#3771: Pina comments on the closing of the poles with conch horns blowing
From: kevin pina <cariborganics@hotmail.com>
At the closing of the polls it was reported that the sound of conch horns
was heard in several neighborhoods of Port au Prince. The sound of the
Caribbean native conch shell has long symbolized as a call for freedom in
Haiti. It is well known as a call to arms for the maroons, communities of
escaped slaves in the country's early history, who allied themselves with
the forces that defeated Napoleon's armies, establishing Haiti as the
world's first black republic.
Tonight it is heard as the symbol of an anticipated victory for Aristide's
Lavalas party and political rectification for Haitian majority politics put
off track by the 1991 coup and the nullification of the results of the
previous parliamentary elections. There are also reports that quiet,
spontaneous celebrations have begun to break out in several neighborhoods of
Port au Prince. At a small but growing gathering in the front yard of a
small merchant, one celebrant stated, "We have tried one more time to make
them understand that what we want is change. Lavalas and Aristide are our
choice." She seemed convinced that if the elections were fair that
Aristide's Lafamni Lavalas party will emerge victorious.
________________________________________________________________________
The Aftermath of Haiti's Election
by Kevin Pina
Port au Prince, May 28, 2000 - There is palpable tension left in the wake of
Haiti's recent parliamentary elections as many Lavalas supporters brace
themselves for possible attacks by those who oppose a return of Jean-Betrand
Aristide to Haiti's presidency. While a few naturally feel it could strike
at any moment, others speculate it is more likely to occur closer to the
final tallying when Lavalas appears to have won a majority in the Haitian
parliament. This is not an irrational fear, as Haitian history will attest.
For many, today is as it ever was, confronting the fear of retaliation
from the wealthy elite and the military that are backed by powerful
political allies in the US government.
When Jean-Bertrand Aristide emerged as the hands down winner of Haiti's
presidential elections in 1990, it was at the head of a broad popular
movement fomented by Haiti's poor majority known as Lavalas. After having
endured years of being ruled as virtual chattel by the wealthy elite and
military dictatorships which were propped up through corruption and
violence, they courageously spoke with one clear voice in December of 1991
to demand real change in Haiti. Aristide and the Lavalas movement came to
symbolize in the hearts and minds of most Haitians the desire to overturn
the dark legacy of the past and create the possibility of a new future for
Haiti's impoverished majority. Aristide's election by Haiti's poor majority
was only the first challenge to the power of the country's traditional
rulers. Preval and Aristide then pushed it further by throwing open the
gates of Haiti's political reality to include the voice of the country's
poor and dispossessed. For the first time the voices of the poor were
echoed throughout Haiti's greatest symbol of power, the presidential palace.
After only seven months, this was, in the common tradition of Haiti,
followed by a violent military coup financed and backed by the wealthy elite
with powerful allies in Washington. This vicious military coup was prolonged
by a half-hearted US led embargo that many in Lavalas believe was designed
to allow time for the movement to slowly get chewed up by the army. At the
same time, many within Haiti's traditional elite strengthened their position
and added to their vast fortunes through profiteering during the embargo.
Many Lavalas veterans view the coup as having been a "slow bleed" scenario
for depleting the best resources of a popular movement for change while
allowing Washington's traditional allies to grow stronger.
Those who offer this view have good reason to believe that the political
machinations of Washington will not cease until they have a government to
their liking in Haiti. First there was the coup of September 1991. Then,
after Aristide's return there was the parliamentary elections of 1997, in
which Lavalas won a clear majority, only to have them annulled following
charges of fraud led by the likes of the International Republican Institute,
The Carter Center for Democracy and the National Democratic Institute and
the OPL. For many of in Haiti's grassroots it has become crystal clear that
a government to Washington's liking does not include Aristide or Lavalas. As
Haiti approaches the final tally of the ballots in this latest round of "US
sponsored" elections, many are convinced it is essentially the same
configuration of forces and dynamics in play today, the poor majority of
Haitians opposed by the wealthy elite and their allies in the former
military supported by powerful friends in Washington.
Not surprisingly, remnants of the US-trained Haitian military don't agree
with the concept of popular democracy and in light of recent evidence there
is growing speculation they have been plotting a comeback for quite some
time. A May 11th story broke in Haiti reporting that eight former members of
the Haitian military had been arrested for operating an underground
recruitment network that supplied photo IDs bearing the official logo of the
Armed Forces of Haiti. A warrant was also issued for the arrest of the
signatory of the military IDs, identified as Mr. Serge Justafort who was
working as chief of security for rental installations used by the US
diplomatic mission in Haiti. Although much attention was given to this story
in Haiti, confirmed by the Haitian National Police and the Ministry of
Justice, not one word of it reached the international press.
The name of a Canadian national named Lynn Garrison also surfaced in
connection with the busts in Haiti. Garrison was described in a June 1994
interview in the Toronto Globe and Mail as "a former Canadian born fighter
pilot…playing the improbable role of advisor to the military regime, public
relations man for the 1991 coup, and intelligence source for attacks by
American conservatives on exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide." Garrison
has made public claims he was the source for the "psychological profile" of
former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide that was presented by the
CIA's Brian Latelle to the US Senate in 1993. In that report, Aristide was
described as mentally unbalanced, on lithium, and having been confined to a
Canadian mental institution in the 1980's. On may 17th, less than one week
before Haiti's scheduled election, the Haitian National Police issued an
"arrest on sight" for Garrison on charges of "activities suspected of being
destabilizing to democratic order." As one could have guessed, no mention
was ever made of this in the international press.
The US Embassy staff, under former Ambassador Alvin Adams, used to refer to
Haiti's wealthy class as the MRE's or the Morally Repugnent Elite because of
their pronounced lack of concern for their fellow human beings. They too
have also resurfaced in the form of Olivier Nadal, unabashed coup supporter
and president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Nadal claims to have
taken refuge in Washington out of fear of reprisals from Aristide, Preval,
Lavalas, and the Haitian people. Popular organizations in Haiti have
publicly accused Mr. Nadal of involvement in a campaign to force small
peasant farmers off their land in the Artibonite Valley in 1995. It
resulted in the "sacking and burning of over 100 homes and left several
dead" according to the peasant rights organization Tet Kole.
Mr. Nadal's departure from Haiti coincided with the shenanigans of American
Rice Corporation, owned by the Erly Corporation based in Los Angeles
California, whose company representatives staged a dramatic flight from the
country after it was revealed they had under claimed imports values to avoid
customs fees. Nadal is also the voice closest to the ears of Senator Jesse
Helms(R-SC), the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, and is known to have the favor of Congressman Benjamin Gilman
(R-NY), chairman of the House International Relations Committee. On May 19,
the eve of Haiti's parliamentary elections Nadal stated, " Aristide
demonized Haiti's military to a point that no one commented upon its
destruction, even though the army was Haiti's only structured element of
law-and-order. This was replaced by an Aristide controlled police force, now
coordinating much of the cocaine traffic into America. It is greatly
responsible for much of the violence in Haiti as Aristide directs their
activities from his 50 plus acre estate at Tabarre. Not bad for a priest who
renounced his "vows of poverty" in October of 1990. He is now said to be
worth over one billion dollars-much of his cocaine related"!!
Given the recent revelations about the military and Nadal's pronouncements,
to many in Lavalas it appears there is a new alliance being forged between
Haiti's former military and the wealthy elite that represents a long lineage
of "traditional" rulers known for their brutality and ruthlessness. They
realize that the thought of a Lavalas led parliament and Aristide's return
to the presidency must be a nightmare scenario to these familiar opponents.
It must be the same for their allies in Washington. Early press reports
from the election included scenarios of an Aristide "dictatorship" replete
with a circle of "drug barons" and "political assassins" while Lavalas is
portrayed as a violent mob under the control of a charismatic leader. There
has, after all, been much invested in this campaign to cultivate an image of
Aristide as a former priest and president transformed into a monster leading
unruly mobs through the streets of Port au Prince.
Moving the Goal Posts in Haiti's Democratic Game
By Kevin Pina - Port-au-Prince, July 5, 2000
On May 21, 2000, the Haitian people once again played
by the rules of the democratic game, as directed and tutored by Washington and
the international community, only to see their hope for social change squashed
by yet another endless series of technicalities and accusations. The current
political crisis in Haiti should come as no surprise if seen within the
context of earlier efforts at democratic change that resulted in the bloody
coup of 1991 and annulled elections in 1997. Popular sentiment among Haiti's
grassroots organizations seems to be that each time they manage to score a
goal in the democratic game the United States and the international community
change the rules and move the goal posts farther out of reach.
Prior to the May 21st elections in Haiti, tremendous pressure was placed on
the Preval government to set a date for elections despite its official
objections that an evaluation of the process was necessary before proceeding
with the ballot. The US anointed "political opposition" in Haiti cried foul
showing once again how their greatest constituency resides not in Haiti but
abroad. They proclaimed loudly that Preval and Aristide were attempting to
delay the process so that parliamentary elections could coincide with
presidential elections in a plot to sweep Lavalas to victory on Aristide's
"coattails." The Preval government ultimately relented and elections were
held on May 21st in what have been called "the most promising elections in
Haiti to date." The international community initially embraced the May 21st
elections until it became clear that Aristide's "coattails" are so wide that
they must precede him as well as follow him. Given the international
community's insistence on an accelerated timetable for the ballot, it made it
difficult for them to back down from initially endorsing the validity of these
elections. This set the stage for the timely political debacle that has
ensued and what many in Haiti view as disingenuous performances by Orlande
Marville of the Organization of American States and Leon Manus the president
of the Provisional Election Council or CEP.
Given the tremendous investment involved, one cannot help but wonder at what
moment Mr. Marville was inspired to conclude that the calculations of the
ballots was based solely upon the top four vote getters and not the total
percentage of votes cast in the elections. It is difficult to believe that the
international community, and the OAS in particular, were not present to
observe the entire process of balloting and calculations of the ballot count
prior to the CEP releasing the initial results of the election. Rather than
quietly communicating this discrepancy to the CEP and requesting a change in
the calculations prior to the release of results, the OAS chose to wait until
the CEP had committed itself to the purported incorrect calculations and timed
its "electoral revelations" in a manner that has obviously caused great damage
to the political process in Haiti.
And what of Leon Manus, president of the CEP, who has fled to a self-imposed
exile in the US claiming that his life had been threatened by the Haitian
government if he did not sign off on the "bad calculations?" Immediately
following Mr. Marville's revelations, Mr. Manus was quoted on Radio Metropole
in Haiti stating that the results had been calculated in the same manner as
previous elections. If we are to believe Mr. Manus's first position then the
last example we have to look to are the annulled parliamentary elections of
1997. The results of that election, which appeared to give Lavalas a
parliamentary majority, were discounted amid charges of electoral fraud led by
the International Republican Institute, the Carter Center for Democracy and
the National Democratic Institute, each closely associated with the Republican
and Democratic parties in the US respectively. An analysis of press reports
from that period clearly show that the procedure for calculating the
percentages of ballots was never once brought into question with respect to
the 1997 parliamentary elections. Instead, charges focused on "voting
irregularities" amidst a ramped up campaign to link Aristide and Lavalas to
violence and political assassinations in Haiti.
Presently, Mr. Manus has fled Haiti adding one more note in a well-documented
campaign to associate Preval, Aristide and Lavalas with violence as he
embraces the position of the OAS in a complete reversal of his initial
statement. Mr. Manus's claims, whether coincidentally or by design,
overshadows the obvious error made by the "coattail" theorists and lends
support to the assertion that Aristide and Lavalas rigged the vote count in an
effort to establish a one-party dictatorship.
Haiti's poor majority has fought tirelessly since the coup of 1991 to restore
their original mandate of 1990 to transform a system of endemic,
institutionalized, predatory corruption into a modern democracy fulfilling the
aspirations of its citizenry. A prevalent view among many Lavalas supporters
is that every imaginable obstacle has been placed before them to preclude this
restoration including a brutal military coup, charges of fraud, charges of
political violence, charges of drug running by Lavalas officials, and finally,
bad mathematics. In this context one might understand why Lavalas supporters
took to the streets in force to denounce what they view as another attempt to
overturn the results of yet another election in which they believe to have
reclaimed their original mandate for change in Haiti.
In the words of one young militant, belonging to one of the popular
organizations behind the recent show of Lavalas strength in the streets of
Port of Prince, "Haitian history will not move forward without a return of
Lavalas and Aristide to the presidency." Many in Lavalas are convinced that
the OAS and the international community are conspiring to discredit the May
21st elections and throw them into disarray in an attempt to forestall the
coming presidential elections in which Aristide would be the hands down
winner. Others believe that this recent political battle over the credibility
of the May 21st elections is intended to discredit the majority's popular
mandate and further isolate a Lavalas ruled Haiti from the community of
nations. Let us hope for the sake of the Haitian people and the integrity of
US foreign policy that they are not right.
