“Made in the USA” election crisis in Haiti

[IndianaGreen]

“Made in the USA” election crisis in Haiti

By Bill Van Auken
15 February 2006

The front-runner in Haiti’s election charged Tuesday that the vote count—now entering its second week—was plagued by “gross errors and probably gigantic fraud.” The totals being reported by the country’s electoral council “do not correspond with reality,” he said.

Former Haitian president Rene Preval made the accusations in the wake of mass protests Monday that saw two Haitians gunned down by United Nations “stabilization” troops and the capital of Port-au-Prince paralyzed by demonstrations and burning barricades.

The political crisis ignited by the prolonged delay in announcing the results of the February 7 election has brought the impoverished Caribbean country to the brink of civil war. There are strong indications that this is precisely the intention of the US-backed figures from within Haiti’s right-wing political class who control the ballot tabulation.

The Haitian people are entirely justified in believing that the election is being rigged by Washington to impose US policy on the island nation. In February 2004, the US orchestrated a bloody coup by ex-soldiers, criminals and death squad leaders to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was kidnapped by American operatives and forced into exile. Washington then sent in the US Marines, who have since been replaced by some 9,500 blue-helmeted UN troops. The one party that enjoyed mass support, Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas, has been outlawed since the coup, with its prominent members imprisoned, exiled or forced into hiding.

Having used violence and military force to overthrow an elected government that it opposed, the Bush administration has no compunction about employing fraud and provocation to shape the kind of regime it wants in Port-au-Prince. After all, similar methods for stealing an election were used to install George W. Bush in the White House in the first place.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/feb2006/hait-f15.shtml

[ugarte]

1. The US strikes a blow against dreaded populism

We only want the forms of democracy, not the real thing.

[katty]

4. yup, bolstering dictators and royal rulers everywhere we go...we're

spreadin' freedom!

[Erika]

2. W should have backed out in 2000 and let the true winner

be president. More Americans voted for Gore than Bush. There is also considerable contention that W "won" in 2004.

W is the worst thing that could have happened to this country and the world. W's "elections" set up all other elections as possibly false.

[K-W]

3. We should have never gotten involved in Haiti in the first place.

And while Bush may have a historically destructive term in office, holding Haiti as an undeclared colony is a policy he inherited.