Chavez in Haiti, a Clear Alternative to the "International Community"
Last week, after the passing of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, Haiti declared three days of national mourning. President Martelly stated that Chávez was a “great friend of Haiti who never missed an opportunity to express his solidarity with the Haitian people in their most difficult times.” It’s not the first time Martelly had such kind words for the Venezuelan president. Last year, Martelly told the press that it was Venezuelan aid that was “the most important in Haiti right now in terms of impact, direct impact." In February, Martelly attended the 11th summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our Americas, a regional political organization spearheaded by Venezuela, and announced that Haiti was debating joining the group as a full member. While most of the coverage around Chávez’s legacy in Haiti and the greater Caribbean has focused on the Petrocaribe initiative, which provides subsidized fuel to the region, Chávez developed close ties to the Haitian people well before Petrocaribe. Following the earthquake of 2010, Chávez, in cancelling Haiti’s debt to Venezuela, declared, “Haiti has no debt with Venezuela -- on the contrary, it is Venezuela that has a historic debt with Haiti." As Chávez was quick to point out, it was Haiti that provided a vital safe-haven for Latin American independence hero Símon Bolívar before he went on to liberate much of South America from Spanish rule.
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Of course, while the solidarity between Chávez and the Haitian people has long existed, the more recent direct impact of this solidarity has been through the Petrocaribe initiative. The agreement, which was nearly blocked by the U.S. government and major oil companies, has provided Haiti with 23.6 million barrels of oil since 2008. Through the agreement Venezuela finances part of Haiti’s fuel import bill, allowing for a portion to be paid up front and the remainder to be used as a loan with a long maturity and low rates. Since the program’s inception, Venezuela has provided oil worth nearly $2.5 billion. Haiti has paid back over $1 billion of that and although Venezuela cancelled nearly $400 million in debt after the earthquake, Haiti retains a debt of roughly $950 million to Venezuela. Most of this will be paid back over a period of 25 years at a 1 percent interest rate. In the meantime, there is a two-year grace period. The IMF estimated fiscal year 2012/2013 external debt payments to be 0.1 percent of GDP, or less than 0.5 percent of government expenditure.
The financing that comes from Petrocaribe remains the primary source of revenue for government reconstruction projects. Since the earthquake, the Haitian government has used Petrocaribe resources to finance over 80 projects worth nearly $750 million. Unlike most other aid Haiti has received, the Petrocaribe funds are “under the control of the central government.” While official donor pledges have been slow to arrive and have largely bypassed the Haitian government, over $530 million or 72% of obligated Petrocaribe funds have been spent on the ground. While even long-term, low interest loans can cause problems for poor countries, and there have been issues regarding transparency, the billions in financing from Petrocaribe have been a key part of the country’s ongoing reconstruction from the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The relationship that Haiti has had with Venezuela over the past decade is glaringly different from its relations with most of the rest of the international community. Whereas much of the international community supported the 2004 coup against Aristide, Chávez was an outspoken opponent. Whereas the Haitian government has received less than 10 percent of all reconstruction aid given by donors, aid from the Venezuelan government has gone directly to the Haitian government. Whereas aid agencies and high-ranking foreign officials often “travel quickly between homes in wealthy neighborhoods and offices in wealthy neighborhoods, with armed escorts in large cars, windows tinted and rolled up, air-conditioning on” as Joseph and Concannon describe, Chávez ran alongside his motorcade directly with the Haitian people.
(Read more: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/chavez-in-haiti-a-clear-alternative-to-the-international-community)
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Chavez laying flowers at the base of a statue of Alexandre Petion, precursor of Pan Americanism
Venezuela, and Chavez in particular, never forgot what Haiti did to spread freedom in the Southern Hemisphere. Neither did the US unfortunately.
A hero's welcome from the people...
crows is chanting "Viva Aristide! Viva Chavez! Viva Fidel Castro!" and "A bas Bush!" (Down with Bush!)
By G. Dunkel
Published Mar 29, 2007 8:22 PM
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Demonstrations and protests are met with violence and murder, either from the U.N. forces or from the gangs, directed by the most viciously brutal elements of the Haitian bourgeoisie. These groups, with deep ties to the Tonton Macoutes created by the Duvaliers, were used to overthrow the Aristide government after being trained and armed by the U.S.
So when President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela came to Port-au-Prince March 13 to finish up his tour answering Bush’s Latin American visit, crowds of people lined the streets in enthusiastic joy, waving home-made Venezuelan flags and shouting: “Down with Bush! Long live Chávez! Long live the return of Aristide!”.
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Since Venezuela already has an oil deal with Haiti that saves Haiti $150 million a year, President René Préval had no choice about this demonstration. Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba took the occasion of Chavez’s visit to announce a tripartite agreement covering health, energy and oil.
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At the press conference after the agreement announcement, Chávez recalled the substantial aid Haiti gave to Simón Bolívar and José Martí. Préval said that President Fidel Castro of Cuba had participated in the discussions by phone from Havana.
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/haiti-0405/
This is in Spanish but it made my cry. Chavez thanks Haiti for all it did to spread revolutionary freedom and says how guilty he feels about the high price it paid and to see how mistreated Haiti is. He says he loves that Haitian people the same way, as much as he loves his own Venezuelan people.
Hugo stating how Haiti is the net product of imperialism, colonialism and capitalism. And also reads something written by Fidel Castro on the subject.
The most curious aspect of this story is that no one has said a single word to recall the fact that Haiti was the first country in which 400,000 Africans, enslaved and trafficked by Europeans, rose up against 30,000 white slave masters on the sugar and coffee plantations, thus undertaking the first great social revolution in our hemisphere. Pages of insurmountable glory were written there. Napoleon’s most eminent general was defeated there. Haiti is the net product of colonialism and imperialism, of more than one century of the employment of its human resources in the toughest forms of work, of military interventions and the extraction of its natural resources.
This historic oversight would not be so serious if it were not for the real fact that Haiti constitutes the disgrace of our era, in a world where the exploitation and pillage of the vast majority of the planet’s inhabitants prevails.
http://www.socialistaction.net/Fidel-Castro-reflects-on-Haiti.html
