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We Denounce UN Security Council's Approval to Send a Kenya-led Mission to Haiti

We Denounce UN Security Council's Approval to Send a Kenya-led Mission to Haiti

WE DENOUNCE UN SECURITY COUNCIL'S

APPROVAL TO SEND A KENYA-LED MISSION TO HAITI

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the decision by the United States and its allies to deploy a foreign military force to Haiti. We are adamant that a U.S./UN-led armed foreign intervention in Haiti is not only illegitimate, but illegal. And we support Haitian people and civil society organizations who have been consistent in their opposition to foreign armed military intervention – and who have argued that the problems of Haiti are a direct result of the persistent and long-term meddling of the United States, the United Nations, and the Core Group.

On Monday, October 2nd, 2023, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted on a resolution for a Multinational Security Support Mission authorizing the deployment of a foreign  military and police intervention into the Republic of Haiti. Although the vote did not receive unanimous approval as it saw abstentions from two permanent UNSC members, 13 other permanent and non-permanent members voted in support, including 3 African countries (Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique). This is a particularly egregious betrayal of Haiti, which has been for Africans and Black people around the world, a beacon in the fight against slavery, colonialism and imperialism. Yet the U.S. administration, the corporate media, alongside figures such as Linda Thomas-Greenfield, have hailed the vote as a victory. We note, also, that the U.S. has tapped Kenya, another African country, to lead a multinational force of “volunteer” nations to occupy Haiti, leaving their own troops at home while offering at leas t$100 million in support.

There is a long history here. For more than two years now, the U.S. has been pushing for a build-up of the military presence in Haiti to protect the puppet government of the unelected and unpopular Ariel Henry. Yet the U.S. is not willing to put its own boots on the ground, turning instead, first to Canada, then Brazil, then the CELAC and CARICOM countries–all of whom were reluctant to lead the mission, even if they supported the call for military intervention. The Kenyan government leapt at the opportunity to lead the intervention, bought off by a bag of silver and an approving pat on their neoliberal heads. Haiti will now be invaded by the U.S., but with the Black face of Kenya as cover. Kenya erroneously claims this is “Pan-Africanism;” it is, in fact, neocolonialism.

We are told that the interest of the U.S. in Haiti is humanitarian, that the U.S wants to protect the Haitian people from “criminal gangs.” Yet U.S. weapons have flooded Haiti, and the U.S. has consistently rejected calls to effectively enforce the UNSC resolution for an arms embargo against the Haitian and U.S. elite who import guns into the country. Moreover, when we speak of “gangs,” we must recognize that the most powerful gangs in the country are subsidiaries of the U.S. itself: the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) and the Core Group, the two colonial entities who have effectively ruled the country since the U.S./France/Canada-backed coup d’etat of 2004. Haiti has no sovereignty and has long been under foreign occupation. The current de facto “Prime Minister” was installed by the Core Group and whatever calls for military intervention are being made by those already occupying Haiti.

We hold in contempt the neocolonial governments that are taking part in this mission to further oppress Haitian people and deny them sovereignty. We denounce the governments of Kenya and the CARICOM nations, such as Bahamas, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda, which have  failed Haiti and have violated the notion of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

Furthermore, we demand that:

  1. The U.S. and the UN must end their interference in Haiti and the Core Group must be disbanded.

  2. The U.S. must stop its criminal gangster actions against Haiti and stop propping up the illegitimate government they installed.

  3. Kenya must end its support for a racist and imperialist intervention in Haiti

  4. The governments of the U.S. and the Dominican Republic stop dumping arms and ammunition into the country and for the de facto Prime Minister to stop arming paramilitaries in the country. 

  5. The United Nations pay restitution for the devastating 2010 cholera outbreak by rebuilding Haiti’s water, sanitation, health, and educational infrastructure.

  6. That fuel subsidies for Haiti are reinstated and the minimum wage increased.

  7. The CARICOM countries, alongside other regional nations, normalize pathways for work visas and citizenship for Haitian nationals.

We vow to stand on the side of the Haitian people against imperialism! 

SIGNED,

718 Coalition

Acción Afro-Dominicana, RD

ADDI Caribbean

Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition 

All African People’s Revolutionary Party

Alliance for Global Justice

Anti Displacement NYC

Aquelarre RD

Ban Killer Drones

Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team

Canadian Peace Congress

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration

Caribbean Organisation for Peoples Empowerment

Caribbean Solidarity Network

Chicago Antiwar Coalition (CAWC)

CODEPINK

Comité Dominicano de Derechos Humanos -CDDH-, RD

Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran

Communist Party of Kenya

Community Movement Builders

Consejo de Organizaciones Sociales y Populares del Paraguay

Consejo por la Emancipación Plurinacional Peruana

Cooperation Jackson

COPLAC-Confederación Palestina Latinoamericana y del Caribe

Dar al Janub - Verein für antirassistische und Friedenspolitische Initiative

Decolonial Feminist Collective

Diaspora Pa’lante Collective

Dr. Alejandro Rusconi – Movimiento Evita

Durham Beyond Policing

Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez

G-REBLS

Haiti Action

Haiti Action Committee

Haiti Liberté

Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice

International Action Center

International Manifesto Group/New Cold War

La Articulación Regional Afrodescendiente de las Américas y el Caribe (ARAAC)

League of Young Communists USA

Left Alliance for National Democracy and Socialism - Jamaica LANDS

Malcolm X Center for Self Determination

Massachusetts Peace Action

Memphis 4 Revolutionary Socialism

Michigan General Defense Committee

Midwestern Marx Institute

MOLEGHAF (Mouvman Libèté, Egalite sou chimen Fratènite tout Ayisyen)

Montreal pour un Monde sans Guerre (World BEYOND War)

Movement for People's Democracy

Movimiento Argentino de Solidaridad con Cuba (Mascuba)

Movimiento Caamañista -MC-, RD

Movimiento Popular Dominicano -MPD-, RD

Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y la Solidaridad entre los Pueblos (MOPASSOL)

Movimiento Rebelde -MR-, RD

Movimiento Reconocido

NJ State Industrial Union Council

Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos

Orinoco Tribune

Palestinian Youth Movement - Detroit Chapter

Pan-African Community Action (PACA)

Partido Comunista del Trabajo -PCT-, RD

Partido Movimiento del Socialismo Allendista de Chile

Partido Nuevo Encuentro – Argentina

Partido Socialista de Peru

Peace Action, Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania

People's Power Assembly

Pro Derechos Humanos Bolivia (PRODEHBOL)

Rasanbleman Pou Ayiti

Reparations United

Rethink New Orleans

Rochester (NY) Committee on Latin America

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Workers League-Nigeria

Socialist Workers' Movement of the Dominican Republic (MST)

SOLI Puerto Rico

Solidaridad Dominicana Con Haití, Rep. Dominicana

Solidarity Committee of the Americas, Minnesota 

The African Diaspora Foundation (Barbados)

The Barbados Sovereignty Party

The Global Pan African Movement (GPAM) North American Chapter

The Global Sovereign Peoples Movement

The International Black Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Party of Communists USA

The People’s Forum

The Red Nation

The Regional Coordination Committee of the Pan Afrikan and Indigenous Movement of the Caribbean

The Ubuntu Reading Group

Troika Collective

Ubuntu Freedom

Ujima People’s Progress Party

UNAC (United Antiwar Coalition)

US Palestinian Community Network

Women Against Military Madness

Workers World Party

World BEYOND War

Zimbabwe Movement of Pan African Socialists

——-ESPAÑOL——-

DENUNCIAMOS LA APROBACIÓN POR EL CONSEJO DE SEGURIDAD DE LA ONU DEL ENVÍO DE UNA MISIÓN DIRIGIDA POR KENIA A HAITÍ

Nosotros, los firmantes, condenamos enérgicamente la decisión de Estados Unidos y sus aliados de desplegar una fuerza militar extranjera en Haití. Sostenemos firmemente que una intervención armada extranjera liderada por Estados Unidos y la ONU en Haití no sólo es ilegítima, sino también ilegal. Apoyamos al pueblo haitiano y a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil que han sido coherentes en su oposición a la intervención militar extranjera armada y que han argumentado que los problemas de Haití son resultado directo de la persistente e intervención a largo plazo de Estados Unidos, la ONU y el ‘Core Group’ (Grupo Principal).

El lunes 2 de octubre de 2023, el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU votó sobre una resolución para una Misión de Apoyo de Seguridad Multinacional que autoriza el despliegue de una intervención militar y policial extranjera en la República de Haití. Aunque la votación no recibió la aprobación unánime, ya que se registraron abstenciones de dos miembros permanentes del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, otros 13 miembros permanentes y no permanentes votaron a favor, incluyendo a 3 países africanos (Gabón, Ghana y Mozambique). Esto representa una traición especialmente grave hacia Haití, que ha sido un faro en la lucha contra la esclavitud, el colonialismo y el imperialismo para los africanos y las personas negras de todo el mundo. Sin embargo, la administración de Estados Unidos, los medios corporativos, junto con figuras como Linda Thomas-Greenfield, han celebrado la votación como una victoria. También observamos que Estados Unidos ha designado a Kenia, otro país africano, para liderar una fuerza multinacional de naciones "voluntarias" para ocupar Haití, dejando a sus propias tropas en casa y ofreciendo al menos $100 millones en apoyo.

Hay una larga historia aquí. Durante más de dos años, Estados Unidos ha estado presionando para aumentar la presencia militar en Haití para proteger al gobierno títere del impopular e ilegítimo Ariel Henry. Sin embargo, Estados Unidos no está dispuesto a poner sus propias botas en el terreno, recurriendo en su lugar primero a Canadá, luego a Brasil, y luego a los países de CELAC y CARICOM, todos los cuales se mostraron renuentes a liderar la misión, incluso si apoyaban la llamada a la intervención militar. El gobierno de Kenia se lanzó a la oportunidad de liderar la intervención, comprado con una bolsa de plata y una aprobación en sus cabezas neoliberales. Haití será invadido por Estados Unidos, pero con la cara negra de Kenia como fachada. Kenia afirma erróneamente que esto es "panafricanismo"; de hecho, es neocolonialismo.

Se nos dice que el interés de Estados Unidos en Haití es humanitario, que Estados Unidos quiere proteger al pueblo haitiano de las "bandas criminales". Sin embargo, las armas estadounidenses han inundado Haití, y Estados Unidos ha rechazado constantemente las llamadas para hacer cumplir efectivamente la resolución del CSNU para un embargo de armas contra la élite haitiana y estadounidense que importa armas al país. Además, cuando hablamos de "bandas", debemos reconocer que las bandas más poderosas en el país son subsidiarias de Estados Unidos mismo: la Oficina Integrada de las Naciones Unidas (BINUH) y el Core Group, las dos entidades coloniales que han gobernado efectivamente el país desde el golpe de Estado respaldado por Estados Unidos/Francia/Canadá de 2004. Haití no tiene soberanía y ha estado bajo ocupación extranjera durante mucho tiempo. El actual "Primer Ministro de facto" fue instalado por el Core Group, y cualquier llamado a la intervención militar proviene de aquellos que ya están ocupando Haití.

Despreciamos a los gobiernos neocoloniales que participan en esta misión para oprimir aún más al pueblo haitiano y negarles su soberanía. Denunciamos a los gobiernos de Kenia y las naciones del CARICOM, como Bahamas, Jamaica y Antigua y Barbuda, que han fallado a Haití y han violado el concepto del Caribe como una zona de paz.

Además, exigimos que:

  1. Estados Unidos y la ONU pongan fin a su interferencia en Haití y que se disuelva el ‘Core Group’.

  2. Estados Unidos debe poner fin a sus acciones criminales de gánster contra Haití y dejar de sostener al gobierno ilegítimo que instaló.

  3. Kenia debe poner fin a su apoyo a una intervención racista e imperialista en Haití.

  4. Los gobiernos de Estados Unidos y la República Dominicana dejen de arrojar armas y municiones al país, y el Primer Ministro de facto deje de armar a los paramilitares en el país.

  5. La ONU indemniza por el devastador brote de cólera de 2010 reconstruyendo la infraestructura de agua, saneamiento, salud y educación de Haití.

  6. Se restablezcan los subsidios a los combustibles en Haití y se aumente el salario mínimo.

  7. Los países del CARICOM, junto con otras naciones de la región, normalizan los caminos para visas de trabajo y ciudadanía para los nacionales haitianos.

  8. Nos comprometemos a estar del lado del pueblo haitiano contra el imperialismo.

FIRMADO,

718 Coalition

Acción Afro-Dominicana, RD

ADDI Caribbean

Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition 

All African People’s Revolutionary Party

Alliance for Global Justice

Anti Displacement NYC

Aquelarre RD

Ban Killer Drones

Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team

Canadian Peace Congress

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration

Caribbean Organisation for Peoples Empowerment

Caribbean Solidarity Network

Chicago Antiwar Coalition (CAWC)

CODEPINK

Comité Dominicano de Derechos Humanos -CDDH-, RD

Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran

Communist Party of Kenya

Community Movement Builders

Consejo de Organizaciones Sociales y Populares del Paraguay

Consejo por la Emancipación Plurinacional Peruana

Cooperation Jackson

COPLAC-Confederación Palestina Latinoamericana y del Caribe

Dar al Janub - Verein für antirassistische und Friedenspolitische Initiative

Decolonial Feminist Collective

Diaspora Pa’lante Collective

Dr. Alejandro Rusconi – Movimiento Evita

Durham Beyond Policing

Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez

G-REBLS

Haiti Action

Haiti Action Committee

Haiti Liberté

Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice

International Action Center

International Manifesto Group/New Cold War

La Articulación Regional Afrodescendiente de las Américas y el Caribe (ARAAC)

League of Young Communists USA

Left Alliance for National Democracy and Socialism - Jamaica LANDS

Malcolm X Center for Self Determination

Massachusetts Peace Action

Memphis 4 Revolutionary Socialism

Michigan General Defense Committee

Midwestern Marx Institute

MOLEGHAF (Mouvman Libèté, Egalite sou chimen Fratènite tout Ayisyen)

Montreal pour un Monde sans Guerre (World BEYOND War)

Movement for People's Democracy

Movimiento Argentino de Solidaridad con Cuba (Mascuba)

Movimiento Caamañista -MC-, RD

Movimiento Popular Dominicano -MPD-, RD

Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y la Solidaridad entre los Pueblos (MOPASSOL)

Movimiento Rebelde -MR-, RD

Movimiento Reconocido

NJ State Industrial Union Council

Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos

Orinoco Tribune

Palestinian Youth Movement - Detroit Chapter

Pan-African Community Action (PACA)

Partido Comunista del Trabajo -PCT-, RD

Partido Movimiento del Socialismo Allendista de Chile

Partido Nuevo Encuentro – Argentina

Partido Socialista de Peru

Peace Action, Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania

People's Power Assembly

Pro Derechos Humanos Bolivia (PRODEHBOL)

Rasanbleman Pou Ayiti

Reparations United

Rethink New Orleans

Rochester (NY) Committee on Latin America

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Workers League-Nigeria

Socialist Workers' Movement of the Dominican Republic (MST)

SOLI Puerto Rico

Solidaridad Dominicana Con Haití, Rep. Dominicana

Solidarity Committee of the Americas, Minnesota 

The African Diaspora Foundation (Barbados)

The Barbados Sovereignty Party

The Global Pan African Movement (GPAM) North American Chapter

The Global Sovereign Peoples Movement

The International Black Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Party of Communists USA

The People’s Forum

The Red Nation

The Regional Coordination Committee of the Pan Afrikan and Indigenous Movement of the Caribbean

The Ubuntu Reading Group

Troika Collective

Ubuntu Freedom

Ujima People’s Progress Party

UNAC (United Antiwar Coalition)

US Palestinian Community Network

Women Against Military Madness

Workers World Party

World BEYOND War

Zimbabwe Movement of Pan African Socialists


Banner art and flier: by Okra Sanyika

The Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes Delayed Security Council Vote on Western Invasion of Haiti

The Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes Delayed Security Council Vote on Western Invasion of Haiti

The Black Alliance for Peace Welcomes Delayed Security Council Vote on Western Invasion of Haiti

BAP's Explicit Call for Security Council Opposition Was Heard

For Immediate Release    

Media Contact

info@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

October 18, 2022 — One day after the Black Alliance for Peace - and other individuals and groups from Haiti and the Haitian diaspora - requested that Russia and China oppose the Biden Administration's UN Security Council resolution providing cover for another Western invasion of Haiti, the Security Council delayed consideration of the vote. The delay is a critical pause on a reckless, poorly-thought out, and potentially disastrous intervention into Haiti. In response to the delay, BAP’s Haiti-Americas team stated:

“We welcome the decision by Chinese and Russian representatives to the security council to speak up against the U.S.-Mexico push for another foreign military invasion of Haiti. We must also note, with worry, that the call for a “Non-UN” armed force, with no oversight, to invade Haiti is extremely reckless, and demonstrates the contempt with which the west and its minions hold Haitian people. Haitian people do not want another U.S.-led foreign intervention; they want to assert their sovereignty and an end to imperialist meddling in their country.” 

As we stated in a release yesterday, we want to be clear: The crisis of Haiti is a crisis of imperialism. 

The crisis is a result of consistent manipulation and intervention by the US, the Core Group, and aligned Western powers–with Mexico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, and the CARICOM nations assuming prominent roles.  The supposed “humanitarian” invasion that they are planning is not designed to serve the Haitian people and support their demands for sovereignty over their own affairs, but to bolster the illegitimate, criminal puppet government that they themselves have installed.

The Black Alliance for Peace, in alignment with the wishes of the Haitian masses and their supporters, absolutely stands against any foreign armed intervention in Haiti. We continue to demand an end to the ceaseless meddling in Haitian affairs by the United States and its alliance of interventionists. We hope our colleagues in the region who support democracy and self-determination will also stand with Haiti, and work toward establishing the Americas as a Zone of Peace by rejecting imperialism in all its forms.

END

Banner photo: A protester taunts police officers during Jean-Jacques Dessalines Day in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 17, 2022 (courtesy AFP)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BAP Opposes Biden Administration’s Security Council Resolution on Haiti and Calls for its Veto

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BAP Opposes Biden Administration’s Security Council Resolution on Haiti and Calls for its Veto

The Black Alliance for Peace Opposes Biden Administration’s Security Council Resolution on Haiti and Calls for its Veto

The Crisis of Haiti is a Crisis of Imperialism

For Immediate Release   

Media Contact

info@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

October 17, 2022. The Black Alliance for Peace emphatically opposes the Biden administration’s draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council to call for the immediate deployment of a “multinational rapid action force” to Haiti. We have specifically asked two permanent members of the Security Council - the representatives of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation - to veto this resolution. 

Western nations, led by the United States, and supported by Canada, the Dominican Republic, and the Caribbean Community, among others, are at the forefront of the push for another foreign military intervention in Haiti. Through a global public relations campaign, they are justifying invasion by pointing to a “humanitarian crisis” (including a new cholera outbreak) that has come about as a result of “gang violence.” 

Yet by now, we should know that when it comes to Haiti, we cannot trust the words of Western politicians and the coverage of Western media. In the context of the current “crisis,” politicians and media have worked overtime to shape the discussion of Haiti by highlighting particular details – while ignoring important historical facts.

 In the first instance, when calling for a military invasion of Haiti and promoting a narrative of crisis, the western media does not acknowledge that the current “government” in Haiti is unelected and unaccountable to Haitian people. It also fails to acknowledge that one core demand of the people is for authentic Haitian self-determination. Therefore, the last thing the Haitian people want is another “humanitarian” invasion and occupation by the US and the “Core Group.''  

Second, rarely does the media mention that, along with the demand for self-determination, the nationwide protests of hundreds of thousands of Haitian people have also been against the massive economic distress caused by a sharp increase in the cost of living. This increase was a direct result of a major increase in the cost of fuel – an increase decreed by the puppet Prime Minister and dictated by the IMF. 

Third, media coverage refuses to implicate the U.S., France, and Canada in the 2004 coup d’etat which removed the country’s popularly elected president, eventually leading to the current crisis. 

Much of what we hear about Haiti today is a distortion - or outright fabrication - of Haiti’s social and political reality. Much of it lacks historical context, especially when it comes to the unrelenting meddling of the foreign agents and institutions, for understanding the Haitian situation. Much of it is based in a deep racism that presumes that Black people are ungovernable while resenting the implications of Haiti’s historical commitment to Black freedom.

As a response to distortions and deceptions surrounding Haiti, the Haiti/Americas Team of the Black Alliance for Peace has compiled a dossier of recent statements, essays, and articles which collectively demonstrate both the imperial origins of Haiti’s crisis and the racist justifications supporting it.

We want to be clear: The crisis of Haiti is a crisis of imperialism. 

The Black Alliance for Peace, in alignment with the wishes of the Haitian masses and their supporters, absolutely stands against any foreign armed intervention in Haiti, and continues to demand an end to the unending meddling in Haitian affairs by the United States and Western powers. 

-Haiti/Americas Team of the Black Alliance for Peace 

~END~


ARTICLES :

“The Black Alliance for Peace Rejects the Calls for Foreign Intervention in Haiti and Demands that International Community Respect Haitian Sovereignty and the Wishes of the Haitian People for National Self-Determination" 

https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/nooascallforhaitiintervention

Open Letter to Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), on the need to Support Haitian Sovereignty

https://blackagendareport.com/open-letter-secretary-general-caribbean-community-caricom-need-support-haitian-sovereignty

An Open Letter to His Excellency, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), President of Mexico, on the Renewal of the UN Occupation of Haiti

https://blackallianceforpeace.com/movement-news/amloopenletter

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Renewal of the UN Mission to Haiti (BINUH) 

https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/2022unmandaterenewal

Who Rules Haiti? Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Undermining of Haitian National Sovereignty

https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/whoruleshaiti

What is the Core Group?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t6RmBawvRCIY9VPYdv1ng_4fdEtor_zZp6njuzbBhlw/edit

What is the OAS?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gYy1MkLVReCfTS6WqQN8r80f8vEipdyJmkcDRXbs6fU/edit

Haiti: On Interventions and Occupations

https://blackagendareport.com/haiti-interventions-and-occupations

The Empire’s Front Yard and the Monroe Doctrine

https://hoodcommunist.org/2022/06/02/the-empires-front-yard-and-the-monroe-doctrine/

The "Leftism" of the Americas Collapses at the Door of Haitian Sovereignty

https://www.blackagendareport.com/leftism-americas-collapses-door-haitian-sovereignty

Borders, Blackness, and Empire

https://blackagendareport.com/borders-blackness-and-empire

PROCLAMATION: LIBERTY OR DEATH, JEAN JACQUES DESSALINES, 1804

Editors, The Black Agenda Review

06 Oct 2021 

https://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php/proclamation-liberty-or-death-jean-jacques-dessalines-1804

END—

Banner photo: A protest in Haiti. (courtesy AP)

No to Foreign Military Intervention In Haiti! Yes, to Haitian Self-Determination!

No to Foreign Military Intervention In Haiti! Yes, to Haitian Self-Determination!

NO TO FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTION IN HAITI!

YES, TO HAITIAN SELF-DETERMINATION!

An Open Letter to the Representatives of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation

The Black Alliance for Peace asks that the representatives of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation vote against a United Nations-sanctioned military force to Haiti. The Haitian people view the presence of the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) as a foreign occupation that, since 2004, has suppressed Haiti’s independence and sovereignty. We call on your countries to respect Haitian sovereignty and to support the Haitian masses in their stand against the ongoing occupation of their country by foreign powers. 

We want to point out that the Haitian people have been engaged in nonviolent, nonstop protests for eight weeks. Despite the erroneous representation of these protests in Haiti as simply “gang violence,” the latest demonstrations are a direct result of two factors. First, they are a response to the everyday economic misery caused by rising inflation, especially through the staggering increase in the price of fuel. Second, they are part of a long history of demands for the end of foreign meddling in Haitian affairs, especially via the installation and maintenance of an unelected and illegitimate government by the Core Group, of which the United Nations is a part.  

Attempting to solve the current crisis in Haiti through the deployment of a foreign armed force to protect unelected and illegitimate Haitian “stakeholders” will only exacerbate the situation for regular Haitian people. 

We share with you the words of a coalition of Haitian grassroots organizations responding to the erroneous claims by UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez, that the protests in Haiti were only “gang violence:”  

“[T]hese popular protests are part of a struggle for a Haiti free from suffocating foreign interference, gangsterization, this extreme manufactured misery and an anti-national, illegitimate, criminal political regime established by the Core Group of which the UN is a member.”

Here is the Haitian people’s response to the recently passed IMF austerity measures on the country, measures which included the removal of fuel subsidies, tripling prices and raising inflation by 30%:

“This new decision, taken to the detriment of the interests of the people, has aroused his anger and also intensified a protest movement already initiated, whose objective is the recovery of our sovereignty, the recovery of Haiti's destiny by Haitians, the establishment by Haitians of a legitimate government, capable of defending the interests of the people and meeting the various challenges of the moment.”

A brief historical contextualization is in order:

The UN Mission to Haiti Is a Foreign Occupation Repressing Haitian Sovereignty

As you surely are aware, the United Nations became an occupying force in Haiti after the U.S.-France-Canada-led 2004 coup d’état against Haiti’s democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We must note that, in addition to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, only Jamaica’s P.J. Patterson, in his capacity as leader of CARICOM, spoke up against the coup.  

Following the coup, the UN took over from U.S. forces. Under Chapter VII of the UN charter, the UN established the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (or MINUSTAH), for the tasks of military occupation under the guise of establishing peace and security. The Workers Party-led government of Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva then betrayed the Haitian people and undercut Haiti’s sovereignty by agreeing to lead the military wing of the UN mission in Haiti.

The history of the UN in Haiti has been a history of violence. An expensive, multi-billion dollar operation, MINUSTAH had between 6,000 and 12,000 military troops and police stationed in Haiti alongside thousands of civilian personnel. Like the first U.S. occupation (1915-1934), the UN occupation under MINUSTAH was marked by its brutality and racism towards the Haitian people. Civilians were brutally attacked and assassinated. “Peace-keepers” committed sexual crimes. UN soldiers dumped human waste into rivers used for drinking water, unleashing a cholera epidemic that killed between 10,000 and 50,000 people. The UN has still not been held accountable for this needless death.

The Core Group — an international coalition of self-proclaimed “friends” of Haiti — came together during the MINUSTAH occupation. Non-Black, un-elected, and anti-democratic, the goal of the Core Group is to oversee Haiti’s governance. Meanwhile, as with the first occupation, the United States and MINUSTAH trained and militarized Haiti’s police and security forces, often rehabilitating and reintegrating rogue members. The United States, in collusion with MINUSTAH and the Core Group, also over-rode Haitian democracy, installing both neo-Duvalierist Michel Martelly and his Haitian Tèt Kale Party (PHTK), alongside Martelly’s protege and successor, the late Jovenel Moïse.

It is claimed that this occupation officially ended in 2017 with the dissolution of MINUSTAH. But the UN has remained in Haiti under a new acronym: BINUH, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. BINUH has had an outsized role in Haitian internal political affairs. For example, soon after Moïse was assassinated, its representative, Helen La Lime, asserted that Claude Joseph would be installed as Haiti’s leader. Later, the “Core Group” switched gears and demanded that Ariel Henry should be president. And this is exactly what happened when a “new” Haitian government was announced on July 20, 2021, with Henry as leader. This, without any say from the Haitian people, without any pretense of a democratic process, without any concern for Haiti’s sovereignty.

UN Occupation Increases Violence and Instability

Haiti currently has an unelected, unpopular, unaccountable, and illegitimate prime minister, propped up by the United States and the western nations. Meanwhile, Haiti’s security situation has deteriorated considerably as groups, armed by the transnational Haitian and Levantine elite, continue their attacks on the Haitian people. We must emphasize that, in the eighteen years that the United Nations mission has participated in the occupation of Haiti, the Haitian people have only experienced violence and political instability. You must recognize the foreign occupation of Haiti has left it in a state of disarray and violence. 

The consequences of Foreign Meddling and Occupation

We must remind you that we are entering the ninth week of protests of the Haitian people against both the U.S.-backed puppet government of Ariel Henry and the continued occupation and meddling of the Core Group and the UN itself. With all the talk of Haitian “lawlessness,” one would never know that the other main reason for the protests was the illegitimate government’s decision, under IMF austerity dictates, to cut fuel subsidies, amid spiraling inflation and economic insecurity. 

No to Occupation. Yes to Self-Determination.

The speed at which contemporary events are moving in Haiti makes it difficult for those outside the Caribbean republic to understand its internal political dynamics. Because of this, it is easy to resort to historical cliches and short-hand analyses in an attempt to neatly package and summarize or flatten what are oftentimes complex, structural, and historical formations whose origins are as much rooted outside than inside the country. Thus to outsiders Haiti is in the middle of a crisis, a never-ending crisis marked by lawlessness and violence, by the failure of government and the collapse of the state, and by a savage populism paired with well-armed, predatory gangs. 

We believe this representation of Haiti is fueled by an ancient racism premised on the notion that Haitian people (and African people more generally) are incapable of self-government, and this notion, in turn, nurtures the rationalization for the strengthening of the current mandate for the continued international occupation of Haiti. 

We ask that you think with all seriousness about supporting this western-led military invasion of Haiti to attempt to solve a problem that western states themselves created. All nations should be able to chart their own destiny, not just some. You must know the history of the proud Haitian people whose Revolution changed the course of world history and material aid helped the liberation of the Americas from colonial rule and enslavement. Despite the continued affront to its self-determination, the people of Haiti will continue to fight for its liberation.

The Black Alliance for Peace, in alignment with the wishes of the Haitian masses and their supporters, absolutely stands against any foreign armed intervention in Haiti, and continues to demand an end to the unending meddling in Haitian affairs by the United States and Western powers. We hope that the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China will stand with the people of Haiti in its fight for liberation by voting NO on another military invasion to brutalize the long-suffering Haitian masses.

Signed,

The Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti/Americas Team


Banner photo: Armored UN military vehicles with armed soldier on board drives down middle of street in Haiti, with Haitian people watching. (courtesy UN News" - The United Nations)