Posted on 09/13/2007 4:54:02 PM PDT by Calpernia
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is a private, nonprofit organization, was founded in the early 1980's under the influence of Ronald Reagan for "supporting democracy abroad". So we've had that going on for years. The NED basically does overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. It funds civil society groups and organizations that fit within U.S. strategic interests in various countries.
In his 1983 speech inaugurating NED, President Ronald Reagan said: "I just decided that this nation, with its heritage of Yankee traders, ought to do a little selling of the principles of democracy."
The private, congressionally funded NED has been a controversial tool in U.S. foreign policy because of its support for groups that push an agenda closely in line with U.S. objectives and because of its association with efforts to overthrow foreign governments. As the writers Jonah Gindin and Kirsten Weld stated: "Since [1983], the NED and other democracy-promoting governmental and nongovernmental institutions have intervened successfully on behalf of 'democracy'—actually a very particular form of low-intensity democracy chained to pro-market economics—in countries from Nicaragua to the Philippines, Ukraine to Haiti, overturning unfriendly 'authoritarian' governments (many of which the United States had previously supported) and replacing them with handpicked pro-market allies."
Marc Louis Bazin was the candidate supported by the NED and favored by the George H.W. Bush administration when Haiti opened the government up to free elections in 1990.
The 1990 elections consisted of 11 other candidates. One of which is Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Just as Bazin was favored by the NED, who was funding Haiti’s reform, Aristide was also favored. But he was favored by Jimmy Carter.
On December 18, 1990, Election Day, Jimmy Carter and his delegation met with Aristide.
Antoine Izméry, from a group called ‘Honor and Respect the Constitution’, denounced Aristide’s victory in the 1990 elections. Izméry claimed that Carter didn’t miss a chance through his henchmen to engage in manipulation and fraud.
Aristide was exiled to Venezuela due to the challenge of the legitimacy of the Aristide government.
In October 1991, Aristide contacted Fred Thompson to ‘lobby members of Congress and their staff, officials of the U.S. Department of State and the Office of the President of the United states on behalf of Presidente Aristide’.
On October 15, 1994, Aristide returned to Haiti to complete his term in office.
Aristide’s return in 1994 was met with an over $1 billion gift of goodwill toward development assistance for Haiti. This money was either wasted or not used for the stated purpose.
This period was also met with a prominent influence of narcotics trafficking and contraband trade in all forms. Organized crime and a dramatic decay of already fragile national institutions was the outcome to this democratic transition.
In violation of Haiti’s constitution, Aristide returned to office in an election in late 2000. The credibility of this election, was once again contested domestically and internationally. Throughout that period, international community frustrations gradually set in.
Commissions on drug trafficking and money laundering agencies were created to specifically track, assist and advise Haiti’s increase in organized crime.
In 2003, Aristide started visiting China to negotiate $6 million business ventures.
In 2004, the NED, USAID succeeded in a coup for Aristide’s overthrow.
The ONLY worthwhile legacy of Carter's presidency is that he mucked things up so bad that even New York and Massachusetts voted for Reagan for the next two elections.
Considering advice from Jimmy Carter about foreign policy is like going to Typhoid Mary for advice on sanitation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.