April 11, 2016
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/11/hillary-clinton-and-haiti/
The Clintons’ high-profile
interest in Haiti dates back almost all the way to their wedding in 1975.
Shortly after their honeymoon in Acapulco, Bill and Hillary Clinton received an
invitation from David Edwards — a friend and Citibank executive — to accompany
him to Haiti.
Edwards’s motivation in
getting the Clintons closer to Haiti was neither cultural nor humanitarian. The
reason was Citibank’s long-standing financial interests in the country, which
now go back over a century.
In 1909, the National City
Bank of New York — Citibank — acquired a majority stake in the National Bank of
Haiti, an institution that had been under French control and which,
since 1880, held the power to issue paper money and to serve as central bank
for the Haitian treasury. In 1914, Roger Leslie Farnham — in charge of the
Caribbean region at Citibank — pressed Secretary of State William Jennings
Bryan for Washington to militarily intervene in Haiti in order to protect U.S.
interests. One year later, 19 years of occupation would begin for the country.
It was only the beginning of
U.S. meddling in the affairs of its poorer neighbor.
***
In April 2009, the State
Department, under the leadership of Hillary Clinton, decided to completely
change the nature of U.S. cooperation with Haiti.
Apparently tired with the lack
of concrete results of U.S. aid, Hillary decided to align the policies of the
State Department with the “smart power” doctrine proposed by the Clinton
Foundation. From that moment on, following trends in philanthropy, the
solutions of US assistance would be based solely on “evidence.” The
idea, according to Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, “was that if
we’re putting in the assistance, we need to know what the outcomes are going to
be.”
The January 2010 earthquake
was the long awaited opportunity to test this new policy.
Mills was no development
expert, but her connection to the Clintons ran deep. A graduate of Stanford Law
School, Mills had been the unofficial manager of Hillary’s 2008 presidential
campaign and Bill’s defense lawyer during his impeachment. Despite having no
training or experience in development economics, Rolling
Stone reported a few years back, Mills “was determined to figure
out a new way of doing things that would be more effective, both for the U.S.
and for Haiti.”
The idea was to transform
Haiti into a Taiwan of the Caribbean, with maquiladoras, an apparel
industry, tourism, and call centers. These would be the niche sectors that
would guide the new cooperation framework.
In this plan, the
particularities of Haiti itself didn’t matter much.
Yet more than hope, there
was certainty that the country would eventually conform to the plans
being imposed by the Harvard Business School technocrats. Haiti was to fit
within the parameters of capitalist efficiency: “Is this going to be hard?
Yes,” Hillary Clinton tearfully told The
Miami Herald. “Do I think we can do it? Absolutely, I do.”
The volunteering amateurism of
the Clintons was so far gone that Bill publicly declared in a speech in
Port-au-Prince that he would make Haiti the first fully Wi-Fi-connected
country on the planet.
For the desired policy changes
to work within a diplomatic framework, the veneer of “democracy” needed to be
maintained. Ergo, Clinton and Mills played a heavy role in Haiti’s contested
2010 elections.
I was present at a December
2010 meeting where the so-called “Core Group” of (initially the U.S., Canada,
and France, but Brazil got a spot because of its role in the UN mission)
plotted a coup against Haitian President René Préval, until then-Prime Minister
Jean-Max Bellerive unexpectedly showed up. I intervened, citing the 2001
Inter-American Democratic Charter.
Legality and common sense had
prevailed. But until when? My hopes were still alive and I did not notice that
a common international front had formed; one that would decide Haiti’s
electoral path.
After this failed attempt, the
Core Group quickly came to realize the absurdity of attempting to depose
Préval. Rewriting history, in the following days, several ambassadors, when
asked about the topic, would shamelessly lie, denying its existence.
Finally, on Sunday, January
30, 2011, the unavoidable foreign actor in the recurring Haitian political crisis
decided to put an end to the dispute. Hillary Clinton had arrived in
Port-au-Prince.
The secretary of state had
taken care to invite her colleagues, the foreign ministers from the other
member-states of the Core Group, to accompany her in a delicate mission to
Port-au-Prince. They all declined the gesture, alleging it would be impossible
for them to fit the event in their agendas. However, this was not the reason
for their refusal. Since the Haitian crisis had been detonated by the United
States, even on the night of the election, it was Washington’s responsibility
to resolve it.
After talking to several
public figures, both Haitian and foreign, the head of the State Department knew
that the last meeting before returning to Washington would be decisive. Préval
awaited her in his simple office next to the ruins of the National Palace.
Bellerive and Cheryl Mills
were also present during the meeting in question – images of which are
presented in Raoul Peck’s documentary Fatal Assistance.
Hillary Clinton began the
meeting saying she was not interested in who would, or would not go on to the
second round. What brought her to Haiti and to Préval was to try to offer him
her advice and hear the allegations of his old friend of many battles. What
mattered to her was to see that Préval emerged exalted from the crisis. Nothing
else. She claimed she had made no commitments to the other actors involved in
the crisis or even with the three presidential candidates, only to Préval and
his future. He had been a constant and loyal ally. Now he was in a delicate
situation, for they were accusing him of acting as a petty dictator, imposing
an unknown candidate who had no representation and was manipulable.
For the woman in charge of US
diplomacy, it must have been during those moments of uncertainty and
difficulties that true friends were found. It was for this reason that Hillary
was there, as a friend of Préval and of Haiti, as she always had been.
Towards the end of the
meeting, she asked Préval to make a last gesture in favor of harmony and
understanding. It was to be a gesture that would lead him, once and for all, to
a special place in the pantheon of Haiti’s history and the struggle for
democracy in the continent. Préval replied with an emotive, albeit enigmatic
smile. It was only him who knew that the crisis had reached its epilogue at
that moment.
As she was leaving the house,
Hillary invited Bellerive to accompany her. The prime minister asked Préval for
authorization to do so and placed himself between the two women inside the
armored truck that left in a convoy to the airport. Confident that she had
obtained what she wanted, Hillary was concerned now with the result of the
second round. Bellerive removed all traces of apprehension when he informed her
that Michel Martelly was going to win easily. And so he did.
As she was heading toward the
plane, Hillary made a comment to Bellerive about his family relationship with
Martelly. He confirmed that they were distant cousins. Since they were both
educated individuals and the game was already over, the secretary of state
allowed herself to make a joke and asked: “You are relatives, but you don’t
sing?” Bellerive replied, humorously: “Neither does he.”
Hillary confessed having heard
Martelly sing some songs and could not agree more with Bellerive. Then,
smiling, she left Haiti.
This is an extract from
Seitenfus’ book, published in Portuguese, Spanish and French. The latter
version l’Échec de l’aide intérnationale à Haïti: Dilemmes et
égarements, was published in 2015 from the Éditions de l’Université d’Etat
d’Haïti. Seitenfus is working on publishing the English edition.
Dr. Ricardo Seitenfus is
a professor at the Law School at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil.
He was also the OAS Special Representative to Haiti from 2009 to 2011.
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