A bizarre story from the Haitian occupation, in which a Brazilian general whose military forces are overseeing the massacre of hundreds after ratifying a coup joins the electoral campaign on behalf of the makers of the coup in the name of the massacred.
Was that a mouthful? Let me explain. During the coup, Kerry said one of the few things that distinguished him from Bush. He accused Bush of having an “ideological and theological hatred” of Aristide. He said that “as president he
would have sent American troops to protect Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was ousted from power in February.” (This is a quote from a BBC report).
Brazilian general Augusto Heleno, who is part of the UN mission in Haiti — commanding Brazilian UN troops who are currently overseeing the slaughter of hundreds of Haitians by Haitian police, army, and paramilitary units — didn’t like that comment. He told the Brazilian news agency that “Statements made by a candidate to the presidency of the United States created false hopes among pro-Aristide supporters. His (the candidate’s) statements created the expectation that instability and a change in American policy would contribute to Aristide’s return.”
The problem? Such comments “have offered hope to Aristide’s supporters that should Mr Kerry win the US election in November the former Haitian president might be restored to power. ” And Heleno, who is using his troops to help Haiti’s dictatorship ensure that Lavalas people are dead or terrorized, says that such hopes are “completely unfounded”. He’s making sure that’s the case, too.
What a tragedy for Haitians, to have a general like this in charge of the troops who ought to be protecting their lives. A tragedy for Brazilians, too, to have its army off explicitly killing hope and explicitly siding with the more rabid of the two imperialist factions in the United States, accusing the less rabid faction of the terrible crime of making Haitians feel hope.
Some more background (it’s repetitive, but with a story like this I feel the need to provide context frequently) below.
To repeat what we know so far. There was a coup that ousted Aristide in February 2004. That coup was backed by the US and featured former Haitian military and paramilitaries invading from the Dominican Republic and US marines kidnapping Aristide himself. Following the coup the paramilitaries began to liquidate Aristide’s followers. Thousands have been killed and that process of terror and installation of dictatorship continued under US/Canadian/French occupation, and now it continues under UN-sponsored, primarily Brazilian occupation. (Brazil is, presumably, doing this as angling for a seat at the UN Security Council, where presumably it wants to try to do decent things which will, presumably be vetoed by the US.)
On September 30, 2004, these same police opened fire on a Lavalas (Aristide’s party) demonstration (as they had done in the past with US soldiers watching), killing two people. Then they arrested various public figures and politicians. The most recent arrest was on October 13, of “a Catholic priest, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, [who] the government accused of trafficking in weapons and harboring gunmen in his parish. Human rights organizations and legal experts have condemned the arrest as “arbitrary” and an effort by the authorities to repress political dissent.”
In some slums, notably Bel Air, people began to fire back. The dictatorship circulated a story that these Lavalas people were beheading police officers and calling it “Operation Baghdad”. This is suspicious. According to a Haiti Information Project report: “Two demonstrators were killed on Sept. 30th and the U.S.-backed government claimed that the headless bodies of three policemen were later discovered. The identities of the headless policemen were released at a funeral held for them earlier this week. The bodies of the headless men were reportedly cremated before journalists and human rights groups were given an opportunity to perform an independent examination of the corpses to confirm the government’s claims. ”
A feature of the police repression against poor communities where Lavalas is politically strong (ie., most of the country) is raids, often joint raids in which the UN soldiers establish a cordon and the police enter and raid. On October 15, HIP reported that Bel Air resisted such a raid: “Armed units of the Haitian
National Police (PNH) entered the pro-Ariside slum of Bel Air as thousands of residents took to streets to demand the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Marchers defied a shutdown of the capital by the business community and threats issued by the former military. Heavy gunfire erupted as the police reportedly fired shots to disperse the crowd. The police were then forced to withdraw as unidentified gunmen returned fire from surrounding buildings in a thunderous volley.”
It also said that “The morgue at the General Hospital issued an emergency
call this afternoon stating that there was no longer space for new corpses and it had reached full capacity.”
