalierists and reuniting the "Haitian family...
...2 Within a week, Honorat was appointed by the military-controlled parliament to be the first post-coup prime minister...
...Now instead of beating us during the day, they come and beat us even more savagely at night," a young militant from the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) in Hinche explained in June, 1993...
...strategy has been to drive Aristide to strike a deal with the coup leaders and invite military intervention...
...The U.S...
...Instead, the U.S...
...Sacramento Bee, October 13, 1993...
...18 The "minor problem" was that, in addition to many other concessions to the putschists, Aristide agreed to lift the embargo and name his prime minister before O n October 11, the United States carrier ship USS Harlan County W ha arrived in the bay of Port-au-Prince with a cargo of 200 "combat engineers and Ha military trainers...
...His capacity for compromise has greatly expanded...
...the departure of C6dras and before his own return, leaving the putschists fully capable of sinking the process whenever they saw fit...
...Underestimating the chasm between the U.S...
...The first incarnation of this effort was the OAS/DEMOC mission, which, in the blue-prints, was to consist of hundreds of foreigners flooding the country to stay the hand of Macoute violence, by the thinking in the bourgeois Lavalas circles...
...He was a staunch opponent of the U.S...
...Having usurped control of the crisis in Haiti, the UN and the United States have begun forcing Aristide into a corner...
...Furthermore, it was pointed out-primarily in the pages of Harti Progras-that the UN Charter explicitly forbids the intervention of the Security Council into the internal affairs of member states...
...This was clear enough to the Duvalierists...
...This caused an outcry from the popular sector...
...This coup must not and will not succeed...
...Meanwhile in Haiti, the Duvalierists were taking no chances...
...Even though the United States tried to owers smoothly phase in Th6odore as prime minister, unruliness from the Duva- ink they lierists threatened U.S...
...1. There are also different currents within the "democratic sector," roughly corresponding to those "democrats" more aligned with the traditional merchant bourgeoisie-Father Antoine Adrien...
...government also 24 NACL& REPORT ON THE AMERICAS or tu NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 24REPORT ON HAITI pointed to the naked rule of the military in Haiti and, along with Haitian Ambassadors Longchamps and Jean Casimir, pushed the matter before the Security Council...
...government and mainstream press cried foul, saying that Aristide was backing out of the accord...
...Their political chef de fil was Marc Bazin...
...and the legitimate government has traded away almost everything...
...Ambassador Adams...
...Aristide also went to great lengths to show the United States and Haiti's technocrats that upon his return he would be open to neoliberal economic policies...
...troop carrier, the USS Harlan County, carrying the first major deployment of 200 American and Canadian soldiers, turned back from landing when about 100 armed anti-Aristide thugs affiliated with the Haitian military-called "attachis"--demonstrated at the port and threatened foreign diplomats...
...Embassy personnel were present...
...The distinct strains of bull-horns and choruses from the hundreds of Haitians demonstrating their support for President Aristide outside the building added to the excitement within...
...he growls...
...But the hammer of diplomatic decisions hits them the hardest...
...strategy has been to drive Aristide to surrender to Duvalierism and imperialism by striking a deal with the coup leaders and inviting foreign military intervention...
...Many believe that this "hard line" sector was behind the coup against Aristide in the first place...
...A few rich Haitian merchants had underwritten his education and travels as a young priest as well as his orphanage, Lafanmi Selavi...
...The project derailed on October 11, when a U.S...
...Nothing would have happened because the vast majority of Haitians would have welcomed them...
...Aristide's program called for support for Haiti's faltering national industries, a land reform to revitalize Haitian agriculture and increase self- sufficiency, stanching the hemorrhage of contraband imports through regional ports, raising the minimum wage, and overhauling the government bureaucracy...
...But within days, the Washington Protocol was defunct...
...One U.S...
...agenda, circumvent the embargo...
...The State Department's decision was prompted by complaints from American companies that relied on Haiti as a source of cheap labor to produce apparel Voi XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 21 VoL XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 21REPORT ON HAITI and electronics items," explained the February 7 Washington Post...
...On May 17, a coalition of all the major popular organizations sent Aristide an open letter which put him on the spot: "You gave the OAS and UN authorization to send 'civilian observers' into the country, and even though it was strong medicine and a hard blow, we never officially protested because we always believed that you knew what you were doing and that there was a line you would not cross," the letter said...
...troops aboard...
...The popular movement, which also has strong nationalist roots, opposes any form of foreign intervention, be it military troops or UN observers...
...Associated Press, July 3, 1993...
...On the docks, the rabble-rousers celebrated their victory, howling with glee at the boat's departure...
...He projected more than one year...
...The Haitian people are dying under 20 ad the bullets of the military...
...All the world knows there has been a military coup in Haiti...
...work in close cooperation with, or as a front for, the Army...
...On Januose any ary 25, Duvalierist thugs attacked a meeting being held by Thdodore, exen they cuting his bodyguard...
...As the observer mission and negotiations foundered in the autumn of 1992, the Lavalas diplomats figured that the U.S...
...Meanwhile, the Bush Administration quickly sought to force Aristide to bargain with the coup leaders...
...With the departure of the USS Harlan County and the pull-out of the UN observer mission shortly thereafter, the United States called on the remaining thousand or so Americans still in Haiti to register with the embassy in the event of an emergency evacuation...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 26REPORT ON HAITI vannes Jean-Baptiste, who was part of the government's delegation at Governors Island...
...But the slaves of the colony, having tasted a year of freedom, rose up in fury at Napoleon's attempt to re-establish slavery...
...government and the U.S.-trained Haitian military, as well as the tragic ambivalence of Aristide...
...The principal challenge to Lafontant was former World Bank official Marc Bazin, whose rich, polished, and oiled electoral machine-financed by the United States primarily through the NED-was picking up speed...
...The Lavalas' "concord" seemed almost identical to the Duvalierists' "consensus," which democratic rhetoric did nothing to elucidate...
...2. Figures given by Jean-Jacques Honorat during an interview in October, 1993...
...However, the campaign against Aristide's human rights record appeared in the columns of all the major urban dailies, including the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Enquirer, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune...
...whites...
...When the military attaches came through the streets they were looking for someone, a Lavalas man, but then they found me instead...
...The two as...
...The majority of Haitians-the peasants who make up 90% of Haiti's population-have been excluded from diplomatic dialogue since the coup, and cut off even from Aristide who speaks only infrequently over the radio...
...military generals were asked to put pressure on the junta to respect the Governors Island accord, but in fact they gave reassurance...
...In essence, this was the concern of the popular movement as a whole...
...Any negotiations with the putschists, the popular sector argued, could only result in a power-sharing deal, and even that deal the coup-makers would double-cross...
...This ambiguity was of course the element on which coup partisans sought to play...
...The toughness, however, remained talk...
...At this writing in early December, the Lavalas bourgeoisie's strategy of selling Aristide to the United States seems to have failed miserably...
...Under the banner of the National Front for Change and NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 18REPORT ON HAITI who could make Haiti safe for investment...
...It was more important [for Aristide]," said White afterwards, "to get back" in four months than to worry about what was essentially a minor problem...
...On November 4, the silence belies the continuing intensity of oppression, even as media attention dwindles...
...The overseers of this project would be a force of "international observers...
...In those early hours of the coup, to Kim Ives is a journalist working for Hafti Progrhs newspaper and is a member of the Haiti Commission of Inquiry into the Sep- tember 30th Coup d'Etat...
...EIssen t ially, the movement which formed around President Aristide's candidacy represented an alliance of Haiti's traditional merchant bourgeoisie with an array of The L grassroots worker, peasant and student organizations, commonly referred to as the A lii popular movement...
...By forging a coalition between the popular movement and the traditional bourgeoisie, Aristide soundly defeated the U.S.-baptized candidate in the 1990 presidential elections [see "The Lavalas Alliance Propels Aristide to Power," p. 18...
...Reeling under the U.S...
...President," counseled UN Secretary General Boutros VOL XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 25 VoL XXVII, No4 JAN/FEB 1994 25REPORT ON HAITI Boutros Ghali in one of the many pressuring phone calls Aristide received that day...
...New York Daily News, October 12, 1993...
...This Already several tankers had docked in diplomacy Haiti, giving the putschists ample reserves of oil...
...The slow strangulation of Haiti's first democratically elected president and his nationalist program had begun...
...So they beat me"-he demonstrates-" beat me...
...Cuba wrote a letter "opposing wh 1 with the greatest energy the Security bour Council's adoption of measures concerning the internal situation" in Haiti counsel because it would create "a dangerous precedent...to give this body powers and populI a mandate which are larger than those op granted in the Charter...
...Although there is no formal link, FRAPH is said to .S...
...The Haitian people are aware of the great power of the United States in the world...
...He thus sank ever deeper The r into a swamp of bargaining and concessions, leaving the people waiting for moveme resolution from talks and never taking gift of t the offensive in the streets and mountains...
...The plan had been conceived with no input from the legitimate government and was shared with the press before reaching negotiators," Haiti Reborn explained...
...In the weeks to come, we may find out who knew what, and when...
...The parliamentarians were looking to buy time for the coup to consolidate its grip over a resentful and resistant population...
...I believed them, and all I got was beatings...
...and 3) the lifting of the embargo "immediately after the ratification of the prime minister and the inauguration of the government of national consensus...
...1 9 Although the Aristide delegation had stayed up all night on July 2 composing a counter-proposal to what Caputo offered, they were given an "ultimatum" the next day, according to Chavannes, to "take it or leave it...
...When the USS Harlan County turned around and sailed off last month, Adrien said, "the U.S...
...I had four babies, but two are dead already...
...He has left the country deeply polarized between his followers and the substantial numbers of people who have reason to fear them...
...peacekeepers ar satisfaction from the in October, 1993...
...In the face of a bloody, unjustifiable coup, Aristide could have rallied the masses to rise up and organize outside of the legalistic confines imposed by the bourgeoisie...
...After rejecting Aristide's proposals for compromise candidates, Adams and Ocampo gave Aristide an ultimatum to accept either Marc Bazin for prime minister, or Communist Party head Ren6 Thdodore, branding Aristide's reluctance to do so intransigence...
...The acting Council President had to emphasize the and Ced "exceptional" nature of the measures on Haiti...
...But who would believe there has been a silent coup in the United States...
...If Aristide returns, I will eat him-EAT him...
...Clinton approved the statement saying "that sort of attitude on the part of President Aristide is the very thing that should enable us to resolve this in a peaceful way...
...Intervention, no...
...13 The essential sequence of this 10-point accord was that Aristide would name a new prime minister, the UN would lift sanctions, the parliament would undertake a series of reforms of the police and Armed Forces under the supervision of a UN force, Aristide would decree a blanket amnesty for those involved in the coup, and then C6dras would voluntarily retire at some point before Aristide's return, which was set for October 30, 1993...
...He was ratified as the new de facto prime minister on June 10...
...The Prime Minister will become the real power in the government...
...6 In Thdodore, the United States had the perfect combination of a nominal leftist and an Aristide opponent...
...All of Aristide's political retreats and makeovers had been for naught...
...de facto military power...
...This is an accord between the UN, the OAS, and the 'friends of the Secretary General,"' as the United States, France, Canada, and Venezuela came to be dubbed during the Governors Island talks...
...or UN efforts now seems postponed, if not canceled, so does the military intervention which was needed to restrain the postcoup popular drive for justice...
...8. In April, 1993, the National Popular Assembly (APN), one of the leading popular organizations, proposed a "government of democratic unity," which would comprise all sectors which were anti-Macoute and opposed to the coup, even though they may not have been party to the original Lavalas alliance...
...Within two years, the former slave armies had driven the French from the colony and proclaimed independence for the nation of Haiti in 1804...
...Aristide, perhaps unwillingly, has chosen the path of calling for military intervention...
...Caputo] threatened to have UN sanctions lifted immediately if Aristide did not comply with the plan as proposed...
...7. Haiti Progres, February 26 to March 3, 1992...
...Ambassador Alvin Adams...
...How Haitians see the role of the international community in the Haitian struggle is determined by what they perceive to be the goal...
...Most likely, Baker and Bush forcefully supported Aristide's return in that first week after the coup so as not to challenge the shock and indignation of Haitians and other Latin Americans against so brazen and illegal an ouster...
...Whether Bazin's resignation was orchestrated from Washington or not is still not known, but its effect was to precipitate Aristide and the Lavalas bourgeoisie to jump into the "void" that was supposedly created...
...President Aristide interpreted the accord differently than the U.S...
...7 Even Aristide's own advisors, such as former Ambassador Robert White, pressured him...
...An embassy official in Port-au-Prince has described his shock at seeing Marine Maj...
...Hundreds of Clinton/Gore campaign placards dotted the September 30, 1992 rallies of thousands of Haitians held in New York and Miami...
...Already the advisors constantly talking to Aristide included such Democratic Party heavyweights as Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), former El Salvador Ambassador President Aristide signs the Governc Robert White, and for- intended to pave the way for his re mer Congressman Michael Barnes...
...New York Times, October 31, 1993...
...election engineering done since the early 1980s throughout Latin America...
...In addition, the Duvalierist-recaptured Supreme Court ruled the agreement to be unconstitutional...
...Some U.S...
...This is the Bush Administration policy, determined by the military...
...media and U.S...
...It sees the solution to 26 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Catherine Orenstein is a NACLA staff member...
...Despite his Communist cre- Wa dentials, Thdodore had long since forsaken any revolutionary principles...
...2 2 The Clinton/Christopher policy to reconcile Aristide with the Haitian de facto military power was foiled by the U.S...
...It outlined a strategy for undermining Aristide's reinstatement...
...The document was reportedly written by an anonymous counselor in i y rr ic p hi pI n the U.S...
...On June 23, Ambassador-at-Large Ben Dupuy, the government diplomat most identified with the popular sector, resigned from the government with a letter to Aristide that stated, "without pretending to be more patriotic than anyone else, I think that it is extremely dangerous to put the national sovereignty of the country in the hands of an international organization whose real defense of the peoples' rights, and even its impartiality, can legitimately be put in doubt at this time...
...8 But direct negotiations with Bazin-and eventually C6dras-seemed to be exactly what the Lavalas bourgeoisie had in mind when it formed the Presidential Popular nt saw the he Security s embargo Itinational eping force :rap for stide...
...Signal FM, November 9, 1993...
...Adrien-like others in the reformist camp- is also less adamant on the issue of intervention...
...They calculated, with good reason, that Washington was not really enthusiastic about Aristide's return and that they should offer an alternative...
...We would rather die standing up, than live on our knees," he often repeated during his sermons as a fire-brand priest to use that power to pressure for the restoration of our constitutional government...
...On October 3, the New York Times' Thomas Friedman complained at St...
...government never enforced it against the coup-makers...
...Interview conducted by the author during a trip to the Central Plateau in June, 1993...
...For popular organizations, the OAS/DEMOC observers could provide the excuse for foreign military intervention if attacked or killed...
...The Council's seizure of the case of Haiti was the first time since the Korean War The I that the body had openly intervened in reconcili the internal affairs of a country since scenarios like El Salvador, Cambodia, direct nE Angola, Namibia and Bosnia were justi- betwee fied as "regional conflicts...
...The gwandon exploit their parceled land- holdings by means of sharecroppers with whom they have feudal relations of production by collecting rent in the form of crops...
...The "Miami meeting" responded to the Duvalierist's "government of consensus" with a "government of national concord...
...become painfully obvious as the broad tatorship strategy of the Bush Administration...
...Although on the defensive about his human rights record, Aristide remained confident in his ability to play the loop- Haitian workers build a new ro holes in the U.S...
...Some were gratified to see the ships and planes, filled with foreigners, depart...
...Vol XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 19 5 4L ba Vot XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 19REPORT ON HAITI that the OAS had not gone far enough in its October 2 emergency session...
...In the high-stakes match, Aristide has seen his strength and resources whittled down by time and compromise...
...Waving a gun in the air with one hand and a bottle in the other, the attaches pounded on the car of a journalist not wise enough to stay away: "Blan...
...forays from the Bay of Pigs in 1962 to Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989...
...The popular sector-as well as Aristide up to that point-opposed direct negotiations either with Bazin or with C6dras, since this would confer legitimacy upon them and constitute recognition of the coup...
...He understands, in the transition from priest to president, it takes more patience, more willingness to compromise" An attache (enter) (Los Angeles Times October 27, frontof FRAPH head 1993...
...Adams was recalled to Washington, and once again the United States began blustering...
...new elections are likely to be held and eventually, the consensus around the hemispheric embargo imposed on Haiti for "Thi the last three months will dissipate...
...government's list of priorities...
...They said a non-violent settlement could be negotiated using the influence of North American and European powers...
...Some type of military action might be necessary," warned Howard French in a January 29 article in the New York Times...
...The group's acronym, FRAPH, sounds like "strike" in ins French and the hand signal-fist clapped in fist over the head-is Nazi-esque...
...At the meeting, Father Adrien in essence asked for the Bazin de facto government to prove its good faith by putting an end to the fierce repression still raging in Haiti, so as to open up a "democratic space...
...Commission...
...Aristide's circle of advisors and diplomats, particularly since the coup, are almost all drawn from the VOL XXVII, No 4 JAN/FEB 1994 17 ia VOL XXVII, No4 JAN/FEB1994 17REPORT ON HAITI democratic sector of the traditional bourgeoisie...
...The U.S...
...Conservative sectors in the U.S...
...Ambassador Adams and OAS special envoy Augusto Ramirez Ocampo, a Colombian diplomat, increased their dealings with the pro-coup parliamentarians...
...The immense marble "Hall of the Americas," normally serene with its dignified flags and soaring pillars, was crammed with dignitaries, diplomats and journalists straining to see the podium where the ousted president and a long succession of Latin American ministers spoke...
...The result was perhaps the greatest malfunction of all the U.S...
...The question: has the U.S...
...1 5 Still, Aristide withheld his signature for almost a full day, which sent UN and U.S...
...Aristide could have referred the OAS delegation to the resolution taken by its own October 2 session, and to that taken on October 11 by the UN, rejecting all dealings with confederates of the coup...
...Meanwhile, Clinton reimposed the trade embargo, this time backing it up with a naval blockade...
...2 1 In fact, the deployment of over 1,200 UN troops, including about 700 U.S...
...On October 4 and 5, 1992, an OAS delegation was dispatched to Port-au-Prince supposedly to convince C6dras that resistance was futile and to give up...
...The U.S...
...Louis Roy, Emmanuel Ambroise and Gladys Lauture-and those more aligned with U.S.-backed capital- Jean-Claude Roy, Serge Gilles, Jean-Jacques Honorat and Moise Senatus...
...already great dependence on foreign food and capital...
...Raoul Cddras and his confederates...
...military troops, was one of the State Department's key concerns in drawing up the accord...
...The Unmaking of a President 1. I cite mainly the Washington Post and the New York Times, the two flagships for the opinion and analysis of U.S...
...It is Haiti's most powerful executive post under the 1987 Constitution, the president being only the formal head of state with NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON HAITI power to make appointments and nominations...
...The event opened a breach...
Vol. 27 • January 1994 • No. 4
