Author: leonid Date: Subject: [Cerchio] Latortue's House of Cards Crumbling in Haiti (fwd)
>From: radtimes <resist@???> >
>Latortue's House of Cards Crumbling in Haiti
>
>http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=55&ItemID=6631 >
>Kevin Pina interviewed by Solange Echevarria
>November 11, 2004
>Flashpoints
>
>Echevarria: Straight up, what do make of this.floating up right now to the
>rest of the news, that the Haitian police are murdering Aristide
>supporters. What do you make of this actually breaking through the hard
>fought for silence on the part of the corporate media?
>
>Pina: It's just that finally the killing has reached such a level that no
>one can continue to deny it. It's been going on relentlessly since the
>forced ouster of President Aristide on February 29th. The most interesting
>news that's most recently surfaced of course is that there are nineteen
>police officers who have just been implicated in a plot to assassinate
>Lavalas political prisoners in the capital. That would include Prime
>Minister Yvon Neptune, Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, Father Gerard
>Jean Juste, and a long list of hundreds who are being held in the capital.
>Now, whether that extends to the thousands in the countryside, we don't
>know how vast the plot was. You know I'm usually very critical of the
>corporate media - that includes Reuters - but I do have to tip my hat to
>Guyler Delva, who broke that story, otherwise we never would have heard
>about it. But of course those nineteen officers, who are now under
>investigation for plotting to assassinate Aristide supporters in the jails,
>are getting what is the equivalent of a slap on the wrist and being told to
>stay after school. They are only being placed under special orders to
>appear at the police force's general inspection office daily, from 8 A.M.
>to 4 P.M. until.as they say, the allegations have been resolved. Well, no
>one is being reprimanded, no one is being summarily fired; basically, it's
>a slap on the wrist, even though what has come to surface is that there are
>active forces within the Haitian police who have been plotting to
>assassinate Lavalas political prisoners in the jail cells in Port au Prince.
>
>Echevarria: Now in fact this is very much a danger of the fox guarding the
>henhouse in terms of this investigation. The list that you just
>mentioned.of potential assassinations, if you will, has some pretty heavy
>names on it. What do you think that this tells [us] about the impunity with
>which the police have- especially with the backing of the Latortue regime -
>have had with respect to being able to carry out their intentions.
>
>Pina: The Haitian police force is now almost entirely [made up of] former
>military. This is the same Haitian military that committed tremendous
>atrocities in 1991 after Aristide was forced from office in a brutal
>military coup. This is the same military that was heavily involved in drug
>trafficking. The Haitian police may not be called the Haitian military but
>it in fact is the Haitian military today that constitutes the Haitian
>police. There's also other interesting news that's recently come out, which
>is that Roselor Julien who was the Cathoilic Church representative,
>resigned yesterday from.the council that's preparing for the so-called free
>and fair elections that are supposed to be held next year in 2005. She
>resigned saying that she did so because she did not want to condone an
>electoral farce. So not only are we seeing a lot of killing by the police,
>extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, but now the entire reason why
>the United States and France and Canada justified this intervention - which
>was to hold new elections - is falling apart completely.
>
>First of all,, Lavalas has already said that they will not participate in
>the elections and now the electoral council, which is preparing for them,
>is completely in disarray. And then of course it's hilarious to hear Brazil
>announce yeaterday that its forces are going to extend their stay in Haiti
>until the next elections are held in 2005. So apparently, Brazil isn't even
>considering whether these elections are going to be free and fair; they
>really just want to get this process over because they're getting a lot of
>heat at home. Another interesting note about Brazil is that last October
>22nd the Defense Minister of Brazil, Jose Diegas, resigned, because the
>Brazilian military had made a statement early in October. The military high
>command had said that the military cuop that the Brazilian military did in
>1964 had been the result of "a popular call in response to the subversive
>movement which had turned down dialogue." Well who does that sound like?
>That sounds like Lavalas in Haiti today, so it gives the appearance that
>what the Brazilian military cannot get away with in its own country today,
>it's enjoying doing in Haiti.
>
>Echeverria: That actually brings to me a question with respect to Brazil
>and Haiti's relationship with CARICOM, and it seems to be in a very
>uncomfortable position, because it just doesn't know what to do with
>respect to the Latortue regime. How do you think that that plays into it?
>
>Pina: There is another CARICOM meeting this week; I don't think there's
>going to be any resolution, I don't think anything is going to change
>because.the countries of Guyana, St. Kitts, St. Vincent-Grenadines have
>said under no condition would they recognize the Latortue regime until it
>did everything to disarm the former military. Well, how can you say they're
>disarming the former military when now what they are doing is simply
>turning them into Haitian police and giving them guns? Of course now the
>United States has lifted the 13-year old arms embargo against Haiti, which
>started back in 1991 after the first military coup against Aristide, so
>you've got the former military being rehabilitated into the police, and the
>police being,in fact, a de facto military force, being re-armed and
>resupplied by the United States lifting that 13-year old embargo. I don't
>think there's any way that CARICOM at this point, can come to any
>resolution and they require a consensus, as you know, I don't believe that
>they'll be able to find that consensus to recognize that government given
>the current mayhem and disarray on the ground in Haiti today.
>
>Echevarria: I want to jump back just a few seconds to the elections and
>what this resignation means. Do you think that may be a sign that, with
>Latortue, that the faÁade may be starting to crumble a little bit?
>
>Pina: Well, this resignation came on the heels of the business community.
>Andy Apaid, who is the leader of the Group of 184, which was the so-called
>opposition against Aristide, tried to shove down the electoral commission's
>throat a $112 million proposal to actually have the balloting be electronic
>during the next elections. Well how can you have electronic ballotting in
>Haiti when areas of the capital don't receive more than six hours of
>electricity per day? The person who resigned, Roselor Julien, also stated
>that [that] it was a railroading and setting up [of] the process so that
>Group of 184 could win the elections, to basically legitimize the coup
>against Aristide February 29th. Now, in essence, that's what Roselor Julien
>has stated.
>
>Echevarria: Now you mentioned earlier that Lavalas has publicly stated that
>they are going to boycott the elections. Doesn't that present a danger
>that, by virtue of the fact that they don't present themselves at the
>polls, that, just by defualt, that Latortue's regime would just take
>control that way?
>
>Pina: It's one thing to win unfair in an electoral farce, if you will. It's
>quite another to rule without an electoral mandate. I think that the
>international community; there's no way they're going to be able to
>legitimize those elections if, indeed what I believe will be the case is
>there's going to be a very low voter turnout.Lavalas is not only going to
>boycott the elections as an organization, but I believe their base of
>popular support are just simply not going to go to the polls; you're not
>going to see long lines, and you're not going to see a high voter turnout;
>you're going to see a very low voter turnout and I think its going to make
>it increasingly difficult for the Latortue regime or whoever comes
>afterwards, to claim that they have a mandate that represents the Haitian
>people. And if you see the disarray that's going on on the ground right
>now, it's only going to increase and get worse particularly after you have
>this electoral farce in 2005.
>
>.
