HAITI: Is the US Setting Up a Military Jump Out Squad Focused on Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua?

I love it when I run into analyses that flesh out in detail what I have been surmising in my head.  Here is another case.  When I got back from a delegation trip to Haiti after the 2004 coup, many people asked me why the US would be involved in the overthrow of Aristide.  Of course, there are many reasons.  Aristide had doubled the minimum wage, expanded literacy programs enormously, and was resistant to privatization of state-owned companies.  The elite of Haiti are primarily involved in the manufacturing business and many Americans companies own sweatshops there — the last thing they need is a better-paid, better-educated workforce.  There are also interests in various mineral resources and off-shore oil.

BUT, I have always thought that one of the unspoken reasons for US intervention in Haiti is strategic positioning.  If you look at a map, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua sit on the shores of the Caribbean Basin (see below).  Also, Haiti  is very accessible to COLOMBIA as well.  I happened to find someone on the Media Lens discussion forum, who I think has outlined a plausible scenario for what might be going down (see further below).  More on this topic later, but chew on the following info for now.  Stay tuned!

http://www.medialens.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10507#10507

Manuel Rozental’s take below

I am absolutely convinced that the US has used the situation in Haiti as a pretext to establish a base closer to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. It is part of a military plan that includes the use of the recently established bases in Colombia. In fact, I fear a terrible scenario. People in Haiti driven to despair due to hunger, lack of water and the entire disaster, leading to riots, violence and expected responses under these unimaginable conditions. This situation will provide the justification for military presence, not for aid, but to monitor and supervise a “natural” genocide.

This military occupation to establish monopoly over aid, use it as a political tool and limit its delivery is a provocation to the proggressive governments in the region. They either remain silent and watch Haitians die and kill each other under US and Canadian occupation, or they react, like President Ortega already has reacted from Nicaragua, demanding an immediate withdrawal of the US troops. If Venezuela reacts for the protection of Haitians and against US military presence together with Cuba and UNASUR, and try to intervene with aid, this could trigger a military response from the US. We could certainly be facing a scenario of war between the US and its servant regimes (Colombia, Peru, Honduras) and Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador. The frightening fact that this is possible under the circumstances and that oil, mining resources and transnational corporate and financial interests to overcome the economic crisis is the main interest here, exposes the evolving initiative into a Caribbean-Andean war that the US has been preparing for a long time. This is not paranoia or a conspiracy theory. Beyond other serious analysis on the web, (http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman160110.htm , http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/places/Latin+America, http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23642, http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23623, )the attached communiqué from MSF, begins to expose the situation.

President Evo Morales has announced he will deliver Bolivia´s aide personally, travelling with it on a Bolivian plane early next week.

The response, the best response under the circumstanses is massive and effective solidarity that works and breaks through the provocation by responding to the needs and restores the dignity of Haitians. This requires a comprehensive articulated effort AND an extraordinary political and communications strategy to expose the truths. In other words, getting there with supplies and human resources is essential, but it has to be part of a solid, coordinated effort to help Haitians and counterparts in continents resist.

I don´t think this vision is clear amongst the majority of the people, as the propaganda and political, together with the military machinery of global capital has been activated. Obama has met with Bush and Clinton to launch a coordinated US initiative. We are facing a situation as the one that justified the invasion of Iraq, under the pretext of weapons of mass detruction. This time, an earthqueake and the suffering of Haitians is the pretext. We have called solidarity movements and organizations such as Via Campesina, whose efforts in Asia after the Tsunami were exemplary and other organizations and groups to:

1. Mobilize medical and other resources, material and human
2. Establish logistics to have these arrive and be used well
3. Mobilize a communication strategy and solidarity for awareness and resistance articulating those on the ground with the outside counterparts.

Now that MSF and probably others are being blocked, we underscore the fact that solidarity, more than aid, is what is urgently required and that assistance, urgently needed will only reach those in need if it is combined with communications and political action.

The US and Canadian military presence in Haiti is a criminal action with racist components, as has been the case from Empire throughout history. See the MSF Communiqué below.

Thank you

Manuel