Return to John Kerry's Foreign Policy
Haiti
In 1991, former priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti with 67% of the vote. Less than a year later, as he began to consolidate power and persecute political opponents, he was overthrown by a military coup. During his years in exile Aristide spend millions of Haitian funds lobbying the United States to return him to power.
In 1994, Aristide was returned to office by President Clinton and the military leadership of Haiti resigned. Aristide completed his term in 1996, but was prevented from running again under US pressure and via legal interpretations of the Haitian constitution. However, Arisitide gradually took back power anyway through the, often fraudulent, election of his supporters to the Haitian Senate and his control of his presidential successor. In 2000, Arisitide ran in a presidential election that was boycotted by the opposition and claimed victory with 91.8% of the vote. Aristide again cultivated the support of brutal street gangs and lined his pockets with drug money. Aristide's henchmen were known to execute political opponents via a process called 'necklacing' - placing a burning tire around the head of their victims. A self-proclaimed Marxist, Aristide advocated class struggle and devastated Haiti's economy through corruption and misguided leftist economic policies. The Washington Times reported that Aristide's regime had spent $7.3 million between 1997 and 2002 lobbying in Washington, D.C. (29)
After the rigged 2000 Haitian election, the Clinton Administration cut off $500 million in economic aid and Europe followed suit. In 2003, the street gangs that Aristide relied on to suppress political dissents turned on him and the United States and France jointly pressured him to flee and moved in with troops to restore order. As the rebels closed in on Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, the French Foreign Minister, Dominique De Villipan, echoed US Secretary of State Colin Powell saying:
"It's for President Aristide, who bears a heavy responsibility in the current situation, to draw the conclusions from the impasse," (31)
Kerry, however, took the opposite position, saying he would have sent American troops in to back Aristide! The Wall Street journal reported:
John Kerry has now decided, retrospectively, that he would not have gone to war to remove Saddam Hussein. But he would have put U.S. troops in harm's way to shield Haitian strongman Jean Bertrand Aristide from a revolt of his own people in February. "I would have been prepared to send troops immediately, period," Mr. Kerry told the New York Times on March 4. (32), (33)
However, Kerry admitted to the New York Post that: he's not "a big Aristide fan." (30)
General Heleno, a Brazilian, who is currently the commander of the UN peacekeepers in Haiti blamed Kerry's comments for contributing to chaos in Haiti. The BBC reports:
Eight months ago the Bush administration withdrew all support for Mr Aristide and made it clear he should leave Haiti. John Kerry called that "short-sighted" and said he would have sent troops to protect Mr Aristide, who was an elected leader.
Now General Heleno, says those comments have offered hope to Aristide's supporters that should Mr Kerry win the US election in November the former Haitian president might be restored to power.
General Heleno said any hopes of an Aristide comeback were "completely unfounded". Speaking to Brazil's state news agency the UN commander was trying to explain the recent upsurge in violence in Haiti. (34)
More explicitly, the General told the Brazilian news agency:
"Statements made by a candidate to the presidency of the United States created false hopes among pro-Aristide supporters," Ribeiro told the agency. "His (the candidate's) statements created the expectation that instability and a change in American policy would contribute to Aristide's return." (35)
Over 50 people have died in scattered violence across Haiti in clashes between pro-Aristide gunmen, Haitian police, and government groups. Kerry has not recanted anything he has said, nor I suspect will he. After all, if he speaks against Aristide to help stop the violence he might be labeled as a flip-flopper, which could hurt his election chances.