U.S.-Sponsored Regime Change in Haiti

In the wee hours of March 1, US Marines landed in Haiti hours after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide reportedly succumbed to demands from an armed opposition movement that he step down and go into exile -- although persistent rumors on the ground maintain he was actually arrested by US forces. As rebel troops entered the capital Port-au-Prince, the UN Security Council approved a resolution authorizing a multinational force to restore order, and French troops are also on the way.

The rebel army, cobbled together from anti-government gangs and militias and led by former army officers, has achieved its aim of Aristide's ouster. It seems the cost will be the loss of Haiti's sovereignty to foreign occupation troops -- yet again.

Cycles of Destabilization

This overthrow had been in the making since December 1990, when Haiti's first free election was held. The winning candidate, with two-thirds majority, was the populist priest Aristide, backed by a vigorous grassroots movement known as Lavalas. But seven months later, Aristide's government was overthrown in a military coup. No government on earth recognized the military junta, but as Noam Chomsky noted: "Washington maintained close intelligence and military ties with the new rulers while undermining the embargo called by the Organization of American States, even authorizing illegal shipments of oil to the regime and its wealthy supporters."

In July 1993, Aristide was made to sign the Governor's Island Accord, a US-backed "peace accord" with the illegal military junta that terrorized Haiti for three years. The Accord forbade Aristide from running for re-election once he was restored to power, and gave amnesty to the death-squad terrorists of the junta. The junta then refused to abide by the accord, prompting President Clinton to send in troops in September 1994.

Aristide finished his term, although conditions imposed on him as the cost of returning to power -- such as an IMF-style "free market" reform of the economy -- eroded his popularity. But Aristide continued to stand up to the IMF and international creditors, demanding a better deal that would not impose yet harsher austerity on Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

In 1995 Rene Preval, a close friend of Aristide, was elected as president. His government faced serious political deadlock, and in 1999 Preval declared that Parliament's term had expired and began ruling by decree.

The last elections took place in November 2000. Aristide won his second non-consecutive term -- amid allegations of irregularities by the US and the opposition. Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official backed by the White House, won only 14 percent of the votes. To the dismay of Washington, Aristide was president again.

The US and international donors blocked financial aid, alleging the elections were "flawed." Aristide, in need of funds to implement his social plans for the country, was immobilized. Only in July 2003, the Inter-American Development Bank resumed loan programs.

At the same time, the arming and funding of Aristide's opposition -- including the same paramilitary leaders who were at the forefront of the campaign of terror during the 1991-94 military junta -- continued. Ira Kurzban, general counsel to the Haitian government, told Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now Feb. 25 that the US government was directly involved in a new military coup attempt against Aristide -- and that the rebels fighting to overthrow his government are being backed by Washington. "This is a military operation," he said, "it's not a rag-tag group of liberators, as has often been put in the press." Kurzban denied media reports that the armed groups were using weapons originally distributed by Aristide. Among the weapons used by the paramilitaries are M-16s with armor-piercing ammo and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, he said.