Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Wed., Mar. 17, 2004
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 3-17-04
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Exclusive: Aristide Talks With Democracy Now! About the Leaders
of the Coup and U.S. Funding of the Opposition in Haiti
Jamaica, Venezuela Refuse to Recognize U.S.-Backed Haitian
Government
Haiti's History: Noam Chomsky Traces Underpinnings Of Aristide's
Ouster Back To 1991-1994 Coup
Exclusive: Aristide Talks With Democracy Now! About
the Leaders of the Coup and U.S. Funding of the Opposition
in Haiti
Part II of Democracy Now!s exclusive broadcast of Amy Goodman's
interview with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide aboard
his flight from the Central African Republic to Jamaica. [Includes
transcript]
Since winning independence from the French 200 years ago
through a revolutionary slave revolt, Haiti has seen 33 military
coups. Jean-Bertrand Aristide is the man overthrown in the
two most recent ones.
In 1991, less than a year after becoming the first democratically-elected
leader in Haiti's history, Aristide was overthrown by paramilitary
death squads working closely with US intelligence agencies.
After a few years in exile, Aristide returned to Haiti in
1994 in a US military plane to serve the remaining few months
left in his term.
In 2000, Aristide won the presidential election a second
time. Once again, a few years after being elected, Aristide
has been overthrown in a coup - by many of same men who led
the armed insurrection against him a decade earlier. People
like Louis Jodel Chamblain, the former number 2 man in FRAPH
convicted in absentia for 1994 Raboteau massacre and the September
11, 1993 assassination of democracy-activist Antoine Izméry;
Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled Haiti in October
2000 after authorities discovered him plotting a coup with
a clique of other police chiefs who had all been trained by
US Special Forces in Ecuador during the 1991-1994 coup and
Jean Tatoune another leader of FRAPH, also convicted of massacre
in Raboteau.
Two weeks ago after being taken by force to the Central African
Republic in what Aristide calls a US-orchestrated coup d'etat,
the Haitian president defied Washington this weekend and returned
to the Caribbean. He is now in Jamaica, just 130 miles or
so from Haiti.
I was one of two journalists allowed on the plane that took
a delegation of US and Jamaican officials to escort President
Aristide and his wife Mildred back to the Caribbean. As we
crossed the Atlantic on our way to Kingston, Jamaica, I had
a chance to conduct an extensive interview with President
Aristide on-board the Gulfstream jet.
Today we play Part
II of my interview with Aristide, where he discusses his
time as president, the first coup, disbanding the military
and
more
Jamaica, Venezuela Refuse to Recognize U.S.-Backed
Haitian Government
Two days after President Aristide defied the Bush administration
and the Haitian government by returning to the Caribbean,
we go to Kingston, Jamaica to get a report from a veteran
Jamaican journalist. President Aristide is spending his third
day in Jamaica, where he returned Monday two weeks ago after
being taken by force to the Central African Republic in what
he calls a US-orchestrated coup d'etat.
By returning to the Caribbean, the Haitian president defied
Washington as well as the newly installed Haitian government.
The US-installed prime minister of Haiti, Gererd Latortue,
said Monday he was recalling Haiti's ambassador to Jamaica
and putting relations on hold over Aristide's return to the
region. He also suspended Haiti's participation in Caricom.
Latortue reportedly settled on a list of 13 cabinet members
yesterday to form an interim government in Haiti. None of
the positions include any members of Aristide's Lavalas Family
party. Latortue had pledged earlier to include Lavalas members
in order to form a government of national reconciliation.
Jamaica says it will not recognize the new Haitian government
at least until after a regional summit of the Caribbean Community
scheduled for next week.
In addition, Venezuela is also refusing to recognize Latotue's
government. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, "The
president of Haiti is called Jean-Bertrand Aristide."
Chavez offered asylum yesterday to Aristide, who initially
fled to Caracas after the first coup in the early 1990s.
- John Maxwell, a veteran Jamaican journalist. He has covered
Caribbean affairs for more than 40 years. He is currently
a columnist for The
Jamaica Observer. He joins us on the phone from Kingston.
Haiti's History: Noam Chomsky Traces Underpinnings
Of Aristide's Ouster Back To 1991-1994 Coup
We hear an excerpt of MIT professor Noam Chomsky speaking
days before President Aristide was flown to the Central African
Republic about the first coup against Aristide in the early
1990s.
A few days before President Jean Bertrand Aristide was flown
from Haiti to the Central African Republic, MIT professor
Noam Chomsky spoke at the University of Massachusetts about
Haiti and the brewing coup d'etat.
Noam Chomsky is an institute professor and professor of linguistics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His latest book
is Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest For Global Dominance.
- Noam Chomsky, speaking at the University of Massachusetts
on February 24th, 2004.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
whole
show
