N***@blythe.org
2006-04-28 19:44:43 UTC
Haitian president-elect turns to Cuba, Venezuela
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Workers World - May 4, 2006 issue
http://www.workers.org/2006/world/haiti-0504/
Haitian president-elect turns to Cuba, Venezuela
By G. Dunkel
It has been more than two years since Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, who was elected with the overwhelming support of the people,
was forced out of the country by U.S. officials and a right-wing "de
facto" government was installed. Haitians are now waiting to see if
their choice in the first election since then, President-elect René
Préval, will be seated on May 14 as promised.
Conditions in this impoverished country have only grown worse since
the "coup-napping."
Because they had not been paid for five months, and are expected to
work without gloves, brooms, buckets and other supplies, the support
staff of the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH) went on
strike April 7. Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel followed a
few days later, unable to work in the unsanitary conditions produced
as blood, wastes and all kinds of debris piled up throughout the HUEH,
the main public hospital in Port-au-Prince.
Workers at other public hospitals throughout the country--in
Cap-Haitien, Gonaïves, Jacmel and Cayes--have also walked out. Some
haven't been paid for seven months. In some areas outside
Port-au-Prince, local authorities came to an agreement with the
strikers, who then went back to work.
But the agreements were broken, so the strikers went out again, even
angrier. Observers say this attack on public health care may be one
way that the de facto government is putting pressure on Préval. It
wants to enmesh him in big problems from day one.
Electricity and water are also sporadic in Port-au-Prince, with some
poor neighborhoods nearly completely deprived.
The public health crisis in Haiti made a visit by Préval to Cuba from
April 14 to 19 particularly important. As Preval told the media there,
Cuban doctors "have held more than 8 million office visits and done
more than 100,000 operations. In Haiti, we say after God comes Cuban
doctors."
He also held warm talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro on a range
of subjects from economic development to electric generation and
education. Cuba has a major program to train Haitian doctors. Some 120
Haitians have already graduated from medical school there and 600 are
enrolled. Besides the normal quota of Haitian business leaders in his
entourage, Préval also brought Haitians who needed medical care. He
himself extended his visit to get a hernia operation.
Préval's next visit before his inauguration will be to Venezuela. The
current autho rities in Haiti, who are hand-picked by imperialism,
turned down Venezuela's offer to join Petrocaribe, a program run by
Venezuela to provide cheap gasoline to poor Caribbean countries. They
say it's because they don't have a government-owned distribution
center and don't want to build one in competition with Haitian
businesses. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, in his weekly television
broadcast on April 23, announced Préval's visit and said Venezuela
would donate a distribution center to Haiti after it joins
Petro-caribe, some time after the inauguration.
A major reason why so many cities and towns in Haiti don't have
electricity is that they don't have the money to buy fuel to run their
generators.
Runoff elections for parliament were held on April 23. They came off
without the contention that marked the February election for
president. However, thousands of people with valid voter cards were
turned away from polling stations where they had voted in February.
They were told to check the Internet for places where they could
vote--an onerous task for poor people without computers who get only a
few hours of electricity a week.
While the de-facto government says it doesn't have the money needed to
run hospitals, generate electricity and provide clean water, it got
millions of dollars from "donor countries" to run elections and create
photo IDs for those registering.
The United States and Canada, the two countries with the biggest "aid"
programs in Haiti, don't just deny Haiti the economic aid it deserves.
Jeb Sprague, a freelance journalist writing for Haïti-Progrès (April
12 to 18), charges that "In the years leading up to Haiti's 2006
presidential and legislative elections, ... the International
Republican Institute (IRI) helped form and coach three coalitions of
right-wing and social-democratic parties, which were all partisans of
the Feb. 29, 2004, coup d'état against President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide."
IRI is an international agency of the U.S. Republican Party that gets
its funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), whose
funds in turn come from the U.S. Congress, with a mandate "to promote
democracy throughout the world."
IRI charged Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide's party, with not being
"democratic." But it guided some FL breakaways into the Movement for
the Installation of Demo cracy in Haiti (MIDH), whose candidate for
president was former World Bank official Marc Bazin. Bazin received
only got 0.68 percent of the Feb. 7 vote.
Washington has been pushing Bazin as Haiti's leader for a long time.
In 1990, when Aristide was elected for the first time, the New York
Times predicted Bazin would defeat him because only the poor, who
"don't vote," were for Aristide. Bazin got 14 percent of that vote.
IRI and USAID even went so far as to assist a "socialist" coalition to
contest the recent vote. Most of the candidates for this "socialist"
coalition had supported the coup against Aristide and in reality
represent the left wing of the Haitian bourgeoisie.
Préval's party, Lespwa, did not take any IRI or USAID money. His
election was assured only after tens of thousands of Haitians came out
into the streets and demanded that their votes be counted and
respected.
The Haitian people are going to support Préval as long as they see him
trying to resolve the huge problems affecting their country. The help
he gets from Cuba and Venezuela will be a key element in this struggle
to improve the condition of the Haitian people.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ***@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-***@workersworld.net
*
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Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Workers World - May 4, 2006 issue
http://www.workers.org/2006/world/haiti-0504/
Haitian president-elect turns to Cuba, Venezuela
By G. Dunkel
It has been more than two years since Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, who was elected with the overwhelming support of the people,
was forced out of the country by U.S. officials and a right-wing "de
facto" government was installed. Haitians are now waiting to see if
their choice in the first election since then, President-elect René
Préval, will be seated on May 14 as promised.
Conditions in this impoverished country have only grown worse since
the "coup-napping."
Because they had not been paid for five months, and are expected to
work without gloves, brooms, buckets and other supplies, the support
staff of the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH) went on
strike April 7. Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel followed a
few days later, unable to work in the unsanitary conditions produced
as blood, wastes and all kinds of debris piled up throughout the HUEH,
the main public hospital in Port-au-Prince.
Workers at other public hospitals throughout the country--in
Cap-Haitien, Gonaïves, Jacmel and Cayes--have also walked out. Some
haven't been paid for seven months. In some areas outside
Port-au-Prince, local authorities came to an agreement with the
strikers, who then went back to work.
But the agreements were broken, so the strikers went out again, even
angrier. Observers say this attack on public health care may be one
way that the de facto government is putting pressure on Préval. It
wants to enmesh him in big problems from day one.
Electricity and water are also sporadic in Port-au-Prince, with some
poor neighborhoods nearly completely deprived.
The public health crisis in Haiti made a visit by Préval to Cuba from
April 14 to 19 particularly important. As Preval told the media there,
Cuban doctors "have held more than 8 million office visits and done
more than 100,000 operations. In Haiti, we say after God comes Cuban
doctors."
He also held warm talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro on a range
of subjects from economic development to electric generation and
education. Cuba has a major program to train Haitian doctors. Some 120
Haitians have already graduated from medical school there and 600 are
enrolled. Besides the normal quota of Haitian business leaders in his
entourage, Préval also brought Haitians who needed medical care. He
himself extended his visit to get a hernia operation.
Préval's next visit before his inauguration will be to Venezuela. The
current autho rities in Haiti, who are hand-picked by imperialism,
turned down Venezuela's offer to join Petrocaribe, a program run by
Venezuela to provide cheap gasoline to poor Caribbean countries. They
say it's because they don't have a government-owned distribution
center and don't want to build one in competition with Haitian
businesses. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, in his weekly television
broadcast on April 23, announced Préval's visit and said Venezuela
would donate a distribution center to Haiti after it joins
Petro-caribe, some time after the inauguration.
A major reason why so many cities and towns in Haiti don't have
electricity is that they don't have the money to buy fuel to run their
generators.
Runoff elections for parliament were held on April 23. They came off
without the contention that marked the February election for
president. However, thousands of people with valid voter cards were
turned away from polling stations where they had voted in February.
They were told to check the Internet for places where they could
vote--an onerous task for poor people without computers who get only a
few hours of electricity a week.
While the de-facto government says it doesn't have the money needed to
run hospitals, generate electricity and provide clean water, it got
millions of dollars from "donor countries" to run elections and create
photo IDs for those registering.
The United States and Canada, the two countries with the biggest "aid"
programs in Haiti, don't just deny Haiti the economic aid it deserves.
Jeb Sprague, a freelance journalist writing for Haïti-Progrès (April
12 to 18), charges that "In the years leading up to Haiti's 2006
presidential and legislative elections, ... the International
Republican Institute (IRI) helped form and coach three coalitions of
right-wing and social-democratic parties, which were all partisans of
the Feb. 29, 2004, coup d'état against President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide."
IRI is an international agency of the U.S. Republican Party that gets
its funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), whose
funds in turn come from the U.S. Congress, with a mandate "to promote
democracy throughout the world."
IRI charged Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide's party, with not being
"democratic." But it guided some FL breakaways into the Movement for
the Installation of Demo cracy in Haiti (MIDH), whose candidate for
president was former World Bank official Marc Bazin. Bazin received
only got 0.68 percent of the Feb. 7 vote.
Washington has been pushing Bazin as Haiti's leader for a long time.
In 1990, when Aristide was elected for the first time, the New York
Times predicted Bazin would defeat him because only the poor, who
"don't vote," were for Aristide. Bazin got 14 percent of that vote.
IRI and USAID even went so far as to assist a "socialist" coalition to
contest the recent vote. Most of the candidates for this "socialist"
coalition had supported the coup against Aristide and in reality
represent the left wing of the Haitian bourgeoisie.
Préval's party, Lespwa, did not take any IRI or USAID money. His
election was assured only after tens of thousands of Haitians came out
into the streets and demanded that their votes be counted and
respected.
The Haitian people are going to support Préval as long as they see him
trying to resolve the huge problems affecting their country. The help
he gets from Cuba and Venezuela will be a key element in this struggle
to improve the condition of the Haitian people.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ***@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-***@workersworld.net
*
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================