[Haiti] Elections: Violence and Chaos Mounting

From Ohmy News

Democracy in Haiti is jeopardized by poverty, drug trafficking, greed and imperialism.

The threat of violence hangs in the air as the Haiti presidential election draws closer. My wife and I canceled our June 2005 trip to Haiti due to the escalation of kidnappings and general insecurity. During April, May, and June, an average of 10 kidnappings had been reported in Port-au-Prince each day. But the rate went down considerably in the months that followed, and I was able to travel to Haiti in August and September without incident.

Unfortunately, kidnappings and violence are back up as the Jan. 8 elections approach. Much of the violence is attributed to drug trafficking. Sheer poverty and politics also play a part. It's estimated that 8 percent of the Colombian cocaine that enters the United States passes through Haiti, and Haiti has recently surpassed Colombia in kidnappings. Despite the presence in Haiti of 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed after the rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, the arrival of cocaine is "essentially unimpeded" according to the U.S. State Department's 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Analysts fear that traffickers are quietly working to subvert any return to an elected democracy in Haiti, either by backing candidates they can control or sowing chaos on the streets to delay the balloting. "At this point the entire transition is at risk," says Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that analyzes conflict around the world. "Drug traffickers don't want a functioning, effective government with a functioning, effective police force and customs. They have their hooks in the police, and they have their hooks in parts of the transitional government."

During my recent visit, I spoke with some long-time friends, a Canadian couple who have lived in Haiti for more than 15 years. They told me about the recent kidnapping of the 16-year-old son of a family they know well. The parents are from Holland, but their son was born and raised in Haiti. When the parents contacted the United Nations for assistance, they learned it has three teams of experts that do nothing but negotiate with kidnappers. At least five new kidnappings are reported each day.

The ransom was set at $300,000 but the kidnappers accepted just $9,000 after three days of negotiating. Their son reported that he was treated well, and given three meals a day and a bed to sleep. Not all are as fortunate. Horrific accounts of torture, rape and murder are abound. The kidnappers told him white people had taken their president, and they would start a revolution, funding it with ransom money.

Whether Aristide's departure was forced or voluntary depends on whose account you believe. Years of experience in Haiti taught me not to trust the claims of the U.S. embassy nor of Aristide.

Aristide was clearly the people's choice when he was elected president in both 1990 and 2000. I first visited Haiti in February 1991 -- just days after Aristide was inaugurated -- and moved there three months later to work with a small nonprofit that supported Haitian-run schools and literacy programs. I remember well the enthusiasm and hope for a better future shared by Haiti's masses. They were in love with their new president.

But after just seven months in office, Aristide was overthrown by a violent coup d'etat financed and/or supported by members of Haiti's elite and right-wing U.S. groups including the CIA. He spent nearly three years in exile in Washington, D.C., before being restored to power in 1994 with the support of some 20,000 U.S. Marines. Aristide completed the remainder of his five-year term, before being succeeded in 1996 by his friend and close colleague, Rene Preval. The Haitian constitution does not allow a president to serve two consecutive terms.

Rene Preval served his five-year term, and Aristide was elected to a second term as president in 2000. There is no question that there was substantial corruption in Aristide's administration during his second term. Numerous high-level government officials are now serving prison terms in the United States for their involvement in drug trafficking, and many who spoke out against Aristide and his government were subject to violent repression.

Aristide's success was virtually impossible considering what he was up against. His messianic personality and tendency to compare himself with Toussaint L'Ouverture (who led the slave rebellion that gave way to Haiti's independence) helped to raise unrealistic expectations for quick improvement among Haiti's masses. Yet he faced an overwhelming combination of grinding poverty, a financially strapped government forced to borrow and agree to a structural adjustment program that limits spending on social improvements, and unrelenting pressures from the international community and Haiti's elite.

It's no wonder Aristide couldn't live up to the people's hopes. Yet it's also clear that his enemies -- in Haiti, the United States, and elsewhere -- used illegal and non-democratic measures to strip him of his power.

Many would argue that the interim government, which most Haitians believe was imposed by the United States, Canada, and other countries, has failed worse than Aristide's administration. It is responsible for death, injury and imprisonment of thousands of innocent Haitians.

Rene Preval, now running under a new political party called Lespwa (which translates "hope"), is the leading candidate for the presidency in 2006. Pictures of Preval and other presidential hopefuls are posted throughout Port-au-Prince, with each candidate's picture accompanied by a corresponding number, which is intended to make it easier for illiterate people to vote. Between 60 and 80 percent of Haiti's 8 million people do not read or write. In a televised lottery process, representatives drew numbers that would be assigned to the 35 candidates for the election. As fate would have it, the elderly gentleman representing Preval picked the piece of paper numbered "one."

There's talk that the election, which has already been postponed three times, may be delayed again. There's also controversy around the candidacy of a Haitian-American businessman from Texas, Dumarsais Simeus. The C.E.P. (Provisional Electoral Council) disqualified Simeus from running, basing their decision on Haiti's constitution, which states that a foreigner is not eligible to run.

However, Simeus' appealed the decision to Haiti's Supreme Court, which overruled the election watchdog's decision. Consequently, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has ordered that five members of the Supreme Court be removed and replaced by others who support C.E.P.s ruling against Simeus. The five judges have refused to accept the president's decision to replace them, and the numbers of people standing in support of the judges and protesting their ouster is growing. Latortue was chosen by a council of elders after Aristide went into exile 22 months ago.

Out of curiosity, I asked various friends, "What if Aristide were running for president?"

"Aristide talks, Preval works. I'd be voting for Preval," declared my neighbor, a community leader who has long supported Aristide.

I asked the same question of another long-time Aristide supporter who is now running for a Parliament seat on the same ticket as Preval.

"Aristide would win an election right now if voting were limited to people who are illiterate," he said. "But he would not win if voting were restricted to people who are literate. He charms people who are uneducated."

Mario Joseph, an unemployed mason living outside Port-au-Prince, captured what I heard from many others: "The people are hungry. There are no jobs. The person who convinces the people that he's the key to their finding work and food will win. The people were for Aristide. But he failed us."