After decades of stealing from the Haitian people, Aristide
has orchestrated an investigation into the Clinton’s deployment of earthquake
aid and reconstruction funds. On
April 12, 2014, one of Jean Bertrand Aristide’s proxies, Newton St. Juste, a
Haitian lawyer, filed
corruption charges with Haiti’s General Accounting Office (Cour Superieure
des Comptes) against former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary Hillary
Clinton. Based on press
reports, the corruption filing alleges that Secretary Clinton and former
President Clinton diverted Haitian relief funds. St. Juste stated that they
intend to also investigate Cheryl
Mills, Secretary Clinton’s former Chief of Staff, who served as the principal manager of Haiti
projects. Aristide’s lawyers wrote
to Secretary John Kerry to inform him of the process. This action has
generated a firestorm of interest on social media outlets among Haitians around
the world.
Given St. Juste’s links to Aristide it is widely believed
that Aristide is behind this action.
There is informed speculation that Aristide is positioning his American wife,
Mildred Aristide, to run for the presidency in 2015 – a position for which she
is not eligible due to her dual citizenship. This filing then serves three strategic goals: 1. Blackmail the
Clintons and others in the U.S. who received the bulk of the aid and relief
funds (i.e. threaten the suit and offer to withdraw it for their support for
his wife); 2. Garner favor with the Haitian public whose frustration with the
lack of demonstrable progress in the wake of the 2010 earthquake is palpable;
and, 3. Appear “tough on the US” in order to whitewash his 1994 and 2004 requests
for military support in Haiti to bolster his ailing regime. These requests were tremendously unpopular
and have not been forgiven or forgotten by Haitian voters. Further, Aristide needs support from
Washington to alleviate the pressure that he is getting from the Jean
Dominique Judicial proceedings, where he is being called in to answer
questions about the 2000 murder of the popular reporter.
Aristide has a proven track record manipulating U.S. policy
toward Haiti in his favor. When he wanted to return to power after the 1991-94 coup,
he used a
member of the Congressional Black Caucus and couple of well paid lobbyists,
including Randall Robinson and his wife, to drive President Clinton’s Haiti
policy. He first obtained sanctions that destroyed Haiti’s economy and the
environment and later, organized a wave of boat people that forced the White House into a
US military intervention in 1994 to reinstate his presidency. As part of that deal, he made a series
of commitments to Washington to institutionalize democracy and modernize the
economy. He reneged on all of
those promises.
A few months after his return in 1994, Aristide began a
violent spree of retribution having his political opponents in parliament,
political parties, human rights activists, the press and civil society murdered.
He rigged elections and presided
over the country being named one of the three most corrupt countries on earth –
for the first time in its 200-year history.
Meanwhile in Washington he used Haitian taxpayer funds to
lavishly compensate lobbyists and well-positioned political allies. He used corrupt
business deals in Haiti’s telecommunications sector, namely with the FUSION
and IDT
companies, to enrich US politicians. Facing legislative and municipal elections
in 1995, Aristide tried to blackmail the Clinton administration by saying in a
well-publicized speech, “for things to go
well in Washington things have to go well in Haiti” meaning if Washington
did not support his actions to preserve his party during those elections, he
was in a position to create trouble for the Clinton Administration in a US
election year. Aristide has created in Haiti the popular belief that he has enough
evidence in hand to blackmail some politicians in the US who did business with
him. No one knows if this is truth
or fiction.
After his electoral coup in November 2000, an agreement of
eight points for the return of constitutional order signed between Aristide and
President Clinton’s National Security Advisor Anthony Lake created an air of legitimacy
despite the fact that the country was opposed to the coup. Amidst protests around the country, after
his February 2001 swearing in, Aristide went after his political opponents again,
burning headquarters of political parties, private residences of political
party leaders, killing and repressing journalists and various sectors of civil
society including youth, peasants, women organizations and the private sector. All this while his Administration
plunged the country into deeper corruption and poverty.
As a result, another popular uprising started in 2003-04 demanding
his resignation. Members of his
own Fanmi Lavalas party saw him as a threat to their political future. To prop up his undemocratic and
unpopular regime, Aristide responded by requesting US military intervention
from a reticent Bush Administration. To force their hands, he returned to the familiar tactic of
attempting to orchestrate another massive wave of boat people to Florida by
destroying Haiti’s newly formed coast guard. He failed. Without
external military support he had to face the Haitian people -- and even his own
supporters.
Contrary to Aristide’s propaganda machine, national figures from
Fanmi Lavalas, including Moise Jean Charles, reached out to Guy Philippe, a
former police commissioner, living in the Dominican Republic. Moise Jean Charles brought Guy Philippe
to Haiti to lead the effort to oust Aristide. That fact was confirmed years
later during a contentious
interview between Jean Charles and Lavalas Senators Gerald Gilles on Radio
Galaxie in Haiti. This revelation contradicted all previous statements made by
Aristide allies and lobbyist in the US.
Facing a popular uprising, Aristide was saved by the US and
France -- just like Duvalier before him. Aristide resigned in 2004 and went into exile in South
Africa. Upon his arrival, he fabricated a story that the US kidnapped him. His allies, namely Kim Ives dutifully
broadcast this storyline. That storyline, however, was only for international
consumption. In Haiti everyone knew
that he suffered the same fate as Duvalier because of the way he ruled the
country.
After his 2010 return to Haiti, his
US political allies and lobbyists have revived his anti-Americanism strategy
to return
him to power through his wife. This strategy will again include creating chaos in country
and weakening democratic institutions, blackmailing US politicians and removing
Martelly’s constitutional government by blocking the electoral process.
Already, Aristide has effectively worked with Senate President Simon Dieuseul
Desras to prevent
the vote on the electoral law necessary to organize the October 2014
elections – the law has already passed the lower house.
Aristide again is banking on the fact the US foreign affairs
bureaucracy favors stability and peace above all else, and therefore, always
responds to threats of violence.
He has secured the support of one member of the Congressional Black
Caucus and is banking on support from one or two sympathizers in the US
bureaucracy who serve on the Haiti
Desk at the US State Department in 1994. He is further banking on extra political sensitivity given
the 2016 US presidential campaign and the speculation that Mrs. Clinton will be
a frontrunner.
What Aristide forgets – as usual – is that in Haiti all
politics are local. Haitians have already rejected him for his undemocratic
practices and corruption. They
will see right through this deception as business as usual and flatly reject
him again. The silver lining in
this “business as usual” story, is that there will be a much needed – and long
overdue -- investigation into where
the aid funds actually went. There
are still 150,000 people living under tents and only modest improvement in the
country
as
the allocation of aid funds has not been strategic or effective
despite the Haitian government’s efforts to help shape the overall aid
deployment. The Haitian Government – mainly using Canadian aid – relocated 1.35
million people but lack the aid to finish the job. It should be noted that the Haitian Government itself only
receive 1 percent of the aid funds with the remainder going mainly to
international NGOs and politically
connected contractors.
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