Pulling A Nine From The Waist Line ... DV Realigns Paradigms - Don't Cry For The Quake, Honor The Whole Time

In the first free elections in Haitian history, Aristide won in a landslide, garnering 67.5% of the vote. The U.S. supported a former World Bank official, Marc Bazin, who received 14.2% of the vote. Several months into his term, President Aristide was overthrown by opposition forces and former members of the military. The U.S. government had funneled money to the opposition through organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracies (NED) and the Agency for International Development (AID). A CIA-backed organization known as FRAPH (Haitian Front for Advancement and Progress) executed a campaign of terror against supporters of Aristide's Lavalas movement. Anywhere between 3 and 5 thousand Haitians were slaughtered during Aristide's 3 year exile, during which Haiti was ruled by a military dictator.

" ... He is a criminal mastermind responsible for wide spread murder and mayhem in his home country. His close ties to the CIA allowed him to evade justice for his crimes in Haiti. ... "


The leader of FRAPH, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, is currently living in New York. Despite the "War on Terror," no effort has been made to hold him accountable for his crimes. In response to the coup, the Organization of American States (OAS) announced an embargo and sanctions against the new military regime. The U.S. declared 800 American businesses "exempt" from the restrictions. Despite the embargo, trade actually increased during Aristide's exile. In 1994 Aristide was restored to power with the help of 20,000 U.S. Marines. By that time, the right-wing forces had wiped out a significant portion of the popular movement. As a condition of his return Aristide was forced to agree to unpopular economic reforms that would largely benefit the country's ruling elite and foreign investors.