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Books on the Caribbean
Hubert Cole. Christophe: King of Haiti. New
York: The Viking Press, 1967.
C.L.R. James.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
(1938)
Edourad Gissant.
Caribbean Doscourse (2004)
/ Barbara Harlow.
Resistance Literature (1987)
Josaphat B. Kubayanda.
The Poet's Africa: Africanness in the Poetry of Nicolas Guillen and Aime
Cesaire
(1990)
Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman.
Open
Gate An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry
(2001)
David P. Geggus, ed.
The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World.
University of South Carolina Press, 2001.
Jean-Bertand Aristide.
Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a
Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization
* * *
* *
Washington and Paris Overthrow
Aristide
By
Thierry Meyssan
Coup
d'Etat in Haïti
Washington and Paris reconciled their
colonial interests in the Carribean by going on the attack with
a cunning, well organized coup d'Etat in Haïti to overthrow
elected president Aristide. After building an opposition that
suited US interests, in the shape of former Duvalier regime
financial handyman Andre Apaid, Washington then created armed
opposition headed by former putschist officer Guy Philippe.
Meanwhile, French powerbrokers Regis Debray and Veronique de
Villepin-Albanel tried to force Jean-Bertrand Aristide to
resign. Eventually, as the street remained loyal to Aristide,
the "rebels" did not sweep into Port-au-Prince. It was
left to US special forces to kidnap the president, in a dawn
raid on the presidential palace. . . .
Father
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected by a 67.5% landslide vote in
1990.
At the time, he was the first democratically elected president
in Haiti's history. He chose René Préval as Prime Minister.
But the arrival of a liberation theology activist in the next
door island to Cuba hinted at failure for the United States'
Caribbean communism containment strategy.
Aristide
was therefore overthrown eight months later, by general Raoul
Cedras and the FRAPH death squads led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain
[1], with the support of the first Bush administration. To
justify this operation, the putschists declared they were
liberating Haiti from a dictatorship that seriously infringed
human rights - claims that were not supported by facts, and
which were denied later on.
Exiled
to the United States, Aristide gathered support from the black
bourgeoisie to bring help to the "negro republic". The
CIA then attempted to discredit him by leaking well-crafted,
fake medical files presenting him as mentally incapable.
Nevertheless, the growing support for Aristide within the black
American community, even more than the impopularity of Haïti's
military regime, made Bill Clinton back off from his
predecessor's brutal policy and negotiate a compromise:
Washington
offered a resignation of the junta and Aristide's return in
exchange for his promise he would back off from class struggle,
but work to 'reconcile rich and poor'. No longer would Aristide
blame capitalism as a "deadly sin", but comply with
IMF austerity adjustment, in the western hemisphere's poorest
nation.
So
Aristide returned in 1994, along with 20 000 GIs in the baggage of the "Restore
Democracy" operation. As Haiti watchers note, Aristide was
in a position of respecting his commitments towards Washington,
or betraying the hopes of his voters. Heading his party, as
provided by a constitution that bars two successive mandates as
party head, it was his Prime Minister, Rene Preval, who ran for
party chief, and was elected with 88% of the votes. Since
Preval was not tied to Aristide's engagements he dissociates
himself from New Economics orthodoxy.
In
November 2000,
thirteen officers trained in Ecuador seized the opportunity of
Preval's trip to Asia, and made a coup attempt, but failed.
Their leader, the spirited Guy Philippe, then fled to the US
embassy in Port-au-Prince. When Preval's mandate ended, Aristide
ran for president again, and again received a 91% landslide,
in a troubled context and with massive abstention. Aristide then
sealed his fate by turning back to anti-imperialist policy, among
other things demanding that France refund the 90 million gold
Francs extorted from Haïti between 1825 and 1885 [2].
The
Bush-2 administration made its decision to overthrow him at the
end of 2002,
and found a good community of views with France on this subject,
since both nations have traditionally seen Haiti as needing
common control. Paris, conversely, did not set its stance until
summer 2003. By then, a common plan was laid down for the coup
that was coming.
Act
1: "democratic" destabilization
On
the American side, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
built a "democratic opposition" through financing
"civilian" action groups. Under-Secretary Roger
Noriega [3] implemented a work group "for the restoration
of democracy" at the Brookings Institution (see our
investigation "The CIA destabilizes Haïti").
Act
2: Diplomatic coercion
On
the French side, the operation was supervised by Régis
Debray and Véronique Albanel. The latter is listed
as president of the "Universal Brotherhood" which
carries out charitable action in Haïti, linked with the
Catholic Church. Albanel is also the sister of Dominique
Galouzeau de Villepin, wife of France's foreign secretary de
Villepin, and the wife of French airforce general Baudoin
Albanel.
On
July 15, 2003,
Andre Apaid [3], a former financial handyman of the
Duvalier regime [5] and the leader of Group 184 [6], started
raising the pressure, with a meeting organized in a slum devoted
to Aristide, the Cite Soleil. Apaid asked for aid and protection
from France, who provided him with armed escorts, and the
presence of French embassy first secretary Stephane Grumberg. As
hoped and planned, the meeting soon turned into riot, leaving 6
dead and 40 wounded by gunfire. Witnesses blamed French guards
as solely responsible for the slaughter, which of course was
denied by the embassy [7].
On
December 17, 2003,
at 3 pm, Regis Debray showed up at the presidential palace to
demand that elected president Jean-Bernard Aristide resign. This
was refused, and was followed a few days later by the public
release by Debray and Villepin-Albanel of their report to
Foreign secretary Dominique de Villepin. The report noted:
"Let us not fool ourselves. The resignation of President
Aristide will not make the country more prosperous overnight,
nor will it make it more productive." (p. 35). "Many
persons imagine rivalry exists where there is in fact
complementarity [i.e. between the USA. and France], and though
our means of influence are not the same, they can and must add
up, for the good of Haiti. It may be the [French] President's
task, or at least the Foreign Affairs Minister's, to define from
the beginning, at the best level, the methods and spirit of this
combination. A stronger implication [by France] in Haïti could
indeed not run against the interests of the United States, but
should operate in a well-balanced and cautious spirit." (p.
52).
To
sum up, the goal was to overthrow Aristide to defend the common
interests of a large American empire and a small French empire.
However, following the Iraq crisis and in a context of growing
German-French alliance in Europe, Berlin must also had to be
brought onside in this joint effort, and also find its interest
within France's tiny empire. The report continued: "One
cannot help thinking of the advantages, not only symbolic, that
would be brought by opening a common French and German
diplomatic mission in Port-au-Prince, which would naturally
echo, on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, by [later]
opening of French-German missions, for example in Windhoek,
Namibia, or elsewhere" (p. 57).
The
United States and France put pressure on various Caribbean and
Latin American states to not take part in the the 200th
anniversary ceremonies of the "first Negro republic of
America" [8], held on 1 January, 2004, in
Port-au-Prince. Only South African president Thabo Mbeki defied
the great powers by attending it.
On
2 January, the Group 184 proposed an 'alternate' transition,
of course including the ouster of Aristide. On 7 January,
a street demonstration turned ugly, and immediately Washington
accused the Aristide government of undemocratic ways. On 13
January, the mandate of the National Assembly deputies, and
two-thirds of Haiti's senators came to its term, but as the
opposition refused to provide any delegates to the electoral
commission, Aristide was unable to organize elections. He was
then accused by the media of being unwilling to hold them, and
imposing a dictatorship.
Act 3: Military destabilization
This
rapidly cobbled "democratic" opposition, plus
diplomatic coercion in the background proved ineffective,
leading Washington to set armed activity out of the Dominican
Republic, led by Guy Philippe. The "rebels" quickly
took control of several cities and threatened to march on
Port-au-Prince. They also refused various peace plans, whether
of the episcopate or that of the Organization of American
States.
The
"democratic" opposition headed by Group 184 at all
times kept close contact with US Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell. On his instructions, it then dissociated itself from the
rebels, so as to remain clean handed for holding power, and not
be tainted by any atrocities that might have been committed in
its name.
On
21 February,
the international community's crisis plan was accepted by
Aristide, but rejected by the opposition, which persisted with
its demand that he resign.
On
23 February,
fresh troops crossed the Dominican border with Louis-Jodel
Chamblain at their head. AFP commented: "In Port-au-Prince
many think the Dominican army allowed these former Haitian army
soldiers to cross the border with the approval of the United
States, which provided most of its equipment, trained its
leadership and has very close links to Dominica's political
establishment. The Dominican Republic is the only country in the
Carribean that has sent (some 300) soldiers to Iraq when asked
by Washington to do so." [9]
Act
4: The removal
On
26 February,
Baudoin Jacques Ketant, a cocaine smuggler handed over by
Aristide on the request of the DEA was tried is Miami, Florida
[10]. In a plea bargain giving him a 27-year reduced prison
sentence, Ketant admitted smuggling more than 30 tons of cocaine
to the United States. He then claimed: "Aristide is a drug
baron who controls Haiti's trafficking (...) He turned his
country into a crossroads for drug dealers".
On
29 February, between 2 am and 3 am, US special forces
invaded the presidential palace. They told Aristide he was to be
taken to Miami and tried for drug trafficking, unless he
accepted to resign. Otherwise, he could wait for Guy Philippe to
arrive, who had been instructed to shoot him. Aristide managed
to reach California representant Maxine Waters by phone, to
enable her to testify the real events, and prevent him from
ending in an Allende-type "suicide". Under the threat
of M16s and in the presence of James B. Foley, ambassador of the
United States, and Thierry Burkard, ambassador of France,
Aristide signed a previously-drafted resignatin statement
"to head off a bloodbath". He was then taken by the
special forces to an unmarked, white-colored jetliner, and took
off for Bangui (Central African Republic), where French agents
awaited his arrival.
While
the UN Security Council was called into emergency session to
make a decision on the dispatch of peackekeeper troops, the
United States and France, without waiting for the meeting, had
already dispatched their forces.
In
Washington, Otto Reich and Under-Secretary Noriega supervised
the ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. From now on, the
Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba, which they also
lead, will work to make use of Haïti as a strategic base to get
over the 'unfinished business' of Fidel Castro, perhaps this
summer.
Notes
[1]
The FRAPH is for example responsible for the
assassination of Antoine Izmery (Sept 11, 1993), of Minister of
Justice Guy Malary's execution (Oct 14th, 1993) and of the
Raboteau massacre (April 23rd, 1994).
[2]
Updated and including interest sums due, this would amount to
about 21 billion US dollars at 2004 parities.
[3]
Former parliamentary assistant to far-rightwing senator Jesse
Helmes, Roger Noriega has devoted his life to the
destruction of Liberation theology activitis.
[4]
With the aim of being set as Washington's puppet in Haiti, Mr
Apaid was given double Haitian and American nationality.
[5]
François and Jean-Claude Duvalier, also known as "Papa
doc" and "Baby doc", established an
anti-communist dictatorship from 1957 through 1986.
[6]
Group 184 brings together union, press officials and
employers, under supervision of the National Endowment for
Democracy, "overtly" controlled by the CIA.
[7]
A lawsuit against French state employees should be filed shortly
by Gilbert Collard in the name of the victims' families.
[8]
On January 4th, 1794, the Convention abolishes slavery. The
decree applies to then-French colonial interests in Haiti. First
Consul Napoléon Bonaparte, was however then rushed by his
wife's family (which owned large plantations in the Carribean)
to re-establishes slavery. Toussaint Louverture, in the name of
the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, then
proclaims the autonomist constitution. Bonaparte sends
his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, to crush the rebels.
The latter was defeated by Louverture, Dessalines and Christophe.
On the 1st of January 1804, the first Negro republic of the
Americas was proclaimed.
[9]
Interviews in Port-au-Prince on the easy border crossing by
former soldiers into Haiti by Dominique Levanti, AFP
International, February 23, 2004.
[10]
Baudoin Jacques Kétant is likely to be tried with Colonel
Michel François. The latter was no.2 in Raoul Cedras'
military regime that overthrew Aristide. Liege man of the
United States, he was trained at the School of the Americas, and
is now hiding in Honduras.
Source:
PetroleumWorld.com
/Thierry
Meyssan
is a Journalist and writer, president of Réseau Voltaire. Its views are
not necessarily those of PETROLEUMWORLD. Petroleumworld News 03
21 04
* * * *
|
The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World
Reviewed by Mimi Sheller
The slave revolution
that two hundred years ago created the state of Haiti
alarmed and excited public opinion on both sides of the
Atlantic. Its repercussions ranged from the world commodity
markets to the imagination of poets, from the council
chambers of the great powers to slave quarters in Virginia
and Brazil and most points in between. Sharing attention
with such tumultuous events as the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic War, Haiti's fifteen-year struggle for racial
equality, slave emancipation, and colonial independence
challenged notions about racial hierarchy that were gaining
legitimacy in an Atlantic world dominated by Europeans and
the slave trade. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the
Atlantic World explores the multifarious influence—from
economic to ideological to psychological—that a revolt on a
small Caribbean island had on the continents surrounding it.
|
 |
Fifteen international scholars,
including eminent historians David Brion Davis, Seymour Drescher, and
Robin Blackburn, explicate such diverse ramifications as the spawning of
slave resistance and the stimulation of slavery's expansion, the opening
of economic frontiers, and the formation of black and white diasporas.
Seeking to disentangle the effects of the Haitian Revolutionfrom those
of the French Revolution, they demonstrate that its impact was
ambiguous, complex, and contradictory.—Publisher,
University of South Carolina
Press
David P. Geggus is a
professor of history at the University of Florida in Gainesville and a
former Guggenheim and National Humanities Center fellow. He has
published extensively on the history of slavery and the Caribbean, with
a particular focus on the Haitian Revolution. He is the author of
Slavery, War and Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint Domingue,
1793–1798 and an editor of
A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean.
Geggus lives in Gainesville.
* * * * *
 |
Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804
A Brief History with Documents
By Laurent Dubois and
John D. Garrigus
This is the most
succinct, convenient and accurate history of the Haitian
Revolution currently available. It fills a significant gap
in the historiography between monographs and general
histories on one side and novels and creative literature on
the other. The authors have produced an intelligent and
highly useful collection of documents, many virtually
inaccessible, and conveniently translated them for the
English-speaking audience. Their ability to contextualize
the events of the revolution briefly is simply exemplary.' -
Franklin Knight, Johns Hopkins University, USA 'This is the
most amazing document collection I have ever read. It is
emotionally gripping, intellectually stimulating, morally
provocative, action-packed and full of points of comparison
to histories of slavery and freedom everywhere. It has a
terrific narrative flow and inherent pathos. . . .This is a
wonderful achievement for which all sorts of teachers will
be most grateful.—Evan
Haefeli, Tufts University |
This volume details the first slave
rebellion to have a successful outcome, leading to the establishment of
Haiti as a free black republic and paving the way for the emancipation
of slaves in the rest of the French Empire and the world. Incited by the
French Revolution, the enslaved inhabitants of the French Caribbean
began a series of revolts, and in 1791 plantation workers in Haiti, then
known as Saint-Domingue, overwhelmed their planter owners and began to
take control of the island. They achieved emancipation in 1794, and
after successfully opposing Napoleonic forces eight years later, emerged
as part of an independent nation in 1804. A broad selection of
documents, all newly translated by the authors, is contextualized by a
thorough introduction considering the very latest scholarship. Laurent
Dubois and John D. Garrigus clarify for students the complex political,
economic, and racial issues surrounding the revolution and its
reverberations worldwide. Useful pedagogical tools include maps,
illustrations, a chronology, and a selected bibliography.—Publisher,
Bedford/St. Martin's
* * * * *
* * * *
*
update 6 May 2010 |
