Revisited: Coup in Haiti

[G_j]

The coup in Honduras had me thinking about how little interest was shown for the coup in Haiti

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040322/wilentz

Coup in Haiti
By Amy Wilentz

This article appeared in the March 22, 2004 edition of The Nation.
March 4, 2004

For those who know Haitian history, this has been a time of eerie, unhappy déjà vu. Part of the pain is to see the elected president coerced out of office by heavy-handed pressure from the United States and France, accompanied by a show of force and the threat of a blood bath. But to also hear that he's been spirited off to a secret location is to be bluntly reminded of the fate of the fabled leader of Haiti's revolution, former slave and stable boy Toussaint L'Ouverture, who was entrapped by the French, bound, and hustled away from Haiti on a ship, to die in solitary confinement in a fortress prison in the Jura mountains in France.

When Aristide descended from his plane in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, he made a brief statement: "In overthrowing me, they cut down the tree of peace, but it will grow again, because its roots are well planted." This was a deliberate allusion to Toussaint, who said, from aboard the ship, never to see Haiti again: "They have felled only the trunk of the tree. Branches will sprout again, for its roots are numerous and deep." The echo can be missed by no Haitian.

It's hard to justify contemporary comparisons to the founders of nations, especially when made not by a third party but by the leader himself. But in Bangui, Aristide was not so much comparing himself to Toussaint as he was making a connection between the French betrayal of Toussaint and the Americans' betrayal of his own presidency. Though the indications had been many, especially since George W. Bush came to power, Aristide had hesitated over the years--for reasons of political expedience--to come right out and say what was patently true.

But now he's saying it. What happened in Haiti was a coup d'état, and it's almost funny to hear Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Scott McClellan call that claim "absurd" and "nonsense." The coup didn't come in one fell strike, which fact camouflaged it for a time; we're used to a coup being a coup--which means a cut or blow in French--something sudden. But the coup against Aristide, and by extension against the Haitian people, was prolonged, a chronic coup. It began when Aristide was first elected at the end of 1990 and continued right up until he was hustled aboard a plane and flown to what he was told would be a place of his choice but that turned out to be the former homeland of fabled killer and diamond collector Jean-Bédel Bokassa, a country where, according to the CIA country report available on the web, a ten-year elected civilian government was recently replaced by a military coup d'état. Sound familiar?

One thing about coups: They don't just happen. In a country like Haiti, where the military has been disbanded for nearly a decade, soldiers don't simply emerge from the underbrush; they have to be reorganized, retrained and resupplied. And of course, for something to be organized, someone has to organize it. At the end of the 1700s when heroic fighters like Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Toussaint L'Ouverture joined forces to overthrow the French planters, they did it in a fashion quite similar to these latter-day brigands. Driving into one city after another with sabers drawn, burning and looting and seizing control, they took the north and then moved southward. Even then, with their scant means of communication, they planned it, they organized it. And they too had help from abroad--from the Americans, in fact.

..more..


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http://www.democracynow.org/2005/2/28/the_haiti_coup_one_year_later

February 28, 2005
The Haiti Coup One Year Later: A Look Back at the U.S. Role in the Overthrow of Aristide

the Overthrow of Aristide

On the first anniversary of the coup in Haiti, we look back at Democracy Now!‘s exclusive broadcast when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide went on camera for the first time to charge the U.S. kidnapped him and overthrew his government. We also broadcast the interview of his bodyguard Franz Gabriel who describes the events surrounding Aristide’s ouster.


Before we hear from Aristide, we wanted to go back to those days and listen to how the Bush administration was spinning the ouster.

On March 1, Democracy Now! broke the story that Aristide was directly accusing the US of overthrowing him in a coup, kidnapping him and taking him by force to the Central African Republic. That day US official after US official was asked about Aristide’s charge. Let’s listen to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and White House Secretary Scott McClellan.


..more..

[fascisthunter]

1. thank you.... kick!!!

[malaise]

2. K & R for my neighbors

who have never been allowed freedom because they seized it for themselves and Western Powers will never forgive them.

[choie]

3. whta are the odds of Obama's administration

investigating the Bushes involvement in this coup?

[G_j]

4. I hope nobody is holding their breath

..

[Cleita]

5. I have been thinking a lot about Haiti lately and I'm beginning to

wonder why. There is something coming up the road perhaps in the way of change for that beleaguered nation.

[pnorman]

6. The words that I recalled from a book of over a half century ago were:

"By overthrowing me, here in Santo Domingo, you have merely cut down the tree of liberty. But it will rise again, for its roots are numerous and deep". It's entirely possible that my recollection of the words is slightly defective here, but the flavor is spot on!

That book contained the writings of those who had been imprisoned for their beliefs ("political prisoners"). It included Rosa Luxemberg, Eugene V. Debs, (most likely Lenin), Gandhi, and Nehru. It also included such as Adolph Hitler, although he did the easiest time, by far. I dearly wish I could recall the title of that book, so that I could try to locate another copy!

pnorman

[G_j]

7. which brought this

to mind..


The Marines Have Landed on the Shores of Santo Domingo

by, Phil Ochs


And the crabs are crazy, they scuttle back and forth, the sand is burning

And the fish take flight and scatter from the sight, their courses turning

As the seagulls rest on the cold cannon nest, the sea is churning.

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo.


The fishermen sweat, they're pausing at their nets, the day's a-burning

As the warships sway and thunder in the bay, loud the morning.

But the boy on the shore is throwing pebbles no more, he runs a-warning

That the the marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo.


The streets are still, there's silence in the hills, the town is sleeping

And the farmers yawn in the grey silver dawn, the fields they're keeping

As the first troops land and step into the sand, the flags are weaving.

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo.


The unsmiling sun is shining down upon the singing soldiers

In the cloud dust whirl they whistle at the girls, they're getting bolder

The old women sigh, think of memories gone by, they shrug their shoulders.

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo.


Ready for the tricks, their bayonets are fixed, now they are rolling

And the tanks make tracks past the trembling shacks where fear's unfolding

All the young wives afraid, turn their backs to the parade with babes they're holding

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo


A bullet cracks the sound, the army hit the ground, the sniper's callin'

So they open their guns, a thousand to one, no sense in stalling

He clutches at his head and totters on the edge, look now he's falling

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo


In the red plaza square, the crowds come to stare, the heat is leaning

And the eyes of the dead are turning every head to the widows screaming

But the soldiers make a bid, giving candy to the kids, their teeth are gleaming

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo


Up and down the coast, the generals drink a toast, the wheel is spinning

And the cowards and the whores are peeking through the doors to see who's winning

But the traitors will pretend that it's getting near the end, when it£§s beginning

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo


And the crabs are crazy, they scuttle back and forth, the sand is burning

And the fish take flight and scatter from the sight, their courses turning

As the seagulls rest on the cold cannon nest, the sea is churning

The marines have landed on the shores of Santo Domingo

[pnorman]

10. "By overthrowing me...."

Quarrying deeper into imperfect memory through over a half century, I now believe that quote began with: "By imprisoning me, here in Santo Domingo,............."

That slave rebellion certainly terrorized slave-holders in our young republic, including even Thomas Jefferson!

pnorman

[bananas]

8. k&r nt

[G_j]

9. ==