ACTON ALERT: No US Troops to Haiti
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(July 10, 2021) — Haitian President/dictator Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by mercenaries on Wednesday! We say dictator because his term expired back in February, but he stayed on thanks to U.S and OAS support. He was deeply unpopular, but the Haitian people wanted justice, not murde
The new de facto leader, Primer Minister Claude Joseph, has asked the US to send troops! A day after the assassination, the Washington Post called for “swift and muscular” intervention. Plus, the US Navy just docked a ship in Santo Domingo, on the Dominican Republic’s side of the island of Hispaniola. The asssassination of Moïse should not be used as a pretext for another occupation of Haiti.
ACTION: Tell President Biden: No troops to Haiti!
Days before his murder, Moïse had actually fired Prime Minister Joseph. In fact, Joseph was never confirmed by the Haitian Parliament, in part because Moïse had dissolved it in 2020. Furthermore, Joseph, even if he had legitimately been the prime minister, would not have been constitutionally in line to succeed the president. Despite this, the Biden administration and the US-born United Nations Special Representative to Haiti immediately recognized Joseph as the new president. Joseph has received assistance from the US since 2003, when he was a student sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy.
Details of the assassination are still coming in, but at least 26 assailants are mercenaries who retired from the Colombian military. The US has been funding, training and supplying Colombia’s army with weapons for decades. According to Colombian media, the presumptive mercenary leader was one of those who received special commando training from US forces. The mercenaries were hired by 4 Colombian security firms. Given that Colombia is a close US ally, the US may well have had knowledge of the plans to kill Moïse.
That’s right: a US-funded politician declared himself president and was recognized by the US after the previous president was killed in an operation the US may well have known about. Now he’s calling for US troops to occupy Haiti! The Biden administration said it has no plans to send troops “at this time”; let’s make sure they never send troops!
ACTION: Sign the petition calling for the US to stay out of Haiti!
At CODEPINK, we’ve been closely following events in Haiti and are worried about what these developments will mean for the Haitian people. Check out our Haiti Project page, where you can find past webinars and messages of solidarity. And look out for updates on the rapidly evolving developments.
In radical solidarity,
Medea, Ciara, Leonardo,Michelle, Teri and the entire CODEPINK team
ACTION: Join CODEPINK Congress on Tuesday, July 13, at 8 p.m. ET for talk and action to lift the US embargo on Cuba and express solidarity with the pink tide sweeping Latin America. We will take a look at the left in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. Click here to RSVP!
Haiti’s White Rulers Have Spoken on Haiti’s Political Future
(July 9, 2021)—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns the arrogance and illegality of United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti Helen La Lime’s July 8 statement that Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph will be the new president, just one day after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
The decision was announced to the press after a closed-door UN Security Council meeting had been called on Haiti. But BAP asks: Who gave the United Nations special envoy the power to make that kind of determination for the people of Haiti?
This sounds like a play right out of the old regime-change book. As BAP stated in its July 7 press release, BAP smells a rat.
BAP is concerned the political situation the United States created by supporting a dictatorship in Haiti is quickly replicating the moment when the United States swept in to colonize the predominantly African/Black country after the 1915 assassination of Haiti’s president, Vilbrun Guillaume Sam.
“The Black Alliance for Peace remains steadfast in our call against foreign intervention and occupation of Haiti,” says Jemima Pierre, BAP’s Haiti/Americas Coordinator. “We call on all anti-imperialist and Black internationalist forces to stand with the Haitian people and oppose US and European interventions deployed under the guise of the ‘Responsibility to Protect.’”
What Haiti needs is authentic national sovereignty and self-determination.
“When people say Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, they fail to understand it is the Pan-European colonial powers that have kept Haiti with its hands tied behind its back,” says BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka. “We say time out on white Western powers causing destruction in the global South.”
Shortly after Democrats wrung their hands over the possibility of Donald Trump staying past his term in office, Biden came into office and immediately lent his support to Moïse to stay beyond the February 7 term limit. That decision sent thousands of Haitians protesting in the streets week after week.
“The Haitian people clearly understood that the United States, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States were behind this,” says Chris Bernadel, a member of BAP’s Haiti/Americas Committee. “During these massive protests, they called for all of these Western powers to exit Haiti.”
While Biden expressed support for Black Lives Matter and for democracy during his campaign for president, true support would have meant ending US meddling in Haiti’s affairs. This assassination relieves the Biden-Harris administration of the embarrassment of having to reconcile the contradiction between pretending to respect Black lives and democracy and supporting a dictator who had reigned after his term had ended on February 7.
That is why for BAP, it doesn’t matter who pulled the trigger to kill Moïse because the Pan-European colonial-capitalist powers are responsible for the suffering of the Haitian people.
BAP vigorously opposes any and all foreign institutions and structures intervening in Haiti. The Haitian people must be allowed to exercise self-determination and address their internal political situation without interference, as BAP noted in its July 6 press release.
We Condemn Increasing Human Rights Violence in Haiti
and the Continued US/OAS/UN Support for
Unconstitutional Actions by Haiti’s Illegitimate Government
JULY 6, 2021—Over eight days, from June 25-30, Haiti had been subjected to increasing state-sponsored, imperial and gang violence. Massacres killed almost 60 people in Port au Prince, including in Cité Soleil, Delmas and Pétionville, as well as on on Rue Magloire Ambroise. Prominent human-rights activist Antoinette (Netty) Duclaire and journalist Diego Charles were two of the victims.
In light of this violence, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) once again affirms its support for the Haitian people and condemns the continued US/UN/OAS backing for the illegitimate Jovenel Moïse administration. Not only do we repudiate the continued violations of human rights in Haiti, we denounce the attempts by the Moïse government and its handlers—especially the Organization of American States (OAS) and the US State Department—to force legislative and presidential elections and an illegal constitutional referendum under an undemocratic voting structure.
Moïse, who has been ruling Haiti by decree since January 2020, has been attempting to pass a referendum to re-write Haiti’s 1987 constitution.
“We support the Haitian people, who have maintained that there is no chance for credible elections to be held while Jovenel Moïse is in power,” says BAP member and Haitian Chris Bernadel. “We stand in solidarity with the Haitian people against the corrupt and illegitimate regime of Jovenel Moïse, which has been enabled through the support of the US, OAS and the United Nations.”
Illegal, according to Haitian law, the proposed referendum has been rejected by every sector of civil society, and opposed by the majority of Haitians.
Yet, a recent OAS report on Haiti not only supports the constitutional referendum, the organization also is pushing for Moïse to single handedly appoint a new prime minister, cabinet, and Provisional Electoral Council in order to move forward with both the referendum and presidential, municipal, and local elections.
These elections will be neither credible, nor legal. The current government is illegitimate. And currently, no clear path exists for free, fair and transparent elections under these conditions.
Yet, the white overseers of Haiti — the United States, the United Nations and the OAS — continue to push for this illegal referendum and elections. The United States has continued its material, logistical and political support of Moïse’s administration. It has spent at least $12.6 million since Moïse was elected in support of dubious elections and bogus political processes. Although the United States acknowledges that thus far, preparations for the referendum “have not been sufficiently transparent or inclusive,”
Joe Biden’s administration has not come out against the referendum. Instead, the Biden-Harris administration has focused on the primacy of holding elections in the fall. At the same time, the UN and the OAS also have provided support for Moïse. The OAS has helped by revising the text of the proposed constitution, apparently to remove some of the more controversial aspects from the first draft. The UN also is advising the national police on an electoral security strategy.
Since February 7, when Moïse’s mandate as president had expired, BAP has been calling for the US government and the rest of the so-called “international community” to respect Haitian sovereignty and the will of the Haitian people. We have consistently condemned Western imperialist meddling in Haiti, and BAP members have rallied in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York to demand the Biden-Harris administration and Western entities—such as the Core Group and the OAS—end decades of interventions that have violated the right of the Haitian people to transparent democratic processes.
We continue to support the Haitian masses, and express solidarity with the Haitian peoples in their quest for sovereignty and freedom. We condemn the continued imperial violence in Haiti that has been dismissed as merely gang violence.
On Assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse:
Black Alliance for Peace Smells a Rat
(July 7, 2021) —Unknown assailants overnight assassinating Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was a horrific act that should be condemned in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately, such violence is unsurprising. As the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) noted in its July 6 press release, Moïse’s actions since usurping power have brought Haiti to a boiling point, with heavily armed gangs being unleashed, both supported by and enabled by the Haitian elite and those international “friends” of Haiti, including the United States, the United Nations, the Core Group and the Organization of American States.
What happens now is the question. Will the Biden administration and other political players use this moment as the pretext for military intervention, as was done in 1915? Will interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph attempt to consolidate power under the pretext of the current state of siege? Will the Core Group find a new willing puppet, more pliable than Moïse, to bring “stability”?
Whatever happens, the Black Alliance for Peace remains steadfast in our call against foreign intervention and occupation of Haiti. And we call on all anti-imperialist and Black internationalist forces to stand with the Haitian people and oppose US and European interventions deployed under the guise of the “Responsibility to Protect.”
