Haiti Liberte 30 Novembre 2022

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The Montana Coalition leaders Ted St. Dic and Magalie Comeau-Denis
with U.S. State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols (center)
supplant him, was also associated
with the CD.
Who is the NED Currently
Funding in Haiti?
There are several “local civil society
groups” and “human rights organizations”
directly funded by the NED in
Haiti right now.
Haiti-based human rights organizations
the RNDDH (Reseau National
de Defense des Droits Humains),
Defenseurs Plus, Initiative de la Société
Civile, and OCAPH (Observatoire
Citoyen de l’Action des Pouvoirs Publics
et des ONGs) are all funded by the
NED.
The RNDDH and its director,
Pierre Espérance, were instrumental in
the propaganda campaign that framed
Aristide as a dictator, despite having
won 92% of the popular vote in 2000.
In addition, the RNDDH manufactured
reports that framed Lavalas Prime-Minister
Yvon Neptune as having led an alleged
massacre in La Scierie, near the
town of Saint-Marc in Haiti.
Espérance and the RNDDH
worked closely with the Latortue dictatorship
to target and jail thousands
of Lavalas supporters. Before and after
the 2004 coup, NCHR-Haiti (the National
Coalition for Haitian Rights, the
RNDDH’s former name) had an agreement
with the head prosecutor in Portau-Prince,
by which any individual
accused by Espérance and NCHR-Haiti
would be subject to prosecution. According
to a Council on Hemispheric
Affairs (COHA) report, “countless individuals,
many whose only crime was
a loose affiliation with Aristide’s Fanmi
Lavalas party, were arrested by the interim
government based on false accusations
entered by the NCHR-Haiti.”
Brian Concannon, director of the
Institute for Justice & Democracy in
Haiti, remarked at the time in an interview
with The Jurist that NCHR-Haiti
was a “ferocious critic” of Aristide’s
government and an “ally” of the illegal
regime.
He explained that “the persecution
became so flagrant that
NCHR-Haiti’s former parent organization,
New York-based NCHR, publicly
repudiated the Haitian group and asked
it to change its name. [It then] changed
its name RNDDH.”
Espérance and NCHR-Haiti received
funding from the USAID, the
NED, the French government, and the
Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) at the time.
The NED also funds several
media organizations in
Haiti such as AyiboPost and
Jurimedia. Jurimedia’s executive director
is Abdonel Doudou, a fellow at the
NED. He is also a co-founder of the Citizen
Observatory for the Institutionalization
of Democracy (OCID), another
NED-funded organization.
OCID uses its NED funding to
offer a training program in “the monitoring
and evaluation of public policies
for executives of political parties and
civil society organizations in Haiti.”
According to OCID’s website, this program
also aims to “strengthen the capacities
of 500 actors from civil society
and the Haitian political class in public
policies.”
Furthermore, OCID aims to “mobilize
the commitment of at least 30
political parties and 200 civil society
organizations to advocate for the optimization
of public policies and programs,
particularly in the sectors of
energy, corruption, and security.”
The NED also continues to fund
the IRI’s programs in Haiti. IRI’s website
claims they are “laying the groundwork
for a new community radio program”
in “target areas of the country.”
In short, the U.S. government
is influencing organizations on
multiple fronts in Haiti. Including the
human rights sector, the media, political
parties, and civil society.
But this is just the tip of the
iceberg.
The NED Conference: Peace &
Democracy Building in Haiti
In July 2022, the NED hosted a conference
where speakers shared their
opinions on the crises facing Haiti. The
speakers included Guy Serge Pompilus
and Pierre-Antoine Louis of OCAPH,
Carl Alexandre, MINUSTAH’s former
#2, Fabiola Cordova, the NED’s Associate
Director for Latin America and
Caribbean, and Charles Clermont, the
co-founder of Kafou Lespwa (Crossroads
of Hope).
Like OCAPH, Kafou Lespwa
is a “partner” of the NED, according to
the moderators introductory remarks.
Fabiola Cordova had a direct role
in funding numerous anti-Lavalas opposition-affiliated
groups like the Group
of 184 and the CD.
Career U.S. diplomat Carl Alexandre
was the deputy chief the disastrous
MINUSTAH military occupation
force from 2013 to 2016.
Guy Serge Pompilus, the Senior
Advisor for OCAPH, introduced the organizations
“Manifesto for an Inclusive
Dialogue” at the conference. The NED
describe this manifesto as the result
“of their collective efforts in devising
innovative solutions for a peaceful and
democratic transition in Haiti.”
The Manifesto itself is vague and
offers no concrete strategies or solutions.
It does, however, point to two
“orientations” it promotes for Haiti:
Kafou Lespwa and the American Global
Fragility Act.
Kafou Lespwa (KL) is headed
by co-founder Charles Clermont, a millionaire
venture capitalist who has held
high ranking posts at various financial
institutions in Haiti.
The organization’s team includes
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a wide array of actors from Haiti’s political
class, including members of PHTK,
Lavalas, MTVayiti, and the Montana
Coalition.
Two notable members are Danielle
Saint-Lôt, Haitian Minister of
Commerce, Industry and Tourism under
the Latortue regime, and Clifford
Apaid, son of Andy Apaid Jr.. Andy
Apaid Jr. led the Group of 184, the “unarmed
opposition” which worked in
concert with armed paramilitary groups
which terrorized Haiti in the lead up to
the 2004 coup against Aristide. Other
prominent team members include Fritz
Alphonse Jean, the Montana group’s
candidate for provisional President of
Haiti, and Joel Edouard “Pacha” Vorbe,
a member of Fanmi Lavalas’ executive
committee.
Let’s review. The NED chose
to bring together a Haitian millionaire
venture capitalist partnered with
the NED, two representatives of an
NED-funded Haitian human rights
organization that promotes U.S. intervention,
the ex-Deputy Special Representative
of the UN Secretary-General
for MINUSTAH, a director at the NED
who organized the funding – with U.S.
tax dollars – of opposition groups who
executed a coup d’état against Aristide
and hundreds of other elected representatives.
The conference was organized
in part to launch the Manifesto that
promotes the American Global Fragility
Act. The representatives of these Haitian-led
organizations promoting U.S.
intervention stood on the same stage
as imperial agents like Fabiola Cordova
and Carl Alexandre who have directly
contributed to the destruction of Haitian
democracy and sovereignty.
NED-funded “Haitian-led” organizations
like KL and OCAPH serve the
purpose of creating consensus among
Haiti’s political class for the U.S. government’s
foreign policy goal in Haiti:
another American-led intervention in
Haiti.
This intervention will be applied
under the Global Fragility Act.
Enter the Global Fragility Act
The American 2019 Global Fragility
Act (GFA) outlines a “peace building”
strategy to “stabilize conflict-affected
areas and prevent violence and fragility.”
The Biden administration hopes the
GFA will establish the United States as
a “trusted partner — a force for peace
and stability in the world.” The GFA
emphasizes building relationships with
“local civil society” by “strengthen[ing]
the capacity of the United States to be
an effective leader of international efforts
to prevent extremism and violent
conflict.” This “capacity” also includes
“planned security assistance” over periods
of ten years.
The GFA has received full
support from both ruling-class parties
– Democrat and Republican – and virtually
all of the U.S. think-tanks which
have opined on it. The Act also has the
support of the Canadian government.
“Partnering” with Haiti under the
Global Fragility Act
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The Biden administration recently announced
that Haiti is the first “partner”
under the GFA.
Before this announcement, articles
supporting the GFA focused on it
as a vital tool for preventing “adversaries
such as China and Russia to expand
their influence.”
The GFA has less to do with
“preventing violence and fragility,” and
more to do with keeping Chinese investment
out of so-called fragile states.
The U.S. government is open about
their desire to prevent China – and
Russia – from securing access to raw
materials and developing diplomatic
relations and trade with nations under
Washington’s sphere of influence. Specifically,
in Latin America, the Caribbean,
and Africa.
The push to implement the GFA
is the U.S. government’s attempt to develop
bilateral relations with so-called
fragile states to gain access to key raw
materials and prevent China from gaining
“unwanted political leverage.” The
Biden administration wants to ensure
that the U.S. maintains “geopolitical
leverage” in its sphere of influence, including
Haiti, which has been reduced
to neo-colony status since the 2004
coup.
Haiti is now a pawn in the U.S.
government’s Cold War with China.
The intent of the prolonged, brutal
depravation and cruelty the U.S. has
imposed on Haiti since Jovenel Moïse’s
assassination is to create the necessary
conditions for a U.S. intervention under
the GFA. This 10-year intervention will
prevent Chinese trade and investment
from entering Haiti, while also blocking
historical allies like Venezuela and Cuba
from offering aid and support.
The NED’s role in funding
these various “Haitian-led civil society
groups” and “human rights organizations”
is to manufacture a consensus
among the political class to accept the
GFA, which will lead to a decade-long
plan including “security assistance”
which will be managed by the Defense
Department under the supervision of
the U.S. State Department and USAID.
In other words, an occupation of
Haiti.
The terms “Haitian-led” and
“local civil society groups” are emphasized
by the various U.S. government-funded
think-tanks who promote
the GFA.
NED-funded organizations
such as Initiative de la Société Civile
and OCAPH have already endorsed
the GFA. As momentum builds, more
U.S.-funded “civil society” groups in
Haiti are likely to endorse the GFA as
part of a “Haitian-led” solution to the
crisis in Haiti.
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Creating Consensus for a Future
“Partnership” with the United
States
In early October 2022, Ariel Henry
requested military assistance from the
U.S., UN, and CORE group governments
to suppress the citizen revolt
against his unelected government.
The Montana group leaders responded,
describing his request as “an
act of treason” and said that “foreign
troops would only make things worse,”
according to a Reuters report. After
meeting with Assistant Secretary of
State Brian Nichols when he and his
delegation visited Haiti, Ted Saint-Dic
called for the resignation of PM Ariel
Henry. Saint-Dic is a spokesperson for
Montana, in addition to being one of
the coalition’s leaders.
“History teaches us that no foreign
force has ever solved the problems
of any people on earth,” the Montana
group leaders said in a statement, adding
that Haiti instead needs support for
its police force. “It is our Haitian police
force that will have the ability to once
and for all solve the insecurity problems
that Haitians are experiencing.”
Montana leaders clearly do not
want a military occupation force inside
Haiti under Henry’s rule. The leaders
were happy, however, to take part in
a photo-op after meeting with Nichols.
Pictures of Nichols, Comeau, and Saint-
Dic smiling and shaking hands were
shared on Twitter after their meeting.
Blinken urged them to “urgently develop
consensus on an accord.”
The Montana leaderships statement
may seem at odds with a recent
article by Saint-Dic for Just Security. In
the article, Ted Saint-Dic argues that
“U.S. officials should do everything in
their power to seize this fragile opportunity
to support and create space for
Haitians engaged in an extraordinary
effort to rebuild democracy.”
While not referring to the GFA
directly, Saint-Dic says the U.S. has a
“powerful and important role in helping
get democracy back on track in Haiti.”
Saint-Dic goes further, however,
seemingly requesting a military intervention
on behalf of the Montana
group when he states: the “United
States should use creative and aggressive
tactics to intercept criminal activity
in Haiti.”
One can surmise that, from the
perspective of Montana’s leadership,
the problem isn’t U.S. and CORE group
interference in Haiti’s affairs, but only
that it is happening under Henry.
The “powerful and important
role” the U.S. government has, in
Saint-Dic’s view, is to “get democracy
on track in Haiti” by recognizing the
Montana group’s chosen interim President
Fritz Alphonse Jean and interim
Prime-Minster Steven Benoit. Saint-
Dic’s invitation to the United States to
“use creative and aggressive tactics to
intercept criminal activity in Haiti” is a
clear sign to the Biden administration
that if they recognize Montana’s interim
leaders, they would allow for some
sort of “planned security assistance.”
Montana & the GFA
Henry is becoming increasingly unviable
as a representative for the U.S. and
CORE group in Haiti.
The various crises imposed
on Haitians by the Washington and
their CORE group allies over the past
year have weakened the Montana
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16 Haiti Liberté/Haitian Times
Vol 16 # 22 • Du 30 Novembre au 6 Décembre 2022