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[GIJoel2]

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This is the COMMUNIST THUG that Kerry currently wants US troops to forcibly put back in power in HAITI!!!

Inside Story World Report
July 1994

Part 1--Haiti: The Next Cuba?
Inside Story World Report, 1994

On May 21, darkness began to descend on Haiti.

“We’re all going to die now,” said Francois De Ravine, 28, who stood with other truckers in the rain Friday at the entrance to the American Airlines freight terminal as the last boxes were unloaded from their trucks.

“We’re all going to die hungry. I have five people I have to feed,” he said. “Now the only thing I can do is cry.”1

That was the day President Clinton ordered the United States to join the United Nations in a drastic trade embargo against Haiti. Within weeks, the squeeze was already affecting that impoverished nation:

Thousands of people have lost jobs over the past month as factories closed for lack of supplies and fuel. Port traffic has dropped 75 percent since the sanctions were tightened May 21, according to the newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

The cost of food and medicine is soaring, and gasoline smuggled illegally into the country is priced out of reach of most people.2

Eight months earlier, in October of 1993, Clinton had sent an initial landing force of some 200 American and Canadian troops to Haiti, but crowds of armed and angry civilians had prevented the ship from docking. A total of 1,300 UN troops were to have occupied Haiti. Angered by the Haitian resistance, Clinton threatened invasion by the US navy, imposed new economic sanctions, and then sent six warships to blockade Haiti.

Despite a strong backlash from Republicans, Congress failed to restrict Clinton’s powers in moving against Haiti. By May, Clinton was tightening sanctions while openly planning a military invasion. On June 10, he banned commercial airline flights and financial transfers between Haiti and the US. As it stands right now, Haiti is bracing for a bloody conflict.

Clinton has not stood alone. In Washington, DC, prominent lobbyist Randall Robinson has gone on a hunger strike in protest against Haiti. Robinson is the ultra-left executive director of TransAfrica, for years the central organization in the movement for sanctions against South Africa. TransAfrica’s board of directors includes Carlton Goodlett, a long-time official of the World Peace Council—a European-based KGB front through which the Soviets coordinate terrorist groups worldwide [see “The shadow behind the Middle East peace conference,” this issue—Eds.]. TransAfrica itself supports Communist revolutionary groups. In 1981, Robinson’s organization joined with the Communist Party, USA, to sponsor a Washington, DC, meeting with the African National Congress of South Africa. Michael Manley, the Marxist, pro-Castro former primer minister of Jamaica, gave the keynote speech at a 1982 TransAfrica forum. Also in 1982, TransAfrica’s Dr. Ronald Walters co-signed a declaration by a front group for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), calling for sanctions against Israel. Robinson and TransAfrica have also supported such Communist revolutionary movements as the South-West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) in Namibia and the Polisario Front of Western Morocco, while supporting the Communist regimes in Cuba, Grenada (now overthrown), Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Nicaragua.3

Congressman Ronald Dellums (Democrat-California) has backed Clinton by introducing legislation for total sanctions against Haiti. Based in the Berkeley area, Dellums has been so radical that his 1970 campaign to enter Congress received full backing by Communist Party newspapers. Shortly after winning that election, he traveled to Sweden for a conference of the World Peace Council. Attending with Dellums were such personalities as Herbert Aptheker, Gil Green, and Sylvia Krushner—all top officials of the Communist Party, USA. The 1970 meeting expressed support for Communist North Vietnam in its war against the United States.4

The focus of the astonishing campaign against Haiti is its former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Haiti’s crime, blares the media, is that its military overthrew the democratically-elected Aristide in September, 1991. For the sake of democracy, that nation must be punished, or even invaded, to force it to take back Aristide.

Why all the fuss over tiny Haiti? The country has a population slightly over six million (less than New York City), mostly impoverished and illiterate. The economy depends heavily on tourism, having no oil or precious metals and little industry. And Haiti is hardly the least democratic nation in the Third World.

In reality, Haiti is now a major strategic target of the “former” Soviet Bloc, which is exploiting the Western belief that Communism is “dead” to establish a key military base in the Caribbean.



Aristide and Liberation Theology

The press often refers to the former president as “Father” Aristide, because of his past status as a priest in the Salesian Order of the Roman Catholic Church. But in 1989 the Catholic Church expelled him from the Order for his radical politics and distinctly un-Catholic theology.

Aristide’s rift with the Catholic Church began showing in his seminary days during the mid-1960s. He complained to the prefect of studies that the traditional Latin Mass should be scrapped as a vestige of a dead language. The seminary held firm.5

Rather than leave the Catholic Church over his disagreements, Aristide chose instead to work from within to disrupt its theology. In his own words, he began reading radical South American authors who preached the “antagonism between exploiter and exploited.” From there he joined Liberation Theology, a movement propagating Marxism in the name of Christianity.6

Among Protestant churches, the main advocate of Liberation Theology since the late 1960s has been the World Council of Churches (WCC). Using donations made by Christians to their local churches, the WCC has provided millions of dollars to such Communist movements as the government of North Vietnam (during the Vietnam War!) and terrorist groups such as SWAPO and the African National Congress (ANC).7

The Catholic version of Liberation Theology was officially born at the Second General Council of Latin American Bishops, held in Colombia in 1968. Since then, priests of Liberation Theology, though in a minority, have used their positions of power to recruit youth into Communist revolution while encouraging terrorist violence. The movement has surfaced in Catholic churches throughout Latin America and Europe, as well as in the Philippines.

Liberation Theologists played a key role in the 1979 Sandinista takeover of Nicaragua. “Father” Ernesto Cardenal, who declared that “only when I converted to Marxism could I write religious poetry”8 and that “I am above all a revolutionist and as such fight for… a dictatorship of the proletariat, in which surely it cannot show itself feeble toward the enemies of its fatherland, not even in moments when one comes to the point of having to execute men for this purpose,”9 was appointed Minister of Culture in the new Marxist dictatorship. “Father” Miguel d’Escoto also backed the revolution, and was trusted enough to be named Foreign Minister of the Sandinista regime. Upon winning the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1987, d’Escoto was ecstatic: “This prize makes us Nicaraguans come into even closer contact with Lenin, that great personality of your state and of all mankind who is the passionate champion of peace.”10

With these “priests” supporting the Sandinistas, the government has seized control of public and religious schools to enforce the teaching of atheism and revolution, has blocked religious access to the media, has physically attacked and destroyed many dozens of Catholic and Protestant churches, has imprisoned, mutilated, and killed priests, missionaries, and worshippers, and has driven the entire Jewish community out of Nicaragua after burning down its synagogue.11

Liberation Theology has also become a major force in the South African revolution. The South African Communist Party declared in 1989 that “South African communists must look afresh, while fully adhering to the Party’s ideology of Marxism-Leninism, at the religious factor as an element in the people’s struggle… Our immediate aim of establishing the National Democratic Revolution must, on the religious front, encompass the development of a liberation theology which supports the people’s fight for a democratic republic.”12 The Kairos Document, issued in 1986 by clergy of Liberation Theology, endorsed not only the revolution but also terrorism against blacks, including the “necklacing” practice of burning blacks to death using tires soaked in gasoline.13 Prominent Liber-ation Theologist Desmond Tutu, an official of the World Council of Churches (which funds the ANC and other South African terrorist groups), was quoted by the Boston Jewish Times as saying, “In terms of the New Testament, the Jews must suffer. Therefore, we will put it into practice if we will be in charge. There will be no sympathy with the Jews when the blacks take over.”14 Other Liberation Theologists have delivered agitating speeches at ANC rallies, often in front of huge Soviet flags.15

In Haiti, it is Jean-Bertrand Aristide who now holds the torch for Liberation Theology.

Communist revolution in Haiti

The Soviet Bloc has been eyeing the strategic assets of the Caribbean for some time. The region provides a back door to the United States, through which the Soviets could hope to finish surrounding their most powerful target. Most importantly, the Caribbean is the corridor of access to the Panama Canal, which saves the US navy thousands of miles in transferring ships between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In case of war, the US would depend greatly on having unhindered access to the Canal.

The Caribbean is also a valuable staging area for Communist-sponsored revolution throughout Latin America. The Soviets acquired their first base in the area when Cuba fell to Fidel Castro in 1959. Weapons, training, and other support have since moved through Cuba into the hands of revolutionaries in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and others. The fall of Guyana to the Communists in the 1970s created another outpost at the other end of the Caribbean. Nicaragua then fell to the Sandinistas in 1979, who have joined the supply line of weapons to terrorists in El Salvador and elsewhere. While revolution is accelerating in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba and its regional allies have even sponsored the terrorists of the Weather Under-ground Organization in the United States and the Quebec Liberation Front in Canada.

The island of Hispaniola, divided between the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, sits squarely in the middle of Atlantic access to the Caribbean. The fall of Haiti to Communism would give the Soviets an important naval base to consolidate their hold on the area.

Thus it should come as no suprise that the Haitian Communists have long plotted their seizure of power. For nearly three decades, the United Party of Haitian Communists (PUCH) stood little chance of victory against the Duvalier family, which ruled the nation as strongmen. The PUCH was officially banned, forcing it to operate underground. But the patience of Communists is such that they gradually built the infrastructure of revolution, waiting for their opportunity.

As PUCH General Secretary Rene Theodore admitted in a 1986 interview, the Communists had created an invisible government among the population. “Neighbourhood committees began to spring up as an important form in organising the population,” recalled Theodore. “Mass organisations in Haiti are, first and foremost, the neighbourhood committees, the traditional focus of activities by the Communists.” Labor unions also served as vital front groups for the revolution, and thus became a prime target of infiltration. “We try to strengthen the labour organisations… Our line with regard to the trade unions is to give every possible support to those of them which take a consistent class stand. We are trying to help them in every way by assigning our activists to work in them.”

Another wing of the revolution had been organized through religious institutions. “The Catholic church has played an important role in the struggle against Duvalier,” boasted Theodore. “It still takes a progressive stand, especially on the land reform issue, where its point of view is similar to ours.… In short, the present position of the Catholics, based as it is on the theology of liberation, provides a basis for cooperation with the Commu-nists.”

Theodore could boast at the time. Following economic troubles and diplomatic pressure from the US State Department, Jean Claude Duvalier had fled Haiti as his regime suddenly collapsed. The invisible PUCH infrastructure took advantage of the situation, mobilizing pressure from below. “The Communists were, of course, directly involved in the action in early 1986 that forced Baby Doc [Duvalier] to flee the country,” Theodore noted. The PUCH had incited revolution through radio broadcasts from outside Haiti, while sending masses of unwitting people into the streets in protest.16 The whole circus provided rich material for Western television cameras, though the media buried any hint of Commu-nist involvement.

The overthrow of Duvalier had merely advanced the revolution to a new stage. By June of 1987, a general labor strike was crippling the economy while military and police were forced to confront increasingly violent mass demonstrations.

But it was in the election five months later that the PUCH truly demonstrated the power of its underground apparatus, by setting up a loaded contest. As the election approached, the violence and intimidation quickly boiled it down to a contest between two presidential candidates: Gerard Gourgue of the National Unification Front—and Rene Theodore of the PUCH! Theodore ran openly as a Communist, but as he later revealed, Gourgue was also under complete Communist control. “Gourgue himself could not be suspected by anyone either of anti-imperialist attitudes or sympathies for communism,” gloated Theodore, “but he was surrounded by people who held progressive views. Indeed, at one time, some of them even took part in the activity of the party of Haitian Communists.”17 By running against Gourgue, Theodore helped disguise Gourgue’s Com-munist ties and virtually guaranteed that, regardless of who was elected president, the Communists would win.

The whole plot died at the hands of the Haitian military. Faced with the growing economic crisis, political instability, and an obvious Communist setup, Haiti’s generals moved to restore order. The rigged elections were cancelled, replaced by more peaceful elections in 1988.

Nevertheless, the weaker governments that succeeded Duvalier were becoming ripe for Communist picking. Narciso Isa Conde, head of the Dominican Communist Party, explained the situation in 1988:

The internal situation in Haiti is highly fragile…

Haiti is now one of the weakest links in the chain of imperialist domination. Real changes will come about in the country only when the power issue is decided in the interests of the people and full-scale popular action is taken against the violence and the crisis. Success also depends on the extend to which the people [read: the Communists—Eds.] are in possession of technical means and weapons.18

To create another rigged election, the Communists had to wait until 1990 for outside help.


Aristide: a true democrat?

The George Bush administration had decided by 1990 to nullify Haitian politics, and to impose a new election ac-cording to terms laid out by the United Nations. The timing could not have been better for the Communists; Haitian anti-Communists, including members of the military, could not have been more dismayed.

For by that time a new strongman was emerging to seize power for himself, a violent man allied with the Communist movement: Jean-Bertrand Aristide. His use of terror and mob violence was already frightening part of the population into supporting him [Covered in part II, in our August issue—Eds.].

“That the Haitian military decided to go along with the 1990 election reflects sustained international pressure, chiefly from the…United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the governments of Canada and the United States,” wrote Lawrence E. Harrison, former director of the US Agency for International Development (AID—the federal agency that dispenses foreign aid).19 Many Haitians were embittered by the fact that these foreign powers went one step further and actually ran the elections themselves. In a published letter, Haitian election official Moise Samuel Josaphat vigorously protested United Nations control over Haitian elections, arguing that this “foreign influence alone should be enough to have these elections declared null and void.”20

Josaphat did not stand alone in his anger, a fact that made UN officials nervous. Moving quickly to neutralize such opposition, which included Haitian ambassador Lionel Paquin, UN “advisors” exercised their unofficial power. The UN Development Program representative, summoning top Haitian officials to his residence, ordered them to fire ambassador Paquin.21 According to Josaphat, similar maneuvers were used to purge or neutralize various Haitian opponents of the UN control.

Many of the Haitians allowed to organize the election under UN supervision turned out to be radical leftists. To avoid the appearance of fraud, these organizers drafted rules barring election officials from participating in post-election governments. However, these same leftists re-appeared in the Aristide regime, in violation of their own rules. By then it was too late.

As feared by Josaphat and others, the alliance of UN officials and Haitian leftists produced possibly the most dishonest election in recent Haitian history, one that was rigged entirely in Aristide’s favor. Many candidates for various offices were brazenly eliminated through a filing process frought with irregularities and double standards. For example, Senate candidate Charles Metellus, running in a party that competed with that of Aristide, was disqualified on the grounds that his photocopied certificate “was not sufficient proof that he was a landowner in the region and, finally, that a photocopy of his birth certificate could not replace the actual certificate.” In contrast, Aristide was allowed to present the equivalent documents for his candidacy entirely as photocopies. And on the day of the election itself, voting in several areas continued until late at night, long after the election results had already been announced.

Speaking on behalf of many fellow Haitians, an embittered Josaphat concluded that “Aristide and his gang are the ones hanging on for dear life to the posts they acquired with the help of electoral trickery and foreign interference without precedence in our history. They are guilty of the crime of high treason.”22

Aristide, needless to say, won the “election.” Nor were his US backers ignorant of his Communist connections. As admitted by USAID official Harrison, “The U.S. role was in some measure ironic. Although Aristide had been removed from the Salesian order by the Vatican, he had built his political base on liberation theology, the left wing…doctrine that promotes… redistribution of wealth, and views imperialism, above all U.S. imperialism, as the root cause of poverty in the Third World.… But whatever its preferences, the United States gave full support to Aristide following his election.”23

Aristide’s coming to power in February of 1991 signalled an acceleration of the Communist revolution in Haiti. In the rising tide of terrorism and revolution, increasingly desperate military officers decided something had to be done to restore order and democracy. The following Septem-ber they acted, overthrowing the man who has since become the hero of the ultra-left in the United States. Now the Clinton administration wants to finish the job, even threatening to invade Haiti to restore the sacked president—who was never elected democratically.n

The second half of this special report will expose Aristide’s direct Communist connections, his dark obsession with violence, and how he is leading the movement to establish a Soviet-backed dictatorship in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.

------------------------------------------------

Inside Story: World Report
August, 1994

Haiti: The Next Cuba?
Part II
Copyright (c) 1994 by Inside Story Communications

Authorized by the United Nations Security Council, but not by the Congress of the United States, President Bill Clinton is now preparing to invade Haiti. The attack will not protect the US from danger; rather, it is explicitly designed to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Indeed, as revealed in last month's World Report, Aristide's resurrection will play directly into the hands of the Communist Party of Haiti (PUCH) and the rest of the Communist Bloc, as directed from Moscow.

As General Secretary of the PUCH, Rene Theodore is the Communist lieutenant who orchestrates the war on Haiti. Utilizing the vast network of labor unions and other institutions infiltrated by the Party, Theodore has spent the last eight years de-stabilizing the Haitian government while maneuvering his puppets into position to seize power.

By 1990, Aristide was emerging as the newest strongman for such a takeover. He officially maintains a certain distance from the PUCH, but otherwise does little to hide his Communist affiliations. Since the 1960s, for example, Roman Catholics in Haiti and elsewhere have issued warnings about "Father" Aristide of the Salesian Order, who openly endorses Liberation Theology-the new doctrine advocating Marxist revolution from within churches. By 1989, the Catholic Church had no choice but to expel Aristide from the Order.

Not particularly inclined toward the democratic process, Aristide proclaimed the slogan, "revolution, not elections," during his 1990 campaign for the Haitian presidency.1 This was, of course, coupled with fiery anti-American and pro-Communist rhetoric:

[D]uring Reagan's campaign... there were certain individuals... who were working on a special project, which resulted in attracting 600,000 individuals who were against the Cuban Revolution. It was done to stop the good work that the revolution was doing in Cuba.... Can they dare come to Cuba?... Can they touch the ground of Cuba?... Cuba draws the line and dares America to cross it.2

Aristide's admiration for other Communist revolutionaries and dictators showed in his autobiography, though couched in tender rhetoric:

I prefer to welcome those ideas that rest on the values of beauty, dignity, respect, and love. Che Guevara... a doctor, an internationalist, certainly incorporated some of those values, as did Allende.3

Aristide's collection of speeches, entitled Capitalism is a Mortal Sin, also speaks for itself.

But after winning the presidency [in elections that were hardly democratic, as reviewed in the July, 1994 issue of World Report], Aristide dropped all pretenses and immediately established official ties with the Communist Bloc. For example, Fidel Castro honored Aristide by sending a 23-man delegation to his inauguration ceremony. Not long thereafter, Aristide dispatched a cabinet minister to establish ties with Libya's Muammar Qaddafi. And Aristide could soon be heard shouting "Down with American imperialism!" while his mobs burned the US flag in front of the American embassy.4

These mobs played a major role in bringing Aristide to power, and were central to his consolidation of dictatorship. Known as lavalas, meaning "avalanche" in Creole, these loyal gangs were quietly sent by Aristide to Cuba for training in the methods of terrorism and the police state-"including block watch groups patterned after Fidel Castro's 'Committees of the Defense of the Revolution.'" Shocked Haitians learned of this constitutional violation only later, once Aristide had already added his networks to the existing Communist infrastructure of neighborhood committees [see our July, 1994, issue-Eds.].5

In June of 1991, the lavalas attended a Mexico conference of 68 Communist Parties and revolutionary groups from 22 nations throughout the Western hemisphere. Among the terrorists represented were the FMLN of El Salvador, the URNG of Guatemala, the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, and the Colombian M19. The meeting declared solidarity with Communist revolutionary forces in their struggles to overthrow various Latin American governments, and decided "to support the significant democratic gains made by the Haitian people"-a reference to the Aristide government.6

Aristide was meanwhile forming his own private paramilitary force, known as Special Intelligence for the President (SIP). This elite corps was also trained by foreign military advisors, and was armed with weapons superior to those of the Haitian military.7

What plans did Aristide have in mind for such deadly units? In one speech, he told his lavalas, "If someone has three meals a day and you only have one, take one from him."8 In another speech, he spelled out further the plan for total war against Haiti's "reactionary" bourgeoisie: "...What we need to destroy these people we do not yet have. The day will come when we will have it. Nicaragua had it in 1979. Cuba had it in 1958 and 1959."9

Since being overthrown in late 1991, Aristide's work with open Communists has continued in the United States. When he was sued for the murder of a former Haitian official, Aristide enlisted the law firm of Rabinowitz, Boudin, and Standard for his defense.10 This firm represents the Cuban government in this country, and is a part of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the legal arm of the Communist Party, USA. The NLG has long supported such terrorists as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Iranian revolution of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the African National Congress, the German Red Army Fraction, the Irish Republican Army, and various terrorists in America. The principal partners of Rabinowitz, Boudin, and Standard are members of the Communist Party, USA; they also work with the Cuban secret police and participate in typical NLG activities.11



ARISTIDE THE TERRORIST

As with his predecessors in Liberation Theology, "Father" Aristide's sermons of revolution became so violent that the Salesians were forced to have the Vatican expel him by 1989. In a communiqu‚ issued from Rome, the Salesians explained that "[Aristide] exalted violence and class struggle [which were] in contrast with his Salesian and priestly vocation," and accused him of deliberately promoting the "de-stabilization" of the Catholic Church in Haiti.12

According to Father Edward Cappelletti, head of the Salesian Missions in New York, Aristide "was using the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a vehicle for violence... At the Offertory of the Mass, for instance, he would have his followers come up and 'offer' their machetes, lay their machetes on the altar. Then he would name the enemies who were to be killed and send his people out with their machetes and 'necklaces' to kill them."13

What is a "necklace"?

During the past ten years in South Africa, revolutionary terror against the civilian population has taken the form of the "necklace." Used primarily against moderate blacks as a means of intimidating others, the "necklace" is an automobile tire, soaked in gasoline, that is placed around the victim's neck by the Communist-inspired mob. The tire is lit on fire, slowly burning the victim to death over a period of minutes. The African National Congress has used this method of torture-execution against hundreds of South Africans-with the blessing of Liberation Theologists in that country.

Borrowing from his South African comrades, Aristide has imported the "necklace" into Haiti. Naming it after Pere Lebrun, a well-known Haitian tire businessman, Aristide has commissioned his lavalas to use the grotesque method in an expanded campaign of terror.14

Religious leaders have topped the list of targets. Archbishop Francois Wolff Ligonde, speaking on New Year's day in 1991, denounced Aristide for installing a "Bolshevik government" in Haiti. As documented in the Congressional Record and by the Puebla Institute, a liberal human rights organization, Aristide's lavala terrorists responded by destroying the Vatican's embassy in Port-au-Prince, along with one of the city's oldest cathedrals.15 But the mobs were not finished: "The Papal nuncio (ambassador) was stripped to his shorts and paraded through the streets; his assistant, a priest from Zaire, was gravely wounded by a machete blow. Ligonde fled Haiti to save his life."16 The Vatican's ambassador was spared a lynching only by the intervention of a neighbor, "who pretended to be with the marauders and have orders from Aristide for them to halt their violence."17

Soon Aristide was giving public speeches advocating the Pere Lebrun for all political opponents. In one speech, captured on video, Aristide's lavalas can be seen holding burning tires and machetes in the background while Aristide himself had this to say:

...if I catch fake Lavalas... If you catch someone... who does not deserve to be where he is, do not fail to give him what he deserves. Do not fail to give him what he deserves!

Then, referring to the burning tires held up by the lavala mobs, Aristide reached even greater intensity:

What a nice tool! What a nice instrument! What a nice device! It is a pretty one. It is elegant, attractive, splendorous, graceful and dazzling. It smells good. Wherever you go, you feel like smelling it.18

According to a 1991 report put out by the same US State Department that now supports Aristide, the lavalas also began terrorizing Protestant Christian missions, forcing several pastors to flee their congregations.19 Intimidation then turned to murder. Several weeks after the Reverend Sylvio Claude, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, reported to the Hatian Center for Human Rights that he feared persecution,20 lavala mobs attacked him with the "necklace":

In September of 1991, the same night that the army moved against Aristide, a mob of the president's supporters set upon Claude and beat him senseless. Claude died an agonizing death. According to eyewitness accounts, an Aristide henchman then severed the ***** from Claude's corpse, put it in his mouth, and danced derisively around his body... an automobile tire filled with gasoline was draped around his neck and set ablaze. Confident that Aristide had survived the military's move against him, the henchman had a photographer record the moment of triumph.21

Aristide's personal role in ordering the murder was confirmed by the presence of Jean-Claude Jean Baptiste, one of Aristide's top lavala delegates, in the lynch mob.22



ARISTIDE THE DICTATOR

Surrounded by his Cuban-trained lavalas and his SIP paramilitary forces, Aristide began consolidating his position as president-for-life. He banned hundreds of former government officials from foreign tavel, trapping them inside Haiti. Even former president Ertha Pascal Trouillot was placed under this ban for six months, until a magistrate overturned the order.23

But Haiti's magistrates, judges, legislators, and military personnel quickly learned that President Aristide did not wish to be bothered by constitutional procedures. Anyone not agreeing with the new agenda found himself subject to illegal political maneuvers, or even violent attacks and imprisonment.

Aristide stacked the Haitian Supreme Court by appointing five henchmen, none of whom was submitted to the Senate for approval.24 Despite the conflict-of-interest ban on bringing election officials into the government, Aristide also "appointed several members of the electoral commission as ambassadors, to the United States and Canada and elsewhere"-suggesting the commission's secret alliance with Aristide during the previous election. Aristide then began systematically replacing elected mayors with his own lavala appointees, using the threat of mob violence to keep them in office. Fed up with the brazen constitutional violations, the Senate finally resigned en mass in protest.25

Meanwhile, the terror was escalating. On July 29, 1991, former cabinet minister Roger Lafontant was tried in court for having tried to stop Aristide from assuming power. Under the Haitian constitution, such a crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. But Aristide wanted a much heavier punishment. Once again, hundreds of lavalas were sent in with their tires and cans of gasoline, threatening to kill the judge unless Lafontant received a life sentence at hard labor. Not surprisingly, Aristide got his wish.26

After the Lafontant conviction, Aristide ralled his lavalas, saying, "For 24 hours in front of the courthouse, Pere Lebrun [necklacing] became a good firm bed... The Justice Ministry inside the courthouse had the law in its hands, the people had their cushion outside. They [had] their little matches in their hands. They [had] gas nearby."27 In another public speech, taped on video, Aristide boasted of his growing power: "[One] could also ask if the use of necklacing is in the Constitution. You might answer, 'If the pressure of necklacing in front of the Courthouse... was not there, then he would not have received the life sentence. Instead, he would have only received 15 years!"28

As his arbitrary powers grew, Aristide plunged Haiti into chaos. When two members of an opposition political party demonstrated against Aristide, his SIP units arrested them without a proper court order. A court order, in fact, was issued for their immediate release, to which the SIP responded by transferring the protesters from the local prison to the national prison, where they were held "incommunicado and denied access to legal counsel," according to the US State Department.

So many abuses piled up that even our State Department documented credible reports of "extra-judicial killings by security forces and partisan mobs, disappearances, torture and other mistreatment of detainees and prisoners." Political prisoners who had the misfortune of being transferred to the national prison were personally interrogated by Rene Preval, Aristide's appointed Prime Minister. According to the State Department, this shadowy character interrogated "politically sensitive cases," and "the detainees did not have access to legal counsel during these interrogations."29

Members of the press were also targeted for violence and intimidation. In January, 1991, lavala mobs attacked, burned, and looted radio stations and newspaper offices critical of Aristide. Many Haitian journalists all but ceased criticizing the regime. Aristide encouraged the spreading fear by publicly threatening a reporter from the Haiti Observateur for being critical of his policies.30

As Aristide quietly built his SIP forces, he chipped away at potential military opposition. Soldiers were routinely assassinated, and several military installations were burned. Asked to denounce these attacks, Aristide instead "backed them up by his... demagogic tirades."31

By August, 1991, nervous members of the Legislature convened to investigate Aristide's moves toward dictatorship. However, "When the parliament met, its members found themselves surrounded by about 2,000 demonstrators, many carrying burning tires. Under the threat of the mob, the legislators decided to recess."32 In many cases, legislators were literally dragged out of their chambers by the lavala mobs and beaten for voting against him.33

Even Roger Lafontant's life sentence was not enough to satisfy Aristide, who illegally ordered Lafontant's execution. According to Captain Stagne Doura, commandant of the prison camp holding Lafontant, Aristide called him on the telephone with the shocking order. Doura pretended not to hear, and asked Aristide to repeat it. "At that very moment, a death threat was clearly expressed to [me] in these words: 'you or him.'"34 This testimony has been corroborated by the man who actually executed Lafontant, Private First Class Sincere Leus.35 And according to General Raoul Cedras, Aristide ordered the execution of at least twenty more political prisoners.

However, that very night the military finally moved into action, forcibly overthrowing Aristide and his allies. His final orders to execute other political prisoners were never carried out. The crisis was finished-at least, so it seemed.



WHO IS THE REAL CEDRAS?

The Haitian military placed Aristide under arrest on September 30, 1991, ending seven months of chaotic rule. They had intended to bring Aristide to trial, facing nine charges of constitutional violations.36

But Aristide was unexpectedly rescued by the very man who now leads Haiti, General Raoul Cedras. By interceding to give Aristide a choice whether to leave the country or stand trial, he allowed Aristide to go to the United States-where he now runs a high-profile publicity campaign for a US invasion of Haiti!37

Though painted as a sort of "right-wing dictator," Cedras has disturbing ties to Aristide. As one recent article put it, "Cedras is described as having been a good friend of Aristide's, and he is married to the sister of leading Aristide adviser (and Preval's best friend) Rene Prosper." When Aristide came to power, he fired key military officers and named Cedras his Chief of Staff for the Armed Forces; Cedras himself did not participate in the overthrow of Aristide, but he did step in to prevent angry soldiers from killing Aristide. Cedras also negotiated the Governor's Island accord that agreed to allow Aristide to return and seize power again.38

Most shockingly of all, Cedras allowed Rene Theodore-General Secretary of the Communist Party of Haiti-to become the temporary but unapproved Prime Minister of Haiti after Aristide's departure.39 In other words, the Communists were able to snatch partial victory from the jaws of defeat, with the help of Cedras. Could Cedras be secretly allied with the Haitian Communists, preparing to surrender easily to Aristide? We cannot yet know.

Certainly the Haitian people are hostile to Aristide and his Communist gangs. Even Lawrence Harrison, the former US AID representative who supports Aristide, admitted the strength of this opposition right after the coup:

The crowd at the parliament building had been waiting for many hours... and its mood was hostile... When I finally entered the chamber... many more senators and deputies were present than I had expected-a majority of both houses, I would guess... most of the parliamentarians were unified in their support for Aristide's overthrow, and cool if not antagonistic to our delegation.40

Nor do any of the estimated 3,500 Americans in Haiti seem to want an invasion to restore Aristide, including those who support the fallen president.41

In the face of all this, both the George Bush and Bill Clinton administrations have nevertheless pushed hard to reinstall Aristide in Haiti. Bush first imposed economic sanctions on that impoverished country, then froze tens of millions of dollars in Haitian assets in the United States and turned over the money to Aristide. The money is now being used to finance Aristide's massive campaign for an invasion, and he has been allowed to take over the Haitian embassy in Washington, DC.42 Clinton, of course, has merely accelerated the Bush sanctions, and has now received United Nations support for an invasion.

Aristide himself does not want to go back alone; he knows he will never survive unless US forces protect him while he crushes his opposition. To this end, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has called for over 15,000 troops, an overwhelming landing force.43 The UN, just as the Clinton administration, knows full well it is backing a violent Communist that Americans would never support, if they knew. Thus the recent and growing debate over Aristide has profoundly angered the UN. "'The U.S. debate has been incredibly destructive,' said one U.N. official. 'It served to undermine everything we had worked for.'"44

It remains to be seen whether the United States will help deliver Haiti, and ultimately the Caribbean Sea, into the hands of Moscow.n

REFERENCES (part 1)

1 Hamm, L.M., Associated Press, “Haitians hunker down for trade embargo,” S.F. Chronicle, May 22, 1994, p. A9.

2 Snow, A., Associated Press, “Many in Haiti would prefer invasion over U.N. sanctions,” S.F. Chronicle, June 6, 1994, p. A11.

3 “TransAfrica—A Lobby of the Left,” Lincoln Institute for Research and Education, Sept. 1985, excerpted in The New American, Oct. 14, 1985, pp. 27-34.

4 Gannon, F.X., Biographical Dictionary of the Left, vol. III, Western Islands, Belmont, MA, 1972, pp. 321-325.

5 Danner, M., “The Prophet,” The New York Review of Books, Nov. 18, 1993, p. 28.

6 Ibid.

7 McIlhany, W., “The WCC: A haven for Marxists?”, Family Protection Scoreboard, National Citizens Action Network, special edition, 1989, p. 21; see also p. 40.

8 Novak, M., Liberation Theology: Will It Liberate?, Paulist Press, New York, 1986, p. 22.

9 Wurmbrand, R., Marx & Satan, Crossway Books, Westchester, IL, 1986, p. 126.

10 Hill, K.R., The Puzzle of the Soviet Church, Multnomah Press, Portland, OR, 1989, p. 83.

11 Belli, H., Breaking Faith, Crossway Books, Westchester, IL, 1985, pp. 179-181, 192-196, 203-208, 217-220, 225-227, 232-233, and passim.

12 Mhlaba, J., “Communists and Christians,” The African Communist, Fourth Quarter, 1989, pp. 125-128.

13 Quoted in Family Protection Scoreboard, Op cit., p. 43.

14 Boston Jewish Times, Nov., 1984, quoted in Balsiger, D.W., “Liberation Theology Celebrities,” Family Protection Scoreboard, Op cit., p. 47.

15 Balsiger, D.W., Op cit., p. 49.

16 Theodore, R., “The dictatorship has fallen, the battle goes on,” World Marxist Review, Oct. 1986, pp. 42-45.

17 Theodore, R., “Elections without voters,” World Marxist Review, July 1988, p. 103.

18 Conde, N.I., “The decline of the Santa Fé policy,” World Marxist Review, March 1988, pp. 39-40.

19 Harrison, L.E., “Voodoo politics,” Atlantic Monthly, June 1993, p. 101.

20 Josaphat, M.S., Letter to Herold Jean-François (response to article by François on Jan. 18, 1993), translated from French and released by the Congressional Research Center, Nov. 1993.

21 Note by Jean Casimir, CEP secretary general, cited in Josaphat, Op cit.

22 Josaphat, Op cit.

23 Harrison, Op cit., pp. 101-102.


REFERENCES (part 2)

1 "Uncle Sam, meet 'Pere Lebrun,'" AIM Report, Aug. 1993, p. 3.

2 Jasper, W.F., "Father Aristide's gospel of violence," The New American, 1-10-94, p. 7.

3 Aristide, J-B., Aristide: An Autobiography, Orbis Books, New York, 1993, p. 126.

4 James, D., "Aristide won't wipe out Haiti's despotic heritage," Insight, 8-9-93, p. 30.

5 AIM Report, Aug. 1993, Op cit., p. 3.

6 "Uniting the Latin Left," The African Communist, 2nd quarter, 1991, pp. 59-60.

7 AIM Report, Aug. 1993, Op cit., p. 3.

8 Daughin, M., "US foists a dangerous man on Haiti," The Washington Times, 9-6-93.

9 Pressler, Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 1994, Congressional Record-Senate, 10-20-93, p. S 14031.

10 Krinsky, M., Viles, T., and Kurzban, I.J., Suggestion of immunity and notice of motion, filed in US District Court, Eastern District of New York, 10-20-93.

11 Outlaws of Amerika, Western Goals, Alexandria, VA, 1982, pp. 51-53, 58, 63-64, and passim.

12 Wilentz, A., The Rainy Season, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1989, p. 401.

13 Jasper, W.F., "The real Bertrand Aristide," The New American, 1-10-94, p. 8.

14 AIM Report, Op cit., Aug. 1993, p. 2.

15 Congressional Record-Senate, 10-20-93, p. S 14035.

16 AIM Report, Op cit., Aug. 1993, p. 5.

17 Shea, N., "Prepared statement of Nina Shea, President of the Puebla Institute, before the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, Committee on Foreign Affairs, US House of Representatives," Puebla Institute, 7-21-93, p. 8.

18 Ibid., p. 13.

19 Country reports on human rights practices for 1991, Department of State, Feb. 1992, p. 639.

20 Shea, N., Op cit., p. 13.

21 AIM Report, Aug. 1993, Op cit., p. 2.

22 Shea, N., Op cit., p. 13.

23 Country reports, Op cit., p. 639.

24 Shea, N., Op cit., p. 12.

25 AIM Report, Aug. 1993, Op cit., p. 3.

26 Country reports, Op cit., p. 637.

27 Shea, N., Op cit., p. 11.

28 "Aristide on Aristide," compiled by the staff of Senator Jesse Helms, undated.

29 Country reports, Op cit., p. 636.

30 Ibid., pp. 634, 638.

31 Weymouth, L., "Haiti's suspect savior," Washington Post, 1-24-93.

32 Ibid.

33 Shea, N., Op cit., p. 12.

34 Doura, S., Sworn deposition to Commander-in-Chief, Haiti armed forces, 10-20-91. Obtained by US embassry, 4-14-93.

35 Leus, S., Sworn deposition to Venezuela embassy. Obtained by US embassy, 4-14-93.

36 AIM Report, Aug. 1993, Op cit., pp. 1, 3.

37 Weymouth, Op cit.

38 Harrison, L.E., "Voodoo politics," Atlantic Monthly, June 1993, p. 102; Caldwell, C., "Aristide development," American Spectator, July 1994, p. 75.

39 Harrison, Op cit., p. 102.

40 Ibid., p. 102.

41 Beard, D., "Yankees in Haiti reject U.S. help," N.Y. Times Magazine, 7-10-94.

42 Caldwell, Op cit., pp. 34-36.

43 Los Angeles Times, "15,000 peacekeepers needed in Haiti," S.F. Chronicle, 7-16-94, p. A14.

44 Farah, D. and Booth, W., "Efforts to restore Aristide tottering," Washington Post, 10-28-93.

[Becky]

Interesting and connective post. One group Kerry
has never been for - the American Soldier and that
has always been his constant pattern...from Vietnam
to today's Iraq...

[lrb111]

Well he was rated the most "liberal member of congress". Which means as far left as one can be. Which means since the communist party of the usa supports him, somethings up.

let's take him and his friends down, before they tank the entire country.
_________________
said Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe. "It is inexcusable to mock service and sacrifice."
well, when even the DNC can see it,,,,, then kerry is toast.

[GIJoel2]

If anyone has similar examples of Kerry's treacherous support of Communist revolution, please post them here. Thanks.

[J. Toy]

See the Gary Aldritch column from today about FBI files on Kerry.

There is a thread somewhere here...sorry but I can't link it up.
_________________
Corpsman, 1969-1973

[lrb111]

[GIJoel2]

[SangRun Hunter]

If one wants to see how the Communist part works it way into society and has for years I suggest reading "Witness" the book about the Alger Hiss case.

Whether Kerry knows it of not he is and has been helping Communist regimes since he started his public service career in 1968.

As a supporter of common sense I see no other concluision I could come to after reading UNC and all of the other research I've done on a poersonal level about the man.
_________________
Mad as Hell!

[GIJoel2]

Kerry's brazenness/stupidity knows no bounds. The fact that he criticizes Bush for failing to save Haitian dictator and known Communist thug (and outspoken enemy of the United States), Jean B. Aristide, from being deposed by his own people is nothing short of incredible. Add to that Kerry's recent statements saying he would send in US Marines "without UN approval" (very strong statement for Kerry, no?) to put this Communist dictator back on his throne in Haiti, and you have to wonder who's pulling Kerry's strings.

[MikeM]

I think it's pretty clear who has been pulling his strings for a very long time.

[GIJoel2]