An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President
Encyclopedia
An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President is a book on the history of Haiti
by Randall Robinson
(ISBN 10:0-465-07050-7 BasicCivitas Books 2008).
According to Randall Robinson, this book describes a non-standard history of Haiti. The title suggests to the reader that emphasis is put on the "Kidnapping of a President". In fact, Robinson describes a series of related events from 1492 that led up to the alleged 2004 kidnapping of Jean-Bertrand Aristide
.
is the founder of TransAfrica Forum
an organization that was created for the improvement of relations between the United States and the continent of Africa. He is also a personal friend of Jean-Bertrand Aristide
and was directly involved in the aftermath of the events surrounding the kidnapping of Aristide in 2004.
The date of December 9, 1492 is described as the most fateful of days…
Then, there were an estimated 8 million native Taínos living on the island of Hispaniola
. "Within 20 years, there were fewer than 28,000." "Thirty years on, by 1542, only 200 Taínos remained." Many chapters are also entitled with a date.
November 17, 1803 is a good example. This date represents a date that Robinson describes as significant because, "It may have been the most stunning victory won for the black world in a thousand years. There has been nothing quite like it, before or since." Here he is describing the defeat of slavery, in Haiti, by the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture. The ramification of these dates in Haitian history is monumental, per Robinson.
"As a direct result of what the Haitian revolutionaries did to free themselves, France lost two thirds of its world trade income." Furthermore, the Haitian revolutionaries had a global perspective on fighting slavery. They worked with Simón Bolívar
in an effort to fight slavery
in South America. And they also "rolled out an unconditional welcome mat to anyone who escaped European colonialism in Africa or fled bondage from a slave plantation anywhere in the Americas, North, South, or Central."
Meanwhile, in the United States Thomas Jefferson
said, "If this combustion can be introduced among us under any veil whatever, we have to fear it." Jefferson was fearful that the Haitian revolt might spread to slaves in America. Robinson quotes Garry Wills
…"From that moment, Jefferson and the Republicans showed nothing but hostility to the new nation of Haiti."
Haiti had been "the most profitable slave colony in the world" and "slaves were routinely worked to death, starved to death, or beaten to death.". "Of the 465,000 black slaves living in Haiti when the revolt began, 150,000 would die during the 12 and a half years of fighting for their freedom."
Frederick Douglas is quoted as stating that the Haitian harbor of Mole St. Nicolas is of such strategic importance that, "It commands the windward passage which is the shipping lane between Haiti and Cuba
." "The nation that can get it and hold it will be the master of the land and sea in its neighborhood."
So for the next two hundred years, Haiti would be faced with the active hostility from the world's most powerful community of nations." The hostilities came in the form of "military invasions, economic embargoes, gunboat blockades, reparations demands, trade barriers, diplomatic quarantines, subsidized armed subversions."
When the French departed from Haiti, they demanded reparations from Haiti of roughly $21 billion (in 2004 dollars).
Robinson states that there were a number of important precedents in the Caribbean that shed light on the U.S. position towards Haiti. They included sending U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic
in the early 1900s to force the Dominican Republic to give Washington the power to collect customs revenues for the U.S. at the Dominican Republic's main shipping ports. This led to the U.S. invading the Dominican Republic in 1915 and occupying the country until the end of 1924.
In 1937, the Dominican Republic, under the U.S. sponsored dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, massacred 35,000 Haitians. The American Secretary of State
, Cordell Hull
stated that, "Trujillo is one of the greatest men in Central America and in most of South America."
In 1951 the U.S. overthrew the democratically elected government of Guatemala
. This occurred, according to Robinson, because the elected president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán
raised the minimum wage to $1.08/day and he attempted moderate land reforms for the benefit of the Guatemalan people. In response to this, the U.S. accused the Guzman government of being under the influence of communism
. Robinson states that the Guzman government had no communists in their fairly elected government and that the real reason for the U.S. aggression in the area was to protect the interest of the American owned corporation, the United Fruit Company
, (now called Chiquita Brands).
Furthermore, Robinson says that the U.S. supported the Haitian dictators François Duvalier
, and Jean-Claude Duvalier
, Henri Namphy
, Leslie Manigat
, and Prosper Avril
.
François Duvalier killed an estimated 50,000 Haitians. He ruled from 1957 to 1971. Jean-Claude Duvalier took control after his father died in 1971 and continued the brutal dictatorship until February 1986.
Military rulers overthrew Aristide, not just once, but twice, once in 1991 and again in 2004.
Both elections of Aristide were lawful democratic elections. "There were no charges of malfeasance, either adjudicated, or formally lodged against him." The elections also included the election of 7,500 other official government positions.
Robinson describes Aristide as "a democratic president who'd been elected twice by the largest margins on record for free elections in the Americas."
In 1991, shortly after Aristide was elected, he was overthrown by General Raul Cedras, Colonel Roger Biambi, and Police Chief Michel François
. In 1994 those dictators were forced from power and democracy was restored. Cedras had been trained by the U.S. at the School of the Americas. Later, Michel François
was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for shipping large quantities of cocaine
.
In 1991, the former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark
formed the Investigative Commission on Haiti. The Commission reported, "200 soldiers of the U.S. Special Forces arrived in the Dominican Republic with the authorization of Dominican Republic President Hipolito Mejia
, as part of the military operation to train anti-democracy Haitian rebels."
Robinson states, "Thus they were prepared to scuttle a democracy, a constitution, an elected parliament
, a functioning national government, to drive one man, Jean-Bertrand Aristide
out of office, out of Haiti, indeed out of the Western Hemisphere."
He continues to say, "To this wholly illegal and anti-democratic purpose, several forces cleaved as one. The armed rebels, the United States of America, France, Canada, the Dominican Republic
, and a new association of Haitian opposition splinter groups forged, funded, and counseled, by the International Republican Institute
, and the Convergence Democratique
, all worked towards the overthrow of the populist
Aristide. Convergence Democratique would later morph into a subversive right wing organ known as Group 184 "
Haitian anti-democratic rebel leaders included Guy Phillipe, Louis-Jodel Chamblain
, Ernst Ravix, and Paul Arcelin
.
"U.S. military officials have confirmed that 20,000 M16 rifles were given to the Dominican Republic shortly after Aristide normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba
on February 6, 1996."
In November 2000, Aristide was re-elected for a second term with 90% of the vote.
Aristide increased the number of schools, and hospitals, and he worked for the treatment and prevention of Aids.
He raised Haiti's minimum wage in 2003 from $1/day to $2/day." He also established one standard birth certificate by eliminating the previous two-tiered race and class birth certificates."
In 2002 another anti-Aristide insurrection was led by Guy Phillipe, a former police precinct captain who had been trained by the CIA ."
Bertrand had proclaimed that France owed Haiti $21 billion (valued in current dollars) for the money France extorted from Haiti following its successful slave rebellion, and when Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was kidnapped and removed from office in 2004, still 1% of the population owned 50% of the country's wealth."
Robinson states, "Where the poor were concerned, the United States invariably opposed the efforts of the poor's own governments, whenever and wherever those governments tried in any serious or structured way to ameliorate the poverty of their own people. If there has ever been a circumstance in which the Americans did not take the side of the rich in efforts to quash even modest reforms to help the poor, I do not know of it."
In early February 2004, the anti-Aristide rebels launched their attack by "torching fire stations, and jails…and murdering rural police officers"
Per Robinson, on February 29, 2004, Aristide was kidnapped and driven out of office.
Robinson states that the United States had always supported the wealthiest Haitian families such as the Mevs, the Bigios, the Apaids, the Boulos, the Nadals.
Senator Christopher Dodd
confirmed this when he said, "We had interests and ties with some of the very strong financial interests in the country and Aristide was threatening them."
On January 1, 2004, Haiti celebrated its 200th birthday and 500,000 Haitians celebrated the fact that they now had a democratically elected government.
On Saturday February 7, 2004, 1,000,000 Haitian people demonstrated in support of Aristide. They were demanding that he be allowed to finish his five-year term. They knew that his governance was being threatened.
The United States, however, favored the International Republican Institute
(IRI) which is a U.S. non-profit organization that builds mechanisms to support "democracy" overseas. Per Robinson, despite their claims, the IRI funded right wing wealthy opponents to the Aristide government and thereby supported the opposite of democracy. Furthermore, Stanley Lucas was the senior program officer for the IRI and he had significant Duvalier affiliations.
The Bush administration through an Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Noriega
, fully supported the I.R.I. Jesse Helms
, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Aristide "insane, dictatorial, tyrannical, corrupt and a psychopath."
Dominique de Villepin
, the French foreign minister, blamed Aristide for "spreading violence." Jamaican Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson, threatened to "impose sanctions on Aristide."
The American television networks portrayed Aristide's departure in 2004 as if it were a voluntary departure.
Randall Robinson
spoke with Aristide on March 1, 2004 to learn then that Aristide had been transported to the Central African Republic
against his will. Robinson was told by Aristide that Aristide had been forcibly removed from office in a coup.
Per Robinson, the Haitian rebels who had removed Aristide from office, "had been trained by United States Special Forces."
They were trained "in the Dominican villages of Neiba, San Cristóbal
, San Isidrio, Hatillo
, and Haina
."
Robinson states that the Armed Forces of Haiti
(the Haitian Armed Forces under the Duvalier regimes), and the Front For the Advancement and Progress of Haiti
(FRAPH, a paramilitary death squad that fought against democracy) massacred some 5,000 Haitians between 1991 and 1994.
Louis-Jodel Chamblain
, a Duvalier death squad leader, was accused of war crimes committed in 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1994 including the murder of Antoine Izmery
, a pro-democracy advocate.
Guy Phillipe received Central Intelligence Agency
training in Ecuador
. He ordered paramilitary to kill Aristide supporters. Per Robinson, the opposition to democracy was "an amalgam of killers, drug runners, embezzlers, kleptocrats and sadists and included the wealthy and the elites of Haitian society." Per Robinson, the United States provided the rebels with M16s, grenades, grenade launchers, M50s.
Emmanuel Constant
was another player in opposition to Aristide, and along with Phillipe and Chamblain, they slaughtered thousands of innocent pro-democracy civilians.
After the abduction of Aristide, George W. Bush
called Jacques Chirac
to thank him for French cooperation in the removal of Aristide.
Robinson continues, "Condoleezza Rice
had directly threatened Jamaica
for offering asylum to Aristide" "The United States wanted Aristide not only out of Haiti but out of the Caribbean.
Senator Christopher Dodd
cited U.S. Department of Defense documents that indicated that the US did, in fact, supply 20,000 M16s to the Dominican Republic
prior to the deposition of Aristide.
"American officials had armed and directed the thugs, organized an un-elected and un-electable opposition, and choked the Haitian economy into dysfunctional penury."
The Central African Republic President at the time was François Bozizé
.
The Central African Republic is French controlled.
The French Defense Minister stated that the Aristides were being guarded by French soldiers in Bangui
, the capital of the Central African Republic.
Robinson and Maxine Waters
(member of the U.S. Congress) then obtained an offer of asylum signed by P.J. Patterson, the prime minister of Jamaica. They attempted to get François Bozizé, the president of the Central African Republic, to accept it. CBS
, NBC
, ABC
and CNN
all turned down Robinson's request to join him to report on the events surrounding the removal of Aristide from office. Robinson, however, did get Amy Goodman
(an independent news reporter for Democracy Now), Sharon Hay-Webster
(a member of the Jamaican parliament), Peter Eisner (a deputy foreign editor at the Washington Post), Sidney Williams
(a former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas), Ira Kurzban (one of the best known lawyers in America for Immigration and Employment Law) to join him in Bangui
.
Robinson states, "American decision makers only feign concern about world poverty. And they sustain the lament only so long as the pretense and its addictive but useless, solutions are profitable, directly or indirectly, to American private interests." "The force, the power plant, is money, the relentless campaign to capture it, and the God-invoked armed ruthlessness to keep it."
Robinson and his entourage succeeded in getting Bozizé to release Aristide and Aristide's wife to the entourage and they took the couple to Jamaica. ."
The U.S. then installed Gerard Latortue
as interim president. When Latortue rescinded the Haitian demand for restitution from France, Florida
House Republicans Mark Foley
and Eugene Clay Shaw, Jr. introduced a house resolution commending Latortue for his great service to Haiti."
Robinson states that, between the day of the abduction and the election, in 2006, of René Préval
, at least 4000 Haitians had been killed by the interim government."
Finally, Robinson concludes by saying "as long as one member nation of the global family of nations is free to behave toward a fellow member nation with lethal impunity—to bully, to menace, to invade, to destabilize politically or economically, to reduce to tumult—no country, so threatened, can hope to enjoy the social and political contentment that ought inherently to attend democratic practices."
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
by Randall Robinson
Randall Robinson
Randall Robinson is an African-American lawyer, author and activist, noted as the founder of TransAfrica. He is known particularly for his impassioned opposition to South African apartheid, and for his advocacy on behalf of Haitian immigrants and Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.-Early...
(ISBN 10:0-465-07050-7 BasicCivitas Books 2008).
According to Randall Robinson, this book describes a non-standard history of Haiti. The title suggests to the reader that emphasis is put on the "Kidnapping of a President". In fact, Robinson describes a series of related events from 1492 that led up to the alleged 2004 kidnapping of Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
.
Author
Randall RobinsonRandall Robinson
Randall Robinson is an African-American lawyer, author and activist, noted as the founder of TransAfrica. He is known particularly for his impassioned opposition to South African apartheid, and for his advocacy on behalf of Haitian immigrants and Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.-Early...
is the founder of TransAfrica Forum
TransAfrica Forum
TransAfrica Forum is an advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. that seeks to influence the foreign policy of the United States concerning African countries and the African diaspora.-See also:* Diaspora politics in the United States...
an organization that was created for the improvement of relations between the United States and the continent of Africa. He is also a personal friend of Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
and was directly involved in the aftermath of the events surrounding the kidnapping of Aristide in 2004.
Synopsis
Robinson begins by mention of the date and time of February 29, 2004 4:30 a.m., stating, "The real events of the story are very unlike those described to the general public." He knows that the conventional accounting of Aristide's removal from office is quite different than the entire history he is about to tell.The date of December 9, 1492 is described as the most fateful of days…
Then, there were an estimated 8 million native Taínos living on the island of Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
. "Within 20 years, there were fewer than 28,000." "Thirty years on, by 1542, only 200 Taínos remained." Many chapters are also entitled with a date.
November 17, 1803 is a good example. This date represents a date that Robinson describes as significant because, "It may have been the most stunning victory won for the black world in a thousand years. There has been nothing quite like it, before or since." Here he is describing the defeat of slavery, in Haiti, by the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture. The ramification of these dates in Haitian history is monumental, per Robinson.
"As a direct result of what the Haitian revolutionaries did to free themselves, France lost two thirds of its world trade income." Furthermore, the Haitian revolutionaries had a global perspective on fighting slavery. They worked with Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
in an effort to fight slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in South America. And they also "rolled out an unconditional welcome mat to anyone who escaped European colonialism in Africa or fled bondage from a slave plantation anywhere in the Americas, North, South, or Central."
Meanwhile, in the United States Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
said, "If this combustion can be introduced among us under any veil whatever, we have to fear it." Jefferson was fearful that the Haitian revolt might spread to slaves in America. Robinson quotes Garry Wills
Garry Wills
Garry Wills is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and prolific author, journalist, and historian, specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at a Jesuit high school and two universities, he is proficient in Greek and Latin...
…"From that moment, Jefferson and the Republicans showed nothing but hostility to the new nation of Haiti."
Haiti had been "the most profitable slave colony in the world" and "slaves were routinely worked to death, starved to death, or beaten to death.". "Of the 465,000 black slaves living in Haiti when the revolt began, 150,000 would die during the 12 and a half years of fighting for their freedom."
Frederick Douglas is quoted as stating that the Haitian harbor of Mole St. Nicolas is of such strategic importance that, "It commands the windward passage which is the shipping lane between Haiti and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
." "The nation that can get it and hold it will be the master of the land and sea in its neighborhood."
So for the next two hundred years, Haiti would be faced with the active hostility from the world's most powerful community of nations." The hostilities came in the form of "military invasions, economic embargoes, gunboat blockades, reparations demands, trade barriers, diplomatic quarantines, subsidized armed subversions."
When the French departed from Haiti, they demanded reparations from Haiti of roughly $21 billion (in 2004 dollars).
Robinson states that there were a number of important precedents in the Caribbean that shed light on the U.S. position towards Haiti. They included sending U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
in the early 1900s to force the Dominican Republic to give Washington the power to collect customs revenues for the U.S. at the Dominican Republic's main shipping ports. This led to the U.S. invading the Dominican Republic in 1915 and occupying the country until the end of 1924.
In 1937, the Dominican Republic, under the U.S. sponsored dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, massacred 35,000 Haitians. The American Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
, Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
stated that, "Trujillo is one of the greatest men in Central America and in most of South America."
In 1951 the U.S. overthrew the democratically elected government of Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. This occurred, according to Robinson, because the elected president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....
raised the minimum wage to $1.08/day and he attempted moderate land reforms for the benefit of the Guatemalan people. In response to this, the U.S. accused the Guzman government of being under the influence of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Robinson states that the Guzman government had no communists in their fairly elected government and that the real reason for the U.S. aggression in the area was to protect the interest of the American owned corporation, the United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
, (now called Chiquita Brands).
Furthermore, Robinson says that the U.S. supported the Haitian dictators François Duvalier
François Duvalier
François Duvalier was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" . He opposed a military coup d'état in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform...
, and Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...
, Henri Namphy
Henri Namphy
Henri Namphy was a Haitian general and political figure. He served as President of Haiti's interim ruling body, the National Council of Government, from 7 February 1986 to 7 February 1988...
, Leslie Manigat
Leslie Manigat
Leslie François Saint Roc Manigat was elected president of Haiti by a tightly controlled military held election in January 1988.-In education:...
, and Prosper Avril
Prosper Avril
Prosper Avril is a Haitian political figure who was President of Haiti from 1988 to 1990. A trusted member of François Duvalier's Presidential Guard and adviser to Jean-Claude Duvalier, Lt. Gen. Avril led the September 1988 Haitian coup d'état against a transition military government installed...
.
François Duvalier killed an estimated 50,000 Haitians. He ruled from 1957 to 1971. Jean-Claude Duvalier took control after his father died in 1971 and continued the brutal dictatorship until February 1986.
Military rulers overthrew Aristide, not just once, but twice, once in 1991 and again in 2004.
Both elections of Aristide were lawful democratic elections. "There were no charges of malfeasance, either adjudicated, or formally lodged against him." The elections also included the election of 7,500 other official government positions.
Robinson describes Aristide as "a democratic president who'd been elected twice by the largest margins on record for free elections in the Americas."
In 1991, shortly after Aristide was elected, he was overthrown by General Raul Cedras, Colonel Roger Biambi, and Police Chief Michel François
Michel François
Joseph-Michel François was a colonel in the Haitian army. As Haiti Chief of National Police he participated in the 1991 Haitian coup d'état, which overthrew Haiti's elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Haitian Presidential candidate Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly is known to have...
. In 1994 those dictators were forced from power and democracy was restored. Cedras had been trained by the U.S. at the School of the Americas. Later, Michel François
Michel François
Joseph-Michel François was a colonel in the Haitian army. As Haiti Chief of National Police he participated in the 1991 Haitian coup d'état, which overthrew Haiti's elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Haitian Presidential candidate Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly is known to have...
was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for shipping large quantities of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
.
In 1991, the former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark
Ramsey Clark
William Ramsey Clark is an American lawyer, activist and former public official. He worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, which included service as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969, under President Lyndon B. Johnson...
formed the Investigative Commission on Haiti. The Commission reported, "200 soldiers of the U.S. Special Forces arrived in the Dominican Republic with the authorization of Dominican Republic President Hipolito Mejia
Hipólito Mejía
Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez is a Dominican politician and former President of the Dominican Republic...
, as part of the military operation to train anti-democracy Haitian rebels."
Robinson states, "Thus they were prepared to scuttle a democracy, a constitution, an elected parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
, a functioning national government, to drive one man, Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
out of office, out of Haiti, indeed out of the Western Hemisphere."
He continues to say, "To this wholly illegal and anti-democratic purpose, several forces cleaved as one. The armed rebels, the United States of America, France, Canada, the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, and a new association of Haitian opposition splinter groups forged, funded, and counseled, by the International Republican Institute
International Republican Institute
Founded in 1983, the International Republican Institute is an organization, funded by the United States government, that conducts international political programs, sometimes labeled 'democratization programs'....
, and the Convergence Democratique
Convergence Démocratique
Convergence Démocratique was a Haitian political movement created in summer 2000 in opposition to Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas party. A group of disparate opposition parties and social organizations, it was crafted and built by the International Republican Institute...
, all worked towards the overthrow of the populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
Aristide. Convergence Democratique would later morph into a subversive right wing organ known as Group 184 "
Haitian anti-democratic rebel leaders included Guy Phillipe, Louis-Jodel Chamblain
Louis-Jodel Chamblain
Louis-Jodel Chamblain is a military leader in Haïti who has led both government troops and rebels, and is considered a notorious war criminal....
, Ernst Ravix, and Paul Arcelin
Paul Arcelin
Paul Arcelin is a Haitian who lived in Canada for many years in exile from the Duvalier dictatorship because of his political activities. He married a Canadian woman with whom he raised two children in Montréal....
.
"U.S. military officials have confirmed that 20,000 M16 rifles were given to the Dominican Republic shortly after Aristide normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
on February 6, 1996."
In November 2000, Aristide was re-elected for a second term with 90% of the vote.
Aristide increased the number of schools, and hospitals, and he worked for the treatment and prevention of Aids.
He raised Haiti's minimum wage in 2003 from $1/day to $2/day." He also established one standard birth certificate by eliminating the previous two-tiered race and class birth certificates."
In 2002 another anti-Aristide insurrection was led by Guy Phillipe, a former police precinct captain who had been trained by the CIA ."
Bertrand had proclaimed that France owed Haiti $21 billion (valued in current dollars) for the money France extorted from Haiti following its successful slave rebellion, and when Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
was kidnapped and removed from office in 2004, still 1% of the population owned 50% of the country's wealth."
Robinson states, "Where the poor were concerned, the United States invariably opposed the efforts of the poor's own governments, whenever and wherever those governments tried in any serious or structured way to ameliorate the poverty of their own people. If there has ever been a circumstance in which the Americans did not take the side of the rich in efforts to quash even modest reforms to help the poor, I do not know of it."
In early February 2004, the anti-Aristide rebels launched their attack by "torching fire stations, and jails…and murdering rural police officers"
Per Robinson, on February 29, 2004, Aristide was kidnapped and driven out of office.
Robinson states that the United States had always supported the wealthiest Haitian families such as the Mevs, the Bigios, the Apaids, the Boulos, the Nadals.
Senator Christopher Dodd
Christopher Dodd
Christopher John "Chris" Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress....
confirmed this when he said, "We had interests and ties with some of the very strong financial interests in the country and Aristide was threatening them."
On January 1, 2004, Haiti celebrated its 200th birthday and 500,000 Haitians celebrated the fact that they now had a democratically elected government.
On Saturday February 7, 2004, 1,000,000 Haitian people demonstrated in support of Aristide. They were demanding that he be allowed to finish his five-year term. They knew that his governance was being threatened.
The United States, however, favored the International Republican Institute
International Republican Institute
Founded in 1983, the International Republican Institute is an organization, funded by the United States government, that conducts international political programs, sometimes labeled 'democratization programs'....
(IRI) which is a U.S. non-profit organization that builds mechanisms to support "democracy" overseas. Per Robinson, despite their claims, the IRI funded right wing wealthy opponents to the Aristide government and thereby supported the opposite of democracy. Furthermore, Stanley Lucas was the senior program officer for the IRI and he had significant Duvalier affiliations.
The Bush administration through an Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Noriega
Roger Noriega
Roger Francisco Noriega is currently a visiting fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. He has previously served as a U.S...
, fully supported the I.R.I. Jesse Helms
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Aristide "insane, dictatorial, tyrannical, corrupt and a psychopath."
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
, the French foreign minister, blamed Aristide for "spreading violence." Jamaican Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson, threatened to "impose sanctions on Aristide."
The American television networks portrayed Aristide's departure in 2004 as if it were a voluntary departure.
Randall Robinson
Randall Robinson
Randall Robinson is an African-American lawyer, author and activist, noted as the founder of TransAfrica. He is known particularly for his impassioned opposition to South African apartheid, and for his advocacy on behalf of Haitian immigrants and Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.-Early...
spoke with Aristide on March 1, 2004 to learn then that Aristide had been transported to the Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
against his will. Robinson was told by Aristide that Aristide had been forcibly removed from office in a coup.
Per Robinson, the Haitian rebels who had removed Aristide from office, "had been trained by United States Special Forces."
They were trained "in the Dominican villages of Neiba, San Cristóbal
San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic
San Cristóbal is a municipality and the capital of the San Cristóbal province in the Dominican Republic. Within the municipality there is one municipal district : Hato Damas.-Sectors:*5 de abril*Canastica*El Pomier...
, San Isidrio, Hatillo
Hatillo
Hatillo or El Hatillo can refer to:* Hatillo, Puerto Rico* Hatillo de Loba, a town and municipality in Bolívar, Colombia* El Hatillo Municipality, Miranda, Venezuela** El Hatillo Town, Miranda, the seat of El Hatillo Municipality...
, and Haina
Haina
Haina is a community in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northwest Hesse, Germany.-Location:Haina lies in Waldeck-Frankenberg south of Frankenberg and east of Burgwald at the southwest slope of the Kellerwald range...
."
Robinson states that the Armed Forces of Haiti
Armed Forces of Haiti
The Armed Forces of Haiti, , consisted of the Haitian Army, Haitian Navy , Haitian Coast Guard, the Haitian Air Force, and some police forces . The Army was always the dominant service with the others serving primarily in a support role...
(the Haitian Armed Forces under the Duvalier regimes), and the Front For the Advancement and Progress of Haiti
Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti
The Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti was a far-rightparamilitary group organized in mid-1993. Its goal was to undermine support for the popular Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who served less than eight months as Haïti's president before being deposed, on 29 September 1991,...
(FRAPH, a paramilitary death squad that fought against democracy) massacred some 5,000 Haitians between 1991 and 1994.
Louis-Jodel Chamblain
Louis-Jodel Chamblain
Louis-Jodel Chamblain is a military leader in Haïti who has led both government troops and rebels, and is considered a notorious war criminal....
, a Duvalier death squad leader, was accused of war crimes committed in 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1994 including the murder of Antoine Izmery
Antoine Izméry
Antoine Izméry was a Haïtian businessman and pro-democracy activist.-Career:Izméry, who was of Palestinian descent, was among the wealthiest people in Haïti. He was one of the most prominent backers of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and helped finance his election campaign...
, a pro-democracy advocate.
Guy Phillipe received Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
training in Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
. He ordered paramilitary to kill Aristide supporters. Per Robinson, the opposition to democracy was "an amalgam of killers, drug runners, embezzlers, kleptocrats and sadists and included the wealthy and the elites of Haitian society." Per Robinson, the United States provided the rebels with M16s, grenades, grenade launchers, M50s.
Emmanuel Constant
Emmanuel Constant
Emmanuel Constant is the founder of FRAPH, a Haitian death squad organized in mid-1993 to terrorize supporters of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide....
was another player in opposition to Aristide, and along with Phillipe and Chamblain, they slaughtered thousands of innocent pro-democracy civilians.
After the abduction of Aristide, George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
called Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
to thank him for French cooperation in the removal of Aristide.
Robinson continues, "Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
had directly threatened Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
for offering asylum to Aristide" "The United States wanted Aristide not only out of Haiti but out of the Caribbean.
Senator Christopher Dodd
Christopher Dodd
Christopher John "Chris" Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress....
cited U.S. Department of Defense documents that indicated that the US did, in fact, supply 20,000 M16s to the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
prior to the deposition of Aristide.
"American officials had armed and directed the thugs, organized an un-elected and un-electable opposition, and choked the Haitian economy into dysfunctional penury."
The Central African Republic President at the time was François Bozizé
François Bozizé
François Bozizé Yangouvonda is the President of the Central African Republic. He came to power in March 2003 after leading a rebellion against President Ange-Félix Patassé and ushered in a transitional period of government...
.
The Central African Republic is French controlled.
The French Defense Minister stated that the Aristides were being guarded by French soldiers in Bangui
Bangui
-Law and government:Bangui is an autonomous commune of the Central African Republic. With an area of 67 km², it is by far the smallest high-level administrative division of the CAR in area but the highest in population...
, the capital of the Central African Republic.
Robinson and Maxine Waters
Maxine Waters
Maxine Waters is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 29th district, serving since 1991. She is a member of the Democratic Party....
(member of the U.S. Congress) then obtained an offer of asylum signed by P.J. Patterson, the prime minister of Jamaica. They attempted to get François Bozizé, the president of the Central African Republic, to accept it. CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
all turned down Robinson's request to join him to report on the events surrounding the removal of Aristide from office. Robinson, however, did get Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
(an independent news reporter for Democracy Now), Sharon Hay-Webster
Sharon Hay-Webster
Sharon Hay-Webster is a Jamaican politician, a Member of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Jamaica since 1997, formerly with the People's National Party...
(a member of the Jamaican parliament), Peter Eisner (a deputy foreign editor at the Washington Post), Sidney Williams
Sidney Williams
Sidney Williams , is an American author of five novels under his own name and three young adult novels under the pseudonym Michael August. He has also authored numerous short stories and comic book scripts. Williams received a Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College.Williams grew up and worked as...
(a former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas), Ira Kurzban (one of the best known lawyers in America for Immigration and Employment Law) to join him in Bangui
Bangui
-Law and government:Bangui is an autonomous commune of the Central African Republic. With an area of 67 km², it is by far the smallest high-level administrative division of the CAR in area but the highest in population...
.
Robinson states, "American decision makers only feign concern about world poverty. And they sustain the lament only so long as the pretense and its addictive but useless, solutions are profitable, directly or indirectly, to American private interests." "The force, the power plant, is money, the relentless campaign to capture it, and the God-invoked armed ruthlessness to keep it."
Robinson and his entourage succeeded in getting Bozizé to release Aristide and Aristide's wife to the entourage and they took the couple to Jamaica. ."
The U.S. then installed Gerard Latortue
Gérard Latortue
Gérard Latortue was the Prime Minister of Haïti from March 12, 2004 to June 9, 2006. He was an official in the United Nations for many years, and briefly served as foreign minister of Haïti during the short-lived 1988 administration of Leslie Manigat.In February 2004, the country suffered a coup...
as interim president. When Latortue rescinded the Haitian demand for restitution from France, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
House Republicans Mark Foley
Mark Foley
Mark Adam Foley is a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He served from 1995 until 2006, representing the 16th District of Florida as a member of the Republican Party....
and Eugene Clay Shaw, Jr. introduced a house resolution commending Latortue for his great service to Haiti."
Robinson states that, between the day of the abduction and the election, in 2006, of René Préval
René Préval
René Garcia Préval is a Haitian politician and agronomist who was the President of the Republic of Haiti from 14 May 2006 to 14 May 2011. He previously served as President from February 7, 1996, to February 7, 2001, and as Prime Minister from February 1991 to October 11, 1991.-Early life and...
, at least 4000 Haitians had been killed by the interim government."
Finally, Robinson concludes by saying "as long as one member nation of the global family of nations is free to behave toward a fellow member nation with lethal impunity—to bully, to menace, to invade, to destabilize politically or economically, to reduce to tumult—no country, so threatened, can hope to enjoy the social and political contentment that ought inherently to attend democratic practices."