Haiti’s ongoing struggle to recover

As the people of Haiti continue heroic efforts to recover from the Jan. 12 devastating earthquake that has claimed at least 200,000 lives, they are facing a new challenge — an occupation of 13,000 U.S. troops and advanced weaponry. This new occupation was sanctioned by the United Nations on Jan. 22 without any say from the Haitians themselves.

The main goal of these troops is not to assist in any kind of humanitarian aid for the Haitian people but rather to extend U.S. imperialism’s economic influence in the Caribbean and parts of Latin America. While the Haitian people need food, doctors, clean water, housing and the technology to rebuild their infrastructure in the capital of Port-au-Prince and throughout the island nation, once again the U.S. has contributed nothing but arrogance and terror to a people who first won their independence in 1804 from the French colonizers who enslaved them.

The fact that President Barack Obama appointed former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to oversee the U.S. presence in Haiti exposes the hypocrisy of the U.S. government’s concern for the Haitian people. Under the Clinton administration, U.S. Marines illegally removed from office the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 1994. Under the Bush regime, President Aristide was kidnapped from Haiti in 2004. Now exiled in South Africa, President Aristide has made a strong public appeal to be allowed to return to Haiti to help his people in the aftermath of the earthquake.

On Feb. 5, an estimated 300 people confronted Clinton in Port-au-Prince to complain that the U.S. had not carried out its promises to bring immediate aid to the Haitian people. The previous day, the French-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stated that a photographer from Le Nouvelliste, the oldest and largest mainstream Haitian daily, had a camera physically taken from him by six U.S. Marines. The reporter, Homère Cardichon, was taking photos of a protest by Haitians at the U.S. ambassador’s home in the capital.

“Six Marines come up and surrounded me,” Cardichon told RSF. “Then they took my camera in my opened work bag and left with it. An hour later, one of them came back and photographed me. Then he returned my camera to me. I saw that the soldiers had erased some of the photos.”

The RSF denounced the Marines’ actions as “a flagrant act of censorship,” stating that “news and information is vital for reconstruction in Haiti and for the efforts of its citizens to start rebuilding their lives.” (RSF, Feb. 4)

There is another reason why the U.S. sent thousands of Marines to Haiti: to contain any efforts being made on the part of the Haitians to reconstruct and rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the earthquake crisis. This was confirmed in a Feb. 5 letter sent by Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee.

The letter reads in part: “I’m glad to report that AFSC’s assessment team has returned safely from Haiti, where they spent time in Port-au-Prince viewing firsthand the immense devastation of the capital city. They report that the formal structures that keep a country running were very hard hit, especially because many government ministers and mid-level civil servants died in the quake. Many institutions that were the pillars of the community, such as churches, medical facilities and schools, were badly damaged or were destroyed.

“According to Jorge Lafitte, AFSC Regional Director of Latin America, the situation in Haiti is not like other disasters to which AFSC has recently responded. The destruction of the capital city and the collapse of the Haitian middle class, who sustain the country, make this a very different crisis.

“However, some of the poorest areas in the city were not as greatly affected because buildings there are not large permanent structures and were not as lethal if they fell. People in these areas have slowly returned to informal systems of survival and our team noted that there seemed to be little violence and looting.

“A variety of makeshift solutions has developed from formal camps of 80-100,000 people to smaller groups of 700-1,000 banding together where they can. Some residents are camping in front of their destroyed homes. In talking with them, our team found that people hope they will reconstruct their houses and it is safer to stay close by.

“Geri Sicola, Associate General Secretary for International Programs, was able to visit one of the three centers where AFSC is providing emergency assistance to people living in a makeshift shelter on the grounds of a school. On that day more than 600 people were provided a meal. Our partner, Swiss Interchurch Aid, is using a private home’s kitchen to produce the food — an example of the practical and generous gestures being made by so many Haitians in this crisis. The meals include rice, beans, vegetables, and the ingredients are purchased locally or in the Dominican Republic, bolstering local economies.” (http://tinyurl.com/yfbmaht)

On Feb. 6, the BBC reported that the G7 group — the seven richest capitalist countries, including the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan — announced that they were writing off Haiti’s debt of more than $1 billion. Not only should Haiti’s debt be cancelled by these countries and the imperialist banks, but reparations in the billions of dollars should be paid to the Haitian people for the theft of their resources and labor over the centuries.