"Empire's Laboratory": How 2004 U.S.-Backed Coup Destabilized Haiti & Led to Current Crisis

We Begin Today's Show in Haiti where

fighting continues between police and

armed groups calling for the resignation

of the unelected Prime Minister Ariel

HRI over the weekend police and Palace

guards work to retake some streets in

the capital PTO Prince after armed gangs

launch large scale attacks on at least

three police stations Haiti's been under

a state of emergency for the past week

with tens of thousands displaced amidst

the fighting un officials are warning

hadi's health system is nearing collapse

due to shortages of Staff equipment and

other resources to treat a growing

number of wounded patients meanwhile the

US military said Sunday it conducted an

overnight mission to airlift

nonessential us staff out of Haiti and

to boost security at the US Embassy in

PTO France Caribbean leaders issued a

call late Friday for an emergency

meeting today in Jamaica they've invited

the United United States France Canada

the UN and Brazil to the meeting carom

the 15 Nation Caribbean block said in a

statement quote the situation on the

ground remains

dire Ariel HRI was appointed prime

minister after the July 2021

assassination of President jovenel Moise

HRI still has not returned to Haiti

after a trip to Kenya where he was

seeking a deal for a long delayed un

back mission to Haiti Kenya announced

last year it would lead the force but it

has effectively been placed on hold HRI

arrived in Puerto Rico Tuesday after he

was unable to land in the Dominican

Republic with the Dominican president

saying enri was not welcome in the

country for safety reasons for more

we're joined by Jima Pierre professor at

the Social Justice Institute at the

University of British Columbia in Canada

and research associate at the University

of Johan hburg she's a Haitian American

Scholar and co-coordinator of the black

Alliance for peces Haiti americ team

which has been closely following the

crisis in Haiti a recent article for NOA

is headlined Haiti as Empire's

laboratory Professor Pierre welcome back

to welcome to democracy Now can you

start off by describing what you

understand is the latest on the ground

who the armed groups are um and the

different sectors of Haitian society

that are joining together with those

armed gangs and calling for the

resignation of the elect unelected prime

minister

HRI uh good morning thank you so much

for having me um Amy um I what one of

the things that we need to to uh just

start off with is just these are par

paramilitary U forces um um I think

gangs is an in insufficient name for

them because a lot of them are former U

military and former police officers and

they're heavily armed um what's

happening is a bunch of different groups

coming together um to to say and they

call themselves now Viva which is live

together uh bunch of uh different

various uh various armed young groups

young men um in groups to say that they

want to get rid of Aya now we hear that

there are negotiations happening around

the clock um and apparently there's

supposed to be negotiations going on

today um I think in Jamaica or by the

CARICOM countries that include the US

France and Canada um the the problem

though is the fact that there all these

negotiations going on outside of Haiti

by many foreigners with no main

participation from the Haitian masses

and I think you know we have to go back

and understand that the the root of this

crisis is not last week it's not this

week it's not even I but we have to go

back to 2004 with the

coua so take us on that Journey back um

if you'll give us the historical context

uh in your piece uh you uh it's

headlined Haiti as Empire's laboratory

in it you wrate Haiti has been and

continues to be the main laboratory for

us Imperial machinations in the region

and throughout the world

explain yes definitely you know we say

the the crisis in Haiti is a crisis of

imperialism in 2004 um as has been

revealed and admitted to the US France

and Canada got together and backed a

Cuda against the the country's first

democratically elected president ja Jon

AR um and the US Marines flew into his

home put him on a plane um with his

security officials his his his wife and

Aid and flew them to the Central African

Republic and people can actually go to

the Democracy Now archives which covered

this live and I remember listening to

this happening live and um and the the

point of this was that this kudeta which

was led by two permanent members of the

UN Security Council was then sanctioned

by the UN when these same two members of

the UN Security Council and that's us

and France um basically pushed the UN

Security Council into sending a

multinational um military force to Haiti

um arm under chapter 7 deployment and

that itself was illegal because the

original OCC the original kud was

illegal the US ambassador to Haiti and

the deputy Ambassador were in the

process they're the ones that named to

the interim um president would be put

together a council of sages that

basically restructured um Haiti's

elected president and back then we had

7,000 um elected officials today we have

zero and over time time I say Haiti has

been under occupation because it is this

military occupation the minister

occupation that's went from 2004 uh

2004 2007 that established the core

group that it's an unelected group of

Western officials including Brazil which

led the military armor of the occupation

in 2004 under Lula which led then uh

which has been controlling all the

actions in Haiti down to naming who the

Prime Minister would be uh arel after

the assassination of xiz I have to

quickly say though one of the key things

that happened is in

2010 after the earthquake in Haiti that

killed hundreds of thousands where the

US pushed the sitting president um Rene

pral to have elections and in the

Wikileaks papers revealed to us uh late

uh later that Hillary Clinton actually

flew to Haiti and changed a election

result where um Michelle Martelli of the

phtk political party did not make the

first round but the US forced um the the

Haitian election Council to actually

make him put him the final in the second

round and so establishing the pH phtk

Michelle martii a Neo Dev is as hades's

president with under 20% of the people

voting with the largest um political

party party in Haiti lavalas not being

able to participate we set the stage for

what we see today so by the time we get

to alya being imposed on the Haitian

people by the Core group we have no

elected officials because Michelle

matelli basically under him we lost a

lot of we we didn't have many elections

and then he put in his prot jovenel moiz

who was also unpopular and didn't run

any elections so we actually haven't had

any elections in Haiti since 2016 when

Janes was put was selected for us by the

core group and so to understand what's

going on in Haiti we have to understand

how the original moment of the 2004

kudeta led us to the complete

destruction of the Haitian State and if

we don't do that we don't understand

these current flareups where people are

saying they want their democracy back

and saying that whatever negotiations

that are happening outside of Haiti has

nothing to do with them because it has

not included them you know when we went

to the Central African Republic in a

small plane uh with US Congress member

Maxine Waters and the late founder of

transafrica Randall Robinson and a

Jamaican MP um we flew to the Central

African Republic they went to retrieve

the aristedes who' been put there by the

United States and as we were flying back

over the Atlantic um they got word um

from that Bo that Rumsfeld condesa rice

and colon Powell were saying that the

aristedes were not to return to this

hemisphere were not to return to Haiti

to which Randall Robinson replied who's

hemisphere um and so he was not able to

land in Port in uh Haiti and went into

Exile in South Africa where you have

also taught for many years for over

seven years and then we went to South

Africa when he finally returned to um to

Haiti and people can see all of those

reports at democracynow.org

but I'm wondering I wanted to um talk

about the latest news the Miami Herold

reporting that Secretary of State

Anthony blinken spoke by phone Thursday

with Haitian prime minister Ariel Anri

in a series of calls that officials

described as tense this is the US state

department spokesperson Matthew Miller

speaking Wednesday about the violence in

Haiti as the situation on the ground

grows increasingly dire we and car have

continued to call on stakeholders

including the prime minister to make

concessions in the interest of the the

Haitian people so we are not calling on

him or pushing for him to resign but we

are urging him to expedite the

transition to an empowered and inclusive

governance structure that will move with

urgency to help the country prepare for

a multinational security support mission

to address the security situation and

PVE the way for free and fair elections

but jacn charl the Miami Herald reporter

said that the that um the US was pushing

ARL enri to resign what do you

understand Professor Pierre about the

latest and also even where he is is he

still in Puerto Rico unable to get back

to Haiti yeah he's in Puerto Rico under

FBI uh uh protection um he had to leave

the hotel he was in when he first landed

because Haitian um Haitian uh people

living in Puerto Rico were protesting

his presence in in in the state and so

that's important you know the uh the the

US government is is being extremely

hypocritical here because in 2004 when

the US Marines landed at er se's house

put him on a plane and and told the

world that he resigned before the plane

even landed in in in Central African

Republic and basically uh put in power a

whole new government and now they're

saying that this unelected prime

minister that they put in place refuses

to resign where he actually has no uh

legitimacy and no mandate whatsoever I

also want to say quickly um uh just to

touch back to the the question earlier

is the reason I say Hai is a laboratory

because this is the first school they T

that was sanctioned by the UN and Haiti

was ruled by a multilateral CO Coalition

of all these countries and so the un uh

uh occupation of Haiti on through Mina

and through the core group is multi

multinational multi-racial and it almost

seems as if this is a humanitarian

effort as opposed to a couet that has

been uh uh successful and so the whole

world is participating in the occupation

of Haiti unwittingly because and this is

how we have to remember how the US will

work and they will use their proxies to

do the the dirty work for them and I and

and I want to say what's happening today

on the ground with CARICOM is also a

problem because back in 2004 PJ

Patterson who was the leaders who was in

The Who was the president of CARICOM was

very much against the removal of Haiti

sitting president in fact he refused to

acknowledge the the impulse um uh

government that the US put on us um and

um and and but now CARICOM is playing a

different where they're bringing the US

France and Canada the the people who did

the original sin to pick our leaders

again and so the problem is if this go

goes on and if they don't take into

account other uh uh solutions that

Haitians have been putting together you

know 20 early 2021 you had la laas come

up with salip which means that we need

to start over uh and change the system

we had the Montana Accords we have local

uh groups that actually had a solution

before the moiz assassination the US

government was trying to protect moiz

and basically ignored all these local

Solutions and so now they cannot say

that they're here to help Haiti as much

as trying to figure out how to put in

place another unpopular and illegal

government and so then we'll have the

same problem a few uh a few years down

the line the other thing I want to

quickly say I know in a hurry is that

the the people funding these armed

groups are the part of the oligarchy and

um and most of the guns and ammunition

are coming from the US people must

remember that in the late 2022 and early

2023 the Canadian government sanctioned

three of the um the richest uh oligarchs

in Haiti that's jilbert beel raino deep

and Sharif abdalah the Canadian

government also sanctioned former

president Michelle Martelli um and other

in loala his his prime minister all of

them because they for drug trafficking

but also for funding these uh these

armed groups and so in the news we get

you get these guys that look you know

like raggedy ragged and poor but then

the people really funding them because

he does not manufactur guns are these

Elites that are that are that are that

are behind all the violence and so I

also want put to put that um in into

into very clear context so that we know

that this is a very complex problem

that's very much set up by the the 2004

coup but also perpetuated by the

oligarch and the US which work together

to keep Haiti unstable so that we can

say Haiti is ungovernable and we need to

come in and save it can you explain who

GE Philip is uh who just left left us

prison in November his role in the coup

in 2004 and now what he's

doing right and this is very important

thank you for asking this gefy leap is

was around in 2004 in fact gefy leap was

trained by the US in Ecuador and spent a

lot of time training in living and

training in the Dominican Republic so um

in the leadup to the cud against arist

state in 2004 what you have is all the

fall of 200 um 2003 what you had Gip and

his armed groups would ransack would

Crossing to the border and ransack and

attack police stations and so on and so

forth back then which is fascinating if

you look up in the news the Western

media portrayed him has a freedom

frighter um he was the hero standing up

against the evil a seed according to the

west and so they supported him um and

and he would say later that he was

actually being funded by the CIA and and

so on and then as soon as you know what

happens you know once they remove arist

what you have is the uh the triy they

try to integrate these former arm

military groups into the Haitian

National Police because AED had

disbanded the Army and so what you have

is that's why I say we have to call

these paramilitaries because these are

former um uh uh armed groups that

actually were funded by Outsiders to ask

our democratically elected president and

here we are Gip was in um arrested by

the US and put in prison for drug

trafficking and and we have to

understand this because even during his

trial there are certain things that were

kept secret because it implicated the US

government and so he served six years in

prison um as a criminal in the US and

now the US dumped him in Haiti in

November

2023 uh after serving um six year of a

nine-year term and so now he's back

running around saying he wants to be

president and he's getting you know

you're saying Hades you know everyone

pretends that you know are saying that

Hades is at War and so on and so forth

but the reality is GE Philip is giving

interviews to all the mainstream press

GE Philip gives more interviews than the

local people who are organizing against

repression we don't hear them in the

Washington Post but we hear GE phip so I

wonder what the US role is for GE Philip

right now and as far as I'm concerned he

should be tried for treason because he

was behind he worked with the US to

actually remove our elected president

and so we have to be very careful about

what the US is bringing what the

mainstream media is bringing to us as

real um and as a situation when we know

the situation is actually very much

controlled by the US and the core group

when it comes to Haiti and sherier uh

known as barbeq uh the leader of one of

the most powerful armed groups explain

his role right now and the alliance that

has been formed between the armed groups

and also um really isn't it true for the

very first time sort of forming an

alliance with the elite as well at least

agreeing that Ariel HRI should be

ousted yes uh apparently it seems like

Cher has joined in with all the other

groups that they were in in in in uh

having trouble with and so it is a

combination of all kinds of groups uh

that had worked against one another that

had fought against one another and now

they're coming together to get rid of AI

and I think part of the problem is I

think they're afraid of this um Ken

supposedly Kenyan Le but us pushed um

Kenya mission of a thousand um police

officers coming in another foreign

Invasion and they're worried about their

their position um in Haitian Society I

do think the elite have to be brought

into this the oligarch of Haiti that are

funding this and supporting this because

this non-stop ammunition comes from

somewhere they're coming from these

ports that are owned by the elites and

so I there might be a you know a uh we

don't know who's who the machinations

Behind these gangs who's paying for them

who um you know we know that they broke

into the ports and EMP some containers

and we don't know what they took but we

know that the ports are not owned by the

people they're owned by the oligarchs

and so what's going on in Haiti is

actually very very important because

it's I don't think it's a plan that the

US wanted which is why they rushed um to

Kenya to sign this bilateral agreement

after the Kenyan Court um said that it

was unconstitutional for Kenya to send

its police to Haiti but I think things

changed faster than they participated

and so now they're scrambling for a new

plan in Haiti and in the meantime what's

happening is our our people that are the

the people the poor people underr are

the ones suffering well jamier we want

to thank you so much for your analysis

professor at the Social Justice

Institute at the University of British

Columbia in Canada was before that at

UCLA and is research associate at the

University of Johannesburg a Haitian

American Scholar and co- coordinator of

the black Alliance for Peace's Haiti

America's team which has been closely

following the crisis in Haiti we'll link

to your pce and nakla Haiti as Empires

Laboratory