Monument to the Millions Enslaved, Moulins-sur-Mer
Haïti: The New Cuba?
Word reached me while in Haïti that, by executive order of the president, all US aid to this desperate country, the poorest in our hemisphere, had been cut off. Visas for entry to the US have been refused without exception to every member of our Mission… and Fr. Jean’s visa, of nearly ten years’ standing, was canceled when he attempted to obtain a visa for his son Martin. You think the US doesn’t hold hostages? Not exactly, but the effect is the same.
Why this turn of events? The US failed to control Haïti after withdrawing the Marines in the 30s, other than for a short while. It succeeded in engineering (at least so it seems) the military coup which ousted Haïti’s first genuinely popularly elected president (Aristide)… and then, confronted with the barbarities of the generals who had just failed to kill, not just exile, him — was compelled to broker and engineer his return — for the remaining four months of his legal term of office. By the terms of the constitution, he could not succeed himself, and a totally ineffective (even if legal) government followed. Next elections, and Aristide was returned to the presidential palace by an enormous majority (amid, of course, loud cries of scandal and corruption, at least some of them probably legitimate). Only rarely in her history has this poor country had two successive rulers (of whatever political description) who left office when replaced by the voters… being neither murdered nor exiled.
This state of affairs, however, seems to be displeasing to Washington. It is, of course, certain that there is corruption in Haïti… and absolutely certain that there is corruption in the governments of most of our “allies”. It is almost certain that there has been and will continue to be vote fraud. But does the current (or previous) Washington administration dare point its finger at that?
Someone
hates Haïti, and her president in particular. Is another US
invasion (it would be the third of this century) in the offing?
No one seems to think it likely. But apparently the strategy is
to starve Haïti into submission, into creating a government and
governmental policies after Washington’s liking.
And, as always, Haiti stretches out her arms and cries "Pity!". Dare we ignore that plea/