T&T: Absolute power

Jean-Bertrand Aristide is currently a guest of the Government of Jamaica and Caricom is rightly calling for an investigation into the circumstances of his enforced departure from Haiti. Not surprisingly, the US is unwilling to support this demand.

The United States has always played contradictory roles in Haiti. The US always insists that its aim is to empower and support the forces working for the democratisation of Haiti. Yet it is invariably found supporting the forces of reaction in Haiti, particularly those which are important to US economic and strategic interests.
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One of Haiti's poets, Jean-Claude Martineau, explains very well what Aristide was up against. "Why do the elite hate him so much? All their traditional privileges have been questioned; the way they make their money, most of the time illegally; drugs contraband, and abuse. All these kinds of things have been questioned, with a very strong possibility of changing the way the country is run; changing the way people perceive power. Because in Haiti, the power is an absolute power."

Terrific article by Selwyn Ryan. Read the rest of it. He's laying out the complexity of the U.S.-Haiti relationship and also looking at the political realities of the Haitian situation.