I Believe Aristide Was Kidnapped By Marines In A U.S. Sponsored Coup !!!

<snip>

Multiple sources that just spoke with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide told Democracy Now! that Aristide says he was "kidnapped" and taken by force to the Central African Republic. Congress member Maxine Waters said she received a call from Aristide at 9am EST. "He's surrounded by military. It's like he is in jail, he said. He says he was kidnapped," said Waters. She said he had been threatened by what he called US diplomats. According to Waters, the diplomats reportedly told the Haitian president that if he did not leave Haiti, paramilitary leader Guy Philippe would storm the palace and Aristide would be killed. According to Waters, Aristide was told by the US that they were withdrawing Aristide's US security.

TransAfrica founder and close Aristide family friend Randall Robinson also received a call from the Haitian president early this morning and confirmed Waters account. Robinson said that Aristide "emphatically" denied that he had resigned. "He did not resign," he said. "He was abducted by the United States in the commission of a coup." Robinson says he spoke to Aristide on a cell phone that was smuggled to the Haitian president.

Developing...

<snip>

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/01/1521216

Please listen or watch the streams if you can. I'm gettin pretty convinced that this story is absolutely true!!!

:grr::nuke::mad:

C'mon DUers, in regard to the premise, do you...

I think it's quite obvious that Uncle Sam is behind yet another overthrow of a democratically-elected government. What does that make? About 500 now? :grr:

If this is true it should make ones hair stand on end.

Thank goodness she's in a safe district.

These assholes in Washington make me violently ill!!!

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

They're already tyring to do it... they're trying to do it right here on DU!!

:puke:

Some here are either REALLY naive, or have 'other' agendas, ya know???

:shrug:

the evidence is overwhelming.

so far all I have seen is reports of some phone calls...to people who all despise Bush...

that, combined with the phone calls, makes me pretty convinced that this is accurate.

There is also footage of Aristide getting off of the plane in Africa, smiling and waiving to people....

I don't really buy into this because I think that Aristide is trying to keep his options open for a possible return to Haiti.

Would you rather that we pick him up and drop him back off in Haiti?

It was from quite awhile ago. It was not from this weekend. If you read the screen carefully, it said 'file footage'. It was, however, presented in such a way as to appear to be current.

Assholes!!!

:mad:

... is if we once again dispatch the legions to prop him up.

Yes, once upon a time, Aristide won an election. But the qualities that make for an effective opposition leader, insurgent, or revolutionary do not always translate into effectiveness in government. By all accounts, Aristide has been an utter disaster.

So the onetime revolutionary became a tyrant -- hardly a new story -- and eventually faced a insurgency of his own. His regime was collapsing like the proverbial house of cards. Charlie Rangel and others seem to think we should have sent in the troops yet again to do his fighting for him. No way.

In 1993, we sent 20,000 troops to give this failure a second chance. Enough is enough.

"There is also footage of Aristide getting off of the plane in Africa, smiling and waiving to people....""

yeah and alqaeda should be getting really good at those overhead bars and running that obstacle course since they are doing it every day...

I saw it on the news. it must be real.

:wtf:

Did you listen to the streams??? Both of these people know Aristide and his wife very well. And Rangel too. I have no problem taking their word on what they know so far.

And as far as gathering more 'evidence', do you really think that will be allowed by Bush and his criminal cohorts???

Not a chance...

:grr::nuke::mad:

shoot, DU is full of information on haiti :bounce:

whole lot more than 1 liners to boot ;->

but it should be apparant who's side uncle sam is on in this conflict especially, but is true generally as well just by their actions and if you know the history all the better.

who's agenda we've been push'n and continue to push to this very day?

the gangs of thugs, thats right and we all know what dr. Occam said on the issue, right?

GLOBILIZATION is HELL

:shrug:

peace

bush* lies ALL THE TIME - EVERYTIME.

Every single thing they have claimed has turned out to be a lie - not a "misstatement" - a LIE!

Now, based on that track record, I would believe almost ANYONE over bunkerboy and his gang of criminals - ANYONE!

And everyone else would be wiser to do the same.

with Aristide (on air) by phone.

it was a coup. They were on CSPAN and very angry.

:toast: = What Bush* is! :evilgrin:

Shows Waters' and Rangel's statements, then Bush admin's denial.

Clip of Rangel making statement.

more...

:yourock:

Will be looking for it when it comes on out here on the Left-Coast!!!

:hi:

Regular Hill and Knowlton-type stuff.

The WMD thing took a long time, and a lot of 'kooks', to get to where it is these days.

Or am I just being naive now, LOL!!!

:shrug:

Tune in please!!!

Argh!

My mind is spinning from the pro-fascist/anti-democratic posts flying around DU lately. It's almost surreal; I'm not certain :wtf: is going on anymore.

I do appreciate this thread, the article and your poll. I think I might be able to gain a better sense of the current "State of our DU" by and through your efforts. Thanks WillyT, :yourock:

Not to worry... we still outnumber 'em, LOL!!!

:hi::loveya::hi:

I feel confident in voting YES!

:nuke::kick::nuke:

It's interesting that the *gang's defense is that Aristide (supposedly) agreed to go--forget the question of duress. So they aren't arguing that they didn't want him out (anyway, Bush* was on record urging him to go). The question is the definition of the word "kidnapping." According to Powell, Rumsfeld and the rest, it's not kidnapping if the victim acquiesces (even if not to acquiesce would lead to certain death). Were the threats to Aristide and his supporters (most of the Haitian population) credible? Did he have reason to believe the US would ruthlessly carry out the threats? Is the Pope Catholic?

This is like saying it's not rape if the victim stops resisting in order to survive. Or it's not a hijacking if the crew and passengers don't resist (which was standard procedure before 9-11). What kind of twisted logic is this??!!

Another example of blame-the-victim. I am APPALLED, but not surprised. Like most here, I believe nothing coming from *BushCo. If they do ever tell the truth, it's by accident.

And being hit proves you didn't try to dodge very hard, so its not murder. And if you are not hit, well it's not murder, cause you weren't hit.

Anything is legal if you are Bush.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1181598&mesg_id=1181598

This one is very interesting.

:hi:

Thanks all!!!

:hi:

why should we believe him. After all, he took part in Iraq's WMD and direct link to terrorism against the US lie. He, like everyone else in the WH, has built himself a credibility gap.

kofi is a skull and bonesman and actually was in the team that drugged aristide and flew him away. All the celebrating countrymen in the streets is actually old footage from when aristide was assisted in 1995 by clinton. ( aristide did not hold himself to term limits as promised )
unfortunately the congressional black caucus is in the middle of a double-double cross and will be left hanging without any evidence and vague statements of support from aristide in upcoming interviews. the masons are bringing aristide in because his programming was faulty, and it is suspected that a small splinter group was able to exploit a security flaw in his biochip and were testing new techniques that allowed them to control his actions in real time.

Aristide did in fact keep to the term limits.
And realtime control of Aristide via biochip?
What's next? Reptilian alien shapeshifters? lower 4th dimension?

:shrug::wtf::shrug:

if you just made a wild guess.....no that is not possible. You were abducted at one time and were given knowledge. There is no doubt.


The whole senario was planned centuries ago because the reptilians, operating from the lower fourth dimension, and indeed whatever force controls them, have a very different version of "time" than we have, hence they can see and plan down the three-dimensional "time"-line in a way that those in three-dimensional form cannot.*
http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles/illrituals.html

It is hardly material whether President Aristide was literally forced out of Haiti at gunpoint by US forces or whether he asked for safe haven on the way to the airport.

The fact remains that what took place in Haiti was a coup d'etat. No amount of parsing, clause analysis of fancy-speal will change that fact.

It is also a fact this was a coup that carried the imprimatur of the United States, Canada and France.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20040301T230000-0500_56498_OBS_CARICOM_S_RESPONSE_MUST_BE_TOUGH.asp

Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo said Aristide spoke with Caricom chairman, Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson, hours before his overthrow.

Aristide had said only last week that he was prepared to complete his term in office by 2006 and not seek re-election.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=15586886

U.S.-Sponsored Regime Change in Haiti

By Nirit Ben-Ari and Bill Weinberg, World War 3 Report
March 1, 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."

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17995

...more convincing than the word of Maxine Waters and Randall Robinson.

I am not one of those who reflexively believes the worst about America.

Published on Monday, March 1, 2004 by the Taipei Times / Taiwan
The Fire This Time in Haiti was US-Fueled

The Bush Administration Appears to have Succeeded in its Long-Time Goal of Toppling Aristide Through Years of Blocking International Aid to his Impoverished Nation

by Jeffrey Sachs

Haiti, once again, is ablaze. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is widely blamed, and he may be toppled soon. Almost nobody, however, understands that today's chaos was made in Washington -- deliberately, cynically and steadfastly. History will bear this out. In the meantime, political, social, and economic chaos will deepen, and Haiti's impoverished people will suffer.

The Bush administration has been pursuing policies likely to topple Aristide since 2001. The hatred began when Aristide, then a parish priest and democracy campaigner against Haiti's ruthless Duvalier dictatorship, preached liberation theology in the 1980s. Aristide's attacks led US conservatives to brand him as the next Fidel Castro.?

They floated stories that Aristide was mentally deranged. Conservative disdain multiplied several-fold when then-president Bill Clinton took up Aristide's cause after he was blocked from electoral victory in 1991 by a military coup. Clinton put Aristide into power in 1994, and conservatives mocked Clinton for wasting America's efforts on "nation building" in Haiti. This is the same right wing that has squandered US$160 billion on a far more violent and dubious effort at "nation building" in Iraq.?

Attacks on Aristide began as soon as the Bush administration assumed office. I visited Aristide in Port-au-Prince in early 2001. He impressed me as intelligent and intent on good relations with Haiti's private sector and the US. No firebrand, he sought advice on how to reform his economy and explained his realistic and prescient concerns that the American right would try to wreck his presidency.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0301-10.htm

wake up

In fact, it makes Fox News look like the New York Times.

Besides, they are not the only ones saying these things. You won't get away with smearing them and by extention allow that smear to translate into an apology for Bush's coup. That's what it is to take two extrordinary public servants and drag their names through your mud in order to put the Kabosh on their opposition to Bush's overthrow of Aristide.

Countries with majorities of people of color and their leaders aren't given the same status by the media, our government, or even by most Americans, as white controlled nations. I guess I shouldn't be surprised when a majority white power structure here in the U.S. crushes and discredits the voices and concerns of the black minority. (Black Caucus)

EVERY black leader in America has had their guts ripped out by the white power structure to weaken them. Then ignorant, fearful folks come behind and pick up their cleverly planted attacks whenever these leaders stick their heads up to protest. We don't often enough consider the source of the attacks.

Don't forget Cointelpro:

COINTELPRO: The FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens:
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIa.htm

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Case Study:
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIb.htm

The FBI's Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party:
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIc.htm

More about Cointelpro:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=printer_friendly&forum=104&topic_id=1182734&mesg_id=1183076

I am more concerned that some here in this gathering of Democrats seem content with making backhanded smears of lifelong leaders of our black community who would defend one of their own in Haiti, and in turn provide aid and cover for the Bush cabal's manufactured revolution and coup. Kind of a one-two punch.

We should be supporting and defending our leaders here. Instead, I fear that the hatred and contempt, or misunderstanding that persists here for some of our nation's black leaders has kept some from embracing their concerns and protestations regarding Haiti.

You have sources for your view? I wish to see them and compare the credibility of the apologists for Bush to the credibility of those who have lived and worked in Haiti, and have dedicated their lives and struggle to efect peaceful change there.

Kevin Pina is one such man. Kevin Pina is a documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist who has been working and living in Haiti for the past three years. He has been covering events in Haiti for the past decade and produced a documentary film entitled "Haiti: Harvest of Hope". Mr. Pina is also the Haiti Special Correspondent for the Flashpoints radio program on the Pacifica Network's flagship station KPFA in Berkeley CA.

A series by Kevin Pina. Please read.:

Propaganda War Intensifies Against Haiti, October 30
http://www.blackcommentator.com/62/62_haiti_1.html

An increasing barrage of negative propaganda in the US media is softening the ground for an eventual power grab by the Washington-sponsored opposition in Haiti, the Democratic Convergence. In a series of press releases and articles over the past three months, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and journalists have bombarded the press to justify one common theme: violent regime change is acceptable, if not inevitable, in Haiti. The main themes of this media spin cycling through the press today should be more than familiar to those who follow Haiti in the news: politicization of the Haitian police force, Lavalas grassroots organizations cast as armed gangs, and government corruption.
____________________________________________________________________

U.S. Corporate Media Distorts Haitian Events, November 6
http://www.blackcommentator.com/63/63_haiti_2.html

Immediately after Transparency International took its turn trying to beat the Haitian government’s credibility senseless, the so-called independent voices of the US press stepped in to deliver a few more uncritical yet fatal blows. The message of these so-called independent voices was uncannily similar and nearly indistinguishable: Amiot Metayer was a demon created by the devil President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The underlying theme was that the Haitian government deserves to fall because it has brought violence on itself through its own actions. Never mind that the violence against the government is being led by Jean Tatoune, a former member of the CIA-inspired Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti or FRAPH, who has a history of betrayal where Metayer is concerned.

___________________________________________________________________

The Bush Administration's End Game for Haiti
http://www.blackcommentator.com/67/67_pina.html

Unfortunately, to HDP’s chagrin and angst, Aristide’s popularity among the poor majority of Haitians remains intact. In a backhanded and slanted acknowledgement of this fact Paisley Dodds of Reuters wrote on November 18, “Now opponents say Aristide, who remains the country’s most popular leader, is becoming a dictator.” What Ms. Dodds fails to write is that the “opponents” she refers to include a large helping of white American citizens in the HDP who work, or have worked, for the U.S. government in Haiti.
___________________________________________________________________

Reports by Pina. Please listen:

Thursday, February 26, 2004_

05:35 Update on Haiti - Capital Under Seige: Special Correspondent Kevin Pina on the telephone from Haiti describes the situation in Port-Au-Prince and today's developments. Dennis also speaks with Quixote Center director and Haiti Reborn Project founder Eugenia Charles-Mathurin in Washington DC, who expresses the Haitian people's struggle for democracy and survival while the international community stalls and even encourages the approaching humanitarian crisis. http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=8 ...

Friday, February 27, 2004

Today on Flashpoints: Today on a special national edition of Flashpoints, we spend the hour on the expanding crisis in Haiti. We’ll feature a live report from our special correspondent Kevin Pina, live in Port-au-Prince, we’ll speak with Representative Barbara Lee of California, co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, we’ll speak with Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and the host of Family Lavalas on Radio Soleil in Brooklyn, along with several Haitian activists. http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=8 ...

Gave the same story himself. In addition, there are eyewitness reports from Haiti giving the same account in both the Australian and French press.

In case you're keeping track, that means there are:
At least 3 Congress persons, 1 lawyer, 1 former magazine editor, a former head of state and his wife, and a senator (Dodd, as of yesterday) who are all telling the same story. Not including the eyewitness reports in the print media.

Let me know when there is enough proof. I don't want to test your 'reflexes'...

I respect your sober consideration, wishing to see more evidence. But when you say:

"I am not one of those who reflexively believes the worst about America."

Neither am I, but nor do I consider the Bush Administration to be at all representative of what America is, or stands for.

Believing that a coup in Haiti was engineered by the Bush administration isn't about being anti-american. It is about a chronic pattern of falsehoods and manipulation that makes our responses reflexively suspicious.

This administration has shown me NOTHING in the past three years to indicate why I should not suspect their deep criminal involvemnet in this affair.

Sometimes when I watch the Bush administration I catch myself channeling the PGA's PR department - These Guys are Good.

The Busistas know just how to play the press. If you want a good laugh, compare Aristide's charges of a coup and kidnapping with the official account from Colin Powell that he was escorted out of the country for his own protection. Notice something? Yeah. It's the same story.

Aristide says the U.S. troops showed up, told him there were people outside waiting to kill Aristide, and that they wouldn't protect him unless he resigned and left the country.

Powell says U.S. troops showed up, told him there were people outside waiting to kill Aristide, and that they wouldn't protect him unless he resigned and left the country.

Yet somehow, we have this perception in the press that this is some kind of "he said, she said" situation. Well, he and she are saying the same shit. It's just that Aristide says "I was kidnapped" and the U.S. says "He was taken into protective custody."

There's a problem with the U.S. story. If Aristide was being taken into protective custody to prevent him from being killed, there was no need for him to resign. He could have just left the country with the intention of returning to his post once the situation was sorted out.

I'll give 15-1 to anyone willing to bet an editorial writer at the NYT or WaPost points this out in the next 7 days.

I was picking through the various reports yesterday and it really comes down to one word...'escorted'

Rmmy's press conference was funny. He spoke in memes with 'categorical' throwaways that seemed to be calculated to stay on top of the 'news cycle'.

Given his enormous ego, the greatness of the neo-con's mission in the world and an unfailing sense of Straussian grandier, he looked like he was going to explode any minute and tell the Press Corp...'OK OK you caught me...YES indeed another great day for freedom...to hell with the pretext...we're number one...we're number one!!'

BTW a good thread you started here:
A Challenge to Those Applauding Aristide's Ouster
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1181861&mesg_id=1181861

No takers in over 12 hours.

Whether or not we abducted him, I cannot say. The information just isn't out there.

But it is clear that Aristide had completely failed as a leader.

We should be supporting a new leader for Haiti. Not one of the rebels nor the return of Aristide.

n/t

Even for a leader who's despised by the US establishment?

How important is democracy? Is it situational?

But we re-installed Aristide once already. This appears to be some bastardized child of a millitary coup and a populist revolt, but Aristide clearly lacks support amoung Haitians. If they have revolted against him, then they are exercising democracy... whether we like that or not.


Like I said, I have no idea if Bush was behind it or anything like that. I seriously doubt that anyone on the board has any more of an idea, but we cannot put Aristide up on some pedistal as a great leader or anything, because he was far from that.

for the links

:-)

A Typical American Coup

John Horvath 02.03.2004
When it comes to removing heads of state by indirect means, the US still has what it takes to get the job done

Jean Bertrand Aristide has finally fled Haiti -- again. Meanwhile, the mainstream press the world over focuses on the anarchy that has engulfed the tiny Caribbean nation. Yet most reports merely skim the surface. There was talk of rebel advances, people with guns, looting, revenge attacks, etc. What was missing was one simple question: what was the uprising all about? Perhaps the reason why journalists, especially those from the US and other "allied" countries, failed to dig deep into what was going on is because they know what they would find: that the US was behind the ugly overthrow of a democratically elected government, a move akin to the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990

An Ignominious Tradition


When one looks back at the history of Haiti, one can fully understand the motives driving US foreign policy toward the tiny Caribbean nation. It was the leading target of US intervention in the 20th century. In 1919, Woodrow Wilson had Haiti occupied, restored slavery, overthrew the parliamentary system, and basically turned it into a US plantation. Ever since then, the US has supported brutal dictators -- all of whom never had an embargo on them no matter how many atrocities they carried out.

Ironically, this year is the bicentennial anniversary of the nation's declaration of independence. Yet Haitians have little reason to celebrate. Haiti was once the richest colony in the Western Hemisphere; now it's the most impoverished. US foreign policy is the main reason for Haiti's perpetual state of poverty, especially the recent refusal to lend funds to the fledgling democracy, which was held back because of "election problems". In other words, Haiti hasn't met the US standard for democracy. In reality, Haiti's idea of democracy runs up against the US idea of a top-down democracy, run by an elite.

The problems Haiti is now going through all started with an election in 1990 which turned out the wrong way. The US was certain that their candidate would win, but out of the woodwork came a populist priest who won because he focused on things in the country that no one else was paying attention to.

Aristide's landslide victory in December 1990 took the US and most western countries completely by surprise. He was swept into power by a network of popular grassroots organizations which outside observers weren't even aware of. This did not fit the top-down democracy model the US wanted, so financial support was subsequently withdrawn. Yet with a solid two-thirds of the vote which demolished America's favourite, a former World Bank official named Marc Bazin (who received just 14%), the US was in a predicament: how were they going to get rid of Aristide who has popular support?
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/16872/1.html

and i was forsed to leave and held under guard in an airplane for 20 TWENTY hours on the runway by US soldiers""

to be murdered by the rebels. he is a tinpot dictator who ran like a coward. good ridence

02 Mar 2004 17:08:00 GMT
OXFAM WARNS OF HUMANTARIAN CRISIS IN HAITI

Haiti could face humanitarian crisis if secure circumstances are not created in which humanitarian aid can be delivered, warned international agency Oxfam today.

According to Oxfam assessments, at least 80,000 people in Port de Paix and 60,000 people in Cap Haitien have no access to clean water, many others are short of food and the threat of disease due to poor sanitation is growing. The agency has stressed that an early priority for the peacekeepers must be to secure safe access for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

"Lack of access to sufficient quantities of clean water combined with the general lack of adequate sanitation could soon lead to disastrous outbreaks of water-related disease," said Joost Martens, Oxfam Regional Humanitarian Lead.

"It must be a priority for the multinational interim force to create safe circumstances in which aid can be delivered, while the Haitian parties involved in the conflict should start negotiations to bring stability. Currently, all assistance is stopped for security reasons but there are huge needs on the ground that could lead to catastrophe if the aid does not arrive soon".
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/107824766094.htm

jimmy carter and chomsky disagrees with you and so do I

"Haiti was more than the New World's second oldest republic," anthropologist Ira Lowenthal observed, "more than even the first black republic of the modern world. Haiti was the first free nation of free men to arise within, and in resistance to, the emerging constellation of Western European empire." The interaction of the New World's two oldest republics for 200 years again illustrates the persistence of basic themes of policy, their institutional roots and cultural concomitants.

<snip / huge RELUCTANT snip>

3. "Politics, not Principle"

A month later, a gang of killers attacked Aristide's church as he was saying mass, leaving at least 13 dead and 77 wounded. Aristide fled underground. In yet another coup, Duvalierist General Prosper Avril arrested Namphy and expelled him. The Haitian head of Aristide's Salesian order authorized him to return to his church, but not for long. To the dismay of the conservative Church hierarchy, Aristide continued to call for freedom and an end to terror. He was duly ordered by his superiors in Rome to leave the country. Popular protests blocked his departure, and he went into hiding. At the last minute, Aristide decided to take part in the December 1990 elections. In a stunning upset, he won 67 percent of the vote, defeating the US candidate, former World Bank official Marc Bazin, who came in second with 14 percent. The courageous liberation theologist, committed to "the preferential option for the poor" of the Latin American bishops, took office in February as the first democratically elected President in Haiti's history -- briefly; he was overthrown by a military coup on September 30.

"Under Aristide, for the first time in the republic's tortured history, Haiti seemed to be on the verge of tearing free from the fabric of despotism and tyranny which had smothered all previous attempts at democratic expression and self-determination," the Washington Council on Hemispheric Affairs observed in a post-coup review. His victory "represented more than a decade of civic engagement and education on his part," spearheaded by local activists of the Church, small grassroots-based communities, and other popular organizations that formed the basis of the Lavalas ("flood") movement that swept him into power, "a textbook example of participatory, `bottom-up' and democratic political development." With this popular base, his government was committed to "the empowerment of the poor," a "populist model" with international implications that frightened Washington, whose model of "democracy" does not entertain popular movements committed to "social and economic justice, popular political participation and openness in all governmental affairs" rather than "the international market or some other current shibboleth." Furthermore, Aristide's balancing of the budget and "trimming of a bloated bureaucracy" led to a "stunning success" that made White House planners "extremely uncomfortable": he secured over half a billion dollars in aid from the international lending community, very little of it from the US, indicating "that Haiti was slipping out of Washington's financial orbit" and "demonstrating a degree of sovereignty in its political affairs." A rotten apple was in the making.
Washington was definitely not pleased. With its ally Duvalier gone, the US had in mind the usual form of democracy committed to the preferential option for the rich, particularly US investors. To facilitate this outcome, the bipartisan National Endowment for Democracy (NED) directed its "democracy building" grants to the Haitian International Institute for Research and Development (IHRED) and two conservative unions. IHRED was associated with Bazin and other political figures with little popular base beyond the NED, which portrayed them as the democratic movement. The State Department approached AIFLD, the AFL-CIO affiliate with a notorious record of anti-labor activities in the Third World, to join its efforts in Haiti "because of the presence of radical labor unions and the high risk that other unions may become radicalized." AIFLD joined in, expanding the support it had given from 1984 to a union group run in part by Duvalier's security police. In preparation for the elections, NED extended its support to several other organizations, among them a human rights organization headed by Jean-Jacques Honorat, former Minister of Tourism under Duvalier and later an opponent of his regime. By way of the right wing Puebla Institute, NED also provided pre-election funding to Radio Soleil, which had been anti-Duvalier but shifted well to the right under the influence of the conservative Catholic hierarchy.

Following Aristide's victory, US funding for political activities sharply increased, mainly through USAID. According to Kenneth Roth, deputy director of Human Rights Watch, the aid was intended to strengthen conservative groups that could "act as an institutional check on Aristide," in an effort to "move the country in a rightward direction." After Aristide was overthrown and the elite returned to power, Honorat became de facto Prime Minister under the military regime. The popular organizations that supported Aristide were violently suppressed, while those backed by NED and AID were spared.

Reports emerged yesterday that the private U.S. security firm guarding President Aristide was prevented by the White House from sending reinforcements to Haiti last week to bolster his security. We speak with the CEO of the firm Kenneth Kurtz.
As we reported yesterday on Democracy Now!, Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he was told by US officials this weekend that if he did not leave Haiti, paramilitary leader Guy Philippe would storm the palace and Aristide would be killed. Congressmember Maxine Waters said on this program that Aristide was told by the US that they were withdrawing Aristide's US security. But just what was Aristide's "US Security?"
It turns out that Aristide was being guarded by a private security firm, based in San Francisco. It is called the Steele Foundation. It is made up of former US special forces soldiers, intelligence officers and other security experts. The company has been on a State Department-approved contract with the Haitian government since 1998.

The Miami Herald reports that the White House blocked a last-minute attempt by Aristide to bolster his US security as the paramilitaries reached the capital. The paper said U.S. officials prevented reinforcements from the Steele Foundation from going to Haiti last week to protect Aristide.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/02/1616229

Now isn't that interesting.

There were some 30,000 killings committed under the reign of him and his father," Joanne Mariner, deputy director of rights group's Americas Division, told Reuters. "We couldn't imagine a worse leader for Haiti. Our goal would be to see him in court."


Duvalier said he welcomed the presence of U.S. Marines sent to help restore order in Haiti and that he was deeply concerned by the situation in the Caribbean state, although he expected Haiti to stabilize quickly

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040302/ts_nm/haiti_duvalier_dc

Democratic senators criticize Bush on Haiti
WASHINGTON - Sen. Bob Graham of Florida and two other Democratic senators on Friday called on President Bush to send a security force - preferably a multinational force - to Haiti this weekend to avert more bloodshed.

Graham said the United States has a responsibility to help people in this hemisphere. He said Bush should assemble a security force, provide for the humanitarian needs of the people in Haiti and assist whatever government prevails.

Graham said, at the least, the United States should halt deportation of Haitians who have been arrested for being illegal residents of the United States. In addition, he said, Haitians rescued at sea should be asked if they want to apply for refugee status and, if so, should be allowed to enter the country to make application.

The Coast Guard on Friday returned to Haiti 531 Haitians who had been intercepted at sea near their nation's coast since Feb. 21.

"It is plain to all of us here today that we have a real crisis on our hands ...," said Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut. "One way or another, the United States is going to have to get involved to resolve this mess. We can do it sooner and minimize the loss of life and property destruction or we can do it later when we will be sending body bags to dispose of the dead and Coast Guard cutters to pick up Haitians at sea."

Graham said Haiti should be added to the list of U.S. intelligence failures. He said U.S. troops "performed brilliantly" when sent to Haiti. But the United States was "too little, too late" when it came to handling the "peace phase."

All three senators, Graham, Dodd and Tom Harkin of Iowa, said the administration made a mistake when it imposed an embargo on Haiti.

"I have repeatedly warned the administration, since 2002, that its policy of embargoing virtually all economic assistance to the government of Haiti was going to backfire ...," Dodd said. "The very institution that we should be looking to preserve public order there, the Haitian National Police, have neither the training, the equipment, nor the will to do the job."
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/02/28/Worldandnation/Haiti_teeters_near_an.shtml