Haiti was always going to be trouble.
From the moment the slaves began the overthrow of their French masters in 1791 and eventually declared themselves the second republic in the western hemisphere in late 1803, powerful people in North America decided that this would not be allowed to succeed.
A black republic? Slaves freeing themselves? No, no, no! That would be a bad example.
From 1804 until 1864, the United States refused to give diplomatic recognition to the world’s first independent black republic, fearful Haiti might set an example for the enslaved African population in the South.
The Guardian says that ever since Haitian slaves gained national independence, Western powers attempted to strangle its democracy and quash its prosperity.
In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte sent 22,000 soldiers to Haiti to stop a slave rebellion and recapture the plantations that once made it an economic giant. Napoleon said that the recognition of the freedom of the slaves would be a “rallying point for freedom-seekers of the New World.”
The United States backed France in ordering Haiti to pay 150 million francs in gold to compensate for the costs of the war it won. In return, Haiti would supposedly be granted international recognition. Repayment locked Haiti into the role of a debtor nation –where it remains today.
Beginning in 1850, U.S. warships remained almost a constant in Haitian waters for 60 years. According to historians, this pattern of gunboat diplomacy led to the first U.S. occupation of Haiti, which began in 1915 and lasted 19 years.
The U.S. invasion and occupation was sparked by the fall of the Haitian president at the time. A pro-government general ordered the execution of 163 political prisoners and caused a popular uprising against the landed elite.
The United States declared the Haitian people unfit to rule themselves. Americans seized land and created an army and police force, specialists in preventing revolt and protecting American capital.
Paul Farmer, author of The Uses of Haiti, describes how Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier emerged in 1957 and organized a society of terror that received U.S. military assistance.
Farmer says, “During his first four –and bloodiest—years in power, Papa Doc received $40 million from Washington, much of it in the form of outright gifts. The U.S. even went so far as to send Marines to protect this regime from any popular movement that might threaten its rule.”
When Baby Doc took over upon the death of his father, he hired public relations firms to help sell his regime’s legitimacy to the people of the world.
In February 1986, a massive rebellion or “flood” of poor people, who became known as the “Lavalas,” ended almost 30 years of pro-American dictatorship. Baby Doc left the country on an American cargo plane. The overthrow led to three more un-elected presidents.
In 1990, Haiti held a national democratic election, and Priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the presidency with 70 percent of the votes. Aristide created literacy programs and began to make democratic reforms.
In 1991 to counter the reforms, the military stormed Aristide’s residence. The military set up the Frappe death squads that murdered over 1,500 people.
With thousands of Haitian refugees fleeing the island, President George H.W. Bush enacted a trade embargo against Haiti.
President Bill Clinton would later complain of America’s leaking borders and strengthen the blockade against the refugees.
In 1994, Clinton ordered American forces to intervene to “protect American interests and stop the brutal atrocities that threaten tens of thousands of Haitians”.
The Administration drew up a plan creating a new Haitian police force and restoring Aristide to power. Perhaps because he threatened U.S. interests, Aristide’s return to power was limited to finishing the last year of his term of office. Nevertheless, he dissolved the armed forces that for generations had backed the tiny Haitian elite.
Haiti law prevented Aristide from running for a consecutive term. A story in the magazine of the North American Council on Latin America chronicled the growth of the cocaine traffic through Haiti from 1998.
Aristide won re-election in 2000. Another NACLA story described the divisions within the populist Lavalas movement and the rise of political opposition of middle class blacks in favor of making economic concessions to end the blockade of Western investment. The opposition protested against electoral violations in a dozen parliamentary seats.
An armed faction funded by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute mounted cross-border raids from the Dominican Republic on the Spanish-speaking side of the island. When insurrectionary force estimated at under 200 men invaded, the United States refused requests from the Aristide government to provide military support.
Aristide’s presidency ended on Feb. 29 when U.S. uniformed personnel removed him from the presidential residence at gunpoint and flew him to the Central African Republic. The mainstream U.S. media presented U.S. military presence as a mission to prevent bloodshed.
Now mother nature has visited Haiti, leaving a trail of devastation in her wake.
Offers of help from around the world were immediate and plentiful. The US reflex reaction was to send the troops in.
But why are American soldiers wandering through the streets of Port-au-Prince with assault trifles?
Why are U.S. air traffic controllers manning the Haitian airport to prevent planes from landing with vital medical supplies?
These questions are being raised by European and Latin American officials as thousands of American troops flood into the island country to take charge of aid efforts and security.
10,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to the island.
Why?
Sure, the Haitians need aid, Alain Joynandet, the French minister in charge of humanitarian relief, says, but not an armed invasion.
The French minister has called upon the United Nations to clarify America’s role in Haiti as complaints continue to mount that the American militray build-up, as authorized by the Obama Administration, is hampering aid efforts.
“This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Mr. Joyandet said
Geneva-based charity Medecins Sans Frontieres backed Mr. Joyandet’s complaint by saying that thousands of lives were being put at risk as planes carrying vital supplies were prevented from landing at the Haitian airport by American air traffic controllers.
Members from the 84th US Air Force Division stand guard in the streets of Port-au-Prince
U.S. military commanders insist the thousands of American soldiers wandering through the streets of Port-au-Prince with M4 assault rifles are engaged in humanitarian work.
The death toll in Haiti is now estimated to exceed 100,000. Around three million Haitians – a third of the country’s population – have been affected by last Tuesday’s earthquake and two million are now in need of food and water.
As Haiti was occupied by the US between 1915 and 1935, and European officials fear that history may be repeating itself.
U.S. soldiers in Port-au-Prince said they had been told to be discreet about how they carry their M-4 assault rifles.
A paratrooper sergeant said they were authorized to use “deadly force” if they see anyone’s life in danger but only as a “last resort”.
“Security here is in a fluid situation,” Captain John Kirby, a spokesman for the joint task force at the airport, said. “If the Haitian government asked us to provide security downtown, we would do that.”
Watch this space
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