Imperialist bullying sharpens in Haiti

Foreign intervention is Haiti is as problematic as ever. Interviewed by the Swiss daily Le Temps, Brazilian diplomat Ricardo Seitenfus said as much. When the interview was published on December 20, the Organization of American States fired him as its representative in Haiti.

Asked about the 10,000 UN troops in Haiti, Seitenfus responded, "Haiti is not an international threat. We are not in civil war conditions." After the removal of President Aristide in 2004, he said, the foreign intervention acted to "freeze the power" and "transform the Haitians into prisoners on their own island." Haiti's problems are "socio-economic," said Seitenfus. "When the unemployment rate is at 80 percent, deploying a stabilizing mission is intolerable. There is nothing to stabilize."

Replying to the question "What prevents normalization?" Seitenfus traced Haiti's problems back to its history. "For two hundred years the presence of foreign troops has alternated with that of the dictators," he said. "Haiti's original sin, on the world stage, is its liberation. the West was a colonialist world, slave-owning and racist, basing its wealth on the exploitation of conquered lands. As a result, the Haitian revolutionary model frightened the great powers. Independence was compromised and the country's development was road-blocked."

What about aid? Answer: "Emergency aid is effective; but when it becomes structural, when that aid substitutes for the state in all its missions, a lack of collective responsibility is attained."

Seitenfus blamed foreign aid agencies for using Haiti as a laboratory, as "a country of professional formation" offering "free rein" to all kinds of humanitarian experimentation. "There is an evil or perverse relationship between the NGOs' strength and the Haitian state's weakness," he said.

http://peoplesworld.org/imperialist-bullying-sharpens-in-haiti/