Uprising in Haiti Spreads

[Darranar]

A popular uprising in Haiti continued to spread Monday, with reports of anti-government forces in control of at least four main cities, and other fighters blocking a key roadway into the capital.

The rebellion began last week when armed gunmen opposed to the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide took control of Haiti's fourth-largest city, Gonaives. By Sunday, rebels also had gained control of the port city of Saint Marc.

The Associated Press quotes opposition politician and former army Colonel Himler Rebu as saying Haiti is "in a state of armed popular insurrection."

The wire service reports fighting in at least eight towns, and says a compilation of witness statements and radio reports shows at least 42 people dead in the uprising.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=77F3A971-D552-44FF-BA535B1D1EF79EC0

[Lefty48197]

1. This is the first I've heard of this recent unrest in Haiti

thanks for educating me.

[Aidoneus]

2. Haiti: Aristide regime shaken by mass protests

Haiti: Aristide regime shaken by mass protests
By Richard Dufour
6 February 2004

--snip--

Last Saturday’s negotiations were preceded by meetings in mid-January between representatives of the 15-member, intra-state Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and leaders of the Haitian opposition, which comprises most of the business establishment, remnants of the political machine of the Duvalier dictatorship, and disgruntled Aristide supporters.

--snip--

It is no secret that the Bush administration and the Republican right are hostile toward Aristide, a former priest who came to political prominence in the 1980s as an exponent of liberation theology and as a critic of US imperialism. The administration of George Bush Sr. all but publicly supported the 1991 military coup that deposed Aristide just eight months after he first won election, and much of the Republican Party openly opposed the US military intervention that resulted in Aristide being returned to power in 1994.

Nevertheless, the current Bush administration has continued the policy of the previous Clinton administration, which consists of using the opposition as a means of pressuring Aristide and his Lavalas party to continue imposing IMF restructuring, rather than pressing for the regime’s ouster.

--snip--

Behind this stance lies the Bush administration’s fear that the political crisis in Haiti could spiral out of control, triggering mass unrest in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and a new influx of refugees to Florida. With U.S. forces in occupied Iraq facing growing popular resistance, Washington’s lies about Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction in tatters, and the US economy hobbled by mounting current account and budget deficits, the Bush administration does not want Haiti to suddenly become a flashpoint of regional instability—all the more so, as 2004 is an election year.

However, Aristide’s opponents sense that he is vulnerable and hope to convince their patrons in Washington he can be dispensed with. Indeed, Aristide has done such a good job of imposing the demands of the IMF —privatization, the destruction of public sector jobs, and the elimination of price subsidies—that he has nearly used up that one asset that made him a useful tool of imperialism—the popular support he won from Haiti’s impoverished masses because of his outspoken opposition to the Duvalier regime and the military juntas that succeeded it.

--snip--

Although Aristide came out of last week’s meeting with CARICOM leaders saying that “now is the time for compromise,” the opposition vows it will only call a halt to the protest movement when he quits the presidency. Washington’s attempt to broker a compromise between the rival claimants for state power thus seems unlikely to succeed and Haiti is set for a period of escalating political instability and violence.

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/hait-f06.shtml

[Darranar]

3. Thanks; very interesting.

[Aidoneus]

4. Right wing-led rebellion convulses Haiti

Right wing-led rebellion convulses Haiti
By Richard Dufour
12 February 2004

--snip--

The Gonaïves rebel group has been widely portrayed in the press as a criminal gang, based in the city’s slums, that until recently enjoyed the patronage of Aristide and his Lavalas party. “But at its upper echelons,” reports the Washington Post, “the group appears to be led by former members of the Haitian military, dissolved in 1994 when Aristide returned to power, and the paramilitary group that opposed him.”

The paramilitary group to which the Post alludes was known as FRAPH. During the three-year rule of the military junta that deposed the first Aristide government in September 1991, FRAPH death squads carried out a campaign of terror aimed at stamping out support for Aristide, who because of his earlier opposition to the Duvalier dictatorship and promises of social reform enjoyed widespread popular support.

Among the very first actions taken by the U.S. marines who restored Aristide to power in 1994 was to raid FRAPH’s headquarters and seize thousands of documents. To this day, the U.S. government refuses to turn the FRAPH files over to Haitian authorities or to extradite Emmanuel Constant, FRAPH’s founder-leader. Constant, who now lives in New York, has admitted that he was a CIA operative.

Initially the opposition’s political leaders—a disparate group of businessmen, ex-Aristide supporters, former Duvalierists and supporters of the 1991 coup—refused to condemn the Gonaïves uprising. But with the United Nations warning of an imminent humanitarian crisis in Haiti and US newspaper editorialists raising fears that Haiti’s descent into civil war could trigger a massive influx of Haitian refugees, they began issuing statements disassociating themselves from the violence.

Their objective, however, remains unchanged. By provoking social chaos they hope to convince Washington to use its economi,c political and military might to force Aristide, whose term ends only in 2006, from office. André Apaid, a sweatshop owner who heads one of the two main opposition groups, declared, “We continue to maintain the nonviolent approach. But the sooner the international community recognizes that Mr. Aristide is the cause of the chaos, the sooner a peaceful process to a transition can take place. The more the wait, the more costly it will be to the United States and the world.”

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/hait-f12.shtml

[mobuto]

5. As usual the Socialists miss the point

You really can't speak of a "right-wing" or a "left-wing" in a country with no functioning economy. Aristide's running a shoe-string cult of personality and "his people" (that's what he considers them to be) are suffering. Despite Aristide's promises, Haiti is no democracy, and Aristide is no liberal.

So who cares if one criminal gang replaces the present? The one thing the US could do - intervene to impose order and pave the way for elections and reform - the current Administration is unwilling to do. And nobody else in the world can do it.