By James B. Foley
March 25, 2024 at 10:38 a.m. EDT
James B. Foley was U.S. ambassador to Haiti from 2003 to 2005.
COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG
This OPED is so bad that I am taken an opportunity to comment upon the many, many, many falsehoods, and misdirections as they appear in the article. Foley is self-serving, incompetent, uninformed, or a liar – perhaps a mix of all flavors.
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Haiti is a story that appears to repeat itself while also growing inexorably worse over time. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent meeting in Jamaica with fractious Haitian political and civil society leaders recalled a similar moment when I was U.S. ambassador to Haiti 20 years ago. Back then, the worst outcomes were avoided through decisive American intervention. Today’s crisis might require it as well.
COMMENT: Blinken met with a gaggle of guys who represent no one in Haiti. What’s new??!!
Foley must be aware of the 2000 Haitian electoral fiascos. When exit polls showed Aristide’s Lavalas losing 2-1 – in the congressional vote – he had President Preval call in CEP – (Electoral Council) chief Manus, ordering him to fix the vote in Aristide’s favor. Manus refused and had to run for sanctuary as Aristide’s killers tried to murder him. Manus would die in exile, in Washington, years later.
So, all international observers left Haiti and no one was present to oversee the fall presidential vote. Truth suggests fewer than 20,000 voted nationwide – but Aristide claimed a sweeping 99% mandate, and our American friends – yet again -swallowed a cup of sloppy, smelly dog shit!
Haitians knew what had happened and the unrest finally erupted in 2004. Each weekend 300,000 or more would gather on the streets to protest Aristide’s government. It became social occasion. Foley is aware of this. No violence – just men, women. Children, cats and dogs protesting peacefully against the illegal, illegitimate Aristide government – supported vocally by Colin Powell until the Wednesday before Aristide’s voluntary flight into exile..
In late February 2004, Port-au-Prince was falling into chaos. Criminal gangs loyal to then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were on a rampage, even as a ragtag band of ex-military thugs led by warlord Guy Philippe pressed on the capital, seeking to topple the government. In a last-ditch attempt to forge compromise between the opposition and Aristide, I arranged for Secretary of State Colin Powell to call in to my meeting with heads of political parties and civil society representatives. Powell’s impassioned pledge of U.S. support was roundly rejected. From that point forward, my aim was to thwart the designs of those in the room — now obviously aligned with the approaching rebel forces — while also pressuring Aristide to rein in his lawless gangs.
COMMENT: Superman Foley “thwarting” the action by Guy Philippe, who was sponsored by the American government. His sweep from the north was basically bloodless, with one Lavalas police captain killed when he shot at Guy’s team and lost his life to return fire.
President Bush personally awarded Guy Philippe the American DSM – Distinguished Service Medal and Foley is aware of this. This is the highest award for foreign military people.
A bloodbath seemed imminent.
COMMENT: No bloodbath imminent or mentioned – at the time. The American embassy realized Guy Philippe was the most popular person in Haiti. They suggested he open an ONG and they would give him $500,000.
He declined.
It was altogether unclear which side would prevail — and whether any government that emerged from the carnage would be one the international community could recognize and support. Aristide finally lost his nerve, contacting me to request the United States arrange his escape from the country. We then outflanked coup plotters by facilitating the swearing-in of his constitutional successor as president. But it was only thanks to the timely arrival of about 2,000 U.S. Marines that anarchy was avoided and an interim government was established in a Haitian-run process.
COMMENT: Carnage, there was absolutely no carnage Guy Philippe’s team was welcomed in each and every other population center as the swept towards Port-au-Prince.
Another “Haitian Run Process! – dictated by Americans.
The US Government takes Haiti to Baskin Robbins and asks, “What flavor of ice-cream would you like?” Haitians say they would like strawberry. The Americans know better and give them peach pecaneven though peach pecan gives them diarrhea.
It is time for Haitians to have a Haitian run situation for the first time since te 1986 removal of Duvalier after Ernie Preeg, another US Ambassador wrote a monograph on Reagan’s Caribbean Basin Initiative in which he stated: “It can honestly be said, the Jean Claude Duvalier Presidency is the longest period of violence-free stability in the nation’s history.”
The majority of Haitians were happy with Duvalier – father and son – but America listened to a vocal minority – as usual – and threw the nation into permanent instability, an instability that threatens survival today.
The United States is responsible for Haiti’s continued slide into the Abyss..
Haiti’s dysfunction is a permanent condition that continues to force itself upon the agenda of American policymakers. Time and again, they find themselves confronting a reality that is almost impossible for outsiders to comprehend. In Haiti’s political culture, trust and a willingness to compromise are virtually nonexistent, with political actors locked in an endless power struggle. In a country suffering from a massive mismatch between state capacity and society’s needs, issues of governance are shockingly absent from the political agenda. Even for an external actor as powerful as the United States, Haiti is a natural graveyard for the best-intentioned policies.
Today, Washington is once again desperately trying to piece together a transitional political arrangement, having too long propped up the feckless Ariel Henry as prime minister. It is in a race against time, and, in my view, it is unlikely to succeed, or even get international security forces into the country, without providing U.S. military cover.
COMMENT: Rather than putting the funds into Haitian stability, and infrastructure, the Biden administration searched the world to find a whore willing to come to Haiti. For an incentive of some $600,000,000 Kenya agreed to send 1000 English/Swahili speaking-human-rights violating policemen into a French/Creole speaking population.
Kenya was only interested in the money.
Somehow, there were some Mongolians tossed into the equation. WOW!
However, the Biden administration appears determined to avoid participating in any international security mission in Haiti, even as famine lurks and what remains of state institutions and public infrastructure is being eradicated. This represents an extraordinary break with the U.S. approach to the Caribbean since the late 19th century. The decision is probably being driven by the overwhelming demands and potential contingencies confronting U.S. military forces in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. But while an overstretched United States might need to reconfigure its global posture, withdrawing from the Western Hemisphere will always be impossible.
Among the international community’s many mistakes and failures over the decades, perhaps none was more fateful than the decision — supported by the Trump administration — to withdraw all U.N. military and police personnel from Haiti between 2017 and 2019. The absence of a credible Haitian security force led to the progressive collapse of state institutions and opened the door to the anarchy now gripping the country.
COMMENT: The absence of a credible Haitian security force is the DIRECT result of America’s broken 1994 promise to retrain and reequip Haiti’s Forces Armees d’Haiti (FadH) as a countervailing force to Aristide’s predicted grab for dictatorial power when he was returned to Haiti, on the bayonets of 23,000 American soldiers. A few weeks, after his return, Aristide, on November 18, 1994 disbanded the FadH and America said nothing, swallowing another cup of fluid, smelly, dog shit.
The, like a band of Stalinists, America set out to re-write history, turning the FadH into bad guys. “Priests good – Army bad” would be the bumper sticker.
In the current crisis, many are calling for Haitian-led or even Haitian-only solutions, but this is unrealistic in view of the security situation.
COMMENT: Here we go again. He situation doesn’t allow Haitians any real say in their future!! They weren’t invited to the CARICOM meeting and are not a part of the CORE Group – both of which try to dictate Haiti’s future.
Haiti’s outgunned and outnumbered police force has fought bravely to preserve the state, but it might not hold out against criminal gangs that have recently formed an alliance to seize power. In these dire circumstances, it is extremely difficult to imagine how any legitimate interim government can be formed. It is more likely that Philippe, who was inexplicably returned by Washington to Haiti four months ago after serving a federal sentence for drug-related money laundering, will succeed where he came up short 20 years ago — when he was blocked by U.S. diplomats at the gates of the National Palace.
COMMENT: Let us – yet again – accept the true facts. Guy Philippe removed Aristide as part of an American sponsored action. Lavalas held this against him, over the years and, when he became a political danger – as an elected Senator – they threw him under the bus, and the Americans played the game.
There was no drug involvement. There was no money laundering. The money involved came from the sale of property – given to Guy by his father, in Pestel. The money was transferred to the States by SOGEBANK to buy a condo for Guy’s wife and children. The Americans pressured SOGEBANK into saying money “resulted from sale of cocaine destined for States.” If SOGEBANK didn’t do this, they would have had money-laundering problems.
Then, the Americans told Guy he had to plead guilty or they would arrest Natalie his wife.
SUCH IS AMERICAN JUSTICE!
If that comes to pass, the United States will face a failed state run by criminals and narco-traffickers about 700 miles from Florida. Even a future Trump administration professing indifference to human suffering in Haiti would have to grapple with manifold law enforcement and national security problems spreading to our shores.
COMMENT: Give me a break! Haiti has been a narco-state for years. There was a time when this could have been avoided, when the only drugs – on the Haitian scene – were bags of marijuana, smuggled in via American embassy Diplomatic Bags in 1980. I can remember the outraged – conservative – Haitians reacting to this, at the time. Cocaine is now a key part of Haiti’s economic/banking system, and the Americans are fully aware of this!!
The DEA was aware of the Pablo Escobar/Aristide partnership. However, when they moved to arrest Aristide they were blocked by Clinton. There is a widely seen video of a DEA conference, where the two key speakers brought this point up.
A military intervention in Haiti is understandably abhorrent to the Biden administration given the multiple security challenges the United States is juggling around the world. But the situation has deteriorated to the point that Washington might have no choice but to mount an abbreviated operation to supplant the gangs and facilitate a political transition.
With a new government in place, the United States could rapidly hand security responsibility over to the international community, anchored by a Kenyan police detachment already approved by the United Nations. But without it, the chances of a final meltdown and a more substantial intervention will continue to grow.
COMMENT: The Haitian public does not want the Kenyans. The vast majority of Haitians want Guy Philippe. They have seen the criminal – American-supported government of Ariel Henry pay money to the gangs and allow cabinet minister free rein in stealing all ministerial funding, even as school and hospitals are closed..
They watch “political Figures” such as Edmunde Beauzile – who commanded a massive 1700 votes in the last election – to steal al funding from Mnistry of Public Works. She has several expensive properties in New York area, tolerated by the American authorities.
In the United States people make some money so they can go into politics.
In Haiti people go into politics to make money
UNTIL THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENTAL WORLD UNDERSTANDS THIS KEY ELEMENT THEY WILL NEVER DEAL PROPERLY WITH THE HAITIAN CLASSE POLITIQUE.
