Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA => Haiti => Topic started by: Bantu_Kelani on March 02, 2004, 03:15:27 AM



Title: Haiti in Hell.  
Post by: Bantu_Kelani on March 02, 2004, 03:15:27 AM
Aristide forceful departure from Haiti is really one of the worst events ever in Black history. Haiti has been doomed for a while, but for the imperialist to remove a democratically elected President from power is really the lowest point in Haitian history. The so-called rebels, and convergence has signed another 200 years of misery for the country. Like in many Black countries Washington appoints those henchmen. They are not there to care of the local people. Haiti doom reminds me of the massacre of Congolese people under pretext of the Tutsi genocide. How could the United Nations and Belgium government helped killed the Congo's first Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and lie to the Congolese people that it wasn't true, and not too long ago the President Laurent Desire Kabila? The White imperialists are the people who arise armed conflict in countries which human relations has been completely destroyed by the forces of serial killers so-called "legitimate opposition" similar to whom we see today in action in Haiti and Iraq. My soul bleeds for everything pushed on Africa and its people: slavery, colonization, trade imbalances, diseases, AIDS and now the disgraceful and immoral kidnapping of the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The White imperialists always want us to forget about the past, so we will not make a better tomorrow. They want us to forget what we did in 1803! They want to enslave the Black race again. Back people worldwide are crumbling in misery worst than death itself and Collin Powel will not fight for us, because he is a house nigger. House niggers did not fight to gain their independence then, it will never happen today. The Christian and Muslim Gods do not listen to us. So let us turn to our African religious tradition those that won us victory against the oppressors, those that protected us against the French and English numerous charge and bullets!  

BLACK PEOPLE WAKE UP! Revive Boukman, L'Ouverture and Lumumba's blood in you, for the reign of the beast is taking harder grip these days!  


Bantu Kelani.


Title: Re: Haiti in Hell.  
Post by: PatriotWarrior on March 02, 2004, 07:50:03 AM
Greetings Bantu_Kelani and All,

I agree with what you wrote. We Africans have to *wake up*, organise and unite ourselves, or there will never be a "miracle from heaven"! We need to change the way we think and look at ourselves, or at our continent; I think we need to change the very way we think! We mustn't be The World's Pessimists or Laughing Stocks!!! ... We NEED a strong base of unity, first and foremost!...

Here is a copy of the speech Mugabe gave at the Earth Summit (as I posted it in October 2002, as it appeared in an African publication) ... THE EARTH SUMMIT, Part II: ZIMBABWE or What Mugabe Said

THE EARTH SUMMIT, Part II: PRESIDENT MUGABE'S SPEECH

President Mugabe spoke an hour after Nujoma's star performance had set the stage perfectly for a "Mugabe special". And what a special it was! The battle-hardened Zimbabwean leader is known for his eloquence, and he knew that the five minutes allotted him at the podium were possibly some of the most precious moments to come in his life. And he seized the occasion to the full. The following is what Mugabe said:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The betrayal of the collective agenda we set at Rio …" -- (referring to the First earth Summit in 1992) -- "… is a compelling manifestation of bad global governance, lack of real political will by the North and a total absence of a just rule of law in international affairs. The unilateralism of the unipolar world has reduced the rest of mankind to collective underdogs, chattels of the rich, the wilful few in the North who beat, batter and bully us under the dirty cover of "democracy", "rule of law" and "good governance". Otherwise, how would they undermine, at the global level, the same values of good governance and rule of law they arrogantly demand from the South?"

[Applause]

"Institutionally, we have relied for much too long on structures originally set to recover and rebuild Europe after a devastating war against Nazism. Over the years, these outdated institutions have been unilaterally transformed to dominate the world for the realisation of the strategic national goals of the rich North. That is why, for example, the IMF has never been a fund for poor peasants seeking sustainable development. Even the United Nations, a body that is supposed to give us equal voices, remains unreformed and undemocratic, largely because of resistance from the powerful and often selfish North. It has become starkly clear to us that the failure of sustainable development is a direct and necessary outcome of a neo-liberal model of development, propelled by run-away forces that have been defended in the name of globalisation."

[Applause]

"Far from putting people first, this model rests on entrenching inequities; giveaway privatisation of public enterprises and a banishing of the state from the public sphere for the benefit of big business. This has been a vicious, all-out assault on the poor and their instruments of sustainable development. In Zimbabwe, we have, with a clear mind and vision, resolved to bring to an end this neo-liberal model. For us in Zimbabwe, we are ready to defend the agenda for the poor, and we are clear that we can only do that if we do not pander to foreign interests or answer to false imperatives that are not only clearly alien and inimical to the interests of those who gave us the mandate to govern them, but are also hostile to the agenda for sustainable development. For these reasons, we join our brothers and sisters in the [developing] world in rejecting, completely, manipulative and intimidating attempts by some countries and regional blocks, by some people that are bent on subordinating our sovereignty to heir hegemonic ambitions and imperial interests, falsely presented as matters of rule of law, democracy and good governance. The real objective is interference in our domestic affairs."

[Applause]

"The rule of law, democracy and governance are values that we cherish because we fought for them against the very same people who, today, seek to preach them to us. The empowerment of the poor cannot take place in circumstances where democratic national sovereignties are assaulted and demonised on a daily basis. The poor should be able to use their sovereignty to fight poverty and preserve their heritage in their corner of the earth, without interference!"

[Applause]

"That is why we, in Zimbabwe, understand only too well that sustainable development is not possible without agrarian reforms that acknowledge, in our case, that land comes first before all else, and that all else grows from and off the land …In our situation in Zimbabwe, this fundamental question [of agrarian reform] has pitted the black majority, who are the right holders and, therefore, also primary stake-holders to our land, against the obdurate and internationally well-connected racial minority, largely of British descent and brought in and sustained by British colonialism, now being supported and manipulated by the Blair government."

[Applause]

"We have said, even as we acquire land, that we shall not deprive the white farmers of land completely. Every one of them is entitled to at least one farm. But they would want to continue to have more than one large farm! More than one farm indeed -- 15, 20, 35, … one person! These are figures I am not just getting out of my mind, they are real figures! So no farmer is being left without land … and there is no-one who would want to leave Zimbabwe, anyway!!"

[Laughter, more applause]

"So those operations -- [Blair sending 250 British soldiers to the South African-Zimbabwean border to evacuate white Zimbabweans, should it get too *hot* for them there] -- are really undeserved. We are threatening no-one. And therefore, the operation by Mr Blair is artificial, completely uncalled for, and an interference in our domestic affairs."

[Applause]

"But we are Zimbabweans and we say this as Zimbabweans. We fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are. We have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood in sustenance, maintenance and protection of that independence. … having said that, we wish no harm to anyone. We are Zimbabweans, we are Africans, we are not English! We are working together in our region to improve the lot for our people. Let no-one who is negative want to spoil what we are doing for ourselves in order to unite Africa. We do not mind having and bearing sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans. We have not asked for any inch of Europe, any square inch of that territory. So Blair, keep your England; and let me keep my Zimbabwe!"

After Mugabe's speech, the audience rose in ovation. His was a landmark speech …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PatriotWarrior


Title: Re: Haiti in Hell.  
Post by: Oshun_Auset on March 02, 2004, 10:19:26 AM
Has anyone seen the movie about Chavez called "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"? It is about the coup attempt in Venezuela...and the CIA involvement of course..It is strikingly similar to this situation....and may reoccur...

You are correct PatriotWarrior. The only solution is mass organization, and a strong organized and unified home base.


Title: Re: Haiti in Hell.  
Post by: Ayinde on March 02, 2004, 11:18:48 AM
Destruction of Aristide, the Planned Destruction of Hugo Chavez

By: Heinz Dieterich - Rebelion.org

The drama of Haiti and of the Aristide administration implies many dangers for Cuba and Venezuela. It is the final outcome of Washington's Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) against popular governments in Latin America: namely, subversion-destruction.

The last phase of this strategy can be seen in Haiti, its initial phases in Nestor Kirchner's Argentina, and its middle phase in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

Sometimes this strategy ends with the death of the Latin American protagonist, as was the case with Salvador Allende. In other circumstances, the protagonist manages to go into exile, as in the case of the Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz. A third scenario is the "re-education" of the Latin American protagonist within the empire and his subsequent political recycling in his country, and that was the case of Aristide in Haiti and Michael Manley in Jamaica.

Regardless of the outcomes that Washington's Standard Operating Procedure may have on our countries, the initial aim of the subversive industrial/military complex of the United States is always the same: to tame a leader or social movement that has come to power through elections or de-facto, and whose political agenda does not reflect the interests of Washington.

The first attempt to dominate these movements and leaders is through co-option and corruption. When these are not effective, then the strategy of subversive-destruction is unleashed.

We are now witnessing the last acts of the drama in Haiti. It started developing in 1986 when the Haitian people managed to throw out the dictator Baby Doc Duvalier, thus ending a history of a century and a half of military interventions by the United States and of regimes of state terror in the service of Washington.

When the chains of United States neocolonialism, which had maintained the people of Haiti in misery, were broken, a vacuum of power was created in which the star of a slum area Salesian priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, began to shine among the dispossessed.

With speech based on the Theology of Liberation and its preferential option for the poor, reclaiming the sovereign right of the country to its self-determination against the domination of the United States, and with "a passionate rhetoric that sometimes incited violence between classes", as The Wall Street Journal noted with concern, Aristide became a popular tribune and the hope for change among the majority.

The 1990 elections were the first free elections in 187 years. It demonstrated that Aristide had the overwhelming support of the people. Aristide obtained 67.5% of the votes despite having survived several assassination attempts from right-wing paramilitaries and having been expelled in December 1988 from his Salesian Order instigated by the apostolic nuncio.[1] Washington's candidate and ex-employee of the World Bank, Marc Bazin, merely obtained 15% of the votes.

These results raised the red flag in the White House and set in motion a subversive-destruction strategy against the popular government. It was successful in seven months. The new president, elected by a majority, took possession on February 1991 only to be overthrown in a bloody coup d'etat on September 30th.

The subversive strategy of post-electoral de-stabilization was preceded by another, pre-electoral intervention strategy that used different approaches to get rid of the rebel priest that was trying to implement what Washington considered was a "populist model" of democracy, that is, a democracy with the participation of those at the bottom.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the public subversive international arm of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party of the United States, financially backed the supporters of Bazin and the former members of the Duvalier dictatorship, so as to impede the electoral triumph of Aristide. With the same aim, NED financed radio stations that demonized Aristide's candidature.

The main workers' union in the United States, AFL-CIO collaborated, at the behest of the Department of State, in financing right-wing unions, some with direct influence over Duvalier's the secret police. The official US agency for international development, USAID, subsidized and advised the right wing factions that favored the United States.

All of these measures did not impede Aristide's triumph at the polls nor his assuming power in February 1991. Faced with the defeat of Bazin and the "danger" of popular democracy, Washington organized a coup d'etat that would put an end to the priest's experiment in the island. At the head of the coup was the narco-general and CIA collaborator, Raul Cedras, who was trained at the notorious School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

His right-hand man was Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, also trained at Fort Benning. Together with Emmanuel Constant, another CIA agent, they controlled two key organizations for the destruction of Aristide's democratic government: the National Intelligence Service (SIN) and the death squads, known as FRAPH. Both organizations have been established and maintained by the CIA.

In the first two weeks of the coup, more than a thousand people lost their lives in a state terrorist campaign that systematically destroyed popular and democratic organizations that had supported Aristide. When the terror ended, Cedras and Francois had assassinated more than four thousand Haitians.

The administration of Bush Sr. in collusion with the main US media immediately started a propaganda campaign against the deposed president making him responsible for what happened due to his "violations of human rights", exactly as it did during the coup against Hugo Chavez.

For its part, the Organization of American States (OAS) decreed an embargo against the coup plotters that was never seriously implemented by the European nations nor by Washington.

In February 1992, Bush in effect lifted the embargo against the coup plotters, backed by a fervent Democratic congressman, Robert Torricelli. Torricelli supported the brutal embargo against Cuba, expecting to take advantage of the fall of the Soviet Union to destroy the Cuban Revolution and with the same energy, was in favor of lifting the embargo against the coup plotters in Haiti. In both cases, he succeeded: while aggression against Cuba increased, the boycott against Haiti was cancelled.

Faced with the force of these events, Aristide succumbed. He signed an "accord of national unity" that left him only a symbolic function in the government and a de facto exile in the United States, while Washington's puppet Marc Bazin, assumed power in June 1992, with the public blessing of the Vatican, the Episcopalian Conference of Haiti, and the national and imperial elites.

The betrayal and degeneration of Aristide, was taken to its paroxysm in his exile to the United States, the systematic destruction of the popular movement in Haiti and a massive exodus of seventy thousand Haitians in two years. This created the conditions for his return, but now as a harmless leader. Twenty-five thousand US soldiers, sent by William Clinton, re-established he legitimate president in power.

Francois took refuge in the Dominican Republic and later in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where he spent millions of dollars he obtained during the terror and through narco-trafficking with the Colombian drug cartels. Cedras went to live in Panama City along with the ex-chief of the army, Biamby and enjoyed the same amenities of his assassin accomplice Francois.

Exile to Panama was a courtesy of the Clinton administration that guaranteed Cedras and Biamby a secure passage to Panama, where a mansion on the beach awaited them with other imperial amenities, all expenses paid by the United States.

Meanwhile, Aristide returned to a devastated country, which nonetheless preserved his image as "The Savior" among its popular sectors. However, this image did not correspond at all with the objective or subjective potential of the historic moment that 1990 represented.

The process of demolishing his administration and his personality had been profound. It had to end inevitably in his expulsion by the same popular forces that fifteen years before had taken him to power. This is what we are now witnessing and this is the result that Washington desired.

There is no better way of killing a popular myth than by getting it killed by its own people. This is what Washington did with ex-colonel Lucio Gutierrez in Ecuador. His corrupt performance as a president discredited the Armed Forces as possible vanguard in a nationalistic process. The support that the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) gave Gutierrez has generated the same disrepute for the indigenous movement and handing over military bases and military sovereignty to the Pentagon has attained Washington's most deeply felt expectations for Plan Colombia.

The colonel has carried out his historic role for the empire. The only thing that is waiting for him is a kick and exile. The same is valid for the priest: he has become superfluous and will disappear from the scene, sooner than he thinks.

The respective scenario is foreseeable. Under the auspices of Washington, France, CARICOM or the OEA, there will be a new "national unity accord" whose elections will take some puppet of Washington to the presidency.

While the Democratic Platform of the civil organization has some social force, power resides increasingly in armed groups in the north of Haiti. These are made up of the former torturers and military of the Duvalier dictatorship that have returned from their easy exile in the Dominican Republic –among them the former leaders of the death squads (FRAPH), Luis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Pierre Baptise, and another bloody henchman, Guy Phillipe- and Aristide's paramilitary groups that have switched sides.

Therefore, in a cruel irony of history, Bush Sr.'s plan for dominating Haiti which instigated the coup against Aristide, has now become absolutely viable under the presidency of his son George: duvalierism without Duvalier.

President James Carter tried to implement a somocism without Somoza during the last days of the dictatorship in Nicaragua, but failed, basically because of the so-called "Vietnam trauma". The possibilities of Bush Jr. accomplishing a similar objective in Haiti are much better.

The implications of the eventual installation of a right-wing government in Haiti are considerable for Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. The geographic distance between north Haiti and eastern Cuba is barely 90 kilometers. Guantanamo Base is located in those latitudes and any maritime exodus from Haiti could be used by the Bush administration as a pretext for unleashing force in the region.

It is supposed that the State Department of the bellicose Colin Powell is preparing already fifty thousand beds in Guantanamo Base to intern Haitian refugees to the island.

For Venezuela, the detailed study of Aristide's experience is of vital importance. The military coup of April 2002 failed, but the strategy of subversion-destruction goes ahead.

The public recognition by State Department functionary, Peter Deshazo, that the CIA finances Washington's mercenaries in Venezuela; the more than eighty assassinations of rural leaders and popular leaders during the Bolivarian government; the continuous envoy of arms to the Venezuelan paramilitaries and the increasing aggression of the Colombian paramilitaries all demonstrate that Washington proceeds without quarter to destroy the government of Hugo Chavez.

Since the strategy of "re-education" and "recycling" in the style of Aristide will not work in the case of Hugo Chavez, the conflict in Venezuela is antagonistic. Therefore, the defeat of the popular forces will have an extremely high human cost, as the experiences in Chile and Haiti demonstrate.

They are doomed to succeed.

Translated by Maria Victor

[1] Apostolic nuncios are the ambassadors of the Vatican. Translator's note.

Original source http://www.rebelion.org/

Visit: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/


Title: Re: Haiti in Hell.  
Post by: Bantu_Kelani on March 06, 2004, 05:58:29 AM
Haiti continues is no longer at odds with the US designs in Latin America today, that is the US plans to overthrown leftist governments to install puppet regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Dominican Republic etc. The fall of Cuba is imminent. It's just how patient the U.S is willing to wait.


B.K