O U R   A M E R I C A

Havana. March, 2 2004

BY LIDICE VALENZUELA -Special for Granma International-

ONCE again the military has intervened in Haiti after constitutional president Jean Bertrand Aristide - a former Catholic priest who assumed power in 2001 with widespread popular support - resigned on February 29 “so as to avert a bloodbath” in the country, a few hours after the United States and France had withdrawn their diplomatic support of him.

In the early hours of last Sunday, France, the United States and Canada - whose troops entered Haitian territory shortly after the leader’s departure - charged him with sparking off the internal situation in the country and tacitly demanded his departure.

This is the second time that Aristide, aged 50, has been forced to abandon his small nation - considered the poorest in Latin America and the Caribbean - and precisely in the year of the bicentenary of the Haitian Revolution and the constitution of the Republic.

Initially under French colonial rule and subsequently looted by continuous military dictatorships, Haiti shares its island territory with the Dominican Republic, where Aristide traveled prior to arriving in the Central African Republic.

Analysts believe that the origin of the current crisis goes back to the violent murder last December of opposition leader Amoiot Metayer, one of those in charge of the paramilitary groups that have now brought chaos and death to various cities.

The government of the former Salesian priest was accused of Metayer’s murder by the opposition, after which the violence began to escalate that had its climax on February 5 with 80 deaths, hundreds of injuries and incalculable material losses.

Diplomatic sources state that generations of Haitians have lived in fear of the military and their murderous gangs, and are consigned to inferior roles by a minority sector of individuals who make up just one per cent of the population but control and dominate the national wealth.

At this juncture, despite his conciliation attempts towards the opposition, Aristide was forced to abandon his post, in a repetition of his own political history. Elected in 1990 in the first free elections after more than 20 years of the Duvalier dictatorship (father and son), he was toppled one year later by a bloody military coup led by General Raoul Cedrás, but returned to the country to popular acclaim in 1994 despite international pressure, and thanks to a secret agreement negotiated with Cedrás by former U.S. President James Carter.

The return of the former priest was backed up by 20,000 soldiers sent in by Carter with UN consent.

René Preval replaced Aristide in the 1995 elections as the Haitian constitution prohibits a second consecutive mandate. Five years later, Aristide once again stood for election and won the current mandate, due to conclude in 2006.

On the two occasions that he found himself Haitian head of state, the former priest - who was ordained in 1982 and expelled from his order in 1988 for his defense of Liberation Theology - was the great hope of the Haitian people. He had a key role in the popular uprising that brought decades of dictatorship to an end during the 1980s.

But his second government was tainted by allegations of irregularities during the election process, pressure from ex-military personnel who wanted to occupy positions of power at all costs and even, according to many analysts, not meeting the commitments given to Washington when it helped him return to the presidency.

In September 2002, the Organization of American States (OAS) passed a resolution in support of lifting the economic sanctions imposed on Haiti in exchange for creating an Electoral Council within two months in order to organize elections in 2003, but the time period expired without anything happening. At the end of the year, the opposition called the first general strike demanding Aristide’s resignation from government. Right-wing media channels launched a series of campaigns directed at creating chaos and confusion and, according to official spokespersons, making libelous claims in an attempt to discredit the president and his followers.

It was his former protector the United States that eventually pressured Aristide into resigning at the end of last week, subsequently acknowledging that it had “facilitated” his departure under top security in order to save his life.

Over the last few weeks, the advance of armed gangs led by former military leaders and members of the coup faction placed President Aristide in a compromising situation, despite the fact he insisted on several occasions that he would not resign. He attempted to hold talks with the opposition and requested aid from international organizations.

He never closed the door to conciliation efforts, as was seen on February 21 when he accepted a plan of action from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) presented by an international mediation delegation, made up of representatives from the United States, Canada, France, the OAS and CARICOM.

The project, which never progressed because of the opposition’s stance, contained a compromise formula though which a new prime minister with certain constitutional powers would be named. Although it appeared that the United States was supporting the president, in private that nation had continued to distance itself from him.

Meanwhile the OAS, the organization supposedly responsible for security and peace within the region, went in for ineffective remedies and failed to adopt a firm position in order to defend the constitutional president. Nor did the United Nations play its part. It only responded when Aristide had gone, by sending in a multinational force hours after military troops from the United States, Canada, France and Brazil - all of them united in the high-sounding Friends of Haiti group, which also includes Chile and the CARICOM states - had already landed, prepared to post their soldiers there for a three-month period. A sufficient amount of time for restoring calm, they say.

The Haitian civil opposition, which was unwilling to enter into talks with the president and insisted on calling for his immediate resignation, accepted the arrival of the multinational force - to be replaced by a UN peace-keeping force, according to an agreement contracted with that organization last Monday - whilst violence was still reigning the capital city, Port-au-Prince.

Guy Phillipe, leader of the military bands and the former police chief who led the frustrated coup d’état in December 2001, announced an end to the “war” and welcomed the arrival of the U.S. Marines. “We need them,” affirmed Phillipe, who stated that he was prepared to lay down arms and support interim President Boniface Alexandre, leader of the Supreme Court of Justice.

Various media channels are anticipating a humanitarian catastrophe with unforeseeable consequences. The paramilitary groups accompanied their actions with looting and setting fire to installations, thus food supplies are virtually exhausted and the mass exodus of those trying to abandon the island in search of refuge are continuing. The governments of Jamaica, Venezuela and South Africa have expressed their disapproval of the overthrow of the president.

On the two occasions on which he was elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide represented a possibility for economic and social change for the Haitian people, according to his party’s political project.

Immersed in tremendous poverty as a result of political corruption and international economic sanctions, Haiti’s history is plagued with continuous political, social and economic crises. There have been 32 coup d’états since the nation became a republic.

There is nothing to suppose that such a panorama could change. Doubtless the parties involved in the military intervention in Haiti will advocate a transitional government and announce general elections, in which some of those involved in the president’s overthrow will appear as candidates.

Any prediction for this small and impoverished nation involves the military, whose thirst for personal gain is infinite. It will bear no relation with searching for a solution to poverty, debt, lack of education and healthcare, low incomes or the unrest that has rocked Haiti throughout its history.

Those who believe that a foreign military presence will constitute a guarantee for pacifying the country are making a great error. When those soldiers return to their bases, life will be the same in this little nation, the first free republic in the Caribbean and a country that today, in the 21st century, possesses levels of poverty that are medieval. We have seen the film already.