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Council On Hemispheric Affairs
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Monitoring
Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere
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Memorandum to the Press 04.72
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Word Count: 1500
Wednesday, 13 October
2004
Violence in Haiti: Colin Powell and Gerard Latortue Blame Aristide, When the Blame Lies With Them
On October 4, Haitians staged yet another in the country’s growing number of
street demonstrations, calling for the return of democratically-elected
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted by a State Department-scripted
coup last February 29. In recent days, these manifestations have cost 30 lives
in the Port-au-Prince area alone, generating further popular anger against the
U.S.-sanctioned local authorities. The latest protest pitted the island’s
ill-trained police and Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers against pro-Aristide
supporters, resulting in fourteen dead, including three police officers, who
were later beheaded. In comments to the Miami Herald, Interim Prime Minister
Gerard Latortue blamed the violence on “The Aristide
loyalists [who] were trying to intimidate and derail the municipal, legislative
and presidential elections scheduled for next year.”
Setting the Scene
From Latortue’s first days in office, members of
Aristide’s Lavalas Party—rather than renegade
ex-police and military personnel, and members of the previous junta—were the
interim president’s enemy. But in recent days, Latortue
has been stepping up his anti-Aristide rhetoric with the probable goal of
building a case against the participation of the former Haitian president and
his party in next year’s elections. There is no doubt that Latortue
will soon be using the perilous security situation to build support for
reconstituting the brutal Haitian armed forces. He will also use the situation
to advance the electoral prospects of Haiti’s business-led rightwing political movement, in
particular the Group of 184, led by the unscrupulous sweatshop labor king, Andy
Apaid Jr., a U.S. national.
Rather than this far-fetched explanation of the alleged threat posed by
Aristide, based on a ballot that might not happen (at least not by next year), Latortue instead should have traced part of the blame for
the recent series of public protests to the gross incompetence that he and his
government have displayed ever since he was raised up from obscurity by a State
Department press release declaring the formation of his government. Latortue’s appointment was announced shortly after Aristide
had been hustled onto an airplane and flown into exile in the Central African Republic.
FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THIS PRESS RELEASE, CLICK HERE
This analysis was
prepared by Jenna Michelle Liut and Larry Birns,
respectively COHA Research Associate and Director.
October 13, 2004
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