Haiti

Subject: [IAC/NYC] STOP THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF HAITI! RESTORE
PRESIDENT ARISTIDE!
Sender: actioncenter.nycact-bounces@organizerweb.com

February 29, 2004

International Action Center Condemns U.S. gunboat diplomacy in Haiti
STOP THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF HAITI! RESTORE PRESIDENT ARISTIDE!
EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATIONS PLANNED NATIONWIDE

The International Action Center condemns the forcible overthrow of 
the government of Haiti and the removal of popularly elected 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by the U.S. and French military. We 
demand that President Aristide be allowed to return and that the U.S. 
withdraw its occupation troops, agents and terrorist mercenary forces 
from Haiti's soil.

The departure of President Aristide was far from a voluntary decision 
for the "good of the country," as George Bush's mouthpiece in Haiti, 
Ambassador James Foley, maintains. No one in the Bush regime cares 
about what?s good for Haiti. If they did, they would not have 
tortured the Haitian people with years of economic sanctions. They 
would not have armed and paid the mercenary death squads that are 
terrorizing northern Haiti, murdering political opponents and 
threatening to turn Port-au-Prince into a killing field.
President Aristide left Haiti under the guns of a U.S. Naval task 
force and thousands of U.S. Marines, with Marine helicopters hovering 
over the presidential palace and U.S.-armed mercenaries surrounding 
the capital. Haiti's capital is now under U.S. military occupation.

With conflicting reports coming out of Haiti, it?s becoming 
increasingly clear that the President was kidnapped. The 
corporate-owned U.S. news media have been dishonest in the reporting 
of events, claiming the revolt against President Aristide was a 
spontaneous uprising, in the midst of which hundreds of heavily 
armed, well-trained commandos just happened to materialize.

The U.S. government has a long and bloody history of overthrowing 
popular governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has used 
both CIA covert operations and direct invasions. To name just a few - 
Guatemala in 1954, Cuba in 1959, Jamaica in the 1970s, Chile in 1973 
and Nicaragua in 1992, Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989. U.S. 
troops marched into Haiti in 1888, 1898, 1891 and occupied Haiti 
directly from 1914 to 1934. The objective has always been the same: 
to keep the wealth of Latin America and the Caribbean flowing into 
the vaults of Wall Street banks while the people who produce it 
remain poor.

In 1914 the U.S. Marine Corps seized all of Haiti's gold reserves and 
carted them off to the United States. Both France and the U.S. owe 
Haiti reparations. The leader of the resistance to the 1915 invasion, 
Charlemagne Peralte, was murdered by U.S. troops, tied to a door 
almost fully naked and put on display. U.S. Marine Corps Major 
General Smedley Butler later confessed, "I made Haiti a safe place 
for the First National City Bank boys to collect revenues in."
The forced removal of President Aristide, who tried to resist some of 
the dictates of the International Monetary Fund, marks a blatant 
return to that era of open colonialism and gunboat diplomacy. The 
banker-politicians and generals in Washington would like to restore 
that regime not only in Haiti but also throughout Latin America and 
the Caribbean. Haiti is their testing ground. They must be stopped!

Today we call on freedom-loving people everywhere to rally to the 
cause of the Haitian people and their elected government.

No to U.S. occupation! No to mercenary death squads! Restore the 
elected government of Haiti! U.S. and France, hands off! Reparations 
for Haiti!

Plans are underway for Emergency Demonstrations:
Miami, Sunday Feb 29th
San Francisco, Monday, March 1, 5pm, Powell & Market
New York City Tuesday, March 2, 4:30 to 6:00 pm, Times Square to UN
Call for more cities, details and for leaflets.

International Action Center
39 West 14th St, #206, New York, NY, 10011
212-633-6646 www.iacenter.org

*********************************************************
New Book: "Haiti A Slave Revolution" is a powerful anthology. 
Fredrick Douglas, Edwidge Danticat, Mumia Abu Jamal, Ramsey Clark, 
Ben Dupuy, Maude LeBlanc, Paul Laraque and others document 200 years 
of U.S. interventions, blockades, invasions and occupations against 
the first successful slave revolution in history. 250 pages, photo 
section, index.
Order from www.leftbooks.com
Read chapters from the book at: www.iacenter.org/haiti/index.htm

Nightline Daily E-Mail
March 1, 2004 (Yesterday)


TONIGHT'S FOCUS: Aristide is gone from Haiti into exile. A small
number of U.S. Marines are on the ground, with more to come, along
with troops from other countries. But what is going to happen? 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday's events have a sense of déjà vu about them. Once again, a
Haitian leader is deposed. Once again there are barricades in the
capital, gunfire, looting, and unfortunately, death. Now what? That's
not a rhetorical question. The leaders of the rebels are bad guys.
Really bad guys. They have a history of violence and crime. There is
no obvious figure to take over as president. The Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court has taken that position, but it's unclear if he will
actually be able to govern. There is no real authority beyond thugs in
the streets with guns. Now the Marines are there, again. But they
won't be patrolling the cities, and even if it was their mission,
which it is not, there are not enough of them to restore order. 

The issue here is nation-building. Haiti really has no working
institutions, no history or culture of politics that goes beyond the
dictatorships and corruption and violence of the past. Aristide was
supposed to be different. He was the first democratically elected
president, only to be overthrown by the military, and then restored to
office with the help of the U.S. military. Then he too became
dictatorial. The U.S. helped convince him that it was time to leave,
but if there is to be a solution, a long-term solution, then we have
to do more than send in troops for some limited amount of time. We
have to help rebuild, or actually build, a nation. This is a task not
just for the U.S., but for the world community. But we are occupied
elsewhere. Haiti would require millions, if not billions, of dollars
in aid to become capable of self-government. What nations are going to
contribute? 

In the meantime, there is anarchy in the streets. It is a very
dangerous situation for the Haitian people, and for the journalists
covering it as well. You never know what is going to happen next
there. A seemingly peaceful scene can turn dangerous very quickly.
Young men with guns run the streets, you never quite know who's who,
or how they will react to your presence as you try to cover the story.
ABC News correspondents Jeffrey Kofman and Mike Cerre are both there,
and we'll hear from both of them. Chris Bury will anchor tonight.
Chris covered the intervention by U.S. troops ten years ago, and he'll
try to put current events into some kind of perspective, and we're
still working out our guests. It's easy to dismiss Haiti as
unimportant, or something that doesn't affect us, but it does in many,
many ways. We cannot ignore it. 

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington D.C. bureau 

----------- 
This email is an advertisement from ABCNews, 7 WEST 66th Street, New
York, NY 10023.


Thank you Terry Goodman for sending these links!