Counterfeit Protégé in Port-au-Prince Bailed Out

[struggle4progress]

Wednesday, 28 July 2004, 9:39 am
Press Release: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Chile’s Juan Gabriél Valdés Takes Over UN-Haiti Mission
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Washington’s case against Valdés was based on his opposition to lifting the restrictions on the sale of Iraqi oil that were imposed after Iraq had been defeated in the first Gulf War. The US was heavily in favor of lifting these restrictions once it assumed control of the country, while Valdés felt this was premature. This disagreement, combined with Valdés’ threats to resign last year if Chile’s President Lagos ordered him to vote in favor of the war in Iraq created a deep concern in Washington after Valdés refused to offer Chile’s support to the Washington-backed Spanish-British Security Council resolution in favor of immediately attacking Iraq.
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Valdés Gets Down to Work
There are already positive indications that Valdés may steer the UN’s involvement in Haiti in a more responsible direction. At a donors’ conference at the World Bank in which over one billion dollars in relief funds were pledged to Haiti, Valdés insisted that the UN must address the deeply-rooted causes of Haiti’s political and economic turmoil, “not merely paper over the problems.” He went on to emphasize that the international community must be prepared to remain involved in Haiti in the months and years ahead. Whether Valdés can salvage the UN’s tattered reputation in Haitian affairs will be seen soon enough. But of all the actors who have been involved with Haiti in recent months, he alone promises a truly dignified diplomacy that can bring political transparency and democratic order to the country, in sharp contrast to the ignominious role played by the US, France and several presidents in the region, including those of Argentina, Brazil and Chile itself. Initially, the best that Lagos was prepared to do for Haiti was to dispatch several hundred troops, as an accommodation to Washington and to win points with his own perpetually menacing and unrepentant armed forces, who still have Salvador Allende’s blood on their hands.

Neptune Persecuted by Latortue’s Government
Valdés faces a challenging situation in Haiti, where the rule of law has been under siege in recent months. One of the most deplorable examples of the breakdown of legal order is the sad fate of former Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, who surrendered to government authorities on June 27 after three months in hiding and has been subsequently imprisoned in Haiti’s national penitentiary. Neptune’s incarceration is the most recent and the most high profile act in a series of reprisals against officials from Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s ousted government. Since Aristide’s overthrow, the new Haitian government, led by its smug interim-Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, has aggressively persecuted members of Aristide’s Lavalas party.
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A Roster of Thugs
Latortue may be now saying that he wants “a new time of respect for the law,” but his words are belied by his de facto alliance with notorious criminals convicted of egregious human rights abuses. On a visit to his hometown of Gonaïves soon after the U.S. installed him in Haiti, the interim-prime minister, a technocrat whose career has been totally devoid of normative values or concepts of public rectitude, famously hailed as “freedom fighters” the very people that Powell had a few days earlier referred to as a “gang of thugs.” In reality, the nefarious rebels are former military officers and paramilitaries led by a notorious murderer, Guy Philippe. Originally, Philippe became infamous for the extra-judicial executions of gang members while he served as the chief-of-police for the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince. He fled Haiti for the Dominican Republic in 2000 after he was heavily involved in an unsuccessful coup attempt, but made a triumphal return in February when he succeeded in helping to physically oust democratically-elected Aristide from the presidency. Amongst his other alleged criminal activities, Philippe has been cited by some U.S. drug officials as being involved in the Haitian drug trade.
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http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0407/S00268.htm