-- paramilitary intervention much like the Nicaraguan Contras;
-- intense economic pressure to bankrupt the government and halt its social programs;
-- a legitimately-looking opposition, drawn from Haiti's business and civil society; and
-- a media disinformation campaign to portray the government as corrupt, authoritarian and undemocratic - much the way Hugo Chavez is now vilified.
All of it was designed to provoke government responses that could plausibly be called brutal and dictatorial, hope things might spin out of control, and give the opposition a chance to "step in and save the day." FL didn't oblige and kept them waiting four years.
Hallward calls the May 2000 legislative elections "arguably the most remarkable exercise in representative democracy in Haiti to date." Unprecedented numbers registered and turned out to vote, and a comprehensive post-election assessment concluded "free, fair and peaceful elections (were held after) months of struggle and intimidation." Turnout matched 1990 at around 65%. Fanmi Lavalas won overwhelmingly (locally and nationally) and swamped the anti-Aristide opposition. FL won:
-- 89 of 115 mayoral positions;
-- 72 of 83 (lower house) Chamber of Deputy seats; and
-- 16 of 17 Senate seats and control of all but one of the Senate's 27 positions.
It was no surprise why and a signal that no opposition could stand against Aristide in free, fair and open elections. FL had the only "coherent political program" offering improvements in health, education, infrastructure, peasant cooperatives, micro-financing, and a dedication to lift impoverished Haitians' lives. Equally clear was a CD spokesman's comment: "We will never, ever accept the results of these elections." Neither would the US or France or the dominant echo-chamber media trumpeting how Haiti "failed to hold credible elections" - because the wrong party won. With truth nowhere in sight, the world heard a consistent theme - that "massive electoral fraud" tainted Haiti's elections.
The presidential contest in November followed the same pattern, and "the dictator in question" won overwhelmingly with 92% of the vote. Fraud and violence were minimal, turnout was around 60%, FL now had three consecutive landslide (presidential) victories, and a defeated opposition determined they'd be no fourth one. They failed. More on that below.
Aristide's victory was glorious but costly. Washington greeted it with "a crippling embargo on all further foreign aid." Promised Inter-American Development Bank loans were also blocked - $145 million already agreed on plus another $470 million in succeeding years. The effect was so devastating that the UN Development Programme said the severity of mass destitution would take Haiti "two generations" to recover from "if the process....start(ed) now." Other NGOs called year end 2003 conditions in the country "without precedent."
Aristide had a choice, but it didn't help. He agreed to negotiate, made concessions, yet the embargo was never lifted. Complicit with Washington, the CD extracted all they could but remained firm on their "essential" goal - ousting the Aristide government "by any means necessary." Throughout his second term and its lead-up months, the CD rejected "every FL offer of new elections and of new forms of power-sharing." One of its leading members summed up the mood - CD would only negotiate "the door through which Aristide (would) leave the palace, the front door or the back door." Its post-January 2001 strategy was "option zero," and these were its terms:
-- be able to choose its own prime minister;
-- authorize him to govern by decree; and
-- neutralize Aristide, effectively force him to stand down, and have a three-member presidential council act as head of state in his place.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
Many thanks to Stephen Lendman for another review of another extremely important book.
"Damming the Flood" fills in the big picture on what U.S. human rights groups, such as Quest for Peace and Center for Constitutional Rights, were telling us about Haiti in the 1990s. It transcends Haiti as simply a national story; something big seems to be taking hold in Latin America. Perhaps, as we face deep recession in the U.S., those grassroots forces will redeem our nation also.
by
MyTwoCents (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 36 comments)
on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 1:53:33 PM
