Lavalas

Return to Port-au-Prince: "All the Time We are Hungry and Now We Have No One"

http://www.counterpunch.org/terrall08282008.html
Counterpunch.com
August 28, 2008
"All the Time We are Hungry and Now We Have No One"
Return to Port-au-Prince
By BEN TERRALL

As I flew from JFK to Port-au-Prince Airport on August 11, a fellow journalist handed me the front section of that day’s New York Times with a laugh. My friend pointed to a passage in an article about Russia’s war with Georgia that had prompted her bitter chuckling.

The piece quoted Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad of the United States, who charged that the Russian foreign minister had told Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice “that the democratically elected president of Georgia ‘must go.’” Khalizad described the Russian’s comment as “completely unacceptable.”

Of course, Washington’s posturing as a beacon of peace and freedom has become increasingly more ludicrous as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue with no end in sight and Bush explains that we do not torture while testimony to the contrary accumulates around the globe. But the U.S. role in supporting the February 29, 2004 rightist coup in Haiti makes the hypocrisy of Khalizad’s statement especially galling.

Haiti: Aristide and the removal of Alexis

ttp://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_13_8/4_13_8.html
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — The situation in Haiti was thrown into further confusion on April 12 as the Haitian parliament passed a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. Led by rightists in Haiti's parliament such as Senators Youri Latortue, Adris Riche and renegade Lavalas party Senator Roudy Herveaux , the vote of censure was passed on April 12, 2008 at 11:55 am EST.
President Rene Garcia Preval, following controversial U.N.-sponsored elections in 2006, appointed Alexis as Prime Minister. Alexis served for an administration touted as a coalition government backed by the United States and the international community that included members of the so-called opposition that forced former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile in 2004. Alexis' administration gave the final appearance of a legal veneer to the ouster of Aristide and his political movement known as Lavalas by co-opting former grass-roots leaders into his government.

Peter Hallward Untangles the Truth About Haiti From a Web of Lies

Peter Hallward Untangles the Truth About Haiti From a Web of Lies
By: Joe Emersberger - HaitiAnalysis.com
In "Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment" Peter Hallward meticulously explains how, on February 29 of 2004, the U.S. managed to "topple one of the most popular governments in Latin America but it managed to topple it in a manner that wasn't widely criticized or even recognized as a coup at all." Imperial powers do not reinvent the wheel when it comes to undermining democracy in poor countries. Hallward identifies valuable lessons for people who wish to limit the damage that powerful countries inflict on the weak.
The narrative he presents is not complicated, but to present it he must expose countless lies and half truths and brilliantly explore many simple questions that corporate journalists invariably failed to ask.

Haiti's wealthy prosper while the poor decline

Haiti's wealthy prosper while the poor decline
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_29_8/1_29_8.html
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — Cite Soleil, a seaside shantytown of more than 300.000 people residing in homes made of cinder blocks with tin roofs, has been described as poorer than India's infamous slums of Calcutta. On any given day it teems with the life's blood of Haiti's poorest citizens.
Despite the twists and turns of what residents describe as several foreign interventions, members of the community still recount with pride how they served as a launching site for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first election campaign in 1990.

Yannick Jean, a frail 70 year-old woman whose longevity itself is a testament to hope, spoke in hushed tones as she washed her clothes in a ditch of dirty water, "We were the ones who presented Aristide to Haiti when he ran for president. He was our greatest hope. I am waiting for him again."

Human rights activists under fire in Haiti

Human rights activists under fire in Haiti
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti - Amnesty International released it's third human rights alert this month on behalf of community-based human rights advocates in Haiti. It comes five months after the abduction of psychologist and human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine last August 12.

Wilson Mesilien, the interim coordinator of Mr. Pierre-Antoine's group the September 30th Foundation, was recently forced into hiding. Mr. Mesilien and his family left their home for an undisclosed location on December 19 after receiving numerous threats according to Amnesty International.

Human rights defender forced into hiding in Haiti

Human rights defender forced into hiding in Haiti
December 27, 2007
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti - A human rights worker whose colleague was abducted last August has been forced into hiding after receiving new threats. Wilson Mesilien has been serving as the interim head of the September 30th Foundation, a human rights organization based in Port-au-Prince. He assumed the role of interim director of the organization after the abduction and disappearance of the it's founder Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine over four months ago.

This Week in Haiti: Peter Hallward: MAKING SENSE OF THE 2004 COUP

HAITI LIBERTE - "Justice. Verite. Independance."
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
December 19-24, 2007
Vol. 1, No. 22
AN INTERVIEW ON WBAI
PETER HALLWARD: MAKING SENSE OF THE 2004 COUP

Haiti: Leading Human Rights Activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine Missing for Four Months

Haiti: Leading Human Rights Activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine Missing for Four Months
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Remain Silent
By Joe Emersberger
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2935.html
December 13, 2007
Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a prominent Haitian human rights activist, disappeared on the evening of 12 August, 2007. He is co-founder of the Trant Septanm (“September 30”) Foundation, an organization originally formed to help the victims of the 1991 coup in Haiti.

People Are Going Missing in Haiti: What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?

December 14, 2007
People Are Going Missing in Haiti
What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?
By BEN TERRALL
http://counterpunch.org/terrall12142007.html
On December 11, 2007, the Bay Area-based Haiti Action Committee held a demonstration in downtown San Francisco in solidarity with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, disappeared Haitian human rights advocate. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was last seen on August 12, shortly after meeting with a delegation from the United States.

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