U.S. Out of Haiti Now!

by Marty Goodman

It was a throwback to 19th-century U.S. gunboat diplomacy. The United States, after supporting the brutal Duvalier family dictatorship for 29 years and the military regimes that followed, invaded Haiti in the name of "democracy."

With the blood of Iraq fresh on its hands, U.S. aggression was rubber-stamped by the United Nations. The invasion increases the threat to the Cuban Revolution, as well as to the Chavez regime in Venezuela. In the early hours of Feb. 29, Haiti’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was visited at his home by U.S. embassy and security personnel.

According to Aristide, he was told that Washington could not protect him from pro-U.S. death-squad-linked "rebels" poised to attack Port-au-Prince, the capital. Aristide could avoid bloodshed only if he left Haiti.

It was as if imperialism had pointed a gun at Aristide’s head. A U.S. official then asked the president for a letter of resignation, which Aristide apparently wrote, but later denied it was a resignation. Aristide was taken aboard a U.S. plane, destination unknown, to the Central African Republic.

Some 150 U.S. Marines arrived in the capital later that morning, insuring the unimpeded victory of the U.S.-trained, "rebels." Over 100 Haitians, so far, have died in fighting that began Feb. 5.

The occupation represents a victory for notorious "Aristide-haters" in the Bush administration like Roger Noriega, the U.S. undersecretary of state for Western Hemispheric Affairs. Noriega, along with other Bush officials like Otto Reich, were involved with forces responsible for the kidnapping and attempted ouster of reformist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last year.

Noriega has also recently made threats against the Cuban Revolution. In telephone calls to key U.S. supporters like Randall Robinson of the anti-apartheid organization TransAfrica and members of Congress Maxine Waters (D-Cal.) and Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Aristide called the U.S. actions "a coup d’etat."

Robinson said Aristide told him that he was taken from his home at "gunpoint" and held incommunicado until after he arrived in the Central African Republic. Aristide later told CNN, "I call it a real coup d’etat ... modern kidnapping."

A Bush administration spokesperson called Aristide’s version "nonsense."

What is clear is that the Bush administration waited until the pro-U.S. thugs were poised to attack the capital to gain maximum leverage in forcing Aristide to leave.

Washington has no right whatsoever to invade another nation and remove an elected leader. U.S. actions in Haiti are nothing less than criminal!

The armed struggle against Aristide began Feb. 5 in the northern city of Gonaives among alienated former Aristide supporters in "the Cannibal Army," whose weapons, they said, were once used against Aristide’s opponents. Those forces were soon joined by well equipped, ex-Haitian military thugs and paramilitary killers who had been living in the Dominican Republic.

Aristide is a populist former priest who led a movement called "the Lavalas," meaning "the torrent" in Haitian Creole. But in power, Aristide’s regime was unmistakably pro-capitalist and known for corruption.

Despite vague appeals to Haiti’s poor, there were no mass organizations to rely upon for defense of the capital, even if Aristide had made the call.

Aristide supporters who possessed weapons were generally members of street gangs with their own agendas.

In 1995 Aristide dissolved the Haitian army and replaced it with a national police force of 4000, which soon became corrupt and infiltrated with leftover army elements. The police were not only unable but also unwilling to defend the Lavalas government. At least 20 percent of the force deserted before the attackers.

A special security guard of several hundred in the capital, equipped with many heavier weapons like those used by the insurgents, did not fight.

With U.S. troops already on the ground, the anti-Aristide thugs entered the capital without serious opposition. Guy Philippe, a leader of the armed insurgents, noted, "We’re waiting for the international forces. They will have our full support."

Who are the Haitian coup-makers?

The opposition’s armed wing and the so-called civilian opposition maintained a dubious public posture of no contact with each another. But, without question, all middle-class and ruling-class forces in Haiti—including the Lavalas government—had supported stabilizing capitalism with a U.S. military intervention.

Leaders of the coup say they will reconstitute a new Haitian army. Who are they? Guy Philippe was the Lavalas government’s police chief in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, before he was caught plotting a coup in 2000. He fled to the Dominican Republic, where he received asylum.

Insurgent leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain, was the #2 man in the paramilitary FRAPH, created by the CIA to terrorize Aristide supporters and activists. He was sentenced to life at hard labor for murdering Antoine Izmery, a prominent human rights advocate, and for participating in a massacre in Gonaives. He also fled to the Dominican Republic.

The Bush administration has called on the insurgents to "lay down their arms," preferring to deal with a "normal" capitalist government in Haiti as a more acceptable mask for imperialist policies.

In addition to the armed opposition are politicians, ranging from middle-class liberals to right-wingers, gathered in the "Convergence Democratique," which is supported by millions in aid from CIA front groups supported by USAID and the International Republican Institute.

Also prominent is the "Coalition of 184," a grouping of middle-class artists and intellectuals that also includes some unions, such as the large Movement of Papaye Peasants (MPP), once loyal to Aristide. Leader of "the 184" is sweatshop owner Andre Apaid, who owns 15 factories.

Student movements played an important role in sparking the most recent crisis. On Dec. 5 students at the campus of the Faculté des Sciences Humaines in the capital protested the lack of democracy and called on Aristide to step down. Pro-Aristide gangs called "chimres," joined by police, attacked and beat scores of the students. High school students have also demonstrated all across Haiti.

UN underwrites U.S. aggression

Some well meaning people express the view that the United Nations can play a role in moderating the aggressive policies of the U.S. superpower. They ignore that fact that the UN, despite its formal objections to the U.S. war (though not the sanctions) against Iraq has historically supported U.S. wars and/or policy goals—from Korea in the 1950s, to the Congo and Vietnam in the 1960s. Today, the UN virtually ignores the plight of the Palestinians. Haiti has, once again, proven this view tragically wrong. Late at night on Feb. 29, the Security Council of the United Nations gave the U.S., France, Canada (the so-called "friends of Haiti"), and Caribbean nations a 30-day mandate to occupy Haiti. Marines in Haiti Sunday immediately met with French forces to review maps of where armed Aristide supporters were located in the capital’s slums.

The Bush administration says the number of Marines will increase to 1500 to 2000 and soon be replaced by a multi-national force of 5000. The engagement of imperialist France, which last year opposed the U.S. attack on Iraq, was seen as a diplomatic victory for Bush. France (Haiti’s former colonial master) insisted that Aristide resign early in the crisis. The U.S. and French imperialists were joined by Canada and Chile.

The Caribbean "Caricom" nations were also ready to send a force under the UN "mandate," but balked at Washington’s brazen toppling of an elected president. Caricom called for a UN investigation of the U.S. role in Haiti.

Previously, Caricom leaders were threatening Aristide with sanctions if he didn’t accept a figurehead position in a coalition government and other reforms. The pliant Aristide accepted the formula, but the opposition, both armed and civilian, insisted on his stepping-down. The Bush administration put pressure on Aristide to compromise, not the opposition.

At the moment, Supreme Court Justice Boniface Alexandre, an Aristide supporter and lawyer for rich Haitians, heads a "temporary" government, and new elections are promised.

However, the military occupation forces of the United States and its allies (whether or not they eventually put on UN helmets) will provide the muscle to ensure that the next government in Haiti is fully compliant with imperialist demands—just as they are trying to do in Iraq.

We must demand that the U.S. military get out of Haiti now, and that Haiti be allowed its right of self-determination.