Context of '(2001-2003): Haiti Works with Cuba and Venezuela'

Haiti is forced to pay 150 million gold francs to France to “compensate” French plantation slave-owners for their “financial losses.” The amount demanded by the French represents more than twice the value of the entire country’s net worth. In exchange, France agrees to recognize Haiti’s independence. Years later, the amount is reduced to 90 million gold francs, however it will take Haiti close to 100 years to pay off this debt and only with the help of high interest loans to French banks. [Rogozinski, 1992; Newsday, 12/3/2003; Miami Herald, 12/18/2003; Boston Globe, 1/4/2004]

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest, preaches Liberation Theology in Haiti. US conservatives spread stories that he could be the next Castro. [Rogozinski, 1992; Taipei Times, 3/1/2004; Observer, 3/2/2004]

Running against 11 other candidates, Jean-Bertrand Aristide wins the presidential elections in Haiti with a two-thirds majority. The election turnout is high and is later described as being “unquestionably the most honest Haiti has known.” [Rogozinski, 1992; London Review of Books, 4/15/2004]

In Haiti, the Front for the Advancement of Progress of the Haitian People (FRAPH) overthrows the government while Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is on a visit to the UN in New York. The group rules as a repressive military regime until 1994 when a US-led UN intervention puts Aristide back in power (see September 19, 1994-October 15, 1994) [Rogozinski, 1992; Observer, 3/2/2004] The junta is responsible for the massacre of hundreds—or by some estimates, thousands—of dissidents. [Turck, 2/24/2004; Observer, 3/2/2004; Jamaica Observer, 3/7/2004] The leader of the group is Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, who later acknowledges he had support from the CIA. “Emmanuel Constant is widely alleged, and himself claims, to have been in the pay of, and under the orders of, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the coup period,” Amnesty International will later report. The amount paid to Constant by the CIA during this period is $500/month. [Amnesty International, 2/7/1996; Center for Constitutional Rights, 2/18/2004; Observer, 3/2/2004; London Review of Books, 4/15/2004] Second in command is Louis-Jodel Chamblain, who had led death squads during the years of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s dictatorship and who is later convicted and implicated in multiple crimes committed during this period. [Observer, 3/2/2004; Jamaica Observer, 3/7/2004]

Haitian Justice Minister Guy Malary and his bodyguard are killed in an ambush. According to a CIA memorandum, dated October 28, 1993, which will later be obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights, “FRAPH members Jodel Chamblain, Emmanuel Constant, and Gabriel Douzable met with an unidentified military officer on the morning of 14 October to discuss plans to kill Malary.” According to the Center, “Constant at the time was a paid CIA informant, earning $500 a month.” [Center for Constitutional Rights, 2/18/2004; Human Rights Watch, 2/27/2004]

FRAPH deputy leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain escapes to the Dominican Republic when the US military intervenes in Haiti to return Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. [Human Rights Watch, 2/27/2004]

US and UN military forces enter Haiti and restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the presidency. [Turck, 2/24/2004] US conservatives, such as Senator Jesse Helms, are against the intervention and criticize President Bill Clinton for engaging in unnecessary “nation building” in Haiti. Helms falsely makes the claim on the Senate floor that Aristide is “psychotic,” based on a CIA document later revealed to be a forgery. [Newsday, 3/1/2004; Taipei Times, 3/1/2004; Observer, 3/2/2004]

The United States-led Multinational Force (MNF) searches the FRAPH office in Port-au-Prince and removes 60,000 pages of documents, mostly in French, which are given to the US. [Amnesty International, 2/7/1996; John Pike, 4/21/2001]

Haiti’s government and lawyers for Alerte Belance, a Haitian woman who was assaulted by FRAPH forces during the coup period (see October 31, 1991), seek the FRAPH documents (see (Late October 1994)) from the US. But the US Defense Department refuses to provide them, saying the papers are classified and must first be reviewed before being released. The Haitian government wants to use the documents as evidence in the prosecution of FRAPH members and Belance’s attorneys have subpoenaed them for use as evidence in a lawsuit against FRAPH member Emmanuel Constant who is living openly in the USA, and who has admitted being a paid CIA asset during the FRAPH’s period of military rule in Haiti (see October 14, 1993). Belance’s lawyers say the documents could contain important information about FRAPH’s financing, their weapons, and the crimes they are accused of having committed. In October 1996, the US sends documents to Port-au-Prince, but the Haitian government refuses them on grounds that they are incomplete. [Inter Press Service, 10/10/1995; Amnesty International, 2/7/1996; Amnesty International, 2/7/1996]

US Vice President Al Gore visits Haiti on the one-year anniversary of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s return to power. During his visit, he meets with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and stresses the need for his government to comply with the structural reforms which he had agreed to implement in August 1994 (see August 1994). “We discussed the need for continuing international assistance to meet the developmental requirements of Haiti and the steps the government of Haiti and its people need to take in order to ensure the continued flow of these funds,” Gore recounts during a brief press conference. Earlier in the month, Aristide’s government refused to sign a letter of intent assuring the US, IMF, and other donors that the country would follow though with the mandated reforms (see Early October 1995). [Inter Press Service, 10/16/1995; Multinational Monitor, 11/2004]

Presidential elections are held and Rene Preval wins in a landslide victory. He succeeds the popular Jean-Bertrand Aristide who is barred from running again because of the Haitian constitution’s prohibition on consecutive presidential terms. [CNN, 12/16/1995; CNN, 12/17/1995]

Guy Philippe serves as police chief in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas. According to Human Rights Watch, “dozens of suspected gang members… [are] summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of Inspector Berthony Bazile, Philippe’s deputy.” Philippe will later deny the allegation in an interview with the Miami Herald. [Human Rights Watch, 2/27/2004; Miami Herald, 2/28/2004]

Haitian President Rene Preval suspends congress and two-thirds of the senate after a dispute with the opposition party. As a result, more than 7,000 government jobs at the federal and local level become vacant. From this point on, Preval rules by decree. [BBC, 5/9/2003]

After being postponed three times during the last seven months, Haitian parliamentary and local elections are finally held with a turnout of about 60 percent. Voters must fill some 7,625 posts in the legislature, mayoral commissions, and local and rural councils that were made vacant in January 1999, when the congress and local offices were disbanded by President Rene Preval (see January 1999). The Lavalas party of Jean-Bertrand Aristide wins the elections by a landslide, winning 15 of the 19 contested Senate seats and some 80 percent of the seats in the House of Assembly. However the results are challenged by the opposition, the US, and the Organization of American States, which say that Haiti’s electoral council did not use the proper formula to calculate the votes. As a result of the controversy, the opposition will boycott the June 9 run-off elections (see July 9, 2000) as well as the presidential elections in November (see November 2000). More significantly, aid donors threaten that they will continue to withhold $500 million in aid if the government does not come to an agreement with the opposition. [BBC, 5/22/2000; BBC, 5/22/2000; BBC, 5/30/2000; BBC, 7/8/2000; BBC, 7/14/2000; CBS News, 11/29/2000; Associated Press, 12/7/2000; US Department of State, 2/23/2001; Dollars and Sense, 9/7/2003; Turck, 2/24/2004; CounterPunch, 3/1/2004; Taipei Times, 3/1/2004]

Haiti holds run-off elections for candidates who failed to win a majority of the votes in the May 21 elections (see May 21, 2000). However 10 senators from the party of Jean-Bertrand Aristide who won only by plurality, and not by majority, are not required to run, prompting immediate criticism from the US, UN, the OAS, and the opposition parties. Donor nations and organizations threaten to continue withholding $400 million in aid. [BBC, 7/11/2000; BBC, 7/14/2000; BBC, 2/7/2001; Miami Herald, 2/28/2004]

Jean-Bertrand Aristide runs unopposed in Haiti’s presidential elections and wins with 91.5 percent of the vote. The opposition Democratic Convergence party does not participate in the elections in protest of the May 21, 2000 congressional and municipal elections (see May 21, 2000) which its members claim were rigged. The election turnout is disputed. Though some news agencies report a low turnout of between 5 percent and 10 percent, Aristide’s party, as well as five US-based NGOs—Global Exchange, the Quixote Center, Witness for Peace, and Pax Christi—estimate the figure at 61 percent, or 3 million of Haiti’s voters. [BBC, 7/7/2000; CBS News, 11/29/2000; Associated Press, 12/7/2000; Global Exchange, 2001; Dollars and Sense, 9/7/2003; Turck, 2/24/2004; CounterPunch, 3/1/2004; Z Magazine, 5/5/2004] These figures are also supported by USAID-commissioned Gallup polls taken both before and after the elections, but which are suppressed by the US. [Z Magazine, 5/5/2004]

Under the leadership of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Haitian government engages in cooperative projects with Cuba and Venezuela. The Chavez government offers to provide oil at significantly reduced prices, and treaties between Haiti and Cuba result in a presence of more than 800 Cuban medical workers in Haiti. In an explicit challenge to US domination of the regional trade patterns, Haiti works with other island nations to create a regional trading bloc that “may be a bulwark against the FTAA and other [US-led] initiatives.” Haiti and other Latin American countries regularly discuss regional strategies to reduce US hegemony in the region. [Dollars and Sense, 9/7/2003]

Jean-Bertrand Aristide takes office amid criticisms that his party won the previous year’s congressional elections unfairly. [BBC, 2/7/2001]

Stanley Lucas, the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) senior program officer for Haiti, tells an audience on Radio Tropicale that there are three ways to get rid of newly elected Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide: call early elections and vote him out, charge him with corruption and let the courts imprison him, or assassinate him. With the blessing and assistance of the Bush administration, the IRI, a subsection of the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy, will step up its campaign to get rid of Aristide. The IRI, using $3 million in US taxpayer funds, will train and fund anti-Aristide candidates, help unite them into a single anti-Aristide bloc, and, according to a former US ambassador to Haiti, work to block all internationally-proposed power-sharing agreements in order to heighten Haiti’s political crisis and encourage a coup against Aristide. The IRI also will help in the Bush administration’s failed attempt to precipitate a coup against Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (see April 12, 2002). Lucas himself is a charismatic, wealthy Haitian exile with a history of training Haitian insurgents and deep, murky ties to right-wing organizations and politicians in America, particularly longtime Aristide foe Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Bush’s Latin American envoy Otto Reich. [Salon, 7/16/2004]

Seven of the eight Haitian senators, whose elections are still being disputed by the Democratic Convergence (see May 21, 2000), resign after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide tells the General Assembly of the Organization of American States that he will hold new elections for the contested Senate seats within six months. But the Democratic Convergence is not satisfied with the concession and maintains its insistence that he resign and that it be put in charge of a non-elected “transition” government. [BBC, 6/8/2001; Dollars and Sense, 9/7/2003; Turck, 2/24/2004]

Roger Noriega, a Kansas native of Mexican descent and fervent critic of Latin American leaders Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is appointed US Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States. [Newsday, 3/1/2004; Inter-American Development Bank, 12/31/2005 ]

The Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) is formally established. At its official launching, which takes place at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., speakers warn that the current “crisis” in democracy in Haiti is worsening at an ever increasing pace. “… Luigi Einaudi opened the talks with dire predictions that Haiti was fast approaching a point where diplomatic means would no longer contribute to solve the crisis. According to Einaudi, those concerned about Haiti should at this time be gathering for a ‘wake.’ The rapidly deteriorating economic situation, the inability of the main protagonists to advance the negotiating process and the increasing protest demonstrations throughout the country made for a very bleak future.” US ambassador to the OAS, Roger Noriega also speaks at the ceremony. At one point, Noriega says, referring to the contested 2000 Haitian elections (see May 21, 2000), “We have to get them [The Haitian people] that opportunity as they will not participate in a farce.” [Haiti Democracy Project, 11/20/2004] Attending the event are some questionable figures including Stanley Lucas and Olivier Nadal. Lucas is said to be the point man in Haiti for the USAID-financed International Republican Institute, which is providing training and funds to anti-Aristide Haitian rebels in the Dominican Republic (see (2001-2004)). Nadal is a Miami-based Haitian businessman and the former president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. [Haiti Democracy Project, 11/20/2004] Nadal is implicated in a peasant massacre that occurred in the Haitian town of Piatre. In 1990, a group of peasants were killed by Nadal’s security after they squatted on unused land that he owned. [Haiti Progres, 7/21/1999; National Coalition for Haitian Rights, 4/24/2004] The prominent businessman Antoine Izmery said shortly before he was murdered that Nadal had been one of the financiers of the 1991 coup d’etat (see October 31, 1991) that ousted Aristide from office. And in 1994, the United States government froze Nadal’s assets because of his suspected involvement in the coup. [Haiti Progres, 7/21/1999] The Haiti Democracy Project is funded by the wealthy, right-wing Haitian Boulos family, which owns several companies including Pharval Pharmaceuticals, the USAID-funded Radio Vision 2000, the Delimart supermarket, and Le Matin. In February 2002, Rudolph Boulos was under investigation for his possible involvement in the assassination of Haitian journalist Jean Dominique who had been very critical of Pharval after contamination of the company’s “Afrebril and Valodon” syrups with diethyl alcohol had resulted in the deaths of 60 children. [Haiti Progres, 7/21/1999; Haiti Weekly News, 2/28/2002; Knight Ridder, 3/11/2004; Haiti Democracy Project, 11/20/2004] The project’s board of directors includes Rudolph Boulos, CEO of Pharval Laboratories; Vicki Carney of CRInternational; Prof. Henry F. Carey of Georgia State University; Timothy Carney, US ambassador to Haiti (1998-1999); Clotilde Charlot, former vice-president of the Haitian Association of Voluntary Agencies; Lionel Delatour of the Center for Free Enterprise and Democracy (CLED); Ira Lowenthal, an “Anthropologist”; Charles Manus; Orlando Marville, Chief of the OAS electoral mission to Haiti in 2000; James Morrell, the Haiti Democracy Project’s executive director; Lawrence Pezzullo, US special envoy for Haiti (1993-1994); and Ernest H. Preeg, US ambassador to Haiti (1981-1983). [Haiti Democracy Project, 3/26/2004]

The Black Commentator magazine publishes an essay predicting a US-sponsored overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. An unnamed source in Haiti tells the magazine that Bush administration officials “want a subservient client in power when the bicentennial [festivities celebrating Haiti’s 200 years of independence] comes down.” The source adds, “They cannot control Aristide, therefore they must do as they always have in these situations, destroy him and his government by any means necessary.” [Black Commentator, 5/15/2003]

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide demands that France return the money Haiti had paid to its former colonizer in service of a dubious debt agreement the country had been forced to accept—under threat of recolonization—in 1825 (see 1825). The exact amount, with interest added and adjusted for inflation, is $21,685,135,571.48. [Haiti Action (.net), 8/5/2003; Newsday, 12/3/2003; Miami Herald, 12/18/2003; London Review of Books, 4/15/2004] France will later back the removal of Aristide in February 2004 (see February 25, 2004). [New York Times, 2/26/2004]

Rebels take over cities in northern Haiti and move towards Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, overrunning President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s local police forces and vowing to overthrow him. [New York Times, 2/29/2004] The rebels include various factions. The leading groups are led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a convicted murderer and former death squad leader under “Baby Doc” Duvalier, and Guy Philippe, also a known human rights violator (see October 31, 1991) (see 1997-1999). [CounterPunch, 3/1/2004; Amnesty International, 3/3/2004; Associated Press, 3/3/2004]

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin outlines a proposal he will submit to the UN on February 26, which calls for Aristide’s resignation and recommends that an international security force be dispatched to Haiti to help stabilize the country. According to the minister, President Aristide “bears heavy responsibility for the current situation” and it is his responsibility “to accept the consequences while respecting the rule of law.” Villepin adds: “Everyone sees quite well that a new page must be opened in Haiti’s history.” [New York Times, 2/26/2004] Notably, a few months before, Aristide’s government had called on France to pay some $21 billion in reparations to Haiti (see November 2003). [London Review of Books, 4/15/2004]

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide informs Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson and Foreign Minister K. D. Knight that he does not plan to resign, despite demands from armed rebels who are quickly closing in on the capital. [Associated Press, 3/2/2004]

Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide flies from the Central African Republic to Jamaica despite objections from the United States and the new government of Haiti. Haiti’s new leadership then announces that it is temporarily suspending Haiti’s membership in the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and that Haiti’s ambassador to Jamaica will be recalled. [Guardian, 3/15/2004; Xinhua News Agency (Beijing), 3/15/2004]

Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue drops a demand that former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had made to France—that the country’s former colonizer pay reparations to Haiti in the amount of $21 billion (see November 2003). “This claim was illegal, ridiculous and was made only for political reasons,” Prime Minister Gerard Latortue claims, adding that Haiti wants to have good relations with France. “This matter is closed. What we need now is increased cooperation with France that could help us build roads, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure.” France, significantly, had called for Aristide’s resignation before his ouster (see February 25, 2004), leading many to speculate that its involvement in the intervention had been motivated by its interest in ending the reparations demand. During a visit earlier in the month, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie denied this allegation, saying that French involvement had been motivated solely by a desire to help Haiti. [Reuters, 4/18/2004]

At an OAS meeting in Washington, Haitian interim Prime Minister Gerard LaTortue appeals for reconciliation with the governments of other Caribbean states. “Haiti is a member of CARICOM and proposes to continue being a member,” LaTortue says. “In this key moment of its history, my country needs all of you. May the misunderstandings be left behind.” [Associated Press, 5/6/2004; Associated Press, 5/6/2004] The new government of Haiti had previously announced its temporary withdrawal from CARICOM because of the organization’s refusal to recognize the new interim government (see March 15, 2004).

Gerard Latortue, Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister, defends his government by denying that Haiti is a failed state. In his defense, Latortue states that he won’t “stay one minute in this job if there are flagarant cases of human-rights violations.” Latortue also blames former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide for orchestrating violence from his exile in South Africa. [Globe and Mail, 2/8/2005]

Protests break out in Port-au-Prince calling for the return of ousted Prime Minister Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Two protesters are shot dead by Hatian Police. Witnesses say that the police created a roadblock and began firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. The crowd refused to disperse, and the police began shooting into the crowd of people. Before shots were fired protesters were chanting “George Bush is the biggest terrorist!” Aristide has repeatedly blamed Bush for his ouster. Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a friend of Aristide who was jailed after Aristide left the country, says that “the people are revolting only to ask for what they voted for.” The deaths of the two protesters marks the one year anniversary of the rebellion. [Associated Press, 2/28/2005] The new government of Haiti had previously announced its temporary withdrawal from CARICOM because of the organization’s refusal to recognize the new interim government (see March 15, 2004).