Abstract

Coup in Haiti

What happened in Haiti was a coup d'& eacute;tat, and it's almost funny to hear Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Scott McClellan call that claim "absurd". It began when Aristide was first elected at the end of 1990 and continued right up until he was hustled aboard a plane. In the current coup, there are several players. There is the disgruntled former Haitian army, which has been wielded many times in the service of coups d'état, often subsidized by its masters, the elite of Haiti. The elite, too, had their hand in this coup---it's hard to believe in this day and age, but they must be called the entrenched class enemies of the Haitian people. You will notice in the next few weeks that the Haitian people, who have been featured so prominently in recent weeks will fade from the scene, because they have been used to their full extent by the masters of the coup. Now the reconstituted Haitian army in all its machismo will maraud through the slums eradicating pockets of support for the deposed leader. The groundwork for this coup was laid during the months when Aristide was first re-establishing his government. When the Clinton Administration reinstated Aristide, it too brought in the Marines, ostensibly for nation-building but also to make sure the reinstalled president didn't get up to any populist shenanigans: Clinton knew he was bringing Aristide back against the will of the Haitian elite, and the US President feared both another coup by the elite against Aristide, and then revenge by Aristide's supporters.