Haiti: A coup made in the U.S.

By Marsha Feinland

The United States government is responsible for the overthrow of the elected government of Haiti

The kidnapping and forced exile of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide by U.S. forces caps a years-long process of attacks on Haitian democracy and popular rights by our government. This process has been the open and covert policy of both Democratic and Republican administrations.

The U.S. government was a main supporter of Haitian dictators "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier. When Haitian democrats succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship in 1986, "Baby Doc" was rescued and sent to live a comfortable life abroad with his stolen wealth. Since then, the State Department, C.I.A. and other agencies have continuously schemed to find other ways of repressing the Haitian people.

When Jean-Paul Aristide was elected president on a program of reform and meeting the needs of the people first, the U.S. supported a military coup against him. In 1994, as the situation in Haiti threatened to spiral out of control, President Clinton intervened to reinstate Aristide as president, but in a greatly weakened and dependent position. The Clinton administration policy was to allow the semblance of democracy in Haiti, but to economically and politically undermine any attempt to meet people's needs. Despite this, more schools were built in Haiti between 1994 and 2000 than in the previous 200 years and the government subsidizes school lunches and transportation for students.

The Bush administration, staffed by veterans of the counter-revolutionary schemes of the 1980s, has taken a much harder line. Through the taxpayer-subsidized National Endowment for "Democracy" and the International Republican Institute (foreign arm of the Republican Party) they have organized and financed a Haitian opposition which has the support of less than 10% of the population, but controls the major media. This group is led by sweatshop owners angry at the Aristide administration's doubling of the $1.60 per day minimum wage. They also pressured the Inter-American Bank and other international financial institutions to cut off Haiti's credit and strangle it economically. The poorest country in the western Hemisphere was made even poorer.

Now the democratically-elected Haitian government has been overthrown by a group of armed men, led by U.S.-trained army officers and former C.I.A. assets and carrying M16 rifles shipped to the Dominican Republic by Washington. This coup was obviously manufactured in Washington.

As senator, I will act vigorously to reverse these policies. But the Haitian people cannot wait until I am elected to get relief they need it NOW. I urge all of you to inform yourselves so that you can inform others and help build a movement to stop U.S. intervention in Haiti. Three good web sites for information are: http://www.haitiaction.org, www.haiti-pres.com (English section) and http://www.madre.org.

We should not forget that this attack on the people of Haiti is part of a worldwide attack on working people and their rights, here in the U.S. as well.