The US Sponsored Coup in Haiti, March 2004

Archives of News Stories from February 19, 2004

FOR UPDATED BREAKING NEWS ON THE HAITI COUP & US ABDUCTION OF ARISTIDE CHECK THESE SITES:

Website for the Haiti Action Committee     BREAKING NEWS          Many good Links to Stories & Editorials     March 5    Updated Often

Haiti News Briefs      BREAKING NEWS         Frequent updates from the Haiti Support Group

**Latest News on Haiti coup       NEWS from Indybay from many sources via SEARCH        Indymedia Local    Updated Daily

Democracy Now!       NEWS on Haiti and other subjects on 'The War and Peace Report'      Also the last two daily reports are here

Flashpoints!         Major coverage on the US-sponsored Haiti coup from Pacifica Radio   LISTEN to the audio files and READ the News Information

openthreat.net - Listen to streaming audio broadcasts about the Haiti coup - Very good detailed information, Limbaugh Lies, Links

Haiti Progres - Good source of Weekly Alternative News on the Haiti coup      CLICK "ENGLISH" at the top of the page for a translated version

Haiti - Another Step Backward               Inter-Press Service news reports on the Haiti coup

News about Haiti                Important news updates from Human Rights Watch

BREAKING STORIES ON THE HAITI COUP D'ETAT - - - JULY 10, 2004

Political Repression by UN Troops in Haiti on Haitiaction.net June 23, 2004 Action Alert, many Contact phone numbers, in Media & Government

On June 14, 2004, at around 4:00 am in the morning, a contingent of French soldiers along with some U.N. soldiers invaded the home of the
duly elected Mayor of Milo, Jean Charles Moise. According to sources close to Mayor Jean Charles Moise, on finding that he was not home,
the soldiers arrested his wife and took her into custody, and possibly some other adults in his house, leaving his small underage children
without a mother. Mayor MoiseÕs house was ransacked and damaged by the soldiers.


Chaos Upon Chaos    by PC Lucson    for Counterpunch    June 21, 2004

Some of the rebels will be integrated into the police force despite the fact that they killed a great number of policemen and
burned down police headquarters in the lead up to the coup.

In most parts of the country, they appointed themselves as mayors, police chiefs and judges. Under Mr. Aristide’s leadership, the police force
was often criticized for being too heavily politicized. Under this technocratic administration, the police force will consist of convicted human
rights abusers, murderers, rapists, thugs and death squads who have committed some of the worst atrocities during the first coup in 1991.


Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop    by JG    for Counterpunch    June 16, 2004

The primary result of the latest coup in Haiti has been an omnipresent vacuum of power throughout. Those filling the void are members of Guy
Phillipe's Praetorian rebel guard, formerly exiled and or docile Duvalierists, Industrialist opportunists (Andy Apaid and company) and many other
serpent-like sub-creatures. On a border which has never been kept to the liking of the thousands of Haitians raped, massacred, brutalized and
terrorized by Dominican and Haitian thugs alike, the imminence of this power vacuum is manifest.


Why did Canada support a US coup in Haiti?     by Tom Reeves      on Canada's Rabble News      June 7, 2004

On May 10, U.S. Marines violently attacked the family compound in Port au Prince of a well-known folk singer, Annette Auguste.

On May 18, the Marines went further, accompanying a Haitian National Police SWAT team as they fired indiscriminately at the tens of
thousands of Haitians demonstrating on Haiti's Flag Day, demanding the return of their elected president.

The reason Canada went along with the U.S. so completely may have little to do with Haiti, and everything to do with Canadian politics.
Martin seeks to demonstrate that Canada is not “anti-US” in its foreign policy, despite Canada's independent posture on Iraq. Haiti was the
easiest place for this demonstration.


The New Haiti: Arrest, Murder and Repression   Interview on Democracy Now! with US Representative Maxine Waters   June 30, 2004

Now, if people pay close attention to what Jeb Bush is doing, I'm going to predict that he is in cahoots with Andy Apaid. They're going to try to
open up camps down there for cheap labor. He's going to bring his industrialist friends in to exploit the Haitian people one more time. Bush does
not care about the well-being of the Haitian people. Neither does his brother. Nothing is going on in the Congress of the United States, and a blind
eye is being turned to the fact that this puppet government, which was installed by the United States has the audacity to be jailing innocent people
while Guy Philippe and Jean Tatun and the real killers are still running around killing people.

Haiti's army turns back the clock                   STORY from nosweat.org in the UK                        March 29

It didn't take long for the new order in Haiti to reveal itself. The day after President Aristide 'left' for exile, 34 union members at the
Ouanaminthe garment assembly factory run by the Dominican Grupo M company, were fired. The next morning, when the 600-strong
workforce decided to strike, a group of armed men launched a violent attack. Some unionists were handcuffed, many others were
beaten up, and the workers were forced back inside the factory.


Our debt is long past due                 STORY from the Jamaica Observer                   March 28

Meanwhile, the bombastic Latortue, fresh from embracing a choice assemblage of bloody-handed murderers, desires to sit at the table
with people who consider themselves upright, law abiding and above all, respectable. The Bahamas put our position best: We simply
have no choice but to deal with whatever Haitian regime is there. Of course, if we don't, the US might just find it necessary to issue a
travel advisory about Bubonic Plague or Ebola fever in Nassau or Negril.
Condoleezza Rice has apparently threatened Jamaica directly, telling Patterson to get rid of Aristide or face unspecified consequences.

But, even as we speak, the Bush Administration is beginning to unravel, unconscionable lie by unconscionable lie. But we do not
understand that the slavemaster is in deep trouble and that we need not follow illegal orders.
----------------------------------------------------------
"We know that a corrupt army, representing a corrupt ruling class, has for 80 years enslaved the people of Haiti, shot them down in cold
blood, tortured and beaten them, burnt them alive, raped them, flogged them to death, and tried by every means to reduce a once proud
and defiant and independent people to the status of zombies, lesser than animals, things without souls . We know that there are many
Americans who are ashamed of their government's complicity in these high and stinking crimes, we know that there are many others of
all races in this world, who, if they knew, would be in the struggle to restore Haiti to its peace and dignity."


Haiti's Troika of Terror       (US Republican Party Sponsors Death Squads in Haiti)     STORY from The Black Commentator    March 25

The United States has delivered George Bush’s ghoulish brand of democracy to Haiti. The nightmarish components of Haiti’s ruling
troika gathered last Saturday, in Gonaives, the country’s fourth-largest city – a macabre assemblage that seemed designed to assault
the sensibilities of civilized humans.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiot Metayer was the slain commander of the drug-dealing Cannibal Army. Amiot’s brother, Butteur, wore a suit to signify his newfound
respectability and to dispel the memory of his followers’ mutilations of policemen’s bodies after the seizure of Gonaives in early February.
Lending further dignity to the occasion was Jean Tatun, the mass murderer who escaped from a life term in prison to join his fellow
U.S.-financed “rebels” at their Dominican Republic bases, last August. Guy Philippe, the Green Beret-trained, former police chief who fled
to the Dominican Republic in 2000 to avoid drug and coup charges, met the visiting dignitaries at the helicopter landing zone. Philippe is a
hit with the New York Times, which called him “personable” and “media-smart,” and reported that the “rebel leader” promised to “put his
forces under the prime minister's orders.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
Convict-rule may be preferable to the tender mercies of Latortue’s friends. “In the seaside town of Les Cayes, armed rebels who helped
oust Haiti's first democratically elected leader carry out public executions, unchallenged by police or foreign troops,” said news reports.

Throughout Haiti, mere suspicion of Aristide association may mark citizens for death – “reconciliation,” gangster style. The Associated
Press reports that Senator Yvon Feuille has “charged Lavalas members were being hounded across the country and even being killed.”

Condoleezza Rice Threatens Jamaica Over Aristide          STORY from Democracy Now! reposted on indybay.org          March 26

RANDALL ROBINSON: It was clear that Ms. Rice told the Jamaican Government that if Aristide was not expelled immediately, and anything
happened to any American forces in Haiti, that the consequences of that would be exacted against a president or against Jamaica by the
United States with full force. Now, one doesn't know what that means, but we know what America is capable of doing. It's abducted the
President. It executed the coup. It took him to a country with which it has no relations, nor does any African country to speak of, that the
state department warns all people not to go to.


Caribbean leaders Don't Accept Haiti Government              AP STORY by Wilkinson on Yahoo! News                March 26

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - The 15-nation Caribbean Community withheld recognition from Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government
Saturday as leaders closed a summit renewing calls for a U.N. investigation into the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
-------------------------------------------------
The participating Caribbean leaders issued a statement early Saturday saying "no action should be taken to legitimize the rebel forces."
They said while Haiti remains a "welcome partner" in the Caribbean Community, "there has been an interruption of the democratic process."
-------------------------------------------------
Caribbean leaders declined to participate in the current U.S.-led international force, angry that the Security Council refused their urgent
plea to send troops in time to save Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected leader.
-------------------------------------------------
In Haiti, meanwhile, the interim government announced it will block dozens of ex-members of Aristide's government from leaving the
country, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune.

New Justice Minister Bernard Gousse told The Associated Press the move was an "insurance policy" that will make sure the officials are
available for investigations into embezzlement and other alleged crimes.


Caribbean Said Not to Accept Haiti Government      The same AP STORY by Wilkinson, from UK Guardian, (less CENSORED)      March 26   

Caribbean leaders are angry that the Security Council refused their urgent plea to send international troops to save Aristide, Haiti's first
democratically elected leader, but speedily sanctioned a U.S.-led intervention after he fled. ('Conveniently' omitted from the Yahoo! News)


Haiti in a CARICOM limbo                STORY by Rickey Singh on Trinidad Express website            March 26

Latortue's chance of being given an informal audience by Caricom leaders, without recognition of the regime in Haiti, was dashed
by his surprising embrace last weekend at a political rally in his hometown of Gonaives of armed rebels as "liberators" and "freedom
fighters" in ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power on February 29.


Aristide Party Emerges from Hiding, Demands Peace                    STORY from Reuters                          March 25

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party emerged from hiding on
Thursday to demand the new government disarm all sides in the divided country and end intolerance, arrests and killings.
-------------------------------------------------
Latortue, 69, a former U.N. bureaucrat picked by a council of prominent Haitians to run the government until new elections, provoked
an outcry from rights groups when he applauded the rebels as "freedom fighters" last Saturday.
Lavalas sympathizers said his embrace of the gunmen, some of whom are convicted human rights abusers or suspected drug runners,
showed the revolt against Aristide was a "coup" by the country's small elite to rob the poor masses of their vote.
"A prime minister hand-in-hand with a convicted mass murderer and calling him a freedom fighter ... Frankly, it's scary," said Patrick Elie,
a former secretary of defense under Aristide.


Haiti's US-Installed prime minister hails fascist gunmen                         STORY on wsws.org                         March 25

A government rally in Gonaïves March 20 has provided further proof that the Bush administration, the “political opposition” to Haiti’s
deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the fascist gunmen who overran the Caribbean-island country have been acting in concert.

Appearing outside Port-au-Prince for the first time since becoming Haiti’s Prime Minister, Gérard Latortue hailed the rebels—a force led by
and comprised of thugs of previous dictatorships, including the FRAPH death squad—as “freedom fighters.”
----------------------------------------------------------
Both local fishermen and a spokesman for the French military, which has deployed troops to Cap-Haïtien, report that corpses continue to be
found in the bay that Haiti’s second largest city bestrides. Officials also report, writes Dodd, that “dozens of bullet-riddled bodies have been
brought to the morgue in the last month.”
 

Restavek girl on Hit List for giving Aristide flowers     STORY from Haiti Action   (Your tax dollars are funding the Bush death squads' "Democracy")

One of Haiti's 400,000 restaveks (unpaid domestic servants) is in hiding in Northern Haiti after death squads targeted her after they looted her school
where they found a photograph of her giving flowers to President Aristide. The girl, whose name has been withheld for her own safety, is 12 years old.

Is the US Trying to Expel Aristide From the Hemisphere?           STORY from Democracy Now!           March 23

RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, I learned yesterday from news sources that Nigeria had been pressured by the United States to grant President
Aristide temporary asylum. And further learned from sources in the State Department that the Bush Administration had pointedly threatened
Jamaica to make the application to Nigeria for Mr. Aristide.
---------------------------------------------------------------
It is the picture of what has happened. That they have put in Haiti a new 'president' from Boca Raton, Florida, Mr. Latortue,
unelected, installed, unknown to anyone, something of a buffoon, installed as a puppet by the Americans in league with the thugs armed
by America who overthrew the democracy of Aristide at America's instruction and with American sufferance. These people had in their hands
some of the 20,000 M-16's that the U.S. had provided to the Dominican Republic for border use.


Alarm at Haiti PM's 'Unholy Alliance' with Rebels         STORY from REUTERS           March 22

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Haiti's new leader promised reconciliation but may instead be widening divides in his
troubled Caribbean country by praising an armed gang that helped oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Rights groups and Haiti experts said on Monday they were alarmed at prospects for national unity, the rule of law and justice
after Prime Minister Gerard Latortue hailed thugs that launched a rebellion against Aristide as "freedom fighters."


Shameful Blunder on Haiti               STORY from Trinidad & Tobago Express                March 17

The Silence of the Graveyard - Human rights protections disappear further into the fog of the coup    STORY from Haiti Action     March 15

Calls to Haiti over the weekend and this morning suggest that the human rights situation in Haiti remains extremely serious. Even in some
parts of the capital, where there may be some outward semblance of calm during the day, there are many reports of human rights violations
taking place during the night, and survivors of the death squads that terrorized the country from 1991-1994 say that it is not just a handful of rebel
leaders who have come back to destroy their democracy, it is an army composed of the very same death squads to whom they said "Never Again".


The reappearance of the FRAPH/FAD'H is nothing less than a stinking stain on today's Haiti            STORY on The Dominion Weblog

(Contains valuable background information on six death-squad leaders who were armed & supported by Bush & US tax dollars)

The (Democratic) Convergence was formed as a broad group with help from the International Republican Institute, an organisation that
promotes democracy that is closely identified with the U.S. Republican Party. It includes former Aristide allies -- people who helped him
fight Haiti's dictators, then soured as they watched him at work. But it also includes former backers of the hated Duvalier family dictatorship
and of the military officers who overthrew Aristide in 1991 and terrorised the country for three years. The most determined of these men,
with a promise of anonymity, freely express their desire to see the U.S. military intervene once again, this time to get rid of Aristide and
rebuild the disbanded Haitian army. "That would be the cleanest solution," said one opposition party leader. Failing that, they say, the CIA
should train and equip Haitian officers exiled in the neighboring Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback themselves."

Don't Let Haiti Re-establish an Army by Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica, 1987 Nobel Peace Laureate STORY on Roanoke.com March 16

No one president can reduce military autonomy and disarm warring factions on his own. In the case of Haiti, not only was the struggling democracy
cut off from outside aid but an armed insurrection of former military and death-squad leaders was in the end endorsed by the U.S. and French governments.

Were the international community now to stand by as the rebels reinstated the army, it would surely destroy the seeds of peace and self-rule
that have been planted with great sacrifice by the Haitian people.


Aristide Arrives in Jamaica           STORY from Reuters on New York Times website           March 15

Aristide, a former slum priest driven out by a monthlong rebellion and U.S. pressure, landed in Jamaica with his Haitian-American
wife Mildred after flying halfway around the world from Africa in a jet chartered by supporters.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Latortue's goal of 'reconciliation' may be undermined by weekend arrests that seemed to target members of Aristide's Lavalas Family
political movement.


How Involved Was the United States in the Removal of Aristide?       STORY from Power & Interest News Report (PINR)        March 15

Washington's final decision involved sending an armed security element to Aristide's place of residence, advising him that the United States
would do nothing to preserve his rule, and if he did not accept Washington's offer of safe haven out of Haiti, the United States would stand by
as rebel forces stormed Port-au-Prince, a situation that would have likely led to bloodshed in the streets coupled with Aristide's death.


US Backed Haitian Police Begin Rounding Up Supporters Of Democratically Elected President        STORY from Reuters       March 14

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Haitian police rounded up supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide over the weekend,
and the impoverished Caribbean country's new police chief warned on Sunday the jails would be packed in coming weeks.
--------------------------------------------------
They included Jacques Anthony Nazaire, in charge of Aristide's car pool, Rospide Petion, an Aristide supporter known as "12" accused of
attacking opposition radio stations, and Harold Severe, a former deputy mayor of Port-au-Prince.
--------------------------------------------------
"They're chasing after people who were with Aristide," Nazaire told Reuters through the jailhouse bars. Asked if he expected a fair trial,
he said: "I can't hope for anything. If there was a real effort at reconciliation, this wouldn't be happening."
--------------------------------------------------
Charles acknowledged his police force would not immediately go after convicted human rights abusers and mass killers who fought with
the armed rebels that helped send Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected leader, into exile.


Haiti's Democracy in Flames; Powell's dirty-dealing demolishes the tattered remnants of his credibility   STORY from In These Times   March 13

Today Haiti is a horrific mess, but it can’t entirely be attributed to President Aristide’s “flawed performance.” If Aristide was flawed,
it was largely due to the impossible conditions laid down by Washington for him to rule.

Powell had exacerbated Haiti’s last three years of strife and misery by caving into Noreiga and Reich’s Miami-bred zealotry and accepting their interpretation of events. He supported the continued freeze of $500 million in multilateral assistance to Haiti based on the exaggerations and
distortion of what took place in the May 2000 senate elections, when Aristide was not president. Again, as he repeatedly had done in Iraq, Powell
presented the American public with an entirely false picture of what caused Haiti’s political and economic difficulties.

There is no disputing that the extremism and mean-spirited nature of Washington’s Haitian policy prevented democratic practices from taking root
on the island. Secretary of State Powell must be condemned for sponsoring a strategy that was superficial, illogical, narrowly conceptualized and damaging both to the U.S. national interest and Haiti’s most basic needs.


Role in Haiti Events Backfiring on Washington             STORY on Yahoo! News             March 12

The Congressional Black Caucus (news - web sites) (CBC) and Senate Democrats are now charging that Washington was at the very least
complicit in an effective coup d'etat.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Along with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)--whose efforts to mediate between Aristide and his opposition were abruptly terminated
when the president was flown to the Central African Republic--and the African Union, Democrats and the CBC are demanding an investigation
of the circumstances of his exile.


Return Aristide to Haiti, Try Bush as a Global Pirate           STORY on Black Commentator                 March 11

The Bush men have the Madness Touch. Their very presence warps conventional notions of reality.

Thus, the new “prime minister” of Haiti appears as surprised as the rest of his countrymen when conveyed the title by an “eminent”
rump of persons chosen by the occupying power.


Operation Enduring Sweatshop; Another Bush Brings Hell to Haiti           STORY from Counterpunch           March 10

This week, the Bush administration added another violent "regime change" notch to its gunbelt, toppling the democratically elected
president of Haiti and replacing him with an unelected gang of convicted killers, death squad leaders, militarists, narcoterrorists, CIA
operatives, hereditary elitists and corporate predators - a bit like Team Bush itself, in other words.

Jamaica: Aristide to Return to Caribbean            STORY on Yahoo! News              March 11
 
 KINGSTON, Jamaica - Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife will travel to Jamaica next week, returning
 to the Caribbean less than three weeks after fleeing into exile, Jamaica's prime minister said Thursday.
 
 
 Haiti 'rebel army' already using weapons to defend Levi's profits     The STORY of Levi Strauss firings, etc. from indybay.org     March 10
 
 On Monday March 2nd, 2004, 34 members of the trade union SOKOWA (Sendika Ouvriye Kodevi Wanament -
 Ouanaminthe Codevi Workers' Union) in the Codevi Free Trade Zone in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, were brutalized
 and illegally fired by the company's management and told to come take their paychecks next Monday, March 8th.
 These firings were accompanied by many threats at gunpoint, as well as physical abuse.
 
 
 Haiti's New Prime Minister Says Elections May Be Two Years Away         Short STORY from MIT         March 12
 
 (Latortue also called the FRAPH Death Squad killers and genocidal murderers "freedom fighters")
 
 
 Haiti Foreign Press Update              Twelve STORIES about Haiti from indybay.org            March 12
 
 Aristide's lawyers preparing complaints against U.S., France            AP STORY from Sacramento Bee           March 10

Aristide Speaks to Democracy Now! in English Language Interview         INTERVIEW from Democracy Now!        March 8
 
 PRESIDENT ARISTIDE: No, I did not resign. I exchanged words through conversations, we exchanged notes. I gave a written note before
 I went to the press at the time. And instead of taking me where they said they were taking me in front of the Haitian press, the foreign press,
 to talk to the people, to explain what is going on, to call for peace. They used that note as a letter of resignation, and I say, they are lying.
 
 
 South Africa Cannot Back the Removal of Aristide          STORY from allafrica.com           March 8
 
 Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has issued a statement, saying "the South African government joins Caricom leaders in
 expressing deep concern regarding developments and circumstances that led to the departure of a democratically elected president,
 Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from office ... The slow response of the UN Security Council to pleas for assistance by the government of Haiti ...
 remains a matter of serious concern ... SA stands ready to support all efforts by Caricom to help bring stability, peace and security to Haiti".
 
 
 Democrats Slam Bush Administration over Aristide Ouster         STORY from Yahoo! News          March 4
 
 Sen. Christopher Dodd sharply questioned the administration's position that Aristide's resignation was voluntary. ""It is indisputable based
 on everything we know," he said, "that the U.S. played a very direct and public role in pressuring him to leave office by making it clear
 that the united States would do nothing to protect him from the armed thugs who (were) threatening to kill him. His choice was simple:
 Stay in Haiti with no protection from the international community, including the U.S., and be killed or you can leave the country. That is
 hardly what I would call a voluntary decision to leave."
 
 
 Haitian Democracy be Damned!             Good EDITORIAL from Counterpunch            Weekend edition, March 6 & March 7
 
 Aristide calls for resistance after six killed in Haiti violence          STORY from channelnewsasia.com           March 8
 
 The ouster of democracy                  Excellent STORY in the Guardian, UK                 March 8
 
 Kerry Condemns Bush for Failing to Back Aristide           STORY in New York Times           March 7

Delegation Supportive of Aristide Blocked From Visiting Or Speaking With Him In Central African Republic    STORY on Buzzflash  March 7

"We were stopped at the gates by a guard who contacted a Central African Republic official inside the building. A representative of the
Central African Republic came out to speak with us," Ives reported. "We asked to go in to visit President Aristide and were told we could not.
We asked if he could come out to see us, and we were told no. We asked if we could send in a note or our phone number, and we were told no.
The official then told us that he had spoken with the Minister of Defense and that Aristide was not allowed to receive visitors."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The world has been told that President Aristide is free to come and go, and that he has simply chosen not to leave," said Sara Flounders of
the International Action Center. "The fact that our delegation has been denied all forms of contact with President Aristide confirms, in fact, that
he is being kept under lock and key, at this point not even able to communicate by phone."


Operation Sweatshop       STORY in the Moscow Times        Very revealing information         March 7

Mr. Aristede's real crime, of course, was not the Florida-style election follies or the reported "tyranny." Bush loves that stuff -- witness
his eager embrace of the nuke-peddling dictatorship of Pakistan, the human-boiling hardman of Uzbekistan, the torture-happy tyrant of
Kazakhstan, the drug-running warlords of Afghanistan and so forth.

No, Aristide did something far worse than stuffing ballots or killing people -- he tried to raise the minimum wage to the princely sum of
two dollars a day. This move outraged the American corporations -- and their local lackeys -- who have for generations used Haiti as a pool
of dirt-cheap labor and sky-high profits. It was the last straw for the elitist factions, one of which is actually led by an American citizen and
former Reagan-Bush appointee, manufacturing tycoon Andy Apaid.

( From Reader Mail on www.whatreallyhappened.com )
READER: Here's what I don't get. What does Haiti have that the U.S. would bother sponsoring a coup in the first place?

WRH: It's a key stopover on the CIA's drug route into the US, and it is strategically placed to militarily control the Caribbean.
In particular, it provides a second launching point for an eventual invasion of Cuba.

US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit      STORY from The Independent News in the UK         March 5

South Africa has said it would offer Mr. Aristide asylum if it was asked.
The Central African Republic made a similar offer yesterday, but said 'it was in no position to pay for his upkeep in the long term'.


from the Democracy Now! Interview from March 4, 2004
and Democracy Now! Interview with the South African ambassador to the UN   on March 2, 2004

The South African foreign minister said "there's been no request for asylum."

The US State Department is telling an interested public, including members of the congress, that "South Africa refused asylum".
The State Department knows better. They know that President Aristide was not allowed to request asylum from South Africa or
anybody else because he was not allowed to make any phone calls before they left Haiti, during the flight, and beyond.
 

From the recent USA TODAY Article of March 1, 2004

Several countries including Panama and Costa Rica said they would offer exile to Aristide

 

Caribbean Won't Help With Peacekeeping     STORY from the New York Times      March 4

Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was ``extremely disappointed'' at the involvement
of ``Western partners'' in the hasty departure of Aristide, who flew Sunday to asylum in the Central African Republic aboard an
American-supplied jet.

Speaking for the trading bloc, Patterson decried what he said was the U.N. Security Council's failure to respond to its appeals last week
for an international peacekeeping force to restore order before Aristide fled the country.


Caribbean Nations Call For UN Investigation on Ouster of Aristide in Haiti     STORY on Democracy Now! website    March 5

Coup in Haiti            STORY from The Nation           March 4

When push came to shove this time around, the Bush Administration, which paid lip service to the continuation in office of the
democratically elected president, refused to send in the Marines until the president was bundled off and safely stowed away in
the heart of Africa, under virtual house arrest.


Four Wars and a Cloud of Dust       Good EDITORIAL by Molly Ivins     on Working for Change       March 2

The Bush administration wanted this to happen -- it held up $500 million worth of humanitarian aid from the United States,
World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and International Monetary Fund. Without U.S. or multilateral help, the country
spiraled downward.

New Boss, Worse Than The Old Boss       GOOD EDITORIAL by Ted Rall       Yahoo! News      March 2
 
 The Bushies have learned from their failed attempt to overthrow President Hugo Chávez. Rather than rely on a pathetic grab bag
 of businessmen and fringe political hacks to pull off a civilian putsch as they did in Venezuela, the CIA directly funded and armed
 Duvalier-affiliated thugs to seize control militarily. U.S. Special Forces-trained ex-coup leader Guy Philippe and leaders of the
 CIA-backed paramilitary FRAPH death squad, supplied with thousands of U.S.-made M-16 and M-60 rifles as well as rocket-propelled
 grenades and tank-busting artillery shells (most likely at U.S. taxpayer expense), invaded Haiti from bases in the Dominican Republic.
 

Aristide's Address to Haitian People, on March 5, 2004    Translated to English   LISTEN or READ on Flashpoints! Radio   Many Story Links

Complete Transcript of President Aristide's Address to the Haitian People on Pacific News Service delivered on March 5, 2004

Aristide Supporters March Through Haiti        Over 10 thousand people marched       STORY on Yahoo! News          March 5

Godfather Colin Powell           STORY by Kevin Pina   from The Black Commentator    reposted on zmag.org website     March 5

US Says Aristide Exit a "Lesson for Failed Leaders"    STORY from Reuters   March 5   Arrogance, Dishonesty, & Dishonor from Smirk & Co.

Haitians in Haiti are being slaughtered         STORY from 'Dread Times' at Afrikan.net       March 4         Updated often

Rep. Maxine Waters Says Aristide Is Being Held Like a Prisoner      INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT from Democracy Now!      March 4

US, France Depose Haiti Democracy     Complete News Coverage & STORY by indymedia at Indybay.org   Audio, Video, Links Updated Daily

Urgent Alert: US Led Coup In Haiti?      E-mail your congressperson by using the info here      STORY is on UN Observer March 3

2004-03-03 | Ira Kurzban, the lawyer who represents President Jean Bertrand Aristide has announced that he had just learned
that the Central African Republic (CAR) has shut off President Aristide's phone service. He said that armed members of the French
and CAR military are guarding President Aristide and he is not free to leave.

While there are many conflicting reports coming out of Haiti and Central Africa, the only way we will be able to determine the
truth is open communications and immediate investigations.

In the United States, send an Email to your congressperson calling for the following:       (Read entire article HERE)


A Typical American Coup    Very complete historical data       STORY from Germany is in English    www.heise.de    March 3

Perhaps the reason why journalists, especially those from the US and other "allied" countries, failed to dig deep into what
was going on is because they know what they would find: that the US was behind the ugly overthrow of a democratically
elected government, a move akin to the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990.


Reign of terror follows US-backed coup in Haiti       STORY on WS Website    March 3

The US ouster of President Jean Bertrand Aristide and Haiti’s occupation by a US-led military force have set the stage for
a bloody wave of repression in the impoverished Caribbean island nation.

By means of covert subversion and overt military intervention, the Bush administration has overthrown a popularly elected
president and resurrected political forces linked to decades of dictatorship and counterrevolutionary terror in Haiti.
_______________________________________________________
Guy Philippe, a former army officer and police chief who was charged with drug trafficking and conducting summary
executions, is a leader of the “rebels.”


Haiti fears a repeat of the past as new rulers arrive        STORY on news.Independent.co.uk       March 3

Bush undermined Haiti democracy          Good article by Jesse Jackson on the Chicago Sun-Times website      March 2

The U.S. government never liked Aristide. The neocons loathed him as a messianic dreamer who believed in redistribution
of wealth. The CIA's covert operators viewed him as an ideological adversary. The Haitian elites enlisted lobbyists from both
parties to undermine him. The Haitian military, which he disbanded, despised him.

So when the Haitian ''opposition,'' led by that same elite, fed the thugs, former death squad killers, gun-runners and drug dealers
who formed the armed rebellion against Aristide, the United States did nothing.


Why they had to crush Aristide         Good Commentary in the Guardian Unlimited (U.K.)       March 2

Aristide was forced from office on Sunday by people who have little in common except their opposition to his progressive
policies and their refusal of the democratic process. With the enthusiastic backing of Haiti's former colonial master, a leader
elected with overwhelming popular support has been driven from office by a loose association of convicted human rights abusers,
seditious former army officers and pro-American business leaders.


Ramsey Clark On Haiti: "A Clear Demonstration of US Regime Change By Armed Aggression"   TRANSCRIPT on Democracy Now!   March 2

Why did they cut off humanitarian aid to the poorest country in the hemisphere when they knew how desperate people were getting?
Why'd they maintain an embargo? How do you think, you know, the same elements, the old military frap, gangs, got into Haiti with M-16's
and M-60's from the Dominican Republic, with which President Bush personally has a close relationship and presence there, except the
United States? Why did we tell Aristide, after they got in, that he should leave? Did we ever tell these gunman who were killing people --
half of the casualties that were counted were police officers. Imagine that. People coming in and shooting up the police in the United States.


Haiti - Charges of complicity        STORY on www.americanprogress.org        March 2

Haitian Headache          STORY on MotherJones.com      Numerous outside links     March 2

Congressional Black Caucus says "Bush helped rebels oust Aristide"          STORY on TheHill.com        March 2, 2004

Haiti, More chaos, more questions           STORY on AmericanProgress.org        Many links to facts      March 1

Exclusive Breaking News: President Aristide says 'I was kidnapped. Tell the world it is a coup"
STORY on Democracy Now! March 1, 2004

Multiple sources that just spoke with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide told Democracy Now! that Aristide says he was "kidnapped"
and taken by force to the Central African Republic. Congressmember Maxine Waters said she received a call from Aristide at 9am EST.
"He's surrounded by military. It's like he is in jail, he said. He says he was kidnapped," said Waters. She said he had been threatened by
what he called US diplomats. According to Waters, the diplomats reportedly told the Haitian president that if he did not leave Haiti,
paramilitary leader Guy Philippe would storm the palace and Aristide would be killed. According to Waters, Aristide was told by the US
that they were withdrawing Aristide's US security.
----------------
Randall Robinson, former president of TransAfrica, a Washington-based group that monitors U.S. policy toward Africa and the Caribbean
and supported Aristide, told CNN that the former Haitian president claimed he was abducted from Haiti by U.S. troops who accompanied
him on a flight to the Central African Republic.
``He did not resign, he was kidnapped. We have undertaken a coup against a democratically elected government in Haiti,'' Robinson said,
adding that Aristide told him that he and his wife were not allowed to make any telephone calls before leaving and did not sign a resignation.
--------------
''The world must know it was a coup,'' Waters quoted Aristide as saying. ``That I was kidnapped. That I was forced out. That's what happened.
I did not resign. I did not go willingly. I was forced to go.''
--------------
""What the president has told Maxine Waters is that the officials from the U.S. Embassy and others came into his house, told him he that was going
to be executed, told him that his wife was going to be executed and his followers were going to be executed, and he had to leave the country
immediately. And that when he resisted during that, they brought in the Marines to forcibly take him out," said Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban.

Aristide claims US staged coup     STORY from Reuters on March 2, 2004    Latest Breaking News article

Aristide: 'I call it a coup d'etat'     STORY on CNN.com     Latest Breaking News posted on March 2, 2004

Good Updated News Sources on this story ***

Agence France Press says "Aristide Didn't Resign..." A forum with current posts on the Haiti situation, VERY INFORMATIVE UPDATES

US Forces Regime Change in Haiti, Kidnaps Aristide     VERY THOROUGH NEWS COVERAGE from Independent Media Center

Other Articles on the Haiti coup on March 1, 2004

Ousted Haitian President Aristide claims he was "kidnapped"    STORY in San Jose, California, Mercury News March 1, 2004

''For Aristide, it was coming down to leaving on a Lear jet or in a body bag,'' one participant, requesting anonymity, told The (Miami) Herald.

There were indications, however, that Aristide was misled about his destination. He reportedly asked to be taken to South Africa, but ended
up instead in the Central African Republic.

Waters said Aristide was being held -- under guard by unspecified troops -- in that nation's Palace of the Renaissance.

''He feels like he is in jail,'' Waters said.


The fire this time in Haiti was US-fueled     STORY in Taipei, Taiwan Times March 1, 2004 How Bush blocked all aid to Haiti

The US position was a travesty. Aristide had been elected president in an indisputable landslide. He was, without doubt, the
popularly elected leader of the country -- a claim that President George W. Bush cannot make about himself.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Aristide's opponents know that US right-wingers will stand with them to bring them violently to power. As long as that remains
true, Haiti's agony will continue.


The overthrow of Haiti's Aristide: a coup made in the USA       STORY from WS Website   March 1, 2004

Aristide’s overthrow is the outcome of a bloody coup orchestrated by the Bush administration and aided by the Chirac government
in Paris. It was executed by a band of killers drawn from the disbanded and discredited Haitian army and the CIA-backed death
squads that terrorized the population under the former military dictatorship that ruled the country in the early 1990s.


Haiti as Target Practice - How the US Press Missed the Story      STORY on Counterpunch March 1, 2004

Also unexplored by the same reporters were reports that the groups terrorizing Gonaïves had come from across the border,
from the Dominican Republic. Given this knowledge, it is curious that no reporter then bothered to inquire how these groups
obtained ample caches of brand-new M-16s, M-60s, armor piercing weapons, all-terrain vehicles, and rocket-propelled grenade
launchers - equipment far beyond the reach of the Haiti's own impecunious security forces.


US Foments Papa Doc Restoration      STORY from Jeffrey Sachs in the Financial Times of London

The ease with which the US thereby brought down another Latin American democracy is stunning. What has been the CIA's role
among the anti-Aristide rebels? How much US money went from US institutions and government agencies to help foment this
uprising? Why did the White House abandon the Caribbean compromise proposal it endorsed just days before? These questions
have not been asked. Then again, we live in an age when entire wars can be launched on phony pretences with few questions asked.


Aristide: US forced me to leave       STORY from the BBC Website

Shattered Democracy in Haiti     STORY in the New York Times March 1, 2004   Short article about how Bush mishandled the situation

US Sponsored Regime Change in Haiti      STORY from Alternet.org   Details on 'the coup', what Representatives Lee & Waters said

Aristide backers blame US for ouster       STORY in the Boston Globe March 1, 2004


IS THE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA NEXT ON THE 'LIST' ?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Called Bush an "Asshole" on Sunday     STORY from Reuters in New York Times, February 29, 2004

Haiti Needs Your Help       OLDER STORY from Peace No War on Feb. 23, 2004

We've seen this one before..

Chile 1973 - US-backed coup overthrows popularly elected government: Pres. Allende killed.

Haiti 1991 - US-backed coup overthrows popularly elected government: Pres. Aristide exiled.

Haiti 2001 - Attempted coup d'etat: A million people loyal to Pres. Aristide rise up to stop it!

Venezuela 2003 - US-backed coup d'etat fails: Millions loyal to Pres. Chavez rise up to stop it!

Now a new coup d'etat is brewing in Haiti (and Venezuela)

Who are the 'rebels'? -- These death squads -- led by veterans of the Ton Ton Macoutes terror gangs (from the time of the Duvalier family dictatorship) and the CIA-supported FRAPH (from the 1991-94 coup years) -- are terrorizing the country, seizing towns and police stations, killing people from the popular organizations, vowing to overthrow Aristide by force of arms.

Who's behind it? -- Sweatshop owners and other members of Haiti's business and landowning elite, who fear the "people power" program of President Aristide -- and behind them, the United States government, unhappy with Aristide's refusal to toe Washington's line.

* Last year the US shipped tons of weapons to the neighboring Dominican Republic, many of which are now turning up in Haiti in the hands of the death squads.

* For a decade the US has run a destabilization and disinformation campaign in Haiti to undermine and demonize the Aristide government -- funneling money to opposition groups, financing captive media outlets, "salting" the Haitian police with CIA-trained operatives.

Is the US Government financing & supporting the fascist right-wing death squad leader in Haiti?

In not so subtle statements, US officials have hinted that they want Aristide gone. But Secretary of State Colin Powell was forced
this week to officially renounce this. But for anyone following Haiti over the years, it comes as no surprise that Washington may well
be involved. What is particularly troubling to veteran observers in Haitian politics is the fact that some of the leaders of the armed gangs
are men who were at the forefront of the campaign of terror in the early 1990s in Haiti that ultimately led to the overthrow of Aristide.

In this period, the Haitian Armed Forces and the right-wing paramilitary death squad FRAPH, which was supported by the CIA and other
US agencies, were the principal organizations behind the reign of terror against unarmed civilians that included at least 5,000 murders,
300,000 internal refugees, 40,000 boat people, and countless tortures, rapes, thefts, and beatings. According to the Haitian newspaper
Haiti-Progres, a man named Louis Jodel Chamblain arrived this week in the Haitian city of Gonaives-where the armed gangs are largely
based. Chamblain is the former vice-president of the FRAPH paramilitary death squad.

Full text of this February 19, 2004 article is HERE thanks to Democracy Now! Radio
 

US Goal: Declare Haiti a "Failed State"
 
 Excerpts from a Feb. 19, 2004 article on 'The Black Commentator'
 
 For three years Washington and the European Union have imposed an aid embargo on Haiti, squeezing the hemisphere’s
 poorest nation until it screamed – and then squeezing harder.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Frustrated, the U.S. unleashed the mad dogs of the old regime, based in the neighboring Dominican Republic. The Haitian elite,
 too tiny and effete to field any forces of their own, enlisted drug gangs as shock troops for what Prime Minister Yvon Neptune
 called the ”coup in motion.”
 
 Much of the northern part of the country has fallen to the gangsters and former death squads. The U.S. has delivered Haiti into
 Hell, as planned. Now Washington waits for the proper moment to declare Haiti a failed state.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 How innocent. The “violence we are seeing” has been orchestrated by the United States, which now poses as a mediator
 between “the sides.” Powell would prefer to be invited into Haiti, if not by the Haitian government, then by a gaggle of
 “willing nations” purchased for the occasion.
 
 Only a week ago, between 300,000 and one million Haitians rallied to Aristide’s government, in Port-au-Prince. They represent
 the only brake on American ambitions. There is no doubt that the U.S. has the power to turn Haiti into a cauldron of blood.
 However, Colin Powell prefers to calibrate the operation, stretching it out in stages, so that the Americans can once again
 pretend to be reluctant liberators of an oppressed, bleeding people.
 

Is the US funding Haitian "contras"?  READ the story from April, 2003 on 'The Black Commentator' website

Taken as a whole, one can argue that U.S. press coverage of events in Haiti has tended to be slanted against Aristide and Lavalas while
showing preference towards the "opposition" and that famous Bush notion of "regime change." Article after article focuses solely on the
negatives of the current government to the exclusion of anything remotely positive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These two examples, of which there are many more, are central to understanding the grassroots work of Aristide's Lavalas party and hence
its popularity among the poor majority. Unfortunately, you will never get the opportunity to enjoy these stories woven from the wonderful
prose of the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or The Miami Herald. They are simply not interested
in telling you the whole story. It is apparently not their priority to do so and we are left to ask why.

A few select members of the Lavalas party recently described for me what they view as the first phase of Washington's scheme for Haiti.
They defined its three major concurrent objectives as: 1) to create an opposition force capable of seizing power, 2) demonize Aristide
and Lavalas within and without Haiti and, 3) separate the base of Lavalas from the leadership.

                            Cartoon by Jack Curtin & Rob Davis at The Dubya Chronicles