How Washington set the stage for Haiti’s uprising

[DuctapeFatwa]

THE MEDIA has a standard story line to explain the uprising in Haiti--one-time populist leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide has become a corrupt authoritarian who is relying on armed gangs to crush a popular uprising. In reality, the anti-Aristide opposition that is behind the uprising shaking Haiti today is a Washington-connected collection of Haitian businessmen and a scattering of former leftists....While the media has described the rebellion as led by former Aristide supporters, a key player is Jean "Tatoune" Pierre, who backed the 1991 coup that overthrew Aristide. Others involved include members of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), a paramilitary organization that terrorized and assassinated Aristide supporters during the military regime that lasted until U.S. troops restored Aristide into office in 1994.

Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former FRAPH leader, is centrally involved in Gonaïeves, as is Guy Philippe, a former police chief in the city of Cap-Haitien who was accused of plotting a coup in 2000. Both men had been based in the neighboring Dominican Republic, where they had been given refuge. By seizing Gonaïves, they’ve essentially cut Haiti in two.

Washington’s stated attitude to the uprising has been contradictory. On February 12, State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher, declared that "reaching a political settlement will require some fairly thorough changes in the way Haiti is governed, and how the security situation is maintained."...The following day, Secretary of State Colin Powell rounded up ministers from CARICOM, the organization linking the government of Caribbean countries, the U.S. and Canada, to declare, "We will accept no outcome that in any way illegally attempts to remove the elected president of Haiti." But deeds matter more than words--and there’s no doubt that Washington set the stage for uprising. The top FRAPH leader, Emmanuel Constant, who claims he was a CIA employee, remains at large in New York City. Major funding for Haiti’s umbrella opposition group, Democratic Convergence, comes from the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S. foundation notorious for funneling U.S. aid to counterrevolutionary forces in Central America during the Cold War....

Moreover, the U.S. has helped wreck Haiti’s economy by withholding $500 million in annual aid..80 percent of people live below the poverty line--and most subsisting on less than a dollar a day...Washington wants to avoid the refugee crisis that followed a 1991 military coup months after Aristide was elected president. Thus, the aim has been to use the opposition to weaken Aristide until he’s forced to bow to the U.S. agenda....

http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-1/487/487_08_Haiti.shtml

[CHIMO]

1. Sad Story

Understand that there are 50,000 places in Guantanamo for refuges.

[NEOBuckeye]

2. It's probably Rove's idea for an October "Wag The Dog" Scenario

Or some other nonsense to demonstrate Bush's "ability" as commander in chief.