In 1991, I met Jean Bertrand Aristide, then the president in exile of Haiti. It was a short time after the generals, with the tacit approval of Poppy Bush, overthrew the first democratically elected leader in 70 years of the poorest nation in the hemisphere. I wrote about it 13 years or so later on DU:
Aristide told me the Generals ran Dope, Inc. on Haiti. Personally.
Posted by Octafish in General Discussion (Through 2005)
Sat Mar 20th 2004, 06:49 PM
Sorry if the following is an old read. The thing held true then and holds true still…
I met Jean Bertrand-Aristide after he was deposed by the generals in the early 90s. He came to metro Detroit and spoke before the Cranbrook Peace Foundation.
The newspaper I then worked for didn’t see any reason for sending me to cover Aristide’s speech. The editors weren’t BFEE, but the events on a Caribbean island just weren’t “local” enough for their budget. So, I went on my own time.
The Cranbrook people were happy to see me. They wanted, of course, as much coverage as possible. So, they invited me and the other interested reporter types to have at him for an hour before his address.
I’m ashamed to report, at an important event in two nation’s larger media market, only a couple of CBC radio reporters out of Windsor and one local Detroit TV crew bothered to show. I was the lone print guy. Anyway…
Aristide answered every question asked in English or French. He also told us about life in Haiti, where there were four doctors to care for 4 million people. Another interesting stat: One percent of the population own 99-percent of the property.
I asked Aristide what the United States could do to help him restore democracy to Haiti? Aristide said all Poppy Doc Bush had to do was pick up the phone, call the generals and say, “Get out,” and they would quit their coup and the first democratically elected leader of Haiti in 75 years would be returned to power. Bush didn't and Aristide wasn't until Clinton sent the US Marines, many years and many Haitian lives later.
The reason for Bush Senior's inaction? Aristide said he didn’t know the answer, but he suspected Bush’s politics favored the landowners over the masses. (“Sounds familiar,” I then thought and still think today.)
Aristide said that the generals were deep into the wholesale cocaine importation business. Now who would be their partner in all that? Besides the wealthy landowners, for whom the Generals worked, I mean.
Original OP from 2004:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1257891&mesg_id=1259743
The Bushes and the people they front for are doing to the United States of America what the landowners of Haiti -- and those in Columbia and the other nations of the world where the small minority control the majority of wealth, land and resources. These undemocratic tools only work to enhance their own privileged positions and holdings. The rest of humanity could be cattle or piss-ants, for all they and The New York Times care.
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