USA consollidates hold on Haiti with 12,000 troop invasion

[Jan Klimkowski]

RR: There is clearly a major geopolitical and economic interest in Haiti, most prominently by the US. There is a long history of US intervention in the area, including a direct US occupation from 1915-1934. This occupation created the Haitian military and led eventually to the Duvalier dictatorships. In 1991, the US overthrew Aristide and then again in 2004. So the US is clearly opposed to the social program of Lavalas and to its example in the Caribbean.
Haiti is also strategically located close to both Cuba and Venezuela. Haiti is rich in minerals, such as marble, uranium, iridium, and oil. Big corporations, such as the Royal Caribbean Lines, are creating a tourist center in the north which could have an enormous value for the tourist industry in the Caribbean area. And Haiti is looked at as a source of cheap labor. There is a long history of garment assembly in Haiti. Cherokee, Wal-Mart, Disney, and Major League Baseball all had relationships with Haiti. If the US plan for Haiti is implemented, the numbers of sweatshops in Port-au-Prince will surely increase.
JVH: Naomi Klein suggested that “disaster capitalism” is striking in Haiti. Would you agree?
RR: Absolutely. This is disaster capitalism on steroids. Number one, you have had an earthquake that ravaged the infrastructure of a country which has been made poor over the centuries. Secondly, you have more than 20,000 troops and massive amounts of capital circulating there. Plus, the Haitian government has been a very passive partner in the aftermath of the earthquake. That is a perfect recipe. The reconstruction conferences in Montreal and Miami are indicating that Haiti will be rebuilt along the lines of the organizations attending them: the US, Canada, the World Bank, the Clinton Foundation, the IMF, major business corporations such as the Royal Caribbean Lines, the Soros Foundation. Haiti is like a blank board in their minds. It is going be a feeding frenzy soon.
JVH: The Haitian government was attending the reconstruction meetings too, though. What is its role in the current crisis?
RR: What was remarkable throughout the crisis was the invisibility of the government.

This is playing out according to the "Shock Doctrine" blueprint.

Two centuries ago, Toussaint L'Ouverture and the slave population of Haiti had the courage and the nous to overthrow their white slavemasters and create a free nation. Toussaint should be mythologized as the "black Spartacus". Or perhaps Spartacus should be known as the "white Toussaint L'Ouverture".

In fact, Toussaint's name has been all but written out of official history, and a terrible vengeance has been taken on the people of Haiti.

Haiti is a plaything of international capitalism, and is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Most jobs consist of unsafe sweatshop labour for western multinationals.

In addition, the people of Haiti have long been used as human guinea pigs by Big Pharma in unethical clinical trials of drugs intended for the "developed" world.

See the transcript of the BBC "Human Laboratory" documentary here:
http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/....php?t=620

Now it appears that the long suffering Haitians are cast as lab rats in the latest chapter of Disaster Capitalism.

Like Bush after Katrina, the Clintons had a military guard for their MSM photo-op as they handed out bottles of water to a couple of token Haitians inside the heavily guarded Port-au-Prince airport. Meanwhile, hundreds of Haitians were dying each day because the military refused to allow medical aid in.

There will be plenty of fine words from the IMF and the "philanthropic" foundations as they "reconstruct" Haiti, doubtless covered in gushing style by MSM.

In reality, Haiti is still a slave colony, its people the slaves of C21st international capitalism.