The Black Commentator - Radio BC: Uncle Sam's Haiti Thugocracy

There can be no more heroic people on the globe than the citizens of Haiti, who have once again made known their choice for president. He is Rene Preval, the man who served as prime minister in Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first government in 1990, which was cut short by a U.S.-backed military coup, who went into exile with Aristide until 1994, and who served as a presidential surrogate for Aristide from 1996 to 2001. It is perfectly obvious that, for an absolute majority of Haitians, a vote for Rene Preval was a vote for Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was kidnapped by the United States and sent into exile in 2004. The thugs installed by the U.S. then proceeded to murder as many as ten thousand Haitians in an effort to wipe out Aristide's grassroots organization. Canada and France acted as Uncle Sam's junior partners in the theft of Haiti's national sovereignty, and enlisted the shameful assistance of the United Nations in the profoundly anti-democratic project. Brazil became complicit in the subjugation of the Haitian people, its so-called peacekeepers acting as muscle for the assassins masquerading as a government.

Yet finally, after four postponements, election day came on February 8. The people of the sprawling shanty towns turned out in great numbers, only to find that there were no polling places in their neighborhoods. So they marched through the streets until they found polls that were open, and waited hours to cast their ballots. Many wore T-shirts with both Rene Preval and Aristide's pictures. Early returns showed Preval winning 70 to 80 percent of the vote. A number of candidates quickly acknowledged that Preval was the people's choice. Then, despite the presence of international observers, Preval's margin began to slip. Too late, and too incompetent, to cover up their tracks, the thugs and their rich paymasters in the tiny elite – whose own main candidate could not muster even 10 percent of the vote – set about stealing the election. But despite the regime's desperate attempts, including the burning of ballots in a public dump, Rene Preval still clung to a majority – 54 percent. By rights, there would be no need for a run-off.

The thugs, however, had one last card to play. For the first time in Haitian history, blank ballots were added to the mix, diluting Preval's majority to 49 percent. The people took to the streets and roads, vowing not to be denied their clear choice, having already been twice robbed of their president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Even Brazil, embarrassed by the groveling role it had played on behalf of the United States as the main "peacekeeper" in Haiti, urged that Preval's victory be recognized.

We shall see how Condoleezza Rice wraps her lying lips around this situation, in which the U.S. has once again been exposed as the main enemy of democracy in Haiti. Even if Rene Preval is forced into a run-off next month, he will doubtless win that election, as well. What will the thugs with American-supplied guns do then? Will the United Nations stoop to once more becoming Washington's servant in Haiti, by negating the results of elections mandated by the UN, itself?

How many times must Haiti cry out to the world: We are a nation, proud and sovereign. Let us pick our own leaders, and run our own affairs. For Radio BC, I'm Glen Ford.

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