Haiti: Different Coup, Same Paramilitary Leaders

[Chicago Democrat]

Democracy Now! February 26, 2004

For a closer look at what is happening right now on the ground in Haiti, we look back at the involvement of the U.S. in the 1991-1994 coup period with veteran investigative journalist Allan Nairn who broke a number of stories that proved the direct links between US intelligence agencies and Haitian paramilitary death squads in the early 1990s.

Many of the men leading the armed insurrection in Haiti right now are well known to veteran Haiti observers and, for that matter, the US intelligence agencies that worked closely with the paramilitary death squads which terrorized Haiti in the early 1990s. People like Louis Jodel Chamblain, the former number 2 man in FRAPH, Guy Philippe, a former police chief who was trained by US Special forces in Ecuador and Jean Tatun, another leader of FRAPH.
In an hour-long interview with the Washington Post, published today Guy Philippe vowed a bloody assault on Port-au-Prince "very soon" if Aristide refuses to leave office. Philippe and Chamblain told the paper that Aristide's departure and his replacement by an interim leader who would call new elections was the only possible peaceful solution to their three-week-old insurgency. Chamblain said "Aristide has two choices: prison or execution by firing squad."

Preparations against a possible assault by the paramilitaries were evident in Port-au-Prince. Pro-Aristide militia groups stepped up their vigilance in the increasingly tense capital, setting up roadblocks and burning tires after dark at intersections throughout the city. Vehicles throughout the city are being stopped and searched.

Philippe said some of his forces are already in Port-au-Prince, some, he said, under cover in the National Palace. He predicted that they would use intelligence to identify and locate leaders of pro-Aristide groups, "neutralize them" and take the city in "one or two hours." He said his forces would kill Aristide if he resisted an attack, but that a trial would be preferable, either in Haiti or at an international court. Philippe said he would welcome an international peacekeeping force, provided Aristide was gone.

Rest at...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/26/1612211

[lastknowngood]

1. Just my opinion but the CIA has been failing to accomplish

a coup in south America perhaps this is a training session to help them get back on top of their game.

[Chicago Democrat]

4. Maybe Gangs from NY and Chicago and LA

should go volunteer for a freedom brigade to fight for President Aristide?

[papau]

2. We have 300 guys that US does not want to stop? What is Bush's motive?

These guys travel in old cars and trucks - take no territory - and are going to visit the capital and take over the country - former papa Doc muscle - current drug lord muscle - hired by 13 rich families to steal the country -

and our media says nothing!

Lord have mercy.

Bush(the rich and corporate) really does own/controll the US media. - it is getting harder to say that the media just acts like the controlled by the GOP.

If any newsroom needs a count (from an authority) as to the size of this mob, please contact the UN.

[Chicago Democrat]

3. You are right brother.

We can only pray now.

Couldn't 300 brave men go over there now and help President Aristide?

Where is the passion of the Spanish Civil War? Why must we just roll over and play dead, when fascists in the White House overthrough legally elected governments!!!

[Chicago Democrat]

5. Aristide has blood on his hands, too....

So everything they say about Aristide is mostly true. He has grown corrupt and has drug dealing gangs to do his dirty work. For a priest, he's long ago left his vows.

This doesn't mean violent coups are the solution.

[NashVegas]

6. You Can Bet They're Watching This in Venezuela

Saw a pic of Philippe in the news this morning and was struck by the idea of a rebel leader with a damn fine dentist.

[Judi Lynn]

7. I went to try to find a photo of the guy

Don't have enough time to really get in there and search, but found a couple:

(snip)Guy Philippe, former police chief of Cap-Hatien and Duvalier death squad leader in the 1980s, was named l'Arbonite's chief of armed forces. Philippe fled Haiti in 2002 to the Dominican Republic after it was discovered that he was plotting a coup. Philippe returned to Haiti with former death squad leader Louis Jodel Chamblain, and had up to 50 armed supporters with him. Jean Pierre Baptiste, who calls himself General Tatoune, lead the march into the city. He was one of the leaders of the uprising that overthrew Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier in 1986. Under the military regime of the early 1990's, he joined the paramilitary outfit FRAPH (Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti) and was serving life in prison in Gonaves for his role in a 1994 massacre. A close associate of Chamblain, Emmanueal 'Toto' Constant, who lead the coup against Aristide in 1991, has admitted CIA financing for the movement. It has also been claimed that these paramilitaries received "some form" of training while in the Dominican Republic. These paramilitary thugs now control most of Haiti's north, and the rebels are today threatening an attempt to take Port-au-Prince. (snip/)

http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/103047.shtml
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/02/1671447.php

On edit:

Crisco, I'm sure you're right people in Venezuela and Cuba, maybe even Brazil, and Bolivia are watching this thoughtfully, undoubtedly.

_Bush will grab as much as he can before leaving, no matter what the cost, drunken with the thrill of wielding real right-wing malicious power.

They are, by the way, going to overthrow the very man Bill Clinton help retrieve his place as President, after the U.S. right-wing backed opposition overthrew him in the '90's.

Sick bustards.

[NashVegas]

9. I Couldn't Find

the exact pic I was referring to but found this on Reuters

[Just Me]

8. Many are watching and tracking,...

,...and the military industrial complex will finally be taken down by this small, impoverished member country of our world. Amazing how divine intervention operates. I believe the best is yet to come to shine light on that beastly apparatus which has walked all over humanity :D