Re: [A-List] Haiti Erupts

["Anyutka" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

I'm not sure exactly how or if this relates, but I can add that the DR is
currently roiling from 1) significant inflation, in part, as a
consequence of the Baninter (our "compradors"), Bancredito, and
Mercantil collapses, and subsequent IMF "assistance", and 2) extensive
energy blackouts (not an uncommon feature of life in the DR, but
this wave is of several magnitudes greater than "normal" failures),
about which I'm still learning the background.  I'm interested in
part because AES is involved (I followed this company in Eastern
Europe and Georgia - extreme predation - and among its founders
and principals are many DOE Clinton-era hacks and thieves, starting
with Hazel O'Leary. What these people managed in Romania alone
marks them as world class super-criminals.)  Last week, a 2-day strike
was organized and executed on a national basis successfully - even
business supported the strike - but 8 lives were lost, including that of
the strike's organizer.

I'm still learning about the DR, and there are enormous gaps in what
I've grasped so far....but last time I returned from Santa Domingo in
early December, I was able to use miles to upgrade to First, which is
helpful if you are hoping to meet some movers & shakers - and the
effort panned out.  I can't say with whom I was seated, or give much
detail about what I was told.  However, people there - well-placed
people - are very alarmed, esp about USG (One woman cried out,
"All my life I believed in America!  I trusted America, what she said,
what she did - no more!  I no longer believe.")  When these
people discovered my background, they became very anxious to know
what I thought about the meetings of US Treasury officials and the
DR Central Bank, what could be happening?   I'm still trying to
piece together that puzzle, but these events in Haiti add yet more
context, and more complexity to work through for any solution to
their query.  At first, I thought it was FTAA shenanigans as I was
traveling in the wake of the Cancun WTO failure, but now it looks
like the US got dollar-starved DR behind the 8 ball and is collecting
it's debt, in part, in Haiti.


----- Original Message -----
From: "bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>
To: "'The A-List'" <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 8:19 AM
Subject: RE: [A-List] Haiti Erupts


> Jim Lobe does not know what he is talking about.  He reads the NYT then
> says what they say, albeit with a smattering of internet research on the
> Google News.  And his is the liberal take, at least noting that Aristide
> was elected and that his ouster is an unconstitutional demand.  (He
> would be re-elected today in another landslide, by the way, if elections
> were held.)
>
> The elections were not flawed in any way, shape, or form.  In fact the
> majority on the KEP that oversaw the elections was from opposition.
>
> This whole "flawed-elections" story was a Yugoslavia-style innuendo
> campaign (You'll note they never specify HOW they were flawed.) by the
> US, the subservient OAS, and the "opposition," who are NOT disaffected
> Aristide supporters, but a collection of elites, and who now have an
> armed wing, trained and deployed from the Dominican Republic, and
> consisting of many pre-Aristide ex-military.  Aristide's support from
> "grassroots groups, labor unions, and professional associations" ended
> after the 1990 election, when this petit bourgeois strata - anxious to
> dump the macoutes (Duvalierist semi-feudals) that they are now realigned
> with - combined with the peasantry and urban slum-dwellers (Aristide's
> REAL base, who are not welcome in grassroots groups, labor unions, and
> professional organizations) to defeat Bazin (the compradors' choice).
> When Aristide failed to hand out the candy to the petit-bourgeoisie,
> they immediately began organizing against him.  Thatr was put on hold
> when Cedras began to punish them for their Aristide affiliations during
> the de facto period from 1991-94, and the "opposition" to Aristide was
> taken up as soon as another election was organized, resulting in the
> split between the FL and OPL (read peasants/slum dwellers vs. "civil
> society" types ready to fall onto the imperial tit).
>
> This is not about Aristide, who no one claims is perfect (which is
> utterly irrelevant).  This is about Aristide's base, and this would
> never have gotten this far without massive financial, training, and
> advisory support from some of our spooky friends that hang out in Santo
> Domingo hotel lounges.
>
> Lobe needs to develop a class analysis.
>
> St. Marc was re-taken yesterday.  About half a million PRO-Aristide
> supporters were in the street in Port-au-Prince for the last two days
> (ignored by the media, but I've seen the pix).  A contact that got back
> in from PAP yesterday evening said that the masses are "crystal clear"
> about what is going on.
>
> Haiti is Venezuela during the coup attempt there, but without the army
> that Chavez had.
>
> The "laboratory" lives, but so do the masses.  This ain't over.
>
>
>