Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Chomsky on the situation in Haiti
"It’s totally outrageous. Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere. It’s in miserable condition. It also happens to be the leading target of US intervention in the 20th century. Ever since Woodrow Wilson occupied it, restored slavery, overthrew the parliamentary system and basically turned it into a US plantation; ever since then the US has supported brutal dictators, a murderous national- all of whom never had an embargo on them no matter how many atrocities they were carrying out. In the early 90’s Haiti had its first democratic election. To everyone’s surprise they elected a populist priest who [won] through large scale organization and activism in the slums and the hills (who nobody was paying any attention to). The US moved in immediately to undermine the regime: it cut off aid, supported anti-Aristide elements, and a couple of months later a coup came."

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