US citizen Cassey Auguste, 22, murdered in Haiti

[struggle4progress]

Cassey Auguste was a 22-year-old American citizen who was killed at 2 p.m. on March 3 in Pont Sonde, about two hours north of Port-au-Prince along Highway 1. Auguste’s mother, Paulette Michaud, had lived in Brooklyn, New York, but had returned to Haiti to open a small bar and market in Pont Sonde. Cassey had come to help her in previous summers, but this spring he decided to move to Pont Sonde permanently.
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According to Menbagay, the day before the murders, several cars drove through the town, drivers warning, “The next day, we will come and kill.” On the day of the murders, the cars returned. At the open market, people were told to stay in their seats, because “We know who we want.”

The cars, many with darkened windows, drove up to the store. Several men armed with weapons got out, went into the store and dragged Cassey and Extanus out onto the street. Cassey’s mother cried for mercy while his father desperately searched for his passport to prove his U.S. citizenship. But it was too late.

Luc Fabien, who knew Cassey and his family very well, got out of one of the cars and shot them. Their bodies were loaded into the cars. The men immediately washed the blood from the street and took the bodies away.
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http://www.sfbayview.com/062304/casseyauguste062304.shtml



Justice elusive for Cassey Auguste

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The identity of the killers may shed light on why the U.S. government is not interested in this case. The man who shot Cassey, Luc Fabien, had recently joined a group calling itself the Gonaives Resistance Front. The group is headed by Guy Philippe, a drug dealer and neo-Duvalierist thug whose henchmen have been terrorizing northern Haiti for months.

Members of the CIA-backed paramilitary death squad known as FRAPH are also prominent members. Among them are convicted killers such as Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatoune. Wynter Etienne, the spokesperson for the rebels, has been seen waving an American flag at demonstrations. Etienne has said he and his thugs are “ready to work in liaison with the foreign soldiers.”

In other words, unlike Pearl and Berg, Cassey Auguste was murdered by the wrong terrorists. The U.S. can exploit the murders of Berg and Pearl for political purposes, but the terrorists in this case were coddled, trained and supported by our government. The backdrop of this incident is a systematic campaign of repression against Lavalas and other popular organizations being executed by the rebels, the new militarized police force and the international troops.
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http://www.sfbayview.com/062304/casseyauguste062304.shtml

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. The wrong terrorists. Yeah. There are a lot of those around

being ignore (or aided and abetted) by *.