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The deed is done.
Haiti has been raped.
The act was sanctioned by the United States, Canada and France.
For despite the fig leaf of constitutionality with which these Western powers, and supposed bastions of democracy, have sought to shroud the act, what happened in Haiti yesterday was nothing short of a coup d'etat.
Indeed, having pressured President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into resigning and going into exile, these powers have firmly placed their imprimatur on a politics that rewards violence and a process that abjures principle in favour of narrow ideological positions and personality preferences.
It is a lesson that Caribbean countries, and particularly Caricom states - which may feel a certain coziness about their democracy - ought to take seriously. For if they thought otherwise, democratically-elected leaders are easily expendable if they, at a particular time, do not fit the profile in favour with those who are strong and powerful.
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http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20040301T000000-0500_56431_OBS_COUP_D_ETAT_IN_HAITI.asp>