U.S. Tries to Mask it’s Role - Haitians resist coup attempt
February 26, 2004 - As heavily armed gangs led by paramilitary death-squad leaders from former dictatorships take over a broad swath of Haiti, vowing to topple the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and lynching scores of his supporters, the question being asked in the popular movements of the region is: What role is the U.S. imperialist government playing in all this?
Washington is being careful not to take credit for the coup attempt, which was launched on Feb. 5 in the northern port city of Gonaives. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Feb. 17 that there was no “enthusiasm” in the Bush administration for intervention.
Not everyone in the State Department had gotten the word, however. An Australian newspaper, The Age, reported on Feb. 17 that “U.S. Ambassador James Foley today said Washington wants ‘radical change,’ even while Powell has said the United States does not support Aristide’s ouster.”
No end to U.S. intervention
The truth is there has already been plenty of U.S. intervention, both covert and overt, aimed at replacing the Aristide government with one deemed more compliant by the big business interests that run U.S. foreign policy.
The U.S. has led an international conspiracy to deprive Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, of any aid money. Haiti has been on the hit list of the major capitalist powers ever since its successful revolutionary war of 1804, which simultaneously liberated the country from French colonial rule and freed its population from chattel slavery. Its deep poverty comes from a two-centuries-old economic blockade.
This was reinforced after the election of 2000 when lending institutions controlled by the U.S. held up a $500-million loan Haiti desperately needed. The intent was clear: to put pressure on the Aristide government to either capitulate to the capitalist globalizers’ demands or be ousted.
The stated U.S. diplomatic position has been to recognize the Aristide government while giving aid and comfort–and a significant amount of money–to groups Washington dubs the “democratic” opposition. There is another, more sinister history of U.S. intervention in Haiti, however.
The Haitian people, who are highly conscious of what goes on behind the scenes regarding their country, know that Washington has long had secret deals with their tormentors, beginning with the bloody Duvalier dynasty that ruled Haiti for 29 years.
They also know about the secret files that were spirited out of Haiti in 1994 by U.S. troops when they returned Aristide to office after he had been overthrown in a military coup. Those files are believed to contain information about the covert relations between the CIA and the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), a nice-sounding name for the death squads that operated during the 1991-94 military regime.
(http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5359.shtml)
Another regime change at the insistence of the Globocops USA, Arisitide has since resigned and the US has now asked the rebels to lay down there arms.
Just another day at the office for the puppet masters!
