No. 14August 22, 2023
Hands Off Latin America and the Caribbean
No to Foreign Intervention in Haiti!
Core Group Out of Haiti!
The Core Group on Haiti – made up of representatives of the United Nations, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, the United States, and the Organization of American States – is preparing for a military intervention in Haiti in the name of opposing “gang violence.” The Core Group is the successor to the Ottawa Initiative on Haiti that orchestrated the 2004 coup against the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It is a self-appointed and self-serving group that has given itself the right to dictate to the Haitian people and constantly undermine all their attempts to re-establish control over their own affairs, in order to be able to exploit the country’s wealth unfettered. If the Core Group is planning a military intervention in Haiti, then the target can only be the Haitian people themselves, whose nationhood is based on their heroic struggle to exercise their right to be free from foreign domination.
On August 16, the newspaper Métropole HT wrote:
“The multinational force could be deployed by the end of the year if all goes well, said Canada’s ambassador to Port-au-Prince, Sébastien Carrière. But before that can happen, the various stages of the mission’s preparation must be successfully completed.
“The next three weeks will be crucial for Haiti,” added the diplomat, referring to the diplomatic effort required to promote the deployment of a multinational force in Haiti. He assures us that Canada will lend its support to facilitate the adoption of a resolution authorizing the deployment of the force. Obtaining a mandate from the UN Security Council is no mean feat,” confides Mr. Carrière.
“Then Kenya has to assess the situation on the ground and report back to the Security Council. Canada is ready to help Kenya coordinate aid from the various contributing countries. Canadian experts in Ottawa, Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince are already involved in coordinating assistance to the PNH.”
On August 15 UN Secretary General António Guterres submitted a report to the Security Council with “options” for the UN to consider for stepping up foreign interference in Haiti in the name of providing security assistance. Reuters reports that Guterres said Haiti’s current context “was not conducive to peacekeeping,” and that law and order had to be restored “by deterring, neutralizing, and disarming heavily armed gangs capable of mounting robust resistance to anti-gang police operations.” To do that, he said, “Nothing short of the robust use of force, complemented by a suite of non-kinetic measures, by a capable specialized multinational police force enabled by military assets, coordinated with the national police” was required. He appealed to countries to “act now” to contribute to the deployment of such a force and for the Security Council to support it.
On August 1, two weeks before Guterres presented his report, the U.S., which holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this month and has for the better part of a year been trying to assemble the kind of force Guterres says is needed, announced that it will put forward a UN Security Council resolution that will authorize Kenya to lead a multinational police force to “combat gangs” in Haiti, which it says have overtaken the country. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated, “We welcome Kenya’s decision to lead a multinational force and we will be working on a resolution to support that effort,” and “will give the Kenyans what they require to establish their presence in Haiti.”
The forces pushing for intervention fear that Russia and/or China will exercise their veto in the Security Council to block the resolution whenever the U.S. decides to introduce it. During a July Security Council briefing on Haiti, the representative of the Russian Federation stated among other things, “Systemic crisis in Haiti was preceded by many years of destructive external interference both through direct interventions and politically engineered manipulation. The vicious practice of imposing alien political models on Haiti that disregard national political interests of the country eroded the fragile foundations of Haitian statehood [ ].” “We don’t quite understand why, with a stalled political dialogue and crisis of legitimacy, with no control over weapons trafficking and an underfunded humanitarian plan, the idea of sending a multinational military force to Haiti is seen by some stakeholders as a cure-all solution to all Haiti’s problems. The history of external interventions in Haiti shows that externally imposed models do not take root in Haitian society. They bring much more trouble than good and serve only as a cover for promoting the interests of other nations. It is no coincidence that even now, despite all the problems, there are voices in Haiti against any form of foreign interference. It is our duty to listen to those voices rather than try to silence or ignore them,” the Russian representative added.
Also in July, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun stated, “We have heard many speeches in support of this force, but no country announcing concrete actions. For this reason, it seems that more in-depth studies are going to be necessary before arriving at a viable proposal.” He emphasized that Haitians must decide their own destiny.
If blocked at the UN Security Council, the U.S. and Core Group can be expected to simply intervene without a UN mandate, declaring they stand for humanitarianism and a rules-based order.
The newspaper Haiti Libre on August 4 reported that five countries have expressed support for military intervention in Haiti, ostensibly led by the Kenyan police: the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Bahamas and Ecuador. The Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner reported on August 3 that the Jamaican Defence Force has started making preparations for the mission in Haiti. “As it is now, Jamaica’s commitment still stands. We certainly can’t go up to the 1,000 troops [ ] But we will give what we can,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said at a press briefing.
The request for foreign intervention to the UN supposedly originates with Prime Minister Ariel Henry, an illegitimate U.S.-installed puppet whom the Haitian people have been trying to remove from office for months with militant protests. The narrative that Henry and the Core Group is presenting about Haiti is that the country is wrought with “gang violence” and the only solution is to send in an outside military force to bring order and assist the Haitian National Police. This police force has always been an instrument against the Haitian people exercising control over their own affairs, and reviled by them.
On July 14, the UN Security Council unanimously passed resolution 2692 to extend the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) until July 15, 2024, “deciding that its police and corrections unit will include up to 70 civilian and seconded personnel serving as police and corrections advisers to scale up its strategic and advisory support to the training and investigation capacities of the Haitian National Police, and that its human rights unit will include dedicated capacity to address sexual and gender-based violence including the identification of women’s protection advisers.”
Frantz André of Solidarité Québec-Haïti explained the origin of these gangs to TML in July 2021, shortly after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse:
“One has to understand that what is happening now in Haiti, since the arrival of Jovenel Moïse and before, during the presidency of Michel Martelly, is a civil war by proxy, which is being waged through armed gangs that have recently federated, under the name of ‘G9,’ and with whom Jovenel Moïse had agreed to hold an official dialogue. He did so hoping to control insecurity, but unfortunately these gangs have also been terrorizing the population, serving the interests of those who arm them and pay them. The Haitian oligarchy and the political elite are at war with each other through these armed gangs. These groups are also linked internationally, notably to the Core Group, and it is with this international support that members of these oligarchic groups have become multimillionaires over the decades. They have done so and do so through corruption, including the misappropriation of funds from Venezuela’s PetroCaribe program, which was supposed to be used to finance public infrastructure and social programs.
“The Core Group, which supports this business elite, has contributed to ‘select’ the country’s presidents or future presidents. This elite, together with opposition parties, have armed and are arming various gangs to defend their interests, just as the government of Jovenel Moïse also armed gangs [ ]”
The Associated Press states that 1,000 Kenyan police officers might be deployed to Haiti. It adds that the Kenyan police have been “long accused by rights watchdogs of killings and torture, including gunning down civilians during Kenya’s COVID-19 curfew. One local group confirmed that officers fatally shot more than 30 people in July, all of them in Kenya’s poorest neighborhoods, during opposition-called protests over the rising cost of living.”
While historically, the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean have always stood with the Haitian people and their striving for independence, and vice versa, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been under intense and relentless pressure to split their ranks regarding Haiti. A.T. Freeman, writing for the Caribbean Organisation for Peoples Empowerment (COPE) on July 9 explained:
“Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, from 3-5 July, in its 45th Heads of Government conference, which also marked the 50th anniversary of the organization, CARICOM abandoned its months long opposition to the U.S. military assault on its fellow member state and issued a statement in support of the ‘immediate creation of a Humanitarian and Security Stabilization Corridor under the mandate of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution, and agreed to seek support from international partners to help finance its establishment and the strengthening of security in Haiti.’
“This change of mind on CARICOM’s part was no doubt influenced by the presence not only of a bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation led by Democratic politician Hakeem Jeffries but also of Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State.
“A day after the CARICOM meeting, on 6 July, it became clear at the United Nations security briefing on Haiti, just what the Humanitarian and Security Stabilization Corridor would actually mean for the people of Haiti. María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) issued a call for the introduction into Haiti of a ‘robust international force.’ This call echoes that of her boss, UN Secretary General, António Guterres, who has been actively campaigning for some time now in support of the U.S. military attack.
“To confuse public opinion and hide their real aims in Haiti, the U.S. and its supporters have put together a lying propaganda narrative which claims that they want to militarily attack Haiti to ‘help the Haitian people who are suffering terribly at the hands of criminal gangs.’ This justification is as old as the hills and has been used for centuries by the enslaving and colonial powers who have always presented their criminal attacks on others as a good deed the attacker is doing for the attacked. ‘We have travelled thousands of miles to arrive in your country, we have killed you, stolen your land at gun point and grabbed all the resources you have but we want you to understand that we did this out of our humanitarian concern for you.’ This is the essence of the racist ‘white man’s burden’ narrative that the U.S. is peddling to justify its attack on Haiti. It has zero credibility but, unfortunately, CARICOM has signed up to it.”
While the U.S. has been pressuring other countries to take part in plans for another military intervention in Haiti, Canada has been fully embroiled in the ongoing crimes against the Haitian people for the past 20 years. No doubt the highest of ideals will be cited for why Canada must support and join in the planned intervention in Haiti. It must not pass! Canadians and Quebeckers reject Canada’s nefarious role in Haiti and want Canada to be a zone for peace, in concert with the striving of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean who want the same for their region.
Operation Tradewinds: We Must Raise Our Voices to Defend Our Region!
The looming threat of a U.S. military invasion of Haiti, now supported by CARICOM, demands that the people of the Caribbean raise our voices against such a threat and against the unending U.S.-led militarization of the region. This militarization undermines the 2014 Community of Latin American and Caribbean States’ (CELAC) declaration that our region should be a zone of peace.
The USA and its core group, who operate as colonial overlords of Haiti, wantonly violate Haiti’s independence and sovereignty, as they pursue their centuries’ long spiteful policy of punishing the Haitian people for using force of arms to end the enslavement of African people and pushing for the same outcome in other territories in the Caribbean and Americas. Today, the Haitian puppet leaders, installed by the Core Group, are unable to suppress the Haitian people, and the U.S. is planning to intervene militarily to achieve this goal. To its eternal shame, CARICOM has thrown its weight behind the U.S. threat.
In addition to the threat to Haiti, from July 14 this year, the U.S. military’s Southern Command kicked off its annual Tradewinds regional military exercise. This year it is being held in Guyana and is scheduled to run for 2 weeks, ending on July 28. Operation Tradewinds involves 1,500 troops from CARICOM member states, the old colonial powers, namely Britain, France and Holland and the new colonial powers, the U.S. and Canada. In addition, Brazil, which led the previous UN military occupation of Haiti, is participating in the exercise. The Tradewinds military exercise was initiated in 1984, a year after the U.S. invasion of Grenada. It is intended to ensure that the people of the Caribbean stay within the parameters set for them by the old and new colonial powers. It is a reminder to us that these powers will use military force against us, as they have repeatedly done in the past, if we dare to step outside the boundaries they have laid down for us.
The current military threat to Haiti and the ongoing Tradewinds military exercise demonstrates clearly that the colonial and enslaving powers do not respect the Caribbean as a zone of peace. Instead, they constantly increase military activities and threats in the region to achieve their goal of maintaining control over us and our countries.
The people of the Caribbean must raise their voices to defend Haiti against attack, to demand the end of the militarization of the region and to push for the termination of the annual Tradewinds military exercise.
Caribbean Organisation for People’s Empowerment – St Lucia
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP) – Guyana
Caribbean Pan Afrikan and Indigenous Movement – Trinidad & Tobago
Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration – Barbados
Pan African Coalition of Organizations – Barbados
Cuba Rejects Presence of U.S. Nuclear Submarine in Guantanamo Bay
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly rejects the arrival of a nuclear-powered submarine in the Guantanamo Bay on July 5, 2023, that stayed until July 8 at the U.S. military base located there, which is a provocative escalation of the United States, whose political or strategic motives are not known.
The U.S. military base, as is known, has occupied that 117 square kilometers territory for 121 years against the will of the Cuban people. It stands as a colonial remnant of the illegitimate military occupation of our country that started in 1898, after the expansionist intervention during the independence war waged by Cubans against the Spanish colonial power.
This is an enclave that has long lost its strategic or military importance for the United States. Its permanence only pursues the political objective of trying to outrage Cuba’s sovereign rights. Its practical usefulness in recent decades has been limited to operating as a centre of detention, torture and systematic violation of the human rights of dozens of citizens from several countries.
The presence of a nuclear submarine there at this moment makes it imperative to wonder what is the military reason behind this action in this peaceful region of the world; what target is it aiming at and what is the strategic purpose it pursues.
It should be remembered that the 33 nations of the region are signatories of the Declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed in Havana in January of 2014.
It is also important to take into account the fact that, as a threat to the sovereignty and the interests of Latin American and Caribbean peoples, the United States has established more than 70 military bases in the region with different times of permanence, plus other operational forms of military presence. Recently, its high military commands have publicly announced their intention to use their war capabilities to realize the U.S. ambitions over the natural resources of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while reiterating the rejection of the U.S. military presence in Cuba and demanding the return of the illegally occupied territory in the province of Guantanamo, warns about the danger of the presence and circulation of nuclear submarines of the United States armed forces in the nearby Caribbean region.
(Havana, July 11, 2023)
Venezuela Fact Finding Mission: Preliminary Statement and Findings
The following statement was issued by the Venezuela Fact-Finding Mission of the International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism, carried out between July 24-28 with the National Lawyers Guild and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
As the Fact Finding Mission of the International People’s Tribunal, we unequivocally denounce the U.S. imperialist hybrid war on the Venezuelan people, economy and state. Throughout our mission we have witnessed the brutal effects of the unilateral economic coercive measures regime. Our meetings, interviews, and discussions clearly exposed the lies of the U.S. government and the propaganda of the corporate media that aim to depict Venezuela as a “failed state.” We concluded our Mission July 28, the birthday of Comandante Hugo Chávez with our Venezuela Hearing and public release of our statement.
As we mark the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, we recall that the economic blockade is part of a long history of enslaving, colonizing and subjugating the peoples of the Global South. Our meetings have helped us to understand how sanctions are designed not only to exacerbate internal contradictions within the organic social base of a revolutionary project but to undermine the material conditions necessary for socialism. The sanctions regime attempts to manufacture political confusion among the population, to direct legitimate frustration over a lack of social services and access to public goods against their government rather than the true culprit: U.S. imperialism. What appears as neoliberal austerity is in fact CRIMINAL THEFT by sanctions. As one of our speakers, Laura Franco, Coordinator of Exchange and Cooperation at the Simon Bolivar Institute told us “this is not a neo-liberal economy, it is a war economy.”
Sanctions as a Policy of “Regime Change”
Political confusion is neither accidental nor a secondary result of the sanctions and blockade regime. It is designed to create an environment of chaos towards regime change and to provide narratives for opposition forces, particularly proxies of the United States working to extend and intensify the sanctions regime. For example, the recognition of Juan Guaido as the fake “president of Venezuela” by the U.S., Canada and other imperialist powers was used to create propaganda and also to implement the sanctions, by confiscating the property of the Venezuelan state (the sole legitimate political organ of the Venezuelan people) and transferring them to the custody of an array of U.S.-backed “opposition” forces, another form of blockade imposed upon the assets of the Venezuelan people.
We see the most recent incitement towards “regime change” with the announcement of a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This bounty recalls those issued for the heads of state of Iraq and Libya shortly before their violent removal and assassination and the destruction, destabilization and looting of these states by imperialist forces. Additionally, the three bills in the U.S. Congress that seek through legislative means to achieve the same ends: the Prohibition of Transactions and Leases with Venezuela’s Illegitimate Authoritarian Regime Act, the Venezuelan Human Rights “AFFECT” Act and the Venezuelan Democracy Act. The bills have a common denominator: to further increase the pressure of the blockade and impose on it a framework of “humanitarian assistance.” This represents an escalation of imperialist intervention in the lead up to the presidential elections next year.
Bolivarian Resistance to U.S. Imperialism
In our mission, we learned about the suffering of the Venezuelan people because of the imperialist sanctions regime. But we also learned about and have been inspired by their resistance. We witnessed the resilience and creativity of the communes, building independent economic capacity and development based on collective, non-capitalist forms of knowledge production. We saw the ingenuity and passion of doctors in the Children’s Cardiology Hospital of Latin America treating the most difficult cases while navigating shortages of medical supplies and equipment, demonstrating the cruelty and genocidal intent of the sanctions regime. We were also profoundly inspired and uplifted by the hospital’s commitment to not only treating patients from outside of Venezuela but also to providing free education to new generations of doctors internationally. This serves as a testament to the nation’s culture of compassion, socialist values, and solidarity.
We have been particularly struck by the centrality of women to this resistance. From the struggle to achieve food sovereignty, to political education initiatives, frontline legal defense, Afro-Venezuelan revolutionary projects fighting colonial capitalist gentrification and displacement, and their overall political leadership, women are the backbone of the Bolivarian Revolution.
International Fact-Finding Mission
Our delegation includes lawyers, legal scholars, academics and organizers from the United States, Canada, Philippines, Kenya, Lebanon, Algeria, and Iran. This delegation is part of the International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism, an international effort investigating the sanctions regimes as key tools of imperialism, used to undermine the sovereignty — particularly the economic sovereignty — of nations in the Global South, maintaining the global capitalist order. Venezuela and all countries targeted by U.S. sanctions have challenged U.S. imperialism, and seek to uphold their independence and sovereignty from U.S. hegemony. We are holding hearings on the impact of sanctions, economic coercive measures, in 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
Our mission has examined the intent, history, and legal framework of the sanctions regime. It has entailed observation, analysis, and earnest dialogue with impacted individuals, workers in various sectors of the economy, communes, analysts, political organizers, and government officials.
Throughout our mission, we met with many people and organizations, all deeply committed to defending the Bolivarian Revolution and advancing toward socialism, despite the United States’ tremendous crimes against the Venezuelan people historically, and especially in the past eight years. “We refuse to negotiate our revolution under the sanctions’ gunpoint,” declared Robert Longa from Comuna Socialista El Panal.
Our meetings included a meeting with Venezuela’s Vice-Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies, William Castillo, the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory, El Panal Commune, Venezuela Analysis, SURES, Plan Pueblo a Pueblo, Free Alex Saab Movement, Fundación Rompiendo la Norma?(Breaking the Norm), La Fundación Género con Clase (Gender with Class), Children’s Cardiology Hospital of Latin America, CONADECAFRO (National Council for the Development of Afro-descendant Communities of Venezuela) and Cumbe Nacional AFROvenezolano.
Our objective has been to illuminate the consequences of sanctions, as experienced and understood from the ground, and to deliver a comprehensive account of their socioeconomic, political, cultural, and individual effects. The investigation has informed our collective understanding and equipped us with the evidence that was presented in the July 28th Venezuela Hearing.
Holding U.S. Imperialism Accountable
As we conclude our mission in Venezuela, our Tribunal moves forward on research, legal and political work to challenge U.S. imperialism and its blockade on the people and nation of Venezuela. We will complete our deliberations and release our verdict and findings at the closing on 29-30 September at the People’s Forum in New York City, on the sidelines of the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Today, we state unequivocally that the sanctions, blockades and economic coercive measures imposed on Venezuela constitute crimes against humanity, including the crime of genocide. That the U.S. has not succeeded in its efforts to subjugate the Venezuelan people is a testament to their resistance, creativity and steadfastness in developing new forms of action and production in order to confront the blockade.
We conclude the work of our mission in Caracas with inspiration, motivation and commitment to do everything in our power to confront these crimes against humanity alongside the people of Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Eritrea, and all the peoples and nations of the world targeted for confronting imperialism, yet moving on a daily basis from resistance towards dignity, collective liberation, self-determination and emancipation.
From Palestine to Venezuela, imperialist crimes can never be stopped through concessions to its demands: It is RESISTANCE that wins. It is clear, more than ever, that the U.S. empire is not able to achieve its ends by committing these crimes, and that we are witnessing a brutal attempt to maintain U.S. hegemony amid an emerging pluripolar world.
There is an added responsibility of people in the belly of the beast to challenge imperialist sanctions and to hold U.S. imperialism accountable for their crimes against humanity and plunder of the wealth and peoples of the world. We strongly denounce the deliberate promotion of migration of young Venezuelan populations to the U.S. and the imposition of a fake “American dream.” This trend in reality aims to push Venezuelans to join the impoverished working classes, in particular the dispossessed, criminalized and struggling Black and Brown communities in the United States, at the same time that U.S. policies seek to impoverish Venezuela.
The devastation wrought by U.S. imperialism is substantial and apparent across a range of indicators and fields, from coerced migration to the confiscation of state assets, from the unlawful detention, kidnapping and imprisonment of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab to the attack on petroleum production and revenues. At the same time, as we conclude our mission, we are struck not only by the enormity of the crimes against humanity committed by the U.S. in Venezuela but also by the strength of the resistance of the Venezuelan people and their legitimate organs of governance and representation as well as their internationalist perspective and political clarity.
The crimes taking place in Venezuela are inseparable from U.S.-led imperialism and capitalism. Confronting these crimes cannot be confined to the legal sphere but requires a clear political commitment to confront, defeat, and dismantle imperialism and capitalism. The global world order must change, from unipolarity to pluripolarity, from anti-people to a pro-people order with dignity, emancipation and self-determination for all.
Together, we declare: These crimes against humanity will not pass! We pledge to stand with the people of Venezuela and of the world, to do our work in our spheres of legal action, political education and popular organizing to defeat sanctions, blockades and coercive economic measures, to support the Venezuelan people and all those confronting sanctions in order to advance the potential for revolutionary victory for all of our peoples in struggle.
In struggle until victory,
Members of the Fact-Finding Mission
The International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades, and Economic Coercive Measures
(sanctionstribunal.org, August 3, 2023)
Full Support for the Struggle of the Peruvian People!
A vigorous picket in support of the struggle of the Peruvian people, who are demanding justice, was held on July 19 at 6:00 pm in front of the offices of Radio-Canada in Montreal. The same day, a rally took place at noon in front of the Peruvian consulate in Montreal’s city centre. These actions were part of an international day of support for the Peruvian people who, – travelling by bus, car and on foot from all over the country – converged in Lima, Peru’s capital that same day. The mobilization in Peru, called the “Third Capture of Lima,” was called by a broad coalition of trade unions, peasant and Indigenous organizations, parties and artistic groups with the aim of continuing the fight against the putschist regime of Dina Boluarte.
Rallies were also held in front of Peruvian consulates and embassies in New York, Washington DC, Dallas, New Jersey, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Barcelona, the Basque Country, Paris, Milan and elsewhere.
In Montreal, protesters denounced the December 7, 2022 coup against the legitimately elected president, Pedro Castillo, and the boundless corruption of the current government. They demanded an end to all foreign interference in their country, including by the United States and Canada. They also demanded that the Canadian government stop all arms sales to Peru. According to data released by the Canadian government, Canada exported $81.4 million worth of military goods and technology to Peru between 2014 and 2021.[1]
They reiterated their support for the demands of the Peruvian people: the implementation of a constituent assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution, the resignation of Dina Boluarte, the immediate release of Pedro Castillo and return to his post as president, and justice for the hundreds of victims of police repression.
Note
1. Amnesty International press release, May 3, 2023.
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