> -------------------------
> Via Workers World News Service
> Reprinted from the Feb. 19, 2004
> issue of Workers World newspaper
> -------------------------
>
> HAITIAN MASSES RESIST RIGHT-WING TAKEOVER
>
> By Pat Chin
>
> With the Haitian masses coming out into the streets
> as much to oppose
> the reactionary "opposition forces" as to support
> the government of Jean-
> Bertrand Aristide, the capitalist U.S. media are
> showing signs of
> nervousness that they may have provoked a struggle
> with unforeseen
> consequences for them. Words like "thugs" are
> beginning to appear in the
> establishment media here to describe those trying to
> take over in Haiti.
> Until now, the media have referred to them only as
> the "democratic
> opposition."
>
> It was only weeks after Haiti celebrated the
> bicentennial of its victory
> over slavery and colonial rule that the opposition,
> which has been
> backed by Washington, escalated its push to topple
> the Aristide
> government.
>
> On Feb. 5, an armed gang, "The Gon aives Resistance
> Front," took violent
> control of Haiti's fourth-largest city. Seven people
> were reportedly
> killed and scores wounded. According to
> unsubstantiated reports, the
> armed wing of the anti-Aristide opposition, made up
> of Duval ierists and
> former soldiers like ex-army colonel Himmler Rebu,
> took control of St.
> Marc, Ennery, Gros Morne and Grand-Goâve, in
> addition to Gonaives.
>
> The Duvaliers--"Papa Doc" and "Baby
Doc"--were a
> U.S.-supported dynasty
> that ruled Haiti through extreme terror for 29
> years.
>
> As of Feb. 11, however, the government is reported
> to have retaken some
> of these cities. And in the northern port of
> Cap-Haitien, "Aristide
> supporters set up blazing barricades, blocking the
> city for a second day
> against a possible rebel incursion." (New York
> Times, Feb. 11)
>
> Complicity of Haiti's 4,500-member police force,
> which has divided
> allegiances, was evident in some of the takeovers.
> For instance, the
> police in St. Marc, under the command of an officer
> linked to opposition
> leader and former soldier Dany Toussaint, abandoned
> their post, leaving
> all their weapons and ammunition behind.
>
> According to the Feb. 9 Miami Herald, Jean Tatoune
> leads Force 86, which
> took part in the Gonaives assault. "Tatoune was
> convicted of involvement
> in the 1994 slaying of Aristide supporters in what
> became known as the
> Raboteau massacre and was one of more than 150
> inmates who escaped from
> the Gonaives prison in 2002."
>
> On Feb. 7 Aristide told a huge crowd of hundreds of
> thousands of his
> supporters in the capital, Port-au-Prince, that the
> government would
> "disarm the terrorists." In the southern town of
> Jacmel and in the
> Canape Verte and Carrefour areas near the capital,
> supporters set up
> roadblocks and prepared to defend their
> neighborhoods. Some were armed.
> They also struck back in Grand-Goâve on Feb. 8 by
> burning a school
> headed by a coup advocate. In Cap-Haitien on Feb. 7
> the relay station of
> Radio Vision2000, which had agitated against
> Aristide, was burned down.
>
> On Feb. 9 Prime Minister Yvon Neptune accused the
> opposition, led by
> Haiti's business elite and the big landowners, of
> trying to mount a
> coup. He called on them to stop the violence.
> According to the BBC, "An
> opposition spokesman denied backing the unrest and
> called for foreign
> intervention to avert civil war."
>
> Haiti's National Popular Party has long warned that
> the sole purpose of
> the opposition's destabilization campaign was to
> provide a pretext for
> foreign intervention.
>
> Amalgam of Duvalierists
> and social democrats
>
> Aristide was Haiti's first popularly elected head of
> state. He first won
> the presidency in 1990 in a flood of mass support
> that was also a
> rejection of the well-funded White House-backed
> candidate Marc Bazin, a
> former World Bank official. Nine months later,
> Aristide was ousted in a
> bloody CIA-instigated coup d'etat. He returned to
> Haiti from exile in
> 1994 and was re-elected president in 2000 with 92
> percent of the vote.
> The opposition boycotted that election but now claim
> it had
> "irregularities."
>
> Since then, a well-funded campaign to vilify and
> destabilize the
> government has been unleashed. It is backed by the
> U.S. and several
> European countries, including France, Haiti's former
> colonial ruler.
> These imperialist powers have given financial and
> other support to the
> opposition, including the Democratic Conver gence, a
> front whose groups
> range from social democratic to neo-Duvalierist, and
> the bourgeoisie's
> Group of 184, headed by sweatshop magnate Andy
> Apaid.
>
> An aid embargo has also been in force, creating
> tremendous hardships for
> the poor majority. Other dirty tricks include
> diplomatic meddling, the
> fomenting of violence in Haiti's shantytowns and
> small-scale contra-
> style terrorist guerrilla attacks. These have
> escalated with the armed
> takeover of Gonaives, the city where on Jan. 1,
> 1804, Gen. Jean-Jacques
> Dessalines declared Haiti's independence from
> France.
>
> Aristide has made many concessions to IMF and World
> Bank restructuring
> demands, which have cost him some popular support.
> But the U.S. is not
> satisfied and has been supporting the opposition.
> Aristide has agreed to
> disarm political gangs and to jointly appoint a new
> prime minister with
> the opposition forces. He has pledged to call
> legislative elections. But
> the opposition has threatened a boycott and demands
> no less than his
> resignation.
>
> Anti-government figures from the bourgeois elite are
> not just sweatshop
> bosses. They also own and control most of Haiti's
> media. "They are
> active players in the U.S. campaign to destabilize
> Haiti's
> constitutional government," says freelance
> journalist Kevin Pina.
>
> "They circulate exaggerated reports of violence by
> Lavalas [Aris tide's
> party], turn a blind eye to violence on the part of
> the opposition, and
> underreport the size and frequency of Lavalas
> demonstrations demanding
> President Aristide fulfill his five-year term in
> office. They regularly
> produce and air commercials calling upon the
> population to 'claim their
> democratic rights' by joining anti-Aristide street
> actions. Just as in
> Vene zuela, where local elites use their media to
> spearhead the
> opposition to President Hugo Chavez, the clear
> objective in Haiti is to
> throw the constitution in the trash and force
> President Aristide to
> resign.
>
> "Here's how it works," explains Pina, referring to
> the various Haitian
> and overseas media outlets: "Metropole reports a
> fabrication; AP and RFI
> pick it up for their wire services, then Kiskeya and
> the others report
> it again in Haiti backed by the credibility of the
> international press.
> The positive feedback loop of disinformation for the
> opposition is now
> complete."
>
> (www.blackcommentator.org (http://www.blackcommentator.org), Jan 15)
>
> "Imperialism and its lackeys are trying to engineer
> another coup and
> foreign military occupation of Haiti," says Ben
> Dupuy, secretary-general
> of Haiti's National Popular Party (PPN). "This is
> the only way they can
> hope to take back control of the country."
>
> The PPN and the popular movement continue to
> mobilize against the cheap
> labor re-colonizing schemes of the Bush
> administration and anti-Aristide
> opposition. This is truly a struggle for Haiti's
> second independence--
> this time from U.S. and capitalist domination. n
>
> - END -
>
> (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is
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