Stan Goff argued in a recent article that participation of countries like Brazil, Argentina, in Chile in the coup against Haiti is not only opportunistic and unprincipled, but unlikely to get those countries anything in the bargain. Here’s a quote from him:
This acquiescence — no, collaboration — with the diktat of the US will not loosen the parasitic grip of the Imperial Center on a single Latin American, nor will it ameliorate that Center’s intent to continue exploiting the entire region until it is used up and dead. This pious fantasy that cooperation will be rewarded has been the downfall of many a leader, including Aristide who was taken from his home after calling for “peaceful mobilization” even in the faced of murderous paramilitaries.
(Part of why I like Goff is that he doesn’t mince words). Many think all this is angling for a seat at the UN security council. Which, if that’s what Brazil is after, is a really pathetic goal. The US will still be able to veto whatever it wants and it will still continue to treat the UN with contempt.
For those who hoped for more when Lula was elected — in Brazil and out — there are more disappointments in Brazil’s recent foreign policy.
Not only are Brazilian troops ratifying the coup in Haiti, they are now helping the Haitian Police cleanse Haiti of Aristide supporters. On October 6, Reuters reported the following:
Clashes between police and criminal gangs and violence between the gangs have killed 45 people in recent days, including seven policemen. The military commander of the U.N. troops, Brazilian Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, said Haitian authorities must act, but only on the basis of credible intelligence. “We cannot intervene without good intelligence. Otherwise if we go to the slums and start shooting on all that moves, it’s going to be a carnage,” Heleno said.
Take what Reuters says and add it to what the reporters of Haiti Information Project are putting out. This is from their report yesterday:
UN forces using Armored Personnel Vehicles (APV’s) and attack trained dogs are currently taking up positions around the pro-Aristide slum of Bel Air. They are joined by heavily armed units of the Haitian police following a statement by Minister of Justice Bernard Gousse that the U.S.-backed government would give a “muscular response” to opponents of the regime. This comes one day after the Haitian National Police (PNH) and UN officials held meetings to formulate a plan to end armed resistance that broke out after police fired on unarmed demonstrators on September 30th.
…
A UN helicopter could been seen circling overhead as APV’s manned by Brazilian troops took up positions around the slum. Unidentified UN troops could be seen handling what appeared to be special canine units as frightened residents ran for cover. A spokesperson for PNH announced the action involved 200 UN troops with 150 Haitian police and that more than 75 persons have been arrested in Bel Air this morning.
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday where the deteriorating situation in Haiti topped the agenda. Brazil’s role in leading the UN mission was recently criticized by representatives of Aristide’s Lavalas party. They charged the UN forces did nothing to stop the Haitian police from provoking this latest crisis by firing on unarmed demonstrators on September 30th. Despite the destabilizing role played by the Haitian police, UN Special Representative Juan Gabriel Valdés reiterated “the U.S.-backed UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) will continue to work in support of the Haitian police in maintaining public order, thereby helping to ensure the security of Haiti’s citizens and respect for the rule of law.”
Could it be that the “criminal gangs” that the police are bravely battling with UN help are really Aristide supporters who have finally started in some small ways to resist getting liquidated all over the country by the dictatorship?
There is reason to believe that that kind of alchemy happens in the media. Take a look at this report, for example, from a tiny Canadian group called “Haiti News Watch”, “an independent organization dedicated to fact checking news sources related to coverage of events in Haiti. Our reports and analysis of news content is intended to provide readers with story context and the background of sources used in published articles related to Haiti.”
Haiti News Watch found in a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) story of October 6 titled “Aristide supporters threaten continued violence in Haiti”, a quotation that said:
“The pro-Aristide factions took machetes, guns, rocks and bottles and roamed through a Port-au-Prince slum, threatening to behead foreigners.”
They looked up the source. It was an AP story by Amy Bracken of the same day, October 6, 4:22pm ET: “One angry man in Bel Air thrust a gun into the face of an Associated Press reporter Wednesday, yelled expletives against President Bush and U.N. peacekeepers, then screamed: “We are going to kidnap some Americans and cut off their heads.”
And that, dear readers, is how “One angry man” with a gun becomes a “faction”
with “machetes, guns, rocks and bottles”.
The disappointments are not over yet, though.
In addition to this kind of behaviour in occupied Haiti, Brazil has decided that it is going to collaborate with Washington’s Drug War as well, sharing radar data about planes flying over the Amazon, according to a Reuters story of today. What happened to the Brazil that made the “small gesture of national dignity” those months ago? A lot of Brazilians are asking that question. The price of US scraps at the Security Council table seems far too high.
