Haiti's Occupation
by Amy Wilentz
The American occupation of Haiti has begun again, now that
Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been neatly pushed out. Again, there are
3,000 foreign troops on Haitian soil. Again, the Haitian premier has
been handpicked by outsiders. And again, the Haitian people have been
excluded from their own governance.
Gérard Latortue, hastily chosen by a team of US-approved Haitian "wise
men," is a modern-day Phillipe Sudre Dartiguenave. Dartiguenave, who
presided over Haiti during the first phase of the Marine occupation of
1915-1934, was a foreign-imposed caretaker and figurehead who, like
Latortue, had almost no power to govern his own country. (The last
time American troops were in Haiti was in 1994, when they restored
Aristide, a democratically elected president, to the office from which
he had been ousted three years earlier in a military coup.)
Latortue does not seem to mind the by now almost comic place he will
hold in Haitian history--that of a stock figure, his position of
cheerful, outside-imposed leader having become part of the formula
whenever Haiti changes regimes. Latortue's jolly face is everywhere.
Recently, he made a special trip up to Gonaïves, the first town taken
over by anti-Aristide forces, and was photographed hugging various
thugs who led the small but very effective rebellion. He called them
"freedom fighters," although among their ranks are many well-known
human-rights abusers.
Those who have watched the slow-cooked coup against Aristide over the
past three years have observed with interest that not a single
prominent member of the entrenched opposition to Aristide has been
given a place in the new government. This opposition--made up of
leaders of tiny political parties, former brief presidents, longtime
presidential hopefuls and nongovernmental organization directors--was
coddled, financed and trained in "democracy" by US organizations and
groups funded by the United States. The lack of such a presence in the
new Cabinet could lead to the suspicion that the supposedly democratic
opposition, which for those three years refused all overtures for
negotiation by Aristide and his party, was being used to foment and
mask what was essentially a coup against democracy by the island's
elite, in concert with right-wing elements of the Republican Party.
(Latortue has also pointedly not included anyone from Aristide's party
in his government.)
The opposition whines now about how it has not been welcomed into the
bosom of the new regime, but if you successfully oppose a
democratically elected government (and Aristide made repeated if not
wholehearted offers of inclusion), you can't expect that the autocrats
you've empowered will then include you in. In recent years, puffed up
with importance, this opposition effectively ended all ability of the
elected government to run Haiti and certainly contributed a little bit
extra to Aristide's slide away from the rule of law. Only now are
opposition figures beginning to see what their refusals have wrought.
Useful idiots are not often needed after the real goal has been
achieved, which in this case was simply the ouster of Aristide and the
return to the Haitian status quo.
One of those whom Latortue has included in his Cabinet is Hérard
Abraham, the new interior minister and a former general in the Haitian
army, which was disbanded by Aristide upon his return to power in
1994. Abraham supports the re-establishment of the Haitian army, which
historically has been the instrument through which the Haitian elite
maintained its hold on the country and ruled it as a kind of
kleptocracy. It was this army that ousted Aristide in 1991, little
more than half a year after he took office.
Meanwhile, CARICOM--the umbrella organization of the Caribbean
nations--has bravely condemned the ouster of Aristide, and the deposed
president himself is staying with his family in Jamaica, where he
remains uncharacteristically silent. The government of P.J. Patterson,
while showing signs of loyalty to a freely elected Caribbean
counterpart, also does not want trouble with the United States, and
has apparently asked for Aristide's silence in return for hospitality.
Aristide doesn't play by the rules--this is one of the reasons he
became intolerable to his American foes. He flirted with Castro and
welcomed hundreds of Cuban doctors to Haiti; he spoke on behalf of the
poor and outcast; he attacked the elite, by name and vociferously (not
that he was much of a leftist in economic practice). In the end,
having been summarily ousted, he proved his lack of respect for
diplomatic and international norms by ranting in cell phone calls to
the international media about the Americans' "modern-day kidnapping"
of a democratically elected leader.
Really not very gentlemanly.
In 1991, when Aristide was inaugurated, it seemed that Haiti had come
through its darkest days and that a new phase was beginning. That was
incorrect. Today, the army is to be reinstated, the elite holds the
reins of power and a Franco-American occupation patrols the streets.
The Haitian newsreel is being played in reverse. If only we could
assume the best, in a sort of USAID-induced hallucinatory fantasy:
that the Americans would be wise trustees, that Haitian technocrats
would be elected in free balloting and run the country honestly, that
the occupation would remain only long enough to build roads and
bridges and clinics and schools. But this, unfortunately, is not what
recent events foretell.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040419&s=wilentz
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