This time, the people of Haiti may win

In 1915, the US Marines invaded Haiti, occupying the country until 1934. US officials rewrote the Haitian constitution, and when the Haitian national assembly refused to ratify it, they dissolved the assembly. They then held a "referendum" in which about 5% of the electorate voted and approved the new constitution – which conveniently changed Haitian law to allow foreigners to own land – with 99.9% voting for approval.

The situation today is remarkably similar. The country is occupied, and although the occupying troops wear blue helmets, everyone knows that Washington calls the shots. On 28 November an election was held in which the country's most popular political party was excluded; but still the results of the first round of the election were not quite right. The OAS – under direction from Washington – then changed the results to eliminate the government's candidate from the second round. To force the government to accept the OAS rewrite of the results, Haiti was threatened with a cutoff of aid flows – and, according to multiple sources, President Préval was threatened with being forcibly flown out of the country – as happened to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

Now, Aristide has been issued a diplomatic passport by the government, and is preparing to return. But Washington does not agree, as US state department spokesman PJ Crowley made clear this week. He was also asked if the US government had pressured either the Haitian or South African governments to prevent Aristide's return. He refused to answer; I take that as a "yes".

Thanks Tolerance Sucks Rocks.

The country is occupied, and although the occupying troops wear blue helmets, everyone knows that Washington calls the shots. On 28 November an election was held in which the country's most popular political party was excluded; but still the results of the first round of the election were not quite right. The OAS -- under direction from Washington -- then changed the results to eliminate the government's candidate from the second round. To force the government to accept the OAS rewrite of the results, Haiti was threatened with a cutoff of aid flows -- and, according to multiple sources, President Préval was threatened with being forcibly flown out of the country -- as happened to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Now, Aristide... is preparing to return. But Washington does not agree, as US state department spokesman PJ Crowley made clear this week. He was also asked if the US government had pressured either the Haitian or South African governments to prevent Aristide's return. He refused to answer; I take that as a "yes".

I don’t know. They could leave Clinton down there as an observer.

Observer?

Hell, make him president there too? He'll be their first black president, just like he was our first black president.

And, I'm pretty sure he'll somehow balance their budget too, and he'll have a huge economic boom, just like he supposedly did for us in the 1990s. But, he better bring back with him a "republican" senate or congress or parliament, or whatever the heck they have down there.

Is there an equivalent to Monica down there?

Weibrot is a typical leftist fool. The US occupation began in 1915 as Haiti slid into a state of general anarchy highlighted by a huge mob storming the presidential palace and tearing President Sam to pieces in retaliation for a massacre of his political opponents. Unfortunately but wisely few Americans or other foreigners availed themselves of the opportunity to purchase property in Haiti. The goal was to attract some sort of foreign capital to the wretched country. The US occupation produced, after several years of fighting, an end to endemic banditry and then a rudimentary public works program concentrating on modernizing the capital, a basic road net, a professionalized military (the Guard d’Haiti), and a basic eduction system for at least town dwellers.

Whatever had been accomplished was destroyed by the sinister Duvalier Pere who systematically destroyed every institution in the country to preclude any effective opposition. Haiti under the Duvalier kleptocracy fell economically from being grouped with some of the less advanced Asian nation to being a global dead last down with the likes of Somalia.

In order to unseat the military clique that followed Baby Doc the US destroyed the nascent private sector of Haiti with a financial embargo from which the country has never recovered.

Aritide, in whom so many hopes were placed, turned out to be bi-polar and in his second aministration a manic performer in the non-stop drama of bargain making, bribery, and favor mongering as the nation plummeted back to Duvalier levels.

The new constitution is another attempt at crafting some sort of civil regime that provides the executive with enough power to govern a chronically fractured polity and the economy some legal basis for market place economics to work.

Mr. Weisbrod would prefer a Chavez style ‘peoples republic’ with lots of mass mobilization, a well armed ‘peoples militia’ and a regime that proves its authenticity by spouting hatred for the US and allaying itself with Cuba or Venezuela or maybe Iran.

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