The return of Aristide to Haiti: the journey a long night became day
Friday, March 25, 2011
Guinea Pig Hutch Plans
Posted March 24, 2011
By Amy Goodman
On the morning of March 17, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide boarded a small plane with his family in Johannesburg. The next morning arrived in Haiti. Had spent more than seven years since he was abducted from his home in Haiti after a coup that was supported by the United States. In 2010, Haiti was hit by a terrible earthquake that left over 300,000 dead and half a million homeless. A cholera epidemic led to the country by the occupation forces of the UN mission could have infected nearly 800,000 people. Most of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Now Aristide, by far the most popular figure in Haiti today and the first democratically elected president the first black republic in the world, returned to his country.
"Bon Retou Titid" ("Good return, Titid", the affectionate way to refer to Aristide) said the posters and chanting people in Port-au-Prince, as thousands gathered to accompany Aristide Toussaint L Airport Ouverture to his house. L'Ouverture led the slave uprising Haiti he founded in 1804. I had the opportunity to travel with Aristide, his wife, Mildred, and two daughters from Johannesburg to Haiti in the small plane provided by the South African government. It was my second flight with them. In March 2004, the family tried to return Aristide's forced exile in Central African Republic, but never managed to return to Haiti. The then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials warned Aristide to stay away from the Western Hemisphere. Aristide's family paid no attention to that pressure, and made a stop in Jamaica before traveling to South Africa, where it remained until last weekend.
Just before Sunday's elections in Haiti, President Rene Preval, Aristide gave a diplomatic passport he had promised long ago. Two months earlier, on January 19, former State Department spokesman in the United States, PJ Crowley, Tweeter wrote, referring to Aristide: Haiti needs now look to the future not the past. " Mildred Aristide felt outraged by this comment. When interviewed on the plane, minutes before his return to Haiti, said the U.S. had said that since her husband was forced to leave the country in 2004: "When we were in the Republic Central, someone gave us a book about Barthelemy Boganda, the founder of the Republic and the precursor of independence, because ultimately died before the Central African Republic gained independence from France. And there was a sentence in the book that left me paralyzed. Boganda for questioning to continue to be critical of the colonial relationship between France and the Central African Republic, and told him 'You're talking about the past. " To which Boganda replied: 'I would stop talking about the past, if this were not so'. "
Mark Toner, the new State Department spokesman, said last week: "Former President Aristide chose to stay out of Haiti for seven years. To return this week could only be considered a conscious decision to have an impact on elections in Haiti. "
Jean-Bertrand Aristide chose to leave or stay out of Haiti and the Obama knows it. On February 29, 2004, Luis Moreno, the No. 2 U.S. Embassy in Haiti, went to the Aristide family home and forcibly dragged to the airport. Frantz Gabriel was the bodyguard to Aristide in 2004. I met him when I was with the family Aristide in the Central African Republic, and I saw him on Friday when Family Aristide returned to Haiti. He recalled: "The president did not leave voluntarily, because everyone who came to accompany the president to the airport were military. I was in the United States armed forces and what is the aspect of an infantry officer, and I know the appearance of a special forces officer. What struck me was that when we boarded the plane, they all changed their uniforms into civilian clothes. And in that moment I knew that this was a special operation. "
United States continues to impede the return of President Aristide for the next seven years. Precisely Last week President Barack Obama called President Jacob Zuma to express his "deep concern" over the possible return of Aristide, and pushed Zuma to prevent him to travel. Zuma has the merit of having ignored the warning. U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks reveals that for many years there was consensus maneuvers to prevent the return of Aristide to Haiti, including diplomatic punishment for any country to help Aristide, and even the threat of blocking the entry of South Africa in the Council UN Security.
After landing in Port-au-Prince, Aristide did not waste any time. He went to the Haitian people from the airport. His words touched a fundamental point of the elections take place just in this country: that his political party, Haiti's most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas, is outlawed, was excluded from the elections. Aristide said: "The problem is the exclusion, and the solution is the inclusion. The exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion of the majority. The exclusion of the majority just means that they are excluding the branch on which all we are sitting. The problem is exclusion. The solution is to include all Haitians without discrmininación, because we are all people. " To reconnect with the country had not seen for seven years, President Aristide said: "Haiti, Haiti, how much farther I am from you, the more I can hardly breathe. Haiti, I love you and always will. Forever. "
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Denis Moynihan contributed to this column journalistic production.
© 2011 Amy Goodman
English text translated by Mercedes Camps and Democracy Now! English, spanish@democracynow.org
Amy Goodman is the host of Democracy Now, an international news is broadcast daily on over 600 radio and television stations in English and over 300 in English. It is co-author of "Those who fight against the system: ordinary heroes in extraordinary times in America", published by Le Monde Diplomatique, Southern Cone.
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