Horror and hope in Haiti after 20 years of occupation

by Haiti Action Committee The immediate crisis in Haiti goes back to the Feb. 29, 2004, coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the imposition of occupation forces, first by the US, France and Canada, then by a larger UN force, dubbed MINUSTAH, which, while overseeing the police, participated in several documented massacres, and introduced cholera in 2010. MINUSTAH oversaw three rigged “elections” for president, bringing to power corrupt puppets who have ruled until Ariel Henry, originally forced in (in 2021 after the assassination of Jovenel Moise), was recently forced out. There are now no elected officials in Haiti. Roger Noriega, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld, the Bush administration’s most notorious war criminals, aided and abetted by the International Republican Institute [IRI], orchestrated the 2004 coup. Thousands were killed, raped, imprisoned or forced into exile. The Haitian people are still living with the coup’s horrific aftermath, which has ushered in 20 years of foreign military occupation, de facto dictatorship and terror, and a wave of neoliberal economic policies that have deepened poverty and starvation and weakened the ability of the government to serve the people (if it really wanted to). These policies have created a disaster in Haiti.& Although the UN...