We asked Jackson Jean, teleSUR journalist in Haiti, about the imperialist intervention in Haiti and the reactions to it.
How is the latest situation in Haiti, which faced earthquakes, floods, coups d’etat, riots and the economic crisis?
Like all countries in the world, Haiti faces natural catastrophes and also conjunctural crisis. The problem goes beyond crises and catastrophes. The problem is the causes of the crises or why we find ourselves in a spiral of crisis.
The political, economical and social crises of the country since the birth of democracy are the product of international interferences, of violations of the sovereignty and the self-determination of the Haitian people.
The repeated rebellions (1991, 2004), the financing and the armament of the armed bands, the privatization of public companies…the are all orchestrated primarily by the US, Canada and France. It is an opinion, it is a fact. There are archives and testimonies, documents that prove all that.
In brief, to solve the vicious crises of the country, first of all it’s we must restrict those foreign countries from our public affairs, otherwise we risk getting stuck, since for us, those are the crises but for them those are the opportunities.
We read articles about riots in Haiti that happened in the past years. Could you explain the process that has developed until the last rebellion, with its historical context, explaining the similarities and differences between their reasons and their demands?
In reality there haven’t been rebellions in Haiti since centuries. There only are scenarios orchestrated by international imperialistic communities to justify their presence on the Haitian territory.
In the 19th century one of the American’s excuses for invading Haiti was only the civil war in the country, the so-called war between the piquets (militia of the south) and the cacos (militia of the north). History can now prove that those are only contexts created by themselves to invade the island, basing on their imperialistic Monroe Doctrine “America for the Americans”. Towards the decade of 1910, the US invaded almost all latinamerican countries and they found different excuses for all of them.
In 1991, the clashes that resulted from the departure of president Aristide were also a scenario; through documents declassified by the Pentagon you can observe that the US financed the two camps at the same time.
Those scenarios always appear in contexts where there is a progressive government or from the left, or when the people are about to shake things up.
Several years later there are strongly unstable politics in the country on which the Americans base; after president Nord Alexis launches a process “Le procès de la consolidation” and arrests all the oligarchs including the foreigners and corrupted politicians and decides to not take out a loan.
Alexis is hunted for power. Five years later the US invaded the country.
Towards the fifties, there was a coup d´état against Dumarsais Estimé, the century’s most progressive Haitian president. Some years later, in 1957, we are submitted by a dictatorship of François Duvalier, supported by the US, that ends in 1986.
The coup d`état against the first democratic president Aristide in 1991 led to political crises until 2002, the latter regained power through the ballot box; there was one more coup d`état against him in 2004 for having claimed historical repairs from a part of these powers. We never had a president who won the election without their support, through the violence and the use of armed bands, despite the forces of the United Nations being in the territory until 2017.
Today we are observing; the clashes of the armed gangs is for distraction. Haiti has had an embargo of weapons since the 90s. Even police cannot purchase small weapons without the authorization of Canada. Where do the war weapons trademarked American come to pass?
Furthermore the history of the gangs of Haiti is a bit more clear. Every time the end of the mandate of the mission in Haiti is close, the insecurity increases. For the persistence of the Americans for whom there is the presence of foreign armed forces by using those same bands to criminalize the pacifique protesters who only claim social justice, the sovereignty is a Haitian solution for the Haitian crisis for the welfare of the Haitians, display clearly that this concern is purely geopolitical and have nothing humanitarian.
We see that an intense propagandic campaign to legitimize the imperialist intervention in Haiti is conducted. What are The US and Canada trying to do in Haiti?
For the Haitians, Haiti has been under occupation since 2004, so that today there is no presence of the UNO military anymore since they were expelled by the Haitians; in the regional and global context the Haitians also want to return to a regional political process by pressing progressive politics.
With the sanction against Russia, the petrol price is tripling while 60% of the Haitians are unemployed (dependent on families abroad) and the petrol is transverse, which implies that the rise in price of all products therefore diminishes the purchasing power of the people.
On the other hand the American government demands from Ariel Henry to end the grants of petrol, the only real grants of the Haitian state.
Since Ariel is the product of an extreme right regime who has been put there since 2010 by the UN forces to protect the imperialistic interest to the disadvantage of the Haitian state.
Since the people of the Latin American region, who have also been victimized by the same practice, decided to recover with left, progressive and social justice politics, the Haitians decided the same thing. And that represents a danger to the traditional imperialist powers, that’s why all the resources including the propaganda or military force is needed to make sure that Haiti doesn’t bend over towards Russian and Chinese corporations in order to free itself from the neocolonial trap that imposed them for centuries.
Does the imperialistic plan to attack Haiti have anything to do with the mines in Haiti?
The basement of Haiti is considered the oil tank of the American treasury department. The island La Navasse, a Haitian island, is taken up with strength by the US for the “guano”, a product that today is used in the treatment of cancerous diseases.
Lithium, Iridium etc. ist the future of technology and Haiti therefore is the treasure of those mines, yes, the attack is basically geopolitical and the geopolitics are bound to the natural resources.
Right now campaigns “Do not touch Haiti” are conducted in numerous locations. Is anti-American feeling one of the main dynamics of action in Haiti? How do you think the process in Haiti will develop?
The presence of the Russian and Chinese flag as well as the flag of the Haitian revolution (black and red) is the strongest symbol of this feeling. Knowing that the current enemy of the Anglo-Saxons and the West is Russia and China, Haiti positions itself at the camps of the Russians and the Chinese. The anti-american speeches are very present and moreover the destinations of the demonstrations are the embassies of France, Canada and the US and the office of the UNO. It is a process that will only stop when the people can finally choose their leaders and their future by themselves, like they had done in 1991. Since then, the people have been excluded from politics. Anti-racism, anti-West and history are the main motivations of the people.
How do you interpret the role of NGOs and other international institutions in the country’s politics?
The Core Group (syndicate of the embassies) of the BINUH (integrated office of the UNO in Haiti), together with some churches, are institutions installed to defend the Western interests in disadvantage of the Haitian people. Their primary mission is to sow poverty, destructure the public organizations and put the people in conditions of parasitism.
After the earthquake those organizations like American Red Cross, USAID, CIRH gathered almost 15 thousand million dollars, only the Red Cross was building 7 little houses out of wood for 400 million dollars. Now those people that were living under the tents, for example in the Cannan zone, nowadays it is one of the most armed and dangerous zones of the capital.
In the provinces they sow conflicts among the farmers who cooperate without money among themselves in the country, thanks to a from of living that is called “Konbit”, which is part of our culture. They come to supposedly organize and finance the farmers. Nowadays the biggest conflict that exists in the province Artibonite is this fight for money. Now the growers pay them and they don´t voluntarily cooperate among themselves anymore. The rice cultivation is being destroyed. Now we are the biggest exporter of agro industrialized rice from the US. The church individualizes the people and takes away their feeling of being a citizen. Everybody is waiting for a “Jesus” to change things instead of participating in the change.
Is there anything you would like to add?
The battle of the Haitian people is a struggle against a global agenda of imperialism. Thereby it is necessary that the other oppressed people stand in solidarity, that is the way to most surely eliminate this destructive system that wants to capitalize all but doesn`t recognize the value of anything.
