Former Pinochet henchman takes over "peacekeeping" operation in Haiti

The apparent suicide on 7 January of the Brazilian general leading the UN military force currently occupying Haiti has exposed serious conflict and disarray within the management of the disastrous “peacekeeping” mission there. According to Reuters and Agence Haitienne de presse (AHP), pressure from Haiti’s business elite to intensify the repression of poor neighbourhoods that constitute the centre of political opposition to the US and Canada-backed interim government had been growing in recent days.  On 5 January, the notorious coup supporter and head of Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce Reginald Boulos called upon the UN generals to carry out a “necessary and courageous action” in Cité Soleil, where “you have to break some eggs to make an omelette”. (Radio Metropole)

Boulos, a leader of the elite-led “Group 184” and financier for the Washington DC “Haiti Democracy Project” had been working for months to increase pressure on the UN force to crack down on those resisting Haiti’s coup government.

Two days after Boulos gave this interview the Brazilian commander of the UN force, General Urano Bacellar, was found dead in his apartment, shot in the head in an apparent suicide.  According to some media reports, Bacellar had been resisting, in part, the efforts of Boulos and other to induce the “peacekeepers” to become the pure killing machine wanted by Haiti’s business class.

Such resistance may now be gone.  Bacellar’s replacement is the controversial Chilean General Aldunate Herman.  Aldunate Herman is a 1974 School of the Americas graduate who reportedly participated directly in the attack on la Palacio de la Moneda on 11 September, 1973.(1)  He was also accused of direct involvement in the 1976 murder of a Spanish diplomat.(2)

It’s quite possible that Reginald Boulos and his networks could not have asked for a more ideal commander for a force now gearing up to "finish the job" of wiping out Haiti's mobilized popular opposition.  Some eggs are about to be broken.

On Monday 9 January, Boulos and his Chamber of Commerce colleagues called a national “general strike” (a de facto lockout), with the aim of further escalating the pressure on the UN to deploy greater violence against the population.  Initial reports suggest that many sections of the formal economy in the capital did shut down for the day, but market sellers went about their work as normal, though under greater tension.  Outside the capital, and in Cap Haitien (Haiti's second largest city), the general strike call was ignored.

The death of Brazil’s General Bacellar and the increasing reports of grave human rights violations carried out by the Brazilian-led force has brought increasing calls within Brazil and Canada to remove their military and police support to the unraveling mission.  AHP reported on 10 January that Bacellar’s death has “provoked a lively response” from opponents of the Brazilian role in Haiti, including among leaders of the Socialist and Green parties.  Green party deputy Fernando Gabeiras argues that Brazil should “bring its troops home”. (3)

In Canada, a federal election campaign is under way, and reports of popular opposition to the Canadian role in supporting the UN mission and the unelected post-coup Haitian government are increasing.  The right-wing National Post newspaper ran a significant article on 10 January headlined: “Activists target [Foreign Minister] Pettigrew for Canada’s ‘crimes’ in Haiti”.  The report suggests that Minister Pettigrew may in fact lose his seat in the January 23 election, and that opposition to Canada’s policy in Haiti may well play a role in that result.

(1) See German Westphal, “2º Comandante de las tropes de la ONU en Haiti Participo en asalto a La Moneda,” 22 October, 2005, Humanist Party of Chile at:  http://www.partidohumanista.cl/modules.php?name=Ne ws&file=article&sid=308

(2) See "Carmen Soria pide que el General Aldunate declare ante el juez," 5 October, 2005.  Available at:  http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/chile/doc/aldunate4 .html

(3)  AHP, “Public sentiment mounts in Brazil for the troops to return home,” 10 January, 2006.