This is the 190th diary on the earthquake disaster in Haiti. The first diary was by Dallasdoc and previous diaries are linked below. This is the Justice, Not Charity edition of the diary.
I am writing these book diaries because from my concern about Haiti after the earthquake I became shocked by the truth of Haiti’s history and what really is needed to help the Haitians. I have learned so much reading about it’s history and the prevailing distortions that I’ve taken on this project to educate myself and share what I’ve been reading with interested people here on Daily Kos.
I’ve included a lot of names of people and organizations in this diary because these names come up in the news a lot and I hope it will help us all determine who is credible and who is a propagandist.
UPDATE: Book diary moved to Sunday.
Join us Sunday's for book day : Current book is Damming The Flood: Haiti, Aristide, And The Politics Of Containment, by Peter Hallward: Chapter 4:
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(p23) Ron Suskind, New York Times, October 17, 2004,
recounting a comment by Karl Rove:
We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort f out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.
Chapter 4: 2000 - 2003 Investing in Pluralism:
Quick Backgroud
Toward the end of President Clinton's second term, he was not happy with President Aristide. After all, Clinton gave himself full credit for restoring democracy to Haiti; he had the US army return Aristide to office. Clinton, apparently, believed that establishing democracy in Haiti meant that President Aristide would do what the US and a small group of unelectable Haitian elites told him to do. Aristide had "agreed" to enact Clinton's policies; i.e., the neoliberal Paris Plan, which Haitians call the Death Plan (the plan to destroy Haiti's farm economy, thereby expanding the market for US agricultural products, making more Haitians compete for sweatshop jobs and keeping wages low).
Damming The Flood, (Pg. 48)
To induce Aristide to accept these things and to placate the army that had overthrown him the Bush and Clinton administrations had an equally simple strategy - they colluded in the killing of his supporters. All through the interminable negotiations between Aristide and Cedras, explains Allan Nairn, "the US had a very clear, systematic policy of supporting the forces of terror in Haiti while at the same time, back in Washington, twisting Aristide's arm. He had a gun to his head, figuratively, just as his supporters had guns to their heads literally. It was outright political extortion."
Aristide, however, was not implementing Clinton's agenda quickly enough and refused to privatize Haiti's publically owned enterprises. Before Clinton left office, he intensified and expanded his disinformation campaign; when the Repbulicans took over, they further expanded the smear campaign, and they united anti-Aristide groups.
Establishing a story and repeating it
Of course disinformation was used to justify the first coup. The US could not openly admit to funding death squads to oust Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. However, it wasn’t until the lead up to the second coup that we really see the use of disinformation reach its full potential. The US used the USAID to funnel money to organizations that were receptive to their viewpoint, while simultaneously starving the Lavalas' administration of needed funds. Aid promised to Aristide was instead being diverted to organizations that criticized and undermined his government
Clinton's special envoy to Haiti, Lawrence Pezzula's, hostility toward Aristide would grow over time. In 1994 Pezzula had warned Clinton not to use the US army to restore Aristide to power. Pezzula pointed to Aristide's refusal to abandon his supporters and cater to the busniness elite and political class as evidence of Aristide’s incapacity to lead Haiti. Aristide was going against the grain, and Pezzula wanted him as far from power as possible. Pezzula claimed that Aristide's estrangement from Parliament and his inability to get along with the elite led to both his "failed" presidency and the 1991 coup.
By 2002 Pezzula had become aggressively anti-Aristide and a staunch believer that Aristide had to be removed from office. He joined members of the ultra-rightwing and became a founding member of the conservative think-tank, The Haiti Democracy Project (HDP). HDP would be one of many organizations that were formed to discredit and destabilize Aristide's administration and destroy the Fanmi Lavalas (FL) movement. Perhaps to justify his growing hatred for Aristide, Pezzula lied. He said that Aristide had become a corrupt dictator and ruled like Papa Doc had. Pezzula went on to claim that Aristide manipulated Clinton into helping abolish Haiti's army, because Aristide knew that the army was the one vehicle that could have protected Haiti from Aristide's lust for absolute power. For Pezula "Aristide's 'sordid regime' had become little more than a parody of the repugnant Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. Now that 'political repression is rampant' and 'Aristide has lost his legitimacy to rule,' the only 'critical question is what or who would replace Aristide if he could be induced to resign?'" (pg.90).
Who would replace Aristide was a good question considering all the "Democratic Opposition" parties combined could not muster more than 15% of the vote. When the Convergence Democratique (CD) held an event where they told reporters that they anticipated 20,000 supporters, only 300 showed up. Lack of popular support didn't matter: the CD recieved its strategic and financial support from the US and International Community (IC). If they had to depend on supporters, the CD would have closed down shortly after it opened. "'The more the CD's electoral support plummeted,' Concannon notes, the more "'its international support skyrocketed.'" (p90)
As horrible and shameful as Clinton's Haiti policies were, they paled in comparison to the ruthless, Machiavellian Bush 11's policies.
Damming The Flood, (Pg. 90 - 91)
...Clinton's administration (1993 - 2000) had always been profoundly hostile to Aristide. When Clinton was replaced by Bush 11, however, this hostility was replaced by nothing less than genuine hatred. The team of people that Aristide was doomed to deal with during his last three years in Haiti reads like a who's who of reactionary American foreign policy. Jesse Helms' former aide Roger Noriega served as Bush II's Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, after a stint as ambassador to the OAS: as the former US ambassador to El Salvador Robert White said in February 2004, "Roger Noriega has been dedicated to ousting Aristide for many, many years, and now he's in a singularly powerful position to accomplish it." Noriega was assisted by the bitterly anti-Castro and anti-Chavez Cuban American Otto Juan Reich (Special Representative for Hemispheric Initiatives) and flanked by Elliot Abrams (National Security Council) and John Negroponte (ambassador to the UN). Among other things, these veterans of the Cold War were the main architects of the 1980s Contra insurgency that eventually overthrew the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua - a destabilization campaign that bears an unmistakable resemblance to what happened in Haiti 2000 - 2004. These are people who, as Fatton observes, 'would have done anything they could to undermine Aristide."
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The Bush II administration brought an arrogant disregard for the truth and a deep hatred of Aristide to the White House. As far as the new Republican Haiti policy makers were concerned, enough time had been wasted. Aristide had to be removed promptly. It is worth
recounting a comment by Karl Rove, "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
The two things that Republicans are good at are lying and staying on message; i.e., repeating the lie. Throughout the destabilization campaign, Aristide would be repeatedly described as corrupt, violent, power hungry and equated with Baby Doc. (The anti-Aristide people who have left comments here often described Aristide exactly the same way that Bush's team described him. When I’ve asked them where they get their information—for proof of their allegations and for sources with links—they NEVER have provided anything, NOTHING. They do, however, accuse me of being an Aristide worshiper, although I have never claimed that Aristide is perfect. Fair arguments can be made that he compromised too much, that he was inexperienced and that he made some tactical errors. I don't necessarily agree with those criticisms, but they are based in reality. I just don't think the people making these claims take into account what Aristide was up against. The compromises he made were the best Haiti was going to get. The US and IC were going to get neoliberal policies enacted with or without Aristide. Aristide negotiated to get everything he could to help ease the pain that was inevitably coming. However, compromising too much is a far cry from being a corrupt, murderous dictator. If there is evidence that I am not aware of, I am eager to learn, please inform me. Update: Someone at Huffington Post responded to my comment with a link to the Haiti Democracy Project. Linking to Haiti Democracy Project is worse than linking to FOX.)
The new Republican team was too arrogant to waste time hiding their animosity for Aristide and their objective of removing him from office. Timothy Carney, a former US ambassador to Haiti, was another founding member of the Haiti Democracy Project and, like his fellow founder Pezulla, he believed there was only one question about the future of Haiti. Carney"s question was slightly different than Pezzula's. "The big question is whether Aristide is going to understand that he has no future." (p91)
In January 2003, Bush's administration would get closer to its goal when Canadian policy maker Denis Paradis held a two day conference in Meech Lake, Canada, where Haiti's fate was decided by the US, France and Canada. At the conference it was agreed that Aristide could not finish his 2nd term in office. "'The international community wouldn't want to wait for the five-year mandate of President Aristide to run its course through to 2005.' Instead 'Aristide should go,' and the international community should prepare for a new round of humanitarian intervention and military occupation in keeping with its democratic "responsibility to protect" the vulnerable inhabitants of a ‘failed state’." (p91)
Humanitarian aid, USAID
When longtime Aristide hater Noriega (Maxine Waters’ name for him, not mine) gained control over Haiti’s policy in 2001, he used Clinton's destabilization campaign as a launching point. The paramilitary force would come later; first Noriega started with what the US refers to as the "democracy promotion" tactics, using aid as leverage to force US policy on Haitians. "In Haiti as elsewhere, the main vehicles for delivering the policy were USAID, the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) and the International Republican Institute (IRI)." (p91)
Between 1994 and 2002 the US had contributed $70 million to organize and train Lavalas’ opposition. Fanmi Lavalas, on the other hand, had no budget, no office, and its members could not afford to pay a membership fee. (Haitian's had once again accomplished the miraculous when they elected President Aristide against all odds. Poor people beat all the monied interests, corporations and political establishments combined, only to have it snatched back by the lawless International Community.)
The fact that the USAID is used as a tool to funnel money to investor, friendly regimes and corporate organizations owned by members of Haiti's elite is not new. Aid has been used as leverage in Haiti since its inception. However completely bypassing the Haitian government and giving humanitarian aid to the governments’ opposition was new. The US gave aid money directly to the junta governments and to both of the brutal Duvalier regimes, but not to the democratically elected Administration. The US' claim that the Lavalas government was too corrupt to give aid money to, is simply not plausible.
Nonetheless, once Aristide was in office the USAID diverted aid money that formerly would have been given to the Haitian government and instead began funneling it to anti-Lavalas organizations. Starving the Haitian government while funding its enemies proved to be an extremely efficient use of aid money for a number of reasons: Aristide was not able to fulfill all of his campaign promises, and his enemies would use this as evidence of his inability to lead; people were hungry, poor people were starving to death; the US could further exploit Haitians because of their level of desperation.
In 2000, the USAID supplemented its regular development projects with a new "Democracy and Governance Program." It was one of many overlapping US programs "dedicated to the promotion of ‘civil society, the media, human rights organizations and political parties... The official description of this program begins with the assumption that 'continued deterioration of Haiti's economic, security, and human rights situation can be tied directly to a failure of democratic governance in Haiti.'" (p91) Tellingly enough, virtually all anti-Aristide organizations were funded through the USAID.
IFES: Recruitment & Disinformation Campaign
It is worth repeating that the USAID is used as a tool to force Haiti to enact catastrophic neoliberal policies. These policies pushed Haiti from being a poor country, but able to feed itself, to a poor and starving country. It does this by funding numerous "democratization programs." The USAID's main contractor during Aristide years in office was the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). IFES started in Haiti in 1990 and shared both goals and personnel with the International Republican Institute (IRI). Dick Cheney's close associate, William J. Hybl, served on IRI's board, and was the chairman of IFES' board of directors.
One of IFES' main programs, during Aristide's second term, was the "Civil Society Strengthening Project for Judicial Independence and Justice." They had a starting budget of $3.5 million. "Its original purpose was to 'advocate for the independence of judges from the executive branch via the formation of a range of coalitions from various societal institutions." (p93) IFES held meetings and seminars where they "sensitized" influential civil society members and groups. Many prominent figures went to the events. IFES was able to infiltrate the Haitian government and start the disinformation campaign within President Aristide's own government.
(from a report by Miami University's Law School) (p93):
"The premise of IFES' justice program was that President Aristide 'controlled everything' and therefore controlled the judges in Haiti in contravention of the constitutional separation of powers. Because the judicial system was corrupt, so went the premise, Aristide must be the most corrupt. IFES initially undertook to form a network of organizations that could concentrate opposition to the perceived corruption of the judiciary by the Aristide government. IFES formed new associations and established relationships with existing ones, making them more cohesive with a formally planned program of "sensitization" - what the administrators called "opening their eyes" to IFES' viewpoint that Aristide was corrupting the justice system. Through various programs-that included catered meals, accommodations, entertainment, and payment of a cash "per diem" - IFES "sensitized" attendees to the problems with the justice system under Aristide and insisted that they act as a united group for greatest effect."
*WARNING REPUBLICAN LOGIC. May cause your head to explode*
This represents quite a few leaps in logic. IFES started with the false assumption—a lie—that Aristide controlled everything. To make the lie more plausible, they added a grain of truth to the premise: that the Haitian justice system is corrupt. They then jumped to the conclusion that because Aristide controls everything, including the justice system, and the justice system is corrupt, then it follows that Aristide must be the most corrupt. The result was that IFES compounded the initial lie by transferring the corruption from the Justice System to Aristide.
To "sensitize" people to this new Rovian kind of "truth"—which is really a lie—IFES held seminars at fancy places where in order to attend people would have to repeat the lie along with the Seminar leaders. So people had an incentive to believe and spread the lie. IFES’s "sensitization" program flush with USAID aid money helped IFES successfully permeate the Haitain government and civil society with these lies.
Part of the sensitization program focused on “unity,” which was, brilliant in an evil way. It enabled them to consolidate the groups into a large anti-Aristide network. The unity of anti-Aristide groups was essential to the success of the disinformation program for many reasons: One is that it is easier to spread the lie when everyone agrees that it is a fact because people tend to believe that there has to be some truth in it.
IFES aimed a program at "sensitization" of the media and journalist groups, "and to 'use all the radio stations in Haiti' to publicize Aristide's corruption." Aristide could not expel IFES because it was tied to the USAID. Expelling IFES would mean the loss of the little aid that the government still received. (We learn later in the chapter and will go into detail about this in part 2 of this diary, that toward the end of 2003, President Aristide was banned from a National radio station.)
IRI joins IFES' disinformation campaign with a neocon twist
IRI ran it's destabilization campaign using IFES' model with a distinct Bush II-era neo-con twist. Hallward quotes an article by COHA that is called "The International Republican Institute: Promulgating Democracy of Another Variety." Here is how they describe IRI's work in Haiti (the whole article is worth reading): "consistent backing for the most regressive, elitist, pro-military factions in Haitian politics and its steadfast alliance with the elite opposition coalitions Group 184 and Democratic Convergence, which from the day of their inception devoted themselves entirely to derailing the administration of President Aristide."
The IRI is a close affiliate of the Republican Party and receives most of its funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID. Reagan started NED in 1983. A CIA agent who helped set up NED admitted that much of what it does openly today, the CIA did covertly 25 years ago.
The IRI's budget nearly tripled from 2003-2005. It went from $26 million to $75 million. It is officially designed to give money and logistical support to developing political parities and help guide the formation of democratic processes.
Clinton's Administration started the IRI's formal campaign to destabilize Aristide's government. In 1998 the USAID gave the IRI a $2 million grant. The program was run by the devout Duvalierist, Stanley Lucas, who had been working for the IRI since 1992 Lucas "a member of the neo-feudal land-owning families whose dominance was threatened when Duvalier was overthrown....Lucas himself has longstanding links with rightwing elements in Haitian military. The day after Aristide's inauguration, Lucas evoked the prospect of his assassination on Haitian radio." (p.95)
In 1992 the IRI worked with the Cedras to help legitimize the illegal and brutal regime. The IRI was supposedly helping with "election monitoring." Part of Lucas' job was to make pro-Duvalierist and pro-coup groups socially acceptable. He had to make it possible for a murderous thug like ex-general Prosper Avril and pro-coup business elite Olivier Nadal to participate in Haiti's "civil society." By 1999, Lucas had accomplished his goal, and Nadel was able to publicly oppose the Lavalas movement and help organize demonstrations with members of the OPL.
Unifying: this is a long diary, so we now want to take a quick break and show the powers that be that we know how to unify, too!
Action Alert: Election:
The International Community Should Support Prompt and Fair
Elections in Haiti. Fanmi Lavalas has the support of the largest percentage of the Haitian electorate and
elections that forbid their presence is essentially undemocratic and disenfranchising the choice of the vast
majority of Haitians. The US and International Community should not fund illegitimate elections.
It is like the Democratic Party being excluded from our upcoming midterm elections.
To stand in solidarity with Haiti at this crucial time, please contact US government officials, your local
senators, and representatives and tell them not to fund illegitimate elections that Lavalas must be allowed to
participate in free, democratic elections. The US should withhold aid for the elections unless the ban is lifted.
The ban on Lavalas in the upcoming elections must be revoked.
White House: 202-456-1111
Email at www.whitehouse.gov
US State Department: 202-647-4000
Toll Free Contact 1 (866) 266-6678
Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121
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Mantra from Aristide's 1990 campaign:
"Alone we are weak, together we are strong; all together we are Lavalas, the flood [yon se`l nou feb, ansanm nou fo, ansanm nou se Lavalas]."
Aristide Damming The Flood, (pg. xxxiv)
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The IRI was able to unite people who had once been bitter enemies.
"This was perhaps the single most important development in the emergence of a suitably "broad-based" anti-Lavalas opposition." (p.95) It, amazingly enough, negotiated a peace between General Avril and two of his famous torture victims, Evans Paul and Serge Gilles. In 1989, Avril arrested them at an anti-Duvalier demonstration and after torturing them broadcast pictures of their bloody, beaten bodies on national TV. In 1994, Avril owed both Gilles and Paul quite a bit of money. In a Miami court, they had won a large settlement from Avril. The IRI somehow got Avril to write an apology letter to Paul, and it persuaded Paul and Gilles to drop the lawsuit. Avril and Paul went on together to form a a new Haitian Conference of Political Parties. This alliance opened the door for the centrist opposition to unite with the far-right.
However, members of this new united Party were crushed in the 2000 election. This is when Lucas and the IRI formed the Convergence Democratique to give the Party a new face. Evans Paul was the public leader of the new Party.
(p.96)
Fronted by a charismatic ex-Lavalassian like Evans Paul, the CD provided the instrument that would finally allow members of the old hard-line elite Duvalierist and ex-military opposition to Aristide to present themselves with a pluralist and Democratic face. As Kim Ives explains, the CD provided a suitably respectable institutional form for a perverse "macouto-bourgeois" alliance, in which members of the liberal bourgeoisie represented by civil society grouplets like the Association of Haitian Industries or the Haitian Chamber of Commerce (along with self-styled social-democratic political parties like the OPL, PANPRA and KONAKOM) could temporarily throw in their lot with the neo-Macoute "Forces of their age-old rival, the landed oligarchy or grandons," represented by openly Duvalierist or neo-feudal parties like Prosper Avril's CREDDO, Hubert de Ronceray's MDN, Reynold Georges' ALA-MPSN and Pastor Luc Mesadieu's MOCHRENA.
However all these organizations, even combined, had very little popular support. The political parties formed by the "democratic opposition" were, basically, just reconfigurations of the old parties. These new Parties, like the old Parties, were supported by and loyal to the "
gwo neg, the big man."
Unity was essential to the destabilization campaign. The CD provided political cover for the moderates to join forces with the devout Duvalierist. Evans Paul and Avirl opened the door for what would become a widespread and crucial alliance between the two political factions. Their Platform was simple: restore the Haitian army and oust President Aristide. They went about achieving it by blocking everything the Lavalas government attempted to accomplish. They didn't mind using ridiculous tactics to achieve their goals.
In 2001 the CD refused to accept the election results. The fact that Aristide won the election with an astounding 92% of the vote was apparently not relevant to the members of the opposition. The CD stepped into the realm of comedy when they appointed “a parallel government.” They appointed Gerard Gourgue as Haiti's "parallel President" and the International Community sided with the CD and demanded that FL negotiate with the opposition. In his "inaugural" address, Parallel President Gourgue demanded the immediate remobilization of the military.
Just weeks after the inauguration, ex-military members began having meetings and demanding that they be reinstated. Toward the end of 2002, ex-colonel Himmler Rebu helped the CD organize demonstrations where they openly demanded the violent overthrow of President Aristide.
Managing groups with many cross purposes by Keeping focused on destroying the Lavalas movement
This new coalition of anti-Lavalas groups had to be held together, and considering many of the groups were from polar opposite sides of politics, it is quite extraordinary that they managed to stay unified. It was Lucas' job to hold the groups together and mediate any conflicts. Aristide continued to negotiate and made one concession after another, while the opposition continued to demand more. When Aristide would agree to all of their demands, the CD would make new demands. The US and IC would continue to blame Aristide and characterize him as stubborn and unreasonable. The "negotiations" were a farce. Lucas was against every compromise that was offered. Even some on his own side claimed that Lucas was being a bit harsh. It is not clear whether they meant what they said, or were simply taking an opportunity to look reasonable.
The US Ambassador to Haiti from 2000-2003, Dean Curran, was a Clinton appointee. He was having a difficult time working with the ultra-right Bush II appointed neocons. He complained that after he worked out deals with the Lavalas Administration, whenever he got major concessions from Aristide, Lucas would demand that the CD reject the deals. Curran understood that Lucas was getting orders from Washington. The fact that Lucas was urging CD members not to compromise was no real secret. When Curran objected, to this, Lucas actually threatened to spread rumors about Curran and his wife, if Curran didn't back down. Washington did nothing in response to the threats against Curran. In 2003 the Bush team forced Curran out. "In his unusually undiplomatic final speech, Curran denounced the covert action of Lucas and other "chimeras of Washington," claiming they had been deliberately trying to forestall any viable settlement between the government and its foes." (p98) Luigi R Einaudi, an OAS diplomat, confirmed this when he attended an IRI meeting in 2001 where he was surrounded by Haitian businessmen who all said the same thing (remember sensitization training?): that it was impossible to negotiate with Aristide and that Aristide had to go!
By 1999 Lucas and the IRI had gotten so out of hand that Preval asked that the IRI close its Haiti office. Fortunately for Lucas, he and the IRI were welcomed in the Dominican Republic. The IRI provided training sessions and seminars at the Santa Domingo Hotel. When the NYT asked why no members of Fanmi Lavalas were included in the training sessions, they were told "The IRI's Georges Fauriol explains that 'this was because the opposition parties were less powerful and needed more help." (p98)
Rudolph Boulos's connection to the US and the Haitian army went back beyond FRAPH years. He was a well known member of Haiti's elite. His brotherReginald Boulos is currently a member of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (CIRH) lead by Former President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. The commission has a total of 26 members, 13 of which are foreigners and 13 are from Haiti's elite.
Rudolph is a founding member of the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) created in November 2002. "Other founding members of the HDP include Timothy Carney (US ambassador to Haiti 1998-99 and again in 2005-06), Lawrence Pezzullo (Clinton's special envoy to Haiti 1993-1994), Orlando Marville (chief of the OAS electoral mission that tried to discredit the May 2000 elections), Lionel Delatour (of the aggressively neo - liberal Center for Free Enterprise and Democracy, a prominent USAID grantee), and Boulos' old friend Ira Lowenthal (a leading figure in the early development of the democratic opposition to the Lavalas via PIRED and several other USAID-funded democracy enhancement programs, including Associated in Rural Development..." (p99) HDP's dinner list is quite revealing. The list included some of the most hostile Lavalas opponents including Noriega, Lucas and Nadal. Nadal was eventually indicted for his "role in the 1990 Piatre massacre of eleven famers in the Montrouis region."
"Dye mon, gen mon."
Translation: Beyond the mountain is another mountain.
(A proverb of both patience and the recognition of how difficult life in Haiti is.)
ijdh:
Anyone interested in democracy and rights has reason to be interested in Haiti. Over two centuries ago, Haitians challenged the notions of human rights taking root in Europe and the nascent United States, insisting that all people are human and that slavery could have no place in any republic worthy of the name. This was the beginning of the modern human rights movement.
— Paul Farmer, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
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The IRI and HDP continued to expand the disinformation campaign. They trained hundreds of people from different segments of Haiti's civil society including NGOs, business groups and independent media outlets. To ensure that the propaganda spread throughout Haiti, the IRI focused on "sensitizing" a diverse group of people and organizations.
Like other partners of the IRI, the HDP understands very well that in order to replace the unruly threat of "popular democracy" it's helpful to work in several constituencies at once. The values associated with "democratization," "pluralism" and "moderation" have for some time now been indistinguishable from those of the transnational elite, and are perfectly compatible with the preservation if not intensification of global inequalities.
(p100)
Particular attention was paid to recruiting youth groups and women's groups. They succeeded in recruiting one of Haiti's most influential youth groups, Jeune Ayiti.
...scores of other anti - Lavalas "student leaders" make no secret of the financial and logistical support they received from the IRI. Members of the human rights delegation organized by Quixote Center in April 2004 met numerous "students, women and union organizers who had formed specifically anti - Aristide groups to demand the ouster of Aristide earlier this year. They proudly asserted their connection to USAID, the State Department Democracy Enhancement program and the NDI. 'They trained us how to organize, and we organized the groups you see here to demand the corrupt government of Aristide be brought down.' " Overlapping women's groups like SOFA, ENFOFANM, and CONAP were all on the IRI/USAID/CIDA payroll and all were to play an important role in the disinformation campaign.
(p100-101)
It was at the Santo Domingo Hotel in the Dominic Republic that Lucas and his gang of Haiti's elite came up with a new organization. They would call it the Group of 184 (G184). This group would organize and coordinate all the anti-Lavalas recruits and groups. The CD's efforts had been a disaster from their dismal showing in the 2000 election to their ridiculous parallel government, which they just let fade away when it was not being taken seriously. The G184 set itself up "both to represent the opposition and to serve as a 'neutral' arbiter between itself and the government." (p101)
Nearly all groups that were funded by the USAID, NED or IRI joined G184. Sweatshop owner Andy Apaid and Ultra rightwing Charles Baker became leaders of G184. Even with one of the sweatshop kings of Haiti leading the group, anti-Aristide liberal groups joined, including MPP, which was led by longtime labor rights, anti-sweatshop activist and former Aristide friend Chavannes Jean-Baptiste. Chavannes' endorsement of the group gave it some much undeserved but needed liberal credibility. "Liberal" NGOs that wanted in on cash handouts from USAID now had the political cover needed to form an alliance with this radical rightwing group. The New York Times brought further legitimacy to the group and its propaganda by referring to it as a grassroots organization, sometimes even as a liberal or progressive grassroots organization. Apaid was a New York born, sweatshop owning member of the business elite. He aggressively opposed President Aristide's proposed minimum wage increase. If the media would not have participated in spreading and legitimizing the propaganda, maybe things would have worked out differently.
The generosity of US aid freed members of anti-Lavalas groups from the need to compromise with the Lavalas government in order to get contracts or programs funded. They probably had more money than the cash strapped-government. Financial security enabled the anti-Aristide coalition to openly flaunt their power. And they became more brazen.
Former allies now fierce opponents
Many of the leaders of the opposition were former Aristide allies. Some of his one-time political colleagues became bitter when he did not give into their demands and refused to follow the old Party line. Aristide represented poor people and would not go along with the status quo. As time passed and Aristide remained Haiti's most popular politician, his former supporters’ resentment grew. The Lavalas Party splintered into different factions during Aristide's first term. Some factions were purely opportunistic and had no loyalty to the original Lavalas platform. They mainly joined to take advantage of Aristide's popularity. When Evans Paul was crushed, in the 1995 election, by someone from Aristide's faction, he was humiliated and this fueled Paul's resentment. So when the opportunity to make a living by opposing Aristide presented itself, he happily took it and embraced all of the outlandish propaganda that he had only months ago rejected.
Once they had settled into their permanent and comfortably funded oppositional role, Fatton notes, these erstwhile allies proved remarkably receptive to 'the most virulent anti-Aristide propaganda that they themselves had rejected until recently. They came to share Lynn Garrison's extravagant and bizarre portrayal o Aristide as a demented psychopath responsible for virtually all the murders that have taken place in the country since 1990.'
(p103)
Referring to Aristide as a murderous, Macout-like dictator helped politicians like Evans Paul and Pierre-Charles, who had both been anti-Duvaleirist, justify their new alliance with the most extreme pro-military and pro-Duvaleirist groups. Evans Paul and Charles had always been pro-US shills for Haiti's ruling class, but their embrace of the most extreme pro-Duvalierist factions required some self-deception on their part. It helped ease their conscience to convince themselves, or at least try to, that Aristide was like the Macouts, Raoul Cedras or an even worse dictator. (Lies tend to grow with time, and people tend to exaggerate when lying, so when there is a large diverse group spreading a lie, the lie takes many forms; so went the evolution of the lie that Aristide controlled everything, including the justice department, and because the justice department is corrupt, Aristide is most corrupt.)
MPP leader Chavannes Jean-Baptise's turn on his old dear friend is more complicated. This article is informative: The Puzzling Alliance of Chavannes Jean-Baptiste and Charles Henri Baker. Aristide had been Chavannes' mentor. They were extremely close. Chavannes assumed that Aristide would endorse him as his successor. It is not clear how much say Aristide had in who the Party endorsed. It is likely that he was pushed by the OPL to endorse Preval. Remember the Lavalas Party was divided, and the OPL faction had the backing of the gwo neg, big man. In any case, Chavannes felt deeply betrayed by Aristide and became increasingly bitter. He and some of the Lavalas factions began accusing each other of things - calling each other corrupt. The hostility between the MPP and Lavalas groups escalated. During a confrontation in 1997 between Fanmi Lavalas and MPP, Chevannes was forcibly taken captive and held against his will for several hours. Chavannes blamed Aristide for this and claimed that the FL had been infiltrated by Macouts. Aristide said that he couldn't control his local followers. That wasn't good enough for Chavannes who continued to hold Aristide responsible for the incident, or at least used it to justify his mind-boggling alliance with Duvalierists and sweatshop owners like Charles Baker. In 2000 Chavannes supported the CD, and shortly after he joined the G184" 'For me,' Jean - Baptiste told a sympethetic Michael Deibert in 2001, 'Aristide is nothing but a political cadaver who will pass like garbage through the history of Haiti.'" . (p105)
In February 2004, a FRAPH leader, Jodel Chamblain, who was interviewed in Wyclef's Ghosts of Cite Soliel propaganda "documentary" as an upstanding citizen used Chavannes’ Plateau to bring weapons and men into Haiti from the DR. Chavannes denies giving the death squad leader and convicted murderer Chamblain permission, but members of the MPP told Tom Reeves that Chamblain could not have gone through the Plateau without MPP permission. Members of the MPP said that Chavannes even had a dinner to welcome Chamblain and his death squads to the Plateau. Chavannes has not made a public statement but tells people privately that he had Chamblain for dinner, but denied him permission to use the Plateau to smuggle his weapons and men into Haiti.
Next week part 2 of the diary will cover the second half of the chapter. To be continued...
For diaries on previsoud chapeters search Haiti book diary, here.
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
Mission
We strive to work with the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, jus tice and human rights, by distributing objective and accurate information on human rights conditions in Haiti, pursuing legal cases, and cooperating with human rights and solidarity groups in Haiti and abroad.
IJDH draws on its founders’ internationally-acclaimed success accompanying Haiti’s poor majority in the fields of law, medicine and social justice activism. We seek the restoration of the rule of law and democracy in the short term, and work for the long-term sustainable change necessary to avert Haiti’s next crisis.
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Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
"IJDH is simply the most reliable source for information and analysis on human rights in
Haiti." — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
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Join us Sunday's for book day : Current book is Damming The Flood: Haiti, Aristide, And The Politics Of Containment, by Peter Hallward: Chapter 4:
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This is our book list so far:
Isabel Allende (h/t Deoliver47): Island Beneath the Sea, here:
Jean-Bertrand Aristide:: In the Parish of the Poor, here; Eyes of the Heart here;
Beverly Bell: Walking on Fire, here:
Edwidge Danticat: Brother, I'm Dying here; The Farming of Bones here; Krik? Krak! here; Breath, Eyes, Memory here:
Paul Farmer: The Uses of Haiti here; Partner To The Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader here; Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup here:
Peter Hallward: Damming The Flood here (2010 updated edition will be out soon. You can pre-order it now) here. h/ty NY brit expat published date is 11/30/10):
C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins here, (h/t Deoliver47):
Erica James, Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti, here:
Tracy Kidder: Mountains Beyond Mountains here:
Maurice Lemoine: Bitter Sugar: Slaves Today in the Caribbean [1985] here:
Paule Marshall: The Chosen Place, The Timeless People here:
Randall Robinson, An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President, here:
Timothy T. Schwartz: Travesty in Haiti here:
Amy Wilentz: The Rainy Season - Haiti after Duvalier here
IJDH, Summer Reading list: here.
PIH has a new website here; They have a recommended reading list here; a book list, links to websites with action alerts, and articles.
videos:
Aristide and the Endless Revolution here; Life and Debt here; The Agronomist here; Poto Mitan here.
Any suggestions? We are looking for books, articles, websites where we can get accurate information about Haiti. Please share any information.
I found one. The World Traveler - Haiti page.: This website has links to articles about Haiti and it has excerpts from books including The Uses of Haiti and Damming The Flood.
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tout moun se moun —
(every human being is a human being) |