Haiti's crisis has arrived, and the U.S. reverts to Banana Wars mode

About a month ago I posted Haiti is on the verge of a complete meltdown.
Needless to say, the meltdown is now happening.

Let's get something out of the way: I will not shed a tear for Haiti's late President Jovenel Moïse.

Prime Minister Claude Joseph said a group of people attacked the president's private residence and killed him, calling it an "odious, barbaric" act.

"Haiti has lost a true statesman who was committed to progressing our country's democratic transition and fighting corruption," Joseph said.

None of that is true, except that the president was killed.
He was corrupt. He was a murderer. He personally caused many of Haiti's current problems.
If anything, there is a small chance that this could turn out to be what Haiti needed.

If I need to be more clear.

The problem is that just when you think things can't get any worse in Haiti, things can always get worse. A state of siege was declared.
Haiti's airports are closed, as is its border with the Dominican Republic.

But fear not! The United States knows what's important - our exports.

Unrest on the island nation of Haiti — especially after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse — has La. Rep. Clay Higgins concerned about the state of U.S. rice shipments to the country.

Higgins sent a letter to the U.S. State Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor “calling for increased assistance in securing U.S. rice and other food shipments in Haiti,” according to a press release from Higgins’ office today.

“Haiti is the top market for U.S.-grown milled rice and has been a loyal and growing market for many years, and the people of Haiti have a strong demand for our product,” stated Higgins in his letter. “In recent years, we have shipped about 450,000 metric tons of rice valued at more than $200 million to Haiti annually. Unfortunately, the unrest has made unloading rice shipments in Haiti difficult and dangerous. Because of the value of rice as a staple food in Haiti, shipments are prioritized as targets by local gangs and even hired, armed security is unable to prevent theft. These armed robberies often result in the shipment not being delivered to its intended destination.”

There are two BIG ironies in this one statement.
First of all, the murder of President of Haiti Vilbrun Guillaume Sam by insurgents in 1915 was just the excuse used for the U.S. invasion of occupation of Haiti in 1915. The real reason was Wall Street greed.

In 1914, National City Bank and BNRH began to plan the destabilization of Haiti in order to pressure the United States to intervene. John H. Allen of BNRH stated that if the United States permanently occupied Haiti, he supported National City Bank acquiring all shares of BNRH, believing that it would "pay 20% or better"... United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan relied on an executive and lobbyist of National City Bank, Roger Farnham, for information regarding Haiti. Farnham persuaded Secretary Bryan to have the United States invade Haiti during a telephone call on January 22, 1914.

So American businessmen asking for yet another invasion of poor Haiti because the American-supported president of Haiti got himself killed by being way too corrupt, is way too familiar.

Secondly, and this is the big one, concern about U.S. rice shipments to Haiti is disgusting given our history here.

A leading aid agency has called on the United States to stop subsidising American rice exports to Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, because it says the policy undermines local production of food.

Former US President Bill Clinton, one of the architects of the subsidies to US farmers - and who is now, paradoxically, the co-chair of Haiti's earthquake recovery Commission - is quoted by Oxfam as saying that the policy was "a mistake".

"It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked," said Mr Clinton, a frequent visitor to Haiti.
"I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did."

The aid agency says the $434m (£274m) paid annually in domestic US rice subsidies is more than the total US aid to Haiti of $353m.

The Oxfam report said subsidies paid to American farmers meant the rice they export to Haiti - known locally as Riz Miami or "Miami Rice" - is cheaper than locally produced rice.

The foreign rice that is "dumped" in Haiti therefore exacerbates the rural-urban drift that has seen the population of the capital Port-au-Prince balloon out of control as farmers who cannot feed themselves move to the city in search of employment.

To use our rice exports to Haiti as an excuse to invade and occupy Haiti yet again is just criminal.
If you are wondering what the Biden Administration thinks, consider that they just endorsed Juan Guaido again, despite him not even being an elected official anymore.

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https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/bill-clinton-once-enjoyed-bright-lega...

A decade after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, the former U.S. secretary of state, are routinely portrayed in some quarters as the prime villains in the Caribbean nation's continuing struggles to recover and the failed promise of donor assistance to help lift the ravaged country out of poverty.

It's almost an article of faith among many Haitians that the Clintons somehow siphoned off billions of dollars meant to help clean up and rebuild.

The narrative — coupled with claims that the Clinton Foundation cashed in off development projects in the aftermath of the Jan. 12, 2010, disaster — has been peddled by anti-corruption lawyers in Haiti demanding an audit by government auditors, and even found its way into the 2016 U.S. presidential election: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump promoted the unfounded claim as he tried to sway frustrated Haitian-American voters to choose him over Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

Now, as the 10th anniversary of the catastrophic quake approaches, Bill Clinton for the first time opened up about the setbacks in Haiti — a stain on the bright legacy of a former president who had championed democracy there and was the face of the international recovery efforts as he pledged to help Haiti "build back better."

In an expansive interview with the Miami Herald at the Manhattan office of his Clinton Foundation, a mystified Clinton shot down accusations of stolen donations and reflected on his complicated relationship with Haiti, both as the U.N. special envoy-turned-reconstruction czar, and through the charitable works of his Clinton Global Initiative, Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund that he and former President George W. Bush co-chaired to raise money after the quake.

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@humphrey
It's much worse than you think, and the U.S. just can't wait to screw over Haiti again.

Rep. Frederica Wilson asked Claude Joseph, Haiti’s acting prime minister, Wednesday to send a request to U.S. President Joe Biden for additional security enforcement.
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CB's picture

@gjohnsit
to be blamed on China?

After all, Jovenel Moise's "best before date" had expired and there was widespread anger, violence and protests towards him by the Haitian people in the proceeding months. It was highly unlikely that he could have got elected despite massive manipulation of the Haitian election by the US. That's why elections had already been postponed.

The US had even used the UN to force the election but China voted to prevent it.


Haiti - Diplomacy : China blocks an US resolution on Haiti

18/06/2021
...
Members of the Security Council are almost unanimous in recognizing the need for elections to be organized at all levels before the end of the year for the renewal of political staff and the democratic transfer of power to a President elected on February 7, 2022.
...
At the end of the interventions, China blocked at the UN Security Council, a resolution of support for Haiti drafted by the United States, which deplored "the deterioration of the political, security and humanitarian situation" stressing "the urgent need to hold free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections in 2021". According to some diplomat, this Chinese decision could be related to Haiti's unwavering support for Taiwan, which in turn actively supports its Caribbean ally.
...

As far as the US was concerned, Moise had become useless on all fronts and was therefore expendable - he was worth more dead than alive. His assassination could be manipulated and weaponized against China.

Here is the opening salvo:


China Radio Silent on Presidential Assassination in Taiwan’s Ally Haiti

The Chinese government has been conspicuously silent since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise of Haiti on Wednesday. Haiti is a notable diplomatic ally of Taiwan, which China has been working to isolate.

Moise’s assassination by a squad of mercenary gunmen went unmentioned at the lengthy press briefings held by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday and Thursday.

The killing was met with expressions of shock and outrage from countries around the world, except for China. China’s state-run Xinhua and CGTN news networks actually produced roundups of reactions Wednesday, including brief excerpts from U.S. President Joe Biden’s statement, without noting that Beijing did not offer one.
...
“Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Haiti has always been an unwavering and committed ally of Taiwan. President Moise often emphasizes his interest in Taiwanese cooperation,” Penn said.

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CB's picture

@CB

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/08/17/wur1-a17.html

The history of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—its coups, assassinations, “extraordinary rendition” kidnappings, use of torture, “black sites,” drone executions, dirty wars and sponsorship of dictatorial regimes [1]—not only underscores the bloody and reactionary role of American imperialism, but most especially the ruling elite’s mortal fear of the working class internationally.

From its founding in 1947, the agency recognized that global hegemony could not be achieved and sustained by brute repression alone. Accelerating anticolonial struggles, revolutionary struggles in Greece and across Europe, mass struggles and strikes across the world (not the least of which was the great strike wave of 1945-46 in the US [2]) were all deeply influenced by socialist views. Despite the collaboration of the Stalinist regime in the USSR in disarming these movements and assisting in reestablishing the authority of capitalist governments, the American bourgeoisie was well aware that the fate of its system hung in the balance.
...

The crank on the Wurlitzer is being turned:

The President of Haiti, A Strong Opponent of China, Has Been Assassinated
...
There Might Be Something Darker Here

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Moise faced rising requests from Haiti corporate executives to consider developing ties with China, as well as demands from opposition figures to resign. Haiti is among the few countries in the world that still recognize Taiwan’s independence and maintains close ties with the island republic.

Beijing maintains no official connections with nations that recognize Taiwan under the Maoist Party’s One China policy. Haiti’s envoy to Taiwan, in a statement with Taiwan News, published Wednesday, stated that Mose respected the diplomatic connection; the statement also confirmed he had no intentions of taking massive Chinese credit proposals to end Haiti’s ties with Taiwan.
...

Haiti Breaks Taiwan Ties in Favor of China, After Organized World Relief Fails
...
China, always seeking to take advantage of underdeveloped countries, entered the fray. China offered financial incentives to the corrupt government to build or rebuild vital infrastructure.

This agreement was much different from those with other nations in which Chinese bankers finance infrastructure projects. This agreement includes one condition: Haiti would ally with China and break its ties with Taiwan.
...
With a free trade as part of the Sino-Haitian agreement, Haiti’s economy is strengthened and China gains another free trade agreement.

This agreement seems more of a political move by China to entice countries to rebuke Taiwan and join with China. Taiwan also serves as a U.S. military buffer to ward off Chinese control in the Pacific Ocean.

The Chinese battle for strategic holdings throughout the world has bolstered China’s power. The footholds gained by China are worldwide, gathering wealth, political influences, and military presence.

~China is continuing its quest for Global Domination and we will be following their steps as they arise.

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@CB

Haiti corporate executives didn't like a policy advocated by a senior official so they eliminated the obstacle. One from the CIA playbook. Corp Instigated Anarchy. In this case I don't see it being in the empire's better interest. But it will be spinned as bad China, bad Haiti here in the land of the gullible.

It is better to develop ties with China. Taiwan is to become the US empire's new spring board.

Not sure the reporter got the last bit quite right.

China is continuing its quest for Global Domination

By China developing partnerships with those country's which have been stiffed by the US makes sense. That is not so much world domination as it is repairing broken economies.

Wake up america!

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@humphrey @humphrey What a horrible man. A Good Catholic, too!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

mimi's picture

make a revolution against them 'mercans'. Or did I mix that up with something like 'they deserve to die in hell'?

I think we all deserve to die in hell. At least you can't freeze to death in that kind of hell. Always look at the bright side. /sigh/s

So, who deserves more to die in hell, the French Colonialists or the American ones?

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

It's not going to sink into the sea a la Thera/Atlantis, and we've still got ~1,000,000,000 years before Sol achieves its halcyon and makes our planet uninhabitable (I favor plans to make a neo-Ptolemaic mini-sun and turn "the Good Ship Planet Earth" into something we can steer through the void, but THAT can only be tackled once the idiots, psychopaths, and devolutionaries are cleared out)...

...SO, what DOES a "complete meltdown" really look like - especially in a country that ALREADY has almost nothing to lose? What's left for them to become, The Dark-Skinned Flintstones??? Talk about hitting Bedrock.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

CB's picture

and stole its future and resources.
Mar 25, 2021
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3uvLaoU5Lo]

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janis b's picture

@CB

It is a very clear and crushing analysis of the history.

We can’t let the first free black republic be free now (or ever), can we. The history of slavery is devastating, with little hope for the future.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@janis b We know who's to blame - so let's commit to solving the problem at its source.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!