The Haitian Dilemma

By: Leroy A. Binns Ph.D.

Haiti once again made international news as the November 29^th general election resulted in the death of 35 citizens and the hospitalization of many others.

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.