The true president of Haiti is... Bill Clinton

AlterPresse: riots at Cap Hatien today

It seems that the US Empire is really reaching the age of the proconsuls, as did the Roman Empire at some point of its expansive drive. Proconsul means former consul and consul was the rough equivalent of co-president in the Roman Republic (there were two of them instead of just one as happens now). As happens with Clinton now, former consuls were often appointed as provincial governors, hence the later usage of the term proconsul. It must be said that Roman provinces (from pro-vincere: formerly conquered) were typically more impressive than Haiti but that's another story.

This is at least what Henri Boisrolin (Democratic Committee of Haiti) declared to Uruguayan radio program Resonando en Fénix, interview partly transcribed by La Haine[es].

Some translated fragments from this interview:

UN troops are rapists

The presence of the MINUSTAH (UN Mission for the stabilization of Haiti)... is a violation of the sovereignty of our people and a violation of the principle of self-determination of the Haitian people.

The MINUSTAH [troops] have raped our girls and women... they prevented nothing with the hurricanes, the floods. In the earthquake the showed total inefficiency before, while and after it [happened]. 

Haitian oligarchies have lost control

The Haitian dominant classes have lost control: they cannot win any elections. [Haiti] is a country where the USA cannot allow things to follow their natural course and end in a popular uprising that ends in the construction of a popular power. We must not forget that Haiti is the country closest to Cuba... shares the island with the Dominican Republic, we are just a few minutes away by air from Puerto Rico and Jamaica...

The 2004 coup

Aristide is a populist who betrayed but who kept some ambiguity; he was not any safe card for US policies...

There were then many riots and demonstrations demanding the resignation of Aristide, and a military uprising organized by the USA and the Haitian oligarchy, with former members of the Duvalier militia [the much hated Tonton Macoutes]. They organized them, they armed them in the Dominican Republic and sent them through the border... but then they realized these forces would not be enough to depose Aristide, so a US military commando got in and kidnapped him. 

The UN occupation forces are a dangerous precedent

The governments that sent troops for the MINUSTAH [Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Peru, Ecuador...] should realize that, if this [model] succeeds in Haiti, then it may happen anywhere else, under any other pretext. I am saying that they have created a too dangerous precedent for the future of Latin American peoples, specially when there are strong winds of change blowing in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia...

Slave-like multinational exploitation

Haiti is the country that produces the largest amounts of ultra-cheap workforce. Hence we have tax-free zones where Levis' jeans are made: 3000 people working in conditions of practical slavery for multinational corporations. 

The daily salary is not more than USD3 [yes: three damn bucks] per day. It is really nothing. Last year they wanted their salaries raised, there were large mobilizations. But Preval (formally the President) said "no" and the MINUSTAH helped with repression. 

Preval is a puppet, the real president is Bill Clinton

In 2006 people went to vote [for Preval] because they though he would make Aristide come back. Nowadays Preval is the most hated president in the history of Haiti, not just because of the treason to Aristide but because of the neoliberal policy and the policy of kneeling before the so-called International Community, not just before the MINUSTAH but specially before the USA. 

The real president of the country is nowadays... Bill Clinton. Clinton fulfills three roles: he is representative for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for Haiti, he is representative for US President Obama, along with former President Bush, to manage US aid... to Haiti, and finally they have created after the earthquake something called CIRH (Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti) and the guy, without being Haitian, is nevertheless president, together with the Haitian Prime Minister, of the CIRH. He is the one who decides when the CIRH meets, where, which is the schedule, what has to be rebuilt, he is the proconsul as we say over there: the one who is really in command. 

Preval is a puppet, he is a scarecrow with a totally alienated behavior... he does not even have a remnant of dignity. 

Popular organization

They make the people believe that Haiti is an inviable country, a failed state, an impossible nation, a people treated like a baby who must be fed, that there is no organization...

This is not true: there are farmer organizations, worker organizations, political parties with projects and clear ideologies, student organizations, labor unions, even class unions like Batay Ouvriye... Even the mobilizations against famine in the year 2008, the mobilizations for higher salaries, when workers went to the streets along with students... they all show that there is a mobilized people. 

If MINUSTAH leaves...

The only people in Haiti worried about what will happen in MINUSTAH leaves are those belonging to the dominant classes, because they know what that will mean for them and their interests.

We understand that the only thing that can solve the Haitian crisis is the arrival and construction of a Popular Power that answers directly to the interests of the Haitian masses. For this, as we say, you cannot make an omelet without breaking some eggs. 

The feeling of the Haitian people is one of growing hatred towards the MINUSTAH and specially towards Latin American [troops]... Stay by any faculty and wait for a MINUSTAH tank to pass by. The least students will do, the first thing they do is to throw rocks at it. 

Cuban friendship

The aid we need is like what Cubans have brought for instance: in 12 years of presence of Cuban physicians not a single Cuban soldier has arrived. Same for Venezuela, which helps with the energy. 

Even in the [2004] coup nothing happened to Cubans because they have the protection of the People.