22043: Esser: Caricom Sticks with Democracy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The NarcoSphere
http://narcosphere.narconews.com

May 25, 2004

Haiti: Caricom Sticks with Democracy
By Al Giordano,

Randall Robinson writes an interesting analysis on Counterpunch about
the continued (and couragous) refusal by the community of Caribbean
nations to allow the US-installed regime of Gerard Latortue in Haiti
a seat at the table:

<On Feb. 29 the legally elected government of Haiti was driven from
power by armed force. Its president, after being taken against his
will to the Central African Republic, was given refuge in Jamaica.
The Bush administration's response has been to demand that the
democratic countries of the Caribbean (1) drop their call for an
investigation into the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
(2) push the Aristide family out of Jamaica and the region, and (3)
abandon their policy of admitting only democratically elected
governments into the councils of Caricom (a multilateral organization
established by the English-speaking Caribbean countries 31 years ago
to promote regional cooperation).

In addition, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice has warned
Caricom leaders that if one U.S. soldier is killed in Haiti,
Caribbean governments will be held responsible because the Aristide
family was granted sanctuary in the region. In short, the Bush
administration is strong-arming the Caribbean to confer on Haiti's
new "government," headed by Gerard Latortue, a legitimacy it has not
earned and does not deserve....>

Robinson continues:

<The United States' demand that Caricom abandon its long-held
insistence on democratic principles is psychic poison to the
region...>

But Caricom's steadfast pro-democracy position is not shared by
Mexico's President Vicente Fox, who will be hosting Haitian
dictator-for-two-months-and-counting Latortue on Friday in
Guadalajara...

It's disappointing, although not surprising, that a hundred U.S.
newspaper and wire correspondents in Latin America have not even
mentioned the unmentionable scandal: that Friday's European and Latin
American Summit in Mexico will include the Boca Raton oligarch turned
US-imposed "president" of Haiti as an alleged "representative" of his
country.

Even the Latin American press has been slow, so far, to address this
shameful invitation.

One of the few mentions of it comes in the much more vetted story
about how Chilean President Ricardo Lagos has insisted, with
trademark cowardice, that he not be in the same workgroup meetings in
Guadalajara with Bolivian President Carlos Mesa, because he is afraid
to publicly discuss Bolivia's claims on its former coastline, in
possession of Chile.

Waldo Díaz writes in the Chilean daily El Tercero:

<Lagos will have diverse bilateral meetings during the Summit. The
list includes the prime ministers of Germany, Gerhard Schröeder; of
France, Jaques Chirac, and the Italian president, Romano Prodi, among
others. He also does not rule out a meeting with the current leader
of Haiti.>

Latortue's attendance in Guadalajara makes a lie of Mexico, Europe,
and the Organization of American States' proclaimed support for
democracy. In fact, the much (and often unfairly) maligned Cuban
press has filed the only detailed story on Latortue's tapatia
vacation to date. Prensa Latina notes:

<Port-au-Prince (PL): The designated prime minister of Haiti, Gérard
Latortue, has announced that he will participate in the Third Summit
of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe, hoping that
international aid can help his country better its quality of life...

The African Union, with 53 member nations, and the fourteen nations
of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), have recognized Jean-Bertrand
Aristide as the only commander in chief for the legitimate government
of Haiti...>

But where is the so-called "free press" from the lands of "democracy"
on this story?

They got their hypocritical asses kicked by the Cuban press. If they
believe their own bullshit, the U.S. correspondents in Mexico and
Latin America ought to feel very embarrassed over being beat on an
important international story by the press in the nation where those
same correspondents keep insisting there is no free press!

Which just goes to prove (again): that all the talk about "democracy"
by those who claim to live in one is hollow. They don't even
understand the word anymore. If they did, they'd be all over
Latortue's trip to Guadalajara like a cheap suit.

Robinson concludes:

<Haiti was welcomed as a full member of Caricom because its people
had established a democratic form of government. After the recent
shattering of that democracy, Caribbean heads of government decided
to maintain support for the people of Haiti but allow democratic
elections to determine who will represent Haiti in the councils of
Caricom. "We are the children of slaves," one Caribbean national
explained. "And so, we stay away from the tyranny of the unelected. .
. . If America thinks that an unelected government is fine for Haiti,
when will they say that an unelected government is best for my
country?"

The Bush administration, however, has been implacable. Its officials
were to have come to the Caribbean in April and May to discuss, among
other things, terrorism, but the administration presented Caribbean
governments with an ultimatum: no recognition of Latortue, no
meetings between the United States and the Caribbean leaders. Caricom
reminded U.S. officials that Latortue was not elected by anyone. And
so the meetings are off. Why is the unelected Latortue more important
to the Bush administration than the Caribbean's 14 democratically
elected governments?

Americans must speak out against their government's behavior abroad.
And they must recognize that the atrocities inflicted by U.S.
soldiers on Iraqi prisoners grow out of a hubris and contempt that
far too many U.S. officials display when dealing with much of the
rest of the world. If stable Caribbean democracies are being slapped
around by America because they uphold democratic values, who is safe
in this unipolar world? Certainly not the American people, who are
being made targets of global rage because of these tactics.>

Who is safe, indeed?
.