Developments Overseas:
Heightened US intervention in Haiti

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

US imperialism unbridledly violates the sovereignty of nations, especially those in the Americas which it considers its own backyard. The US has long arrogated the right to intervene in any country within the American continents.

One of the highlights of last month�s news was the latest case of direct US military intervention in Haiti, a small country

In the last three years, the US colluded with the elitist opposition and armed criminals in Haiti to topple Aristide�s government. The US employed various means to accomplish this objective, including imposing a trade embargo, withdrawing aid, portraying Aristide as a corrupt and inutile leader, supporting uprisings and fomenting unrest and attacks by �rebel� armed forces composed of goons and headed by criminals and murderers, and sending US military troops to directly occupy Haiti on the eve of Aristide�s ouster.

Aristide is a bourgeois-nationalist who led the opposition to the fascist regime of Francois �Papa Doc� Duvalier and his son Jean Claude �Baby Doc� Duvalier. The US had supported the Duvaliers because it had relied on them to put an end to what it considered the trend of revolution and communism blazing in Latin America.

The Duvaliers were inveterate fascists. Aside from the reactionary state army, they likewise maintained a ferocious private army that killed their political opponents and sowed terror throughout the country. The Duvaliers also controlled the illegal drug trade in Haiti, one of the major transit points of smuggled narcotics (especially cocaine) into the US. The US withdrew support for the fascist dictator when the movement for change then led by Aristide gained broad support from the Haitian people.

The elitist interests of the ruling classes that supported and benefited from the Duvaliers were threatened and affected by the changes that Aristide wanted to effect. They, thus sharply opposed Aristide�s victory in the 1991 elections. They armed the criminals and former goons of the ousted Duvalier dictatorship and launched a coup d��tat nine months after the new government assumed power.

The US withdrew Aristide and martial law reigned in Haiti. In 1994, on the orders of then US president William �Bill� Clinton, the US Army brought back Aristide and reinstalled him as president when martial law failed to douse the fires of civil war in the country. The US promised $3 billion in aid for the rehabilitation of the economy ruined by criminal and militarist rule aside from over a century of plunder. Other imperialist countries like France also pledged to extend aid to Aristide.

When Aristide returned in 1994, he dismantled the entire military force of Haiti and all remnants of the dictatorship that ousted him. He tried to revive the country�s economy and find solutions to the people�s unemployment and poverty. He carried out initial steps to nationalize industries held by supporters of the Duvaliers and the martial rule period from 1991-1994. He defied the dictates of the IMF-WB to privatize remaining state assets and submit to imperialist institutions.

Aristide�s reform programs alarmed the US and the ruling classes. At the prodding of the marginalized ruling classes in Haiti, the US spread the propaganda that the reforms being carried out by Aristide were creating further chaos and backwardness in Haiti and that he deserved to be ousted.

Since George W. Bush assumed power as US president in 2001, he has withdrawn all aid to Haiti. To further bring Haiti�s economy to its knees, the US dumped its surplus goods in the country. The dumping of surplus chicken from the US caused the collapse of chicken production, the only remaining significant sector of the Haitian economy. The US also armed the drug syndicates to further sow turmoil in an economy and political system already in shambles.

The US did not let up its pressure on Aristide, especially this year. On the eve of his ouster, American agents and their Haitian stooges colluded to force Aristide to resign. He was warned that the �rebels� were already at the gates of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, and that they would blow up the presidential palace if he would not give up his position.

The following day, he was forcibly flown in a US airplane to the Central African Republic. Aristide immediately denounced this maneuver as political kidnapping.

Many countries, including the 15 countries of the Caribbean protested Aristide�s forcible ouster by the US.

From the Central African Republic, Aristide has transferred to Jamaica, another country in the Caribbean, to lead the struggle against the US and the puppet government it has installed in Haiti.

21 March 2004
English Edition

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	Developments Overseas: Heightened US intervention in Haiti
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