St. Lucia, Suriname and Haiti seek membership in ALBA
St. Lucia (a small and beautiful island country in the Caribbean--a former British colony) and Suriname (a small South American country on the Atlantic coast of north South America) are applying for full, permanent membership in ALBA, the Venezuela and Cuba organized trade group--an alternative to U.S. "free trade for the rich."
But it is Haiti joining ALBA as a permanent observer (and potential member) that I want to highlight and discuss. Members of ALBA include Venezuela itself, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador and many small Caribbean nations. One of the benefits of membership is cheap oil from Venezuela. The beneficiary countries have 25 years to pay for it, at an interest rate of only 1%. This trade agreement has been of significant help to Haiti in its difficult recovery from the earthquake. Several of other benefits to Haiti, from ALBA, include the Cuban medical system's work in Haiti prior to the earthquake, with well-established medical personnel and clinics already in place, and, of course after the earthquake and during the cholera epidemic. The second half of this article..
http://www.nacla.org/blog/2012/2/16/alba-expands-its-allies-caribbean-part-1-2
(which I found at http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6855 - a web site that is an excellent resource on the leftist democracy revolution in Venezuela and on other LatAm topics)...
...provides detail on both the Venezuelan and Cuban contributions to Haiti. Equally interesting is the attendance of Haiti's rightwing president, Micel Martelly (in power due to a highly rigged election, by the U.S. State Department). Here are the paragraphs:
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The first week of February saw the 11 summit of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) convene in Caracas, Venezuela. With Haiti in attendance as a permanent observer, Martelly’s attendance at the summit was a surprise to many, due to his reactionary political program domestically, his close relationships with the Haitian elite, and his determination that Haiti will achieve real and sustainable development through neoliberal policy and the construction of low-wage sweatshops.
Despite Martelly’s political positions, the impact of ALBA’s assistance to Haiti (primarily via Cuba and Venezuela) is too powerful for him to ignore—doing so would discredit him in the eyes of the Haitian people. At a regional summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which was founded last December, Martelly confirmed the vital role Venezuelan aid is playing in Haiti, saying that "The cooperation with Venezuela is the most important in Haiti right now in terms of impact, direct impact... We are grateful to President Chávez for helping us from the bottom of his heart.”
The principal reason why Venezuela and Cuba have been so effective in delivering assistance to Haiti is their engagement in developing infrastructure and professional capacity prior to the earthquake. These countries had spent tremendous time and resources developing networks, relationships and infrastructure which would prove critical to the relief effort, and they had a proven capacity to work constructively with the ministries of the Haitian government and organizations of civil society.
http://www.nacla.org/blog/2012/2/16/alba-expands-its-allies-caribbean-part-1-2
(my emphasis)
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This praise of Chavez and Venezuela, by Martelly, has some interesting background, of course. Some LatAm analysts have said that one of the reasons that the U.S. State Department rigged the Haitian election (for Martelly) was to prevent the prior president's chosen candidate from being elected because of the oil deal he had made with Venezuela. The U.S. wants to control the Caribbean/Central American region, as its "circle the wagons" region against the powerful Leftist movement which has swept through South America (with leftist presidents elected in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Peru and the likelihood of a leftist victory in Chile in the next presidential election). What this Leftist movement means is unity and cooperation among these countries, concerted action in the interest of LatAm countries and peoples, and a strong focus on social justice and on LatAm independence.
Martelly is hardly an independent actor--and Haiti is a thoroughly U.S.-subjugated country, where the REAL president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, was removed by a U.S. (Bush Junta) coup and was banned from the ballot that Martelly allegedly won and in which only 25% of Haitians voted. Yet the pull of the beneficial policies of the new Left in LatAm is very strong because those benefits are very real; whereas, there are NO benefits to U.S. domination except for the rich elites in U.S. client states. Where the U.S. dominates, poverty is widespread, endemic and intractable, and, what is worse, the U.S. "war on drugs" has created a fascist culture of murder and mayhem (Colombia, Honduras, Mexico).
So Martelly--like Santos in Colombia and other rightwing Latin American leaders--is hedging his bets. Independence is good for Latin America. Cooperation among Latin American countries is good for Latin America. Making common cause against the corrupt, corporate/war profiteer-run behemoth to the north is good for Latin America. "South-south" trade is good for Latin America. The "raise all boats" philosophy of leaders like Chavez and Lula da Silva (and his successor, Dilma Rousseff) of Brazil is good for Latin America. Rightwing leaders want to be included in all those benefits while dickering with U.S. corporations to sell their people into slave labor.
The issue of rice alone says it all. It's mentioned in this article. Haiti used to be a rice producing/rice exporting country. Rather than promoting Haiti's indigenous rice production, the U.S.--as the price of its earthquake aid--is not only dumping cheap and free U.S. rice into Haiti, it is forbidding the purchase of local rice by aid agencies.
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The February 2012 ALBA summit in Caracas produced a further roadmap to Haiti’s recovery, focusing on Haiti’s sustainable reconstruction, building infrastructure, and increasing independence in the areas of energy, agriculture, healthcare and education.
Due to decades of unfair trade and aid policies, Haiti currently imports nearly 80% of its main food staple, rice. Venezuelan assistance is helping to restore the devastated rice industry in Haiti’s Artibonite Valley by providing technical assistance and financial aid to Haitian farmers. According to President Martelly, the benefits of Petrocaribe include, “a deal where we repay the amount owed with rice, so this is good for us. Because the main thing for us is to create jobs.”
Implementing assistance programs which develop rural linkages in Haiti and encourage domestic industrial growth is something that is unfortunately missing from many of the reconstruction plans of non-ALBA countries. For example, despite many announcements of reform, current USAID food assistance policies prohibit the procurement of foodstuffs from local sources. This means that US food aid (food grown and subsidized in the United States) is dumped into Haiti, destroying the agricultural industry. By comparison, Venezuela is creating incentives for Haitian farmers to cultivate rice once again in an effort to develop food security and employment opportunities.
In contrast to the aid provided by the United States and other major donors, President Martelly has stated that Venezuela’s aid comes without excessive conditions and bureaucratic controls. "Sometimes for a simple project, it might take too long for the project to happen," he remarked. "If you're asking me which one flows better, which one is easier, I'll tell you Venezuela."
http://www.nacla.org/blog/2012/2/16/alba-expands-its-allies-caribbean-part-1-2
(my emphasis)
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Martelly has to look of his Left, because about 75% of Haitians are leftists and he was the choice of only about 15% of Haiti's voters. That, and the plain benefits of associating with these visionary new leaders on the Left in Latin America, are why Martelly, a State Department-installed rightwing leader, is saying these sort of things in Latin American meetings (unreported here, of course). "The times they are a-changing" in Latin America.
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--The $10 billion in international aid controlled by Bill Clinton and Bush Jr. to be doled out to big U.S. corporations, banksters and investors, to build shining towers of corporate offices and slave labor manufacturing plants, sans laws and regulations. Haiti is the ideal "free trade" landscape--a country reduced to rubble, with a poverty-stricken population. Why are a million people still living under tarps with inadequate food and water and no employment? That $10 billion is not going to them!
--Haiti's proximity to the bigger prize, Cuba (a hop, skip and a jump).
But most of all...
--The Pentagon "Southern Command"'s strategic plan for their "circle the wagons" region--Central America and the Caribbean. They want total control and subjugation of this region. Witness the horrors they have financed in Colombia, Honduras and Mexico--the carnage to the civilian population, notably to trade unionists, journalists, human rights workers, peasant farmers and other advocates of the poor in Colombia and Honduras and all the collateral damage--murder and mayhem--of the "war on drugs" in Mexico; the expansion of U.S. military bases and naval facilities in Colombia and Honduras; the reconstitution of the U.S. 4th Fleet in the Caribbean (which Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, said was "a threat to Brazil's oil"
; the billions in funding to military/police forces in Mexico. Eva Golinger uncovered the U.S. Air Force document that says what all of this is for: "full spectrum military activity" across the Global South (LatAm, Africa, Asia). As South America ain't playing ball any more, Central America/the Caribbean is vital to Pentagon strategic planning, especially with Colombia enlisted on the southern rim of this "circle" with on-going efforts to include Venezuela and its huge oil reserves.
--Our Corporate/War Profiteer Rulers are adamant to control governments, peoples, land, sea and air, and all resources in this "circle the wagons" region and have spent billions and billions of our tax dollars to do so.
The price is mind-boggling when you add in all the costs of this control--in every agency of the U.S. government, covert and overt, over several decades--not just multi-billions in military and "war on drugs" spending, but the funding of lawyers and diplomats for "free trade for the rich" treaties, funding of the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and other such entities for various corporate purposes in this region (privatization, acquisition of resources, buying governments, dirty loans), and items like the U.S. Ag Department subsidizing rice growers (like Chevron) here so they can dump rice on Haiti's market and destroy local production--the same with milk and other produce in Jamaica and throughout the region; the costs of coups and coup attempts (Venezuela, Honduras, Bolivia, Ecuador); the costs of rigging elections (Honduras, Haiti); the costs of controlling the OAS; the costs of "training" local fascists for political or military leadership roles; the costs of U.S. government propaganda mills (including U.S. government welfare to the Miami mafia); covert ops like the "suitcase full of money" caper out of Miami (a guy named "Guido" insinuates himself onto a Venezuela oil company plane with a suitcase containing $800,000 U.S.D. which he tries to walk through customs in Buenos Aires--getting caught, of course--and later claims that this money was intended from Hugo Chavez to Cristina Fernandez, candidate for president of Argentina--the whole plot designed to embarrass these leftist leaders; including all the costs of the Bushbot U.S. attorney in Miami, and the costs of protecting U.S. operatives and keeping U.S. secrets)--very, very costly operations.
The famous advice "follow the money" is very apt here. Why will Haiti never be allowed to be a free, democratic, independent country, with its own foreign policy and alliances? For the same reasons that Jean Bertrand Aristide--the most popular president Haiti has ever known--was abducted and removed from the country by the U.S. government and was recently forbidden to even place other candidates on the ballot. All of the above and more. Miserable Haiti--small and poor though it is--is a strategic asset for U.S. military and globalization dominance.
So, until that $10 billion in earthquake aid is distributed to the wrong beneficiaries for the wrong purposes, and until the Pentagon gives up its world domination plans, and until U.S. based transglobal corporations stop seeking to monopolize so-called "free markets" (actually, anti-markets)--in other words, until hell freezes over--Haiti, the birth country of democracy in Latin America, will never be a free and independent state and will never be permitted to ally with Venezuela and Cuba in a regional trade group that opposes U.S. exploitation and domination.
They can't very well forbid Martelly from attending meetings. They can't undo aid programs that were already in place before the earthquake--intelligently designed programs that are just about the only thing that is working in Haiti (subsidized oil--though they did try to end that--new oil and energy infrastructure, community-based medical care including the training of local doctors and other medical personnel, aid to local rice farmers, etc.). They would induce mass bloodshed and an end to Martelly, if they tried to do that. But they can and will forbid him to join ALBA! That was Item No. 1 on their coup program for Honduras--Honduras withdrawing from ALBA!
If you are sincere in your blandly stated view that Latin America should take care of Haiti, then I think you need to call for Bill Clinton and Bush Jr. to turn that $10 billion in international aid over to ALBA.
When. Hell. Freezes. Over.
