The Haitian Dilemma
By: Leroy A. Binns Ph.D.
Although such outrage is not unheard of in poverty-striken
countries these irate occurrences that led to the cancellation of Haiti’s first
general election in 30 years demonstrate the fallacy underlying Western
democracy. For many politicians and laymen alike the State Department helped to
orchestrate the overthrow of Jean Claude Duvalier from office nearly two years
ago but despite this symbolic gesture the US administration has continued to
intervene in the internal affairs of the state by fabricating the procedures
necessary for democratization. The US Under Secretary of State for Caribbean
and Latin American Affairs Elliot Abrams has gained the endorsement of
Caribbean leaders in an effort to dictate Haiti’s electoral format. Furthermore
our government has also financed the electoral process and supervised it with
US personnel with the hope of deciding its outcome.
As the issue unfolds so have varying speculations concerning
the regrettable bloodbath and a plot of reversal by supporters of the deposed
Jean Claude Duvalier made public by Secretary of State George Shultz,
Congressmen Dante Fassell and Walter Fauntroy and King Henri Christophe
University’s president Louis Nossin. However amidst confusion and inadequate
organization by the junta’s electoral commission these accusations have been met
with skepticism by most Haitian Americans. Instead in major US cities such
as New York
and Miami these
transplants have voiced the opinion that US intervention over the years of
the Duvalier dictatorship and throughout the transition period that followed
provoked political turmoil within the state.
At present the US denies such charges and has
therefore suspended $62 million in economic assistance for fiscal year 1988.
Nonetheless she demanded the implementation of a new electoral commission and
coerced the involvement of the Organization of American States in
democratization of a sovereign state.
In summary over the past months bloodshed has ceased. Yet
strong opposition to foreign intrusion which includes the withdrawal of attorney
at law Gerald Gourgue, economist Marc Bazin and minister of religion Sylvio
Claude from the presidential race, a surge in workers’ strikes and a 15%
electoral turnout that supposedly brought Dr Leslie Manigat to power is
evidence of an ongoing internal strife that leaves the Haitian political
catastrophe unresolved.
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