What's going on in Haiti?

[sweetheart]

This story describes a civil war:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1145313,00.html

Isn't haiti a demonstrable case of american nation building's failure to achieve even slight returns.

Do you think bush will try to invade Haiti?

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. He could care less

He doesn't even know that's it's in the Western Hemisphere. Besides they don't have oil or any other resources to exploit so in his mind they don't exist.

[Loonman]

2. Haiti is descending into chaos

Putting Aristide in charge was a boneheaded move.


All the Haitians I know think he's an idiot.


If you speak out against him, you get arrested and/or killed.


Some democracy, huh?

[ringmastery]

3. I never knew Haiti and the U.S. were so much alike

"The real coup d'etat started in 2000 when he stole the election," said Mr Bajeux, a former Aristide supporter who was once his minister of culture. "Since then he has had no democratic legitimacy and now the system itself is falling to pieces.

"It's full of political, economic, cultural cracks. It's about to collapse. There is no way to go back."

[Laughing Mirror]

4. The parallels are stunning.

The collapse is just playing out in a more violent way in Haiti. Haiti's 80 percent is much poorer than our 80 percent, growing poorer by day. But the richest one percent in both countries is probably pretty much on the same level.

[noonwitch]

5. Haiti has been messed up for a very long time

The Duvaliars destroyed much of the natural environment, including the coral reef, by allowing US pollution to be dumped down there. there have been revolutions throughout their history, plus the fact that AIDS made it's Western Hemisphere debut there didn't help their tourism.

The Haitians did have one of the more successful slave revolts in history, against the colonial french.

[Aidoneus]

6. an excellent analysis,

a couple days old, but covers the background very well.

Haiti: Aristide regime shaken by mass protests
By Richard Dufour
6 February 2004

--snip--

Last Saturday’s negotiations were preceded by meetings in mid-January between representatives of the 15-member, intra-state Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and leaders of the Haitian opposition, which comprises most of the business establishment, remnants of the political machine of the Duvalier dictatorship, and disgruntled Aristide supporters.

--snip--

It is no secret that the Bush administration and the Republican right are hostile toward Aristide, a former priest who came to political prominence in the 1980s as an exponent of liberation theology and as a critic of US imperialism. The administration of George Bush Sr. all but publicly supported the 1991 military coup that deposed Aristide just eight months after he first won election, and much of the Republican Party openly opposed the US military intervention that resulted in Aristide being returned to power in 1994.

Nevertheless, the current Bush administration has continued the policy of the previous Clinton administration, which consists of using the opposition as a means of pressuring Aristide and his Lavalas party to continue imposing IMF restructuring, rather than pressing for the regime’s ouster.

--snip--

Behind this stance lies the Bush administration’s fear that the political crisis in Haiti could spiral out of control, triggering mass unrest in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and a new influx of refugees to Florida. With U.S. forces in occupied Iraq facing growing popular resistance, Washington’s lies about Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction in tatters, and the US economy hobbled by mounting current account and budget deficits, the Bush administration does not want Haiti to suddenly become a flashpoint of regional instability—all the more so, as 2004 is an election year.

However, Aristide’s opponents sense that he is vulnerable and hope to convince their patrons in Washington he can be dispensed with. Indeed, Aristide has done such a good job of imposing the demands of the IMF —privatization, the destruction of public sector jobs, and the elimination of price subsidies—that he has nearly used up that one asset that made him a useful tool of imperialism—the popular support he won from Haiti’s impoverished masses because of his outspoken opposition to the Duvalier regime and the military juntas that succeeded it.

--snip--

Although Aristide came out of last week’s meeting with CARICOM leaders saying that “now is the time for compromise,” the opposition vows it will only call a halt to the protest movement when he quits the presidency. Washington’s attempt to broker a compromise between the rival claimants for state power thus seems unlikely to succeed and Haiti is set for a period of escalating political instability and violence.

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/hait-f06.shtml

[Muddleoftheroad]

7. Pretty much the usual

Doesn't make it any easier on the folks there, but it's true.