Disaster capitalists flocked to Haiti in a 鈥済old rush鈥 for contracts to rebuild the country after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, wrote the current US ambassador Kenneth Merten in a secret Febuary 1, 2010 cable obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by Haiti Liberte.
Haiti
US officials in Haiti warned that the Haitian government would be unable to handle a catastrophic earthquake five years before a devastating tremor ended up destroying large swathes of the Haitian capital and surrounding towns, killing tens of thousands and destroying hundreds of buildings.
The information was revealed in a secret US cable obtained by the media organisation WikiLeaks.
The United States embassy in Haiti worked closely with factory owners contracted by Levi's, Hanes, and Fruit of the Loom to aggressively block a paltry minimum wage rise for Haitian assembly zone workers.
The moves to block a wage rise for the lowest paid in the western hemisphere were revealed by secret US State Department cables obtained by Haiti Liberte and The Nation magazine.
The factory owners refused to pay $0.62 an hour, or $5 per eight-hour day, as mandated by a measure unanimously passed by Haiti鈥檚 parliament in June 2009.
Haiti finds itself with a president-elect with ties to the extreme right 鈥 thanks to a concerted effort by foreign powers to continue thwarting the social justice aspirations of the Haitian people.
President-elect Michel Martelly is closely associated with the forces that overthrew elected governments in 1991 and 2004.
He told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio鈥檚 The Current on April 7 that Haiti has been 鈥済oing in the wrong direction for the last 25 years鈥.
鈥淗aiti鈥檚 infamous dictator 鈥楤aby Doc鈥 Duvalier, returned to his country this week, while the country's first elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is kept out鈥, Mark Weisbrot wrote in the January 20 Huffington Post.
鈥淭hese two facts really say everything about Washington鈥檚 policy toward Haiti, and our government's respect for democracy in that country and in the region.鈥
Of all the commentaries and interviews coinciding with the anniversary of Haiti鈥檚 earthquake, none are likely to exceed in significance the interview granted by OAS Representative to Haiti, Ricardo Seitenfus, to the Swiss daily Le Temps on December 20.
In the lead-up to the one-year anniversary of Haiti鈥檚 January 12, 2010 earthquake, a brutally frank account of the plight of its people was delivered by a highly placed diplomat.
Ricardo Seitenfus, the representative to Haiti of the Organization of American States, delivered a hard-hitting assessment of the foreign role in that country in an interview in the December 20 Swiss daily Le Temps.
Seitenfus, a Brazilian, was immediately recalled from his posting.
Those who counselled against holding a national election in Haiti in the midst of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis will take no comfort in the debacle it became.
Our thoughts rest squarely with the tens of thousands of people afflicted with cholera, or the hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims still without shelter, clean water and hope. How much suffering could have been alleviated with the tens of million of dollars spent on a wasted electoral exercise?
Haiti's November 28 election was marred by widespread fraud. Despite the call of all the leading candidates but one to cancel the exercise, officials with the UN Security Council mission as well as the United States, Canada and Europe are voicing satisfaction with the result and urging the country鈥檚 electoral commission to press ahead with a second-round runoff vote in January.
The statement below was released on November 3 by the Canada Haiti Action Network in preparation for Haiti鈥檚 November 28 elections. For more information, visit . To contact CHAN, email canadahaiti@gmail.com.
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The Canada Haiti Action Network is once again expressing its grave concerns about exclusionary elections in Haiti.
Cap Haitien, Haiti鈥檚 second largest city, was awakened by demonstrations on November 15 against the United Nation鈥檚 occupation force, Minustah, which is accused of being responsible for starting the cholera epidemic in Haiti.
Shortly after 6am, thousands of angry demonstrators took to the streets in the city, where cholera has killed more than 200 people. Demonstrators also denounced the Haitian government鈥檚 mismanagement of the epidemic.
A report by the government of Cuba, posted to the United Nations Relief Web website, said representatives of the Union of South American nations (Unasur 鈥 which unites all South American countries), met via teleconference on October 25 and agreed to commence emergency medical shipments to the areas of Haiti affected by the cholera epidemic, CanadaHaitiAction reported.
Ten countries took part in the conference: Argentina; Chile; Colombia; Peru, Venezuela; Bolivia; Uruguay; Paraguay; Brazil and Ecuador.
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