Militarizing Haiti: The Shock Doctrine at Work?

 

With Haiti's government "all but invisible" and its repressive police forces "devastated," popular organizations were starting to fill the void. But the Western powers rushing in want to rebuild Haiti on a foundation of sweatshops, agro-exports and tourism.

So wrote Arun Gupta in the latest issue of the Indypendent, on the way neoliberal "reforms" are being pushed Haiti's way. Gupta joins guest host Esther Armah in the studio, along with Reverend Osagyefo Sekou, who just returned from Haiti, to talk about the rebuilding effort underway and how people in the U.S. can help make sure Haiti is rebuilt for the Haitian people.

By Arun Gupta

indypendent.org

Illustrations by Lisa Lin

Official denials aside, the United States has embarked on a new military occupation of Haiti thinly cloaked as disaster relief. While both the Pentagon and the United Nations claimed more troops were needed to provide "security and stability" to bring in aid, violence was never an issue, according to nearly all independent observers in the field.

The military response appears to be more opportunistic. With Haiti's government "all but invisible" and its repressive police forces "devastated," popular organizations were starting to fill the void. But the Western powers rushing in want to rebuild Haiti on a foundation of sweatshops, agro-exports and tourism. This is opposed by the popular organizations, which draw from Haiti's overwhelmingly poor majority. Thus, if a neoliberal plan is going to be imposed it will be done at gunpoint.

The rapid mobilization of thousands of U.S. troops crowded out much of the aid being sent to the Port-au-Prince airport following the Jan. 12 earthquake. Doctors Without Borders said five of its cargo flights were turned away, while flights from the World Food Program were delayed up to two days. By the end of January, three quarters of Haitians still lacked clean water, the government had received only 2 percent of the tents it had requested and hospitals in the capital reported they were running "dangerously low" on basic medical supplies like antibiotics and painkillers. Nearly a month into the crisis, the Washington Post reported, "Every day, tens of thousands of Haitians face a grueling quest to find food, any food. A nutritious diet is out of the question."

1) In 1989, the Red Cross raised $50 MILLION for the victims of the San Francisco earthquake. But it's estimated that only $10 MILLION of it was turned over to the actual victims.

2) After September 11th, the Red Cross raised $543 MILLION for the family members of people who died in the attacks. But they held back more than HALF of that money, which eventually led to the dismissal of their president.

3) In 2004, the Red Cross raised $3.21 BILLION to aid the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami. But they're still holding onto $500 MILLION of it.

4) And in 2005, the Red Cross raised $1.1 BILLION to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. But they kept $200 MILLION of it to, quote, "prepare for future disasters."

(The Red Cross is a great organization, and the money they raise will eventually be used to help someone in crisis . . . at least we hope. But they're not nearly as forthcoming as you would hope or expect, considering it's YOUR donations that keep them in business.)

(And it's worth mentioning that the Red Cross got $100 MILLION in bailout funds, and that PRESIDENT OBAMA capped the salaries of Red Cross execs at $500,000 a year. Because they'd been earning almost $1 MILLION a year.)

http://www.sfbayview.com/

TIMELINE

1492 Christopher Columbus lands near today's city of Cap Haïtien and claims the island of Hispaniola for Spain. The western third of the island is now Haiti and the rest of the island is the Dominican Republic.

1625 First French settlements on Tortuga Island, off the northwest coast, are established.

mid-1600s French settlements and plantations are established in coastal areas on the western third of the island.

1697 Under the terms of the Treaty of Ryswick, Spain cedes the western third of Hispaniola to France.

1700s The French colony of Saint Domingue is the most lucrative colony in the world, at this time, more lucrative than the 13 Colonies. Its slave-produced tropical crops -- sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco, and indigo -- generated great wealth. Near the end of the 18th century, 500,000 to 700,000 people, mainly of western African origin, were enslaved by the French.

1791 The Haitian Revolution begins when a group of slaves gather at Bois-Caïman in the northern part of the colony.

1803 The Haitian blue and red flag is adopted at the Congress of Arcahaie. The Battle of Vertières is the last victory of the Haitians over the French.

1804 Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti independent on January 1, after crushing the French army sent to re-enslave Haiti. Over half the people in Haiti die before the struggle has run its course.

1806 Jean-Jacques Dessalines is assassinated at Pont-Rouge.

1815-1816 Simón Bolívar gets asylum in Haiti twice and also receives military assistance to liberate South America from Spain.

1822 Haiti invades the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (today's Dominican Republic), and ends slavery there.

1838 France fully and unconditionally recognizes Haiti's independence. It had given Haiti "conditional" recognition in 1825 after Haiti promised to pay 150 million gold francs as "compensation" for its "losses."

1844 The Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo ends.

1862 The United States recognizes Haiti.

1889 Frederick Douglass is appointed as U.S. Minister and Consul General to Haiti.

1915 United States Marines invade Haiti and occupy it. A largely peasant guerrilla army, known as the cacos, resists the occupiers under the leadership of Charlemagne Péralte, who is betrayed and assassinated by Marines in 1919.

By Robert Parry
January 13, 2010

Announcing emergency help for Haiti after a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake, President Barack Obama noted America's historic ties to the impoverished Caribbean nation, but few Americans understand how important Haiti's contribution to U.S. history was.

In modern times, when Haiti does intrude on U.S. consciousness, it's usually because of some natural disaster or a violent political upheaval, and the U.S. response is often paternalistic, if not tinged with a racist disdain for the country's predominantly black population and its seemingly endless failure to escape cycles of crushing poverty.