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Whose red herring is this?

Submitted February 23, 2004 - 8:52 pm by Bill Conroy
Analyzing a coup is no easy task, particularly in a country as complicated as Haiti. But Eugenia Charles-Mathurin, co-director of the http://www.haitireborn.org ">Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center, offers some disturbing clues in the following statement — which was released through the Institute for Public Accuracy.

"The United States has helped create this opposition to destabilize and
undermine Haiti's nascent democracy.... The U.S. is the only party which
can bring to the negotiation table these groups which include members of
the CIA-linked FRAPH death squads and the former brutal army of Haiti,
FAD'H, which killed over 5,000 people from 1991-1994.... President
Aristide, the constitutional president, has pledged that he would step down
from power when his term comes to a close. In accordance with the Haitian
Constitution, he cannot run again. His commitments have been met with
escalating violence by opposition members."

In related coup fodder, check out the article about the Marines being sent to Haiti to protect the U.S. embassy, which was published on CNN.com. today.

From the story:

With a population of about 500,000, Cap Haitien is the Aristide government's last stronghold in northern Haiti.

Walter Eussenius, owner of the Mont Joli Hotel in Cap Haitien, said rebels moved into the city about 10 a.m. Sunday.

"The population is terrorized and the city is completely surrounded," Eussenius told CNN in a telephone interview. Machine gun fire could be heard in the background as he spoke.

Eussenius said he drove three miles to the airport and was told that rebels had taken over the facility and tried to hijack an airplane.

In an earlier version of the same CNN story, there was a picture included of one of the “rebels” who helped seize the airport in Cap Hatien --  at least that’s what the unsourced photo caption indicated.

The "rebel" in the photo was decked out in color-coordinated duds, what appeared to be a Kevlar vest and a SWAT-like helmet, and he was toting some heavy-duty munitions -- a machine gun and ammo; a holstered pistol; and a large knife. Given the poverty in Haiti, if this "rebel" didn’t loot his outfit and gear from a local police station, then there’s a whole other set of questions that need to be raised. And where did that photo go anyway?

What happens next? Do we move more troops into Haiti, maybe as a prelude for another chess move in the Caribbean? Hmm, who doesn’t the current U.S. administration like in that neck of the woods that it could intimidate from the island of Haiti. Is Aristide paying a price for refusing to cooperate with the United States’ Cuban agenda?

Is Charles-Mathurin on the right path here?

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