Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup

For activists interested in learning more about the recent U.S. military intervention in Haiti which resulted in massive human rights violations and the kidnapping of left-wing president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, this brief anthology of essays and Democracy Now! interviews is an excellent introduction. As the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Haiti, a former French colony and current victim of World Bank/IMF structural adjustment programs, has suffered years of U.S. sponsored dictatorships and paramilitary violence. As a former Catholic priest who preached liberation theology, Aristide fought to improve the lives of Haiti's enormous underclass who for centuries have endured horrific levels of poverty, illness, political repression, illiteracy, and environmental destruction. For this transgression, Aristide, like Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and Salvador Allende in Chile, was seen as a threat to mulitnational corporate interests and overthrown. As the global justice movement maintains its focus on Venezuela, Bolivia, Chiapas and the Middle East, it's important that we also not forget the situation in Haiti. Here, in the United States, we must also not ignore the plight of Haitian refugees who face criminalization and/or deportation as a result of racist immigration policies and who, like gay and bisexual men, have been scapegoated for the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Despite the poor reviews other people have posted on this website, I found this book to be a very educational and thought-provoking tool to help us better defend the poorest and most oppressed members of human society.

This book deals with the recent details of the perils or the crisis that have happened in this former slave island. The first democratically elected president Jean aristide has been kidnapped by US military ,and the nation has been handed over death squad paramilitary and drug trader;guy philies, chamblain,and US ciizen andy apaid. It simply says her sad history due to French and US military intervention, and also sad current situation that the first democratically elected(with 94 percent support),and more importantly, the rarest leader who cares about the interest of poor general population has been abducted and forced to leave the country due to US intervention. Most of the book was the interviews by DEMOCRACYNOW with journalists amy goodman, but the book begins with Chomsky's article(which made me buy the book) and paul farmer's description of the modern history of haiti. I read every days LA and NY times,and had only vague idea about this island until this book. The book kept suprising me too much for me to stop reading. It shows grim current situation and future of the nation, and the clear violation of Human right and internation regulation by US contras.