Haiti wants Aristide: let him go

[CHIMO]

The arrogance of Washington's renewed efforts to thwart former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return to Haiti from a seven-year exile in South Africa is mind-boggling.

During the 29 February 2004 coup d'état, in the middle of the night, a US Navy Seal team, under the direction of American deputy ambassador Luis Moreno, kidnapped President Aristide and his wife Mildred from their home in Tabarre and flew them, under guard in an unmarked US jet, into a first stint of exile in the Central African Republic. Since then, tens of thousands from all over Haiti have taken to the streets several times each year to demand his return.

During the US-appointed post-coup de facto government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue (2004-2006), Haitian police and United Nations occupation troops regularly gunned down the demonstrators and carried out murderous assaults on Aristide strongholds in popular neighborhoods like Cité Soleil and Belair, killing dozens of residents, including women and children. When in late March 2004, US Congresswoman Maxine Waters and a team of other VIPs rescued the Aristides from virtual house arrest in CAR and flew them in a private jet to Jamaica, the Bush administration was livid. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice spent an hour on the phone threatening then Prime Minister PJ Patterson to get Aristide out of there.

"We think it's a bad idea," she later told the press, while Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that "the hope is that he will not come back into the hemisphere and complicate situation." Three months later, Aristide was flown to South Africa.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/15/haiti-jean-bertrand-aristide

[PDJane]

1. The reason the US doesn't want him there

is that he threatened some very lucrative contracts with the élite...he wanted land and financial reforms that would have benefitted the people of Haiti.

[Matilda]

2. In the eyes of multinationals, Aristide is unacceptable,

if for no other reason than that he believed the factory workers in Haiti should be paid a decent wage. Or, more realistically, a half-way decent wage.

This was bad news for the big companies operating out of Port-au-Prince.

"The average worker at Quality Garments earns about $1.67 per day, 73 cents less per day than the minimum wage. The company pays straight time on weekends, not time-and-a-half as Haitian law requires. Transportation for most workers costs between 40 and 53 cents per day, and lunch-a small plate of rice and beans and a glass of juice-costs 47 cents. This means that the average worker takes home between 67 cents and $1 per day, or between 8 and 13 cents for every hour of work. This comes to less than $6 for a standard work-week, which provides less than 25 percent of the minimum needs of a family of five.

It was precisely to eliminate such abuses that then-Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide raised the minimum wage from $1 (15 gourdes) per day to $2.40 (36 gourdes) per day on May 4, 1995. In his decree, President Aristide specifically banned the sort of piece-rate abuses that are common at Quality Garments and factories like it. The law requires employers to ensure that piece-rate workers earn at least the minimum wage by paying "make-up"-the difference between their piece-rate pay for the day and the daily minimum wage."

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Caribbean/US_Haiti_Connection.html

That is why he had to go the first time, and why he had to go the second time. No way will the big corporations agree to pay even subsistence wages.

And it was to keep the supply of workers coming to the factories that Preval forced people from rural communities in Haiti to move to Port-au-Prince, creating even more overcrowding in the hovels that people called home. None of these pathetic shacks are able to withstand even minor earthquakes, and the loss of life was much worse than it would have been had it not been for the disgusting conditions in which the people were forced to live.

And it was the same situation that led to the removal of President Zelaya in Honduras - he also raised the minimum wage. This is always bad news for the multinationals, because a wage rise in one country will lead to calls for wages rises throughout Latin America.

Let them eat cake!

[I Have A Dream]

4. This is a very informative post; thank you! nt

[peacetalksforall]

3. Everyone who has a little bit of interest - please read. I thought I have followed

the Aristede kidnapping quite closely, but this article is an eye-opener of background on the Haitian leader politics leading up to the kidnapping/coup and after. This article needs to be read side by side with the background of the US France and BG coup and the careful preparation by the US and IMF and World Bank for his removal. There were Castro hating Cuban helpers involved. The interest of the US in removing him still isn't satisfactorally revealed, imo. I personally felt they were preparing for something, but it hasn't been revealed yet - it may correspond to movement after the death of Castro. Pieces are scattered.

[Duende azul]

5. k & r

[I Have A Dream]

6. Kick. nt