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Washington
and Paris overthrow Aristide

ByThierry
Meyssan
Coup
d'Etat in Haïti
Washington
and Paris reconciled their colonial interests in the Carribean by going on the
attack with a cunning, well organized coup d'Etat in Haïti to overthrow elected
president Aristide. After building an opposition that suited US interests, in
the shape of former Duvalier regime financial handyman Andre Apaid, Washington
then created armed opposition headed by former putschist officer Guy Philippe.
Meanwhile, French powerbrokers Regis Debray and Veronique de Villepin-Albanel
tried to force Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign. Eventually, as the street remained
loyal to Aristide, the "rebels" did not sweep into Port-au-Prince. It
was left to US special forces to kidnap the president, in a dawn raid on the presidential
palace.
On
Sunday, 29 February, Aristide resigned as president of the republic of Haïti,
and fled in a US airplane, first stop the Central African Republic. Before that
and in a few days, chaos had spread through the country and popular outrage at
his regime's corruption sealed Aristide's fate. The United States, officially
suspecting him of being the new Caribbean cocaine baron, was obliged to make sure
of his rapid departure. The movement was lightning fast: Washington and Paris
urgently deployed their first peacekeeping forces, even before the niceties of
a UN Security Council vote for the dispatch of international troops. This was
the scenario crafted for media consumers worldwide. Reality is rather different.
Father
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected by a 67,5% landslide vote in 1990. At the time,
he was the first democratically elected president in Haiti's history. He chose
René Préval as Prime Minister. But the arrival of a liberation theology
activist in the next door island to Cuba hinted at failure for the United States'
Caribbean communism containment strategy. Aristide was therefore overthrown eight
months later, by general Raoul Cedras and the FRAPH death squads led by Louis-Jodel
Chamblain [1], with the support of the first Bush administration. To justify this
operation, the putschists declared they were liberating Haiti from a dictatorship
that seriously infringed human rights - claims that were not supported by facts,
and which were denied later on. Exiled to the United States, Aristide gathered
support from the black bourgeoisie to bring help to the "negro republic".
The CIA then attempted to discredit him by leaking well-crafted, fake medical
files presenting him as mentally incapable. Nevertheless, the growing support
for Aristide within the black American community, even more than the impopularity
of Haïti's military regime, made Bill Clinton back off from his predecessor's
brutal policy and negociate a compromise: Washington offered a resignation of
the junta and Aristide's return in exchange for his promise he would back off
from class struggle, but work to 'reconcile rich and poor'. No longer would Aristide
blame capitalism as a "deadly sin", but comply with IMF austerity adjstment,
in the western hemisphere's poorest nation.
So
Aristide returned in 1994, along with 20 000 GIs in the baggage of the "Restore
Democracy" operation. As Haiti watchers note, Aistide was in a position of
respecting his commitments towards Washington, or betraying the hopes of his voters.
Heading his party, as provided by a constitution that bars two successive mandates
as party head, it was his Prime Minister, Rene Preval, who ran for party chief,
and was elected with 88% of the votes. Since Preval was not tied to Aristide's
engagements he dissociates himself from New Econimics orthodoxy. In November 2000,
thirteen officers trained in Ecuador seized the opportunity of Preval's trip to
Asia, and made a coup attempt, but failed. Their leader, the spirited Guy Philippe,
then fled to the US embassy in Port-au-Prince. When Preval's mandate ended, Aristide
ran for president again, and again received a 91% landslide, in a troubled context
and with massive abstention. Aristide then sealed his fate by turning back to
anti-imperialist policy, among other things demanding that France refund the 90
million gold Francs extorted from Haïti between 1825 and 1885 [2].
The
Bush-2 administration made its decision to overthrow him at the end of 2002, and
found a good community of views with France on this subject, since both nations
have traditionally seen Haiti as needing common control. Paris, conversely, did
not set its stance until summer 2003. By then, a common plan was laid down for
the coup that was coming.
Act
1: "democratic" destabilization
On
the American side, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) built a "democratic
opposition" through financing "civilian" action groups. Under-Secretary
Roger Noriega [3] implemented a work group "for the restoration of democracy"
at the Brookings Institution (see our investigation "The CIA destabilizes
Haïti").
Act
2: Diplomatic coercion
On
the French side, the operation was supervised by Régis Debray and Véronique
Albanel. The latter is listed as president of the "Universal Brotherhood"
which carries out charitable action in Haïti, linked with the catholic church.
Albanel is also the sister of Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin, wife of France's
foreign secretary de Villepin, and the wife of French airforce general Baudoin
Albanel.
On
July 15, 2003, Andre Apaid [3], a former financial handyman of the Duvalier regime
[5] and the leader of Group 184 [6], started raising the pressure, with a meeting
organized in a slum devoted to Aristide, the Cite Soleil. Apaid asked for aid
and protection from France, who provided him with armed escorts, and the presence
of French embassy first secretary Stephane Grumberg. As hoped and planned, the
meeting soon turned into riot, leaving 6 dead and 40 wounded by gunfire. Witnesses
blamed French guards as solely responsible for the slaughter, which of course
was denied by the embassy [7].
On
December 17, 2003, at 3 pm, Regis Debray showed up at the presidential palace
to demand that elected president Jean-Bernard Aristide resign. This was refused,
and was followed a few days later by the public release by Debray and Villepin-Albanel
of their report to Foreign secretary Dominique de Villepin. The report noted:
"Let us not fool ourselves. The resignation of President Aristide will not
make the country more prosperous overnight, nor will it make it more productive."
(p. 35). "Many persons imagine rivalry exists where there is in fact complementarity
[i.e. between the USA. and France], and though our means of influence are not
the same, they can and must add up, for the good of Haiti. It may be the [French]
President's task, or at least the Foreign Affairs Minister's, to define from the
beginning, at the best level, the methods and spirit of this combination. A stronger
implication [by France] in Haïti could indeed not run against the interests
of the United States, but should operate in a well-balanced and cautious spirit."
(p. 52). To sum up, the goal was to overthrow Aristide to defend the common interests
of a large American empire and a small French empire. However, following the Iraq
crisis and in a context of growing German-French alliance in Europe, Berlin must
also had to be brought onside in this joint effort, and also find its interest
within France's tiny empire. The report continued: "One cannot help thinking
of the advantages, not only symbolic, that would be brought by opening a common
French and German diplomatic mission in Port-au-Prince, which would naturally
echo, on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, by [later] opening of French-German
missions, for example in Windhoek, Namibia, or elsewhere" (p. 57).
The
United States and France put pressure on various Caribbean and Latin American
states to not take part in the the 200th aniversary ceremonies of the "first
Negro republic of America" [8], held on 1 January, 2004, in Port-au-Prince.
Only South African president Thabo Mbeki defied the great powers by attending
it.
On
2 January, the Group 184 proposed an 'alternate' transition, of course including
the ouster of Aristide. On 7 January, a street demonstration turned ugly, and
immediately Washington accused the Aristide government of undemocratic ways. On
13 January, the mandate of the National Assembly deputies, and two-thirds of Haiti's
senators came to its term, but as the opposition refused to provide any delegates
to the electoral comission, Aristide was unable to organize elections. He was
then accused by the media of being unwilling to hold them, and imposing a dictatorship.
Act
3: Military destabilization
This
rapidly cobbled "democratic" opposition, plus diplomatic coercion in
the background proved ineffective, leading Washington to set armed activity out
of the Dominican Republic, led by Guy Philippe. The "rebels" quickly
took control of several cities and threatened to march on Port-au-Prince. They
aalso refused various peace plans, whether of the episcopate or that of the Organization
of American States.
The
"democratic" opposition headed by Group 184 at all times kept close
contact with US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. On his instructions, it then
dissociated itself from the rebels, so as to remain clean handed for holding power,
and not be tainted by any atrocities that might have been committed in its name.
On
21 February, the international community's crisis plan was accepted by Aristide,
but rejected by the opposition, which persisted with its demand that he resign.
On
23 February, fresh troops crossed the Dominican border with Louis-Jodel Chamblain
at their head. AFP commented: "In Port-au-Prince many think the Dominican
army allowed these former Haitian army soldiers to cross the border with the approval
of the United States, which provided most of its equipment, trained its leadership
and has very close links to Dominica's political establishment. The Dominican
Republic is the only country in the Carribean that has sent (some 300) soldiers
to Iraq when asked by Washington to do so." [9]
Act
4: The removal
On
26 February, Baudoin Jacques Ketant, a cocaine smuggler handed over by Aristide
on the request of the DEA was tried is Miami, Florida [10]. In a plea bargain
giving him a 27-year reduced prison sentence, Ketant admitted smuggling more than
30 tons of cocaine to the United States. He then claimed: "Aristide is a
drug baron who controls Haiti's trafficking (...) He turned his country into a
crossroads for drug dealers".
On
29 February, between 2 am and 3 am, US special forces invaded the presidential
palace. They told Aristide he was to be taken to Miami and tried for drug trafficking,
unless he accepted to resign. Otherwise, he could wait for Guy Philippe to arrive,
who had been instructed to shoot him. Aristide managed to reach California representant
Maxine Waters by phone, to enable her to testify the real events, and prevent
him from ending in an Allende-type "suicide". Under the threat of M16s
and in the presence of James B. Foley, ambassador of the United States, and Thierry
Burkard, ambassador of France, Aristide signed a previously-drafted resignatin
statement "to head off a bloodbath". He was then taken by the special
forces to an unmarked, white-colored jetliner, and toof off for Bangui (Central
African Republic), where French agents awaited his arrival.
While
the UN Security Council was called into emergency session to make a decision on
the dispatch of peackekeeper troops, the United States and France, without waiting
for the meeting, had already dispatched their forces.
In
Washington, Otto Reich and Under-Secretary Noriega supervised the ouster of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. From now on, the Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba, which
they also lead, will work to make use of Haïti as a strategic base to get
over the 'unfinished business' of Fidel Castro, perhaps this summer.
[1]
The FRAPH is for example responsible for the assassination of Antoine Izmery (Sept
11, 1993), of Minister of Justice Guy Malary's execution (Oct 14th, 1993) and
of the Raboteau massacre (April 23rd, 1994).
[2]
Updated and including interest sums due, this would amount to about 21 billion
US dollars at 2004 parities.
[3]
Former parliamentary assistant to far-rightwing senator Jesse Helmes, Roger Noriega
has devoted his life to the destruction of Liberation theology activitis.
[4]
With the aim of being set as Washington's puppet in Haiti, Mr Apaid was given
double Haitian and American nationality.
[5]
François and Jean-Claude Duvalier, also known as "Papa doc" and
"Baby doc", established an anti-communist dictatorship from 1957 through
1986.
[6]
Group 184 brings together union, press officials and employers, under supervision
of the National Endowment for Democracy, "overtly" controlled by the
CIA.
[7]
A lawsuit against French state employees should be filed shortly by Gilbert Collard
in the name of the victims' families.
[8]
On January 4th, 1794, the Convention abolishes slavery. The decree applies to
then-French colonial interests in Haiti. First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte,
was however then rushed by his wife's family (which owned large plantations in
the Carribean) to re-establishes slavery. Toussaint Louverture, in the name of
the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, then proclaims the
autonomist constitution. Bonaparte sends his brother-in-law, general Leclerc,
to crush the rebels. The latter was defeated by Louverture, Dessalines and Christophe.
On the 1st of January 1804, the first Negro republic of the Americas was proclaimed.
[9]
Interviews in Port-au-Prince on the easy border crossing by former soldiers into
Haiti by Dominique Levanti, AFP International, February 23, 2004.
[10]
Baudoin Jacques Kétant is likely to be tried with colonel Michel François.
The latter was n°2 in Raoul Cedras' military regime that overthrew Aristide.
Liege man of the United States, he was trained at the School of the Americas,
and is now hiding in Honduras.
Thierry
Meyssan is a Journalist and writer, president of Réseau Voltaire.
Its views are not necessarily those of PETROLEUMWORLD.
Petroleumworld
News 03 21 04
Copyright
©Thierry Meyssan 2004, All rights reserved
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