Haiti:
Where Will the Poor Go?
by Seth Donnelly
During my last trip to
Haiti this June with a delegation of students and human
rights observers, we were exposed to the raw violence of the
ongoing forced dispersal of the poor.
On May 31, the Martelly regime
intensified a process — in the name of "eminent domain" —
of violently evicting the poor from their homes in downtown
Port-au-Prince and then physically destroying their homes
and businesses. We met with a group of men and women who
had been subjected to this violence, and we filmed their
extensive testimony. They spoke of SWAT police and
bulldozers coming at night, of having only 10 minutes to
flee their homes, then witnessing the destruction of
everything they had.
These survivors came to us with
tears, anger, and backpacks full of the only possessions
they had left. They spoke of having to sleep in parks or on
roofs, of children being put out on the street, of
vulnerability to infection and ongoing harassment by the
government.
One man, speaking on behalf of the
Representatives of the Citizens of Centre-Ville Against
Forced Displacement, stated that more than 62,000 people had
lost their homes in downtown Port-au-Prince since May 31.
The Martelly regime has not provided compensation or
humane, alternative housing — in clear violation of the
Haitian Constitution. Indeed, official sources acknowledge
that 400 properties have been destroyed, but only 17 people
compensated. (1) Clearly, this grossly underestimates the
numbers of people rendered homeless, since legally
registered pieces of property may actually consist of
multiple dwellings of the poor with dozens of people living
within them.
Secretary of State Planning
Michel Présumé stated earlier in the spring that the
Martelly regime had taken all the necessary steps to
compensate "the owners."
"We deposited this money in a
deposit account,” he said, “ and owners have just to appear
with their original titles, so they can receive from the
expropriation Committee the value of their land or their
homes in accordance with the evaluation criteria for
buildings." (2) Undoubtedly, the problem with this
compensation formula is that it does not take into account
the thousands of people dispossessed of their homes who were
tenants, not owners.
Accompanied by a Haitian human
rights journalist, we visited the areas of downtown that had
been subjected to these demolitions; we saw massive
destruction spanning blocks and blocks, including half of
the General Hospital. We saw a bulldozer still at work and
Haitians standing around the rubble, perhaps some still in
shock, as if another earthquake had hit.
The initial eminent domain decree
for the downtown was issued by President Préval in 2010,
then repealed and reissued (with some modifications) by
Martelly. Ostensibly, the goal is to rebuild the
administrative center of the city, but Martelly has also
stated that he welcomes the involvement of "entrepreneurs"
and the private sector Secretary of State Planning Présumé
stated that "the State has a budget of about US$150 million
[for the construction of the administrative city] from
several sources." (3)
The people who shared their
testimony with us blamed Martelly for their dispossession
and current misery. According to these Haitians, the eminent
domain project involves not just the reconstruction of the
administrative center, but the transformation of the
downtown into an upscale, commercial zone. Further
investigation is required to determine other facets of this
plan and sources of funding or investment involved,
particularly those by the "private sector" welcomed by
Martelly.
Where have so many tent city
dwellers already gone? The Martelly regime has dismantled
most of the tent cities through stick-and-carrot methods:
many families have received a one-time payment of $500 to
relocate while others have been violently evicted from the
camps. The $500 payment is notoriously inadequate given the
spike in land and housing prices and rents — a "market
reaction" in large part to so many rich foreigners now
living in Port-au-Prince as part of the NGO/UN network,
Moreover, the price of rice (now "Made in the USA") has
increased dramatically in recent years, perhaps as much as
500%, further rendering this $500 aid package paltry.
We gained a sense of where so
many desperate people are relocating when we visited Canara,
a "city" of approximately 200,000 people seeking to eke out
an existence in the hills in the outskirts of
Port-au-Prince. Out of sight, out of mind — that is for the
foreign tourists and Haitian bourgeoisie who stay at the new
Oasis hotel or who perhaps will shop soon in downtown
Port-au-Prince. The people of Canara do not have any
meaningful access to water, electricity, education,
healthcare, food, or employment, let alone even the cement
and cinder blocks to complete many of their houses. People
are forced to walk or travel considerable distances just to
pay for water, food, and other supplies, if they have the
money. And, yet, while we were meeting with an older Haitian
woman about a water cistern project our team is funding in
her community of Canara, we heard machinery — a bulldozer
and truck — at work. After the meeting, we walked about 50
feet behind her dwelling and discovered that they were
digging out a vast canyon, extracting truckload upon
truckload of rock and sand to be sold elsewhere, reportedly
for the profits of a private company. She came to the edge
of the canyon and yelled down to the workers not to dig any
closer to her home. While she lacked the sand, rock, and
cement to build a simple water cistern for her community, an
apparently private company poached these resources for free
in order to sell to those who could better afford the
"market rate."
On Jun. 19, perhaps as the
bulldozers were still clearing the rubble of people's homes
in downtown Port-au-Prince, Bill Clinton received the
"Lifetime Achievement Award" for his work in Haiti from the
Happy Hearts Fund in the New York City Cipriani Restaurant.
The award ceremony was led by Petra Nemcova, a supermodel
who runs the foundation and who is the girlfriend of the
current Haitian Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe. Also in the
audience was Haitian President Michel Martelly, who received
an award for his "leadership in education." Outside of the
lavish restaurant, a group of Haitian activists and their
allies protested the ceremony, chanting, "Clinton, where is
the money for reconstruction?" (4)
The timing of these awards is
particularly absurd. According to the news website Tout
Haiti, earlier this April, two prominent lawyers have
petitioned Haiti's Superior Court of Auditors and
Administrative Disputes to demand an audit of Bill Clinton's
management of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC).
A federal audit, conducted by the U.S. Government
Accountability Office and released on Oct. 9, 2013, raised
major concerns about the USAID's recent work in Haiti,
particularly on Clinton-backed projects. (5)
But there is a deeper issue than
alleged missing funds, mismanagement, and shoddy, incomplete
aid projects. The deeper issue is Clinton's agenda for
"development" in Haiti: a strategy that is not really
healthy development at all, but rather mal-development in
the service of corporate exploitation of the country's
resources and people. Expanding this corporate-driven
mal-development was a central agenda for Clinton in the
1990s, just as it is for the Obama administration today.
As President, Clinton pushed this
strategy when he pressured the Haitian government to open up
its economy to U.S.-subsidized, big business rice exports,
thereby driving many Haitian rice farmers out of business
and crippling Haiti's domestic rice industry. (6) Though
Clinton publicly apologized for this "trade policy," he has
been pursuing a similar corporate strategy through his
handling of "aid" as head of the Clinton Foundation and the
IHRC since the 2010 earthquake. (7) He has been a vigorous
supporter of the new Caracol Industrial Park, funded in
large part by USAID. The "park" consists of garment
sweatshops that offer substandard, unlivable wages. This has
been a boon to companies that can have clothing assembled in
Haiti by workers receiving near-slave wages, then sold in
the U.S. without having to pay any customs. (8) However, as
investigative reporter Jonathan Katz notes, the "park" has
not been such a boon to the local Haitians:
"But less than a year after
Caracol Industrial Park's gala opening — with Bill and
Hillary Clinton, Sean Penn, designer Donna Karan and Haiti's
current and former presidents among the guests — the feeling
these days is disappointment Hundreds of smallholder
farmers were coaxed into giving up more than 600 acres of
land for the complex, yet nearly 95% of that land remains
unused A much-needed power plant was completed on the site,
supplying the town with more electricity than ever, but
locals say surges of wastewater have caused foods and
spoiled crops.
"Most critically, fewer than
1,500 jobs have been created — paying too little, the locals
say, and offering no job security. ‘We thought there was
going to be some benefit for us,' says Ludwidge Fountain,
34. He worked for two months at the park as a guard, taking
home about $3.40 a day, until his contract ran out. ‘Maybe
it's good for some of the people inside the park. Everyone
else got nothing.'" (9)
Since coming to power, Martelly
has been rebuilding the Duvalierist system in which the elite get rich in ventures
with foreign interests (e.g., Clinton), while the poor
majority is further marginalized, immiserated, and
increasingly subjected to selective repression. Likewise, Bill Clinton has
funneled aid money to establish a business venture between
Coca-Cola and local mango farmers, using existing mango
groves and using land for new groves to produce exports for
Coca-Cola and its "Haiti Hope" project (an Odwalla drink).
About the project, Clinton stated: "The Coca-Cola Company
responded to Haiti's urgent immediate needs with financial
support and beverages. The Haiti Hope Project goes a step
further and exemplifies the innovative role that
partnerships with the private sector can play in the
reconstruction of Haiti.” (10)
According to Coca-Cola's
website, $9 5 million has been raised since 2010 to launch
this project in a public-private partnership Coca-Cola
claims to have 19,000 mango farmers "enrolled" in the
project, frequently organized into co-ops, and that half of
these farmers are women. Moreover, Coca-Cola claims that 10
cents on every bottle of "Odwalla Mango Tango Smoothie"
purchased will go back to "Haiti Hope.” (11) The
Clinton-Bush Fund gave a grant of more than $500,000 to the
project. (12) Projects such as this do not advance Haiti's
vital need for food security, but instead tether the
well-being of Haitian farmers to the fickle tastes of more
affluent, primarily "First World" consumers.
The Clinton Foundation is
also funding similar agricultural, "supply chain" projects
involving peanut and coffee farmers. The Foundation claims
to be assisting these farmers by funding the construction of
regional depots, providing marketing and technical
assistance, as well as linking the farmers to buyers
elsewhere, such as the Four Seasons Restaurant chain. (13)
As with the Coca-Cola Project, this "market-driven" and
export-led approach to agricultural development fails to
directly address Haiti's vital need for domestic food
production and security While Haitians produce more coffee,
peanuts, and mangos for export, they remain dependent upon
overpriced, U.S. corporate food imports, while growing
tracts of their land are being leased of to "foreign
investors" for "industrial parks" and tourist sites.
Then there is the infamous
Oasis Hotel in Port-au- Prince, a huge, elite structure
built to court rich tourists and foreign investors. It is
"awkwardly" close to the houses and shacks of the poor that
lack decent sanitation, plumbing, and electricity. The
Clinton-Bush fund allocated $2 million in "aid" to construct
this hotel. (14) Clinton is likewise allocating more
Foundation aid into the construction of a new Marriott
Hotel.
Tourism, sweatshops, and
export-agriculture: these are integral components of
Clinton's vision for Haiti. Undoubtedly, some of this
"development" will require the coercive dispersal of the
rural poor who occupy land that will be turned into "free
trade zones" and of the urban poor who occupy space — either
in tent cities or popular neighborhoods — slated for tourist
projects and up-scale commercial zones.
And what of Martelly, the
other award recipient? Has he doubled the rate of Haitian
children going to school, as claimed in the Happy Heart Fund
ceremony? This claim is patently false, according to Haitian
grassroots educators who we interviewed. Martelly pledged to
provide payments to schools on a per pupil basis, but this
funding reportedly only covers a fraction of all pupils and,
to date, has not even been received by schools for this past
school year. Many teachers have not been paid in months,
resulting in the recent, widespread teacher and student
protests. Apparently, super-model Petra Nemcova was unaware
of these basic, easily verifiable realities on the ground in
Haiti when she awarded Martelly.
Martelly came to power in
2011 through sham elections — what many Haitians call
“selections” — because the largest political and most
popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, the party of the
poor majority, was excluded from participation. Only 22% (or
less) of the electorate voted and, of that fraction,
Martelly received the winning fraction. This was reportedly
the worst voter turn-out in the Americas since 1947. (15)
The Obama Administration financed the selections (including
legislative positions) to the tune of at least $14 million.
(16) Moreover, the administration exerted considerable
pressure, including threats to cut of aid to Haiti, in order
to insure that Martelly was included in the runoff
elections, even though he technically placed third in the
first round. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to
Haiti and personally intervened to help push Martelly into
power.” (17) Martelly, himself a very wealthy entertainer,
spent considerable sums of his own fortune to leverage his
"victory" (the equivalent of $15 billion in the U.S.).
Martelly's Duvalierist ties in Haiti and his far right
connections abroad have been well documented by reporter and
historian Greg Grandin, among others.
(18)
Predictably, since coming
to power, Martelly has been rebuilding the Duvalierist
system in which the elite get rich in ventures with foreign
interests (e g , Clinton), while the poor majority is
further marginalized, immiserated, and increasingly
subjected to selective repression. Martelly has attempted
to rebuild the dreaded Haitian army, (19) he has integrated
Duvalierist elements into his regime, and he has established
a supportive, friendly environment for "Baby Doc" Duvalier,
now back in Haiti. (20)
Grassroots activists of the
poor reported to our team that they are experiencing threats
on their lives by a growing network of repressive agents.
The Martelly regime has postponed legislative elective and
mayoral elections, with Martelly instead selecting many
mayors across the country, including in Port-au-Prince. A
high-level judge who was calling for an investigation into
Martelly and his family for corruption mysteriously died
several days after meeting with and reportedly being
verbally attacked by Martelly and his Prime Minister
(Lamothe). Many Haitians suspect death by poisoning. (21)
In ostentatious displays of
their wealth, Martelly and his family are well-known for
their extensive travels abroad and lavish life styles. He is
an excellent junior partner for Bill Clinton and the Obama
Administration.
The people in downtown
Port-au-Prince whose homes and businesses have been
destroyed are demanding justice and reparations. They have
just experienced another earthquake, and they are clear that
this one is human-made, in the service of "economic
development" that discards the poor. Now is the time to join
our voices with them in demanding justice and reparations.
Now is the time to join our voices with those of Haitian
grassroots activists in the Lavalas movement struggling
courageously for the restoration of democracy in Haiti.
This article was first published in
Haiti Solidarity, the newsletter of the Haiti Action
Committee. Seth Donnelly is a member of the Haiti Action
Committee and a Bay Area high school teacher. He regularly
travels to and works in Haiti.
Endnotes
1. Personal communication
2. Haiti Libre, "Haiti-Reconstruction:
the Demolition of the Area of Public Utility.”
http://www.haitilibre
com/en/news-8090-haiti-reconstruction-expropriation-no-title-
no-compensation html
3. Haiti Libre, "Haiti-Reconstruction:
Expropriation, No Title, No Compensation "
http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11287-haiti-reconstruction-the-demolition-of-the-area-of-public-utility-began-in-port-au-prince.html.
Also, for a 2012 projected breakdown of funding for the
particular components of the "administrative center"
project, see www skyscrapercity co, "Haiti-Reconstruction:
the New Haiti Is Emerging."
4. For a more in-depth discussion of
this event and the protest, see Dunkel, "Haiti: Bill Clinton
Receives ‘Lifetime Achievement Award' But Where Is the Money
for Reconstruction?"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/haiti-bill-clinton-receives-lifetime-achievement-award-but-where-is-the-
money-for-reconstruction/5388737.
5. The GAO report is available at
http://www. gao gov/products/gao-14-47t.
6. See Katz, “With Cheap Food Imports,
Haiti Can’t Feed Itself ”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/with-cheap-food-imports-h_n_507228
html.
7. See his filmed apology on “Democracy
Now”, Apr. 1, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/1/clinton_rice.
8. For excellent coverage, see Edmonds,
“Sweatshops Over Homes” http://nacla.org/news/sweatshops-over-homes-haiti.
9. Katz, “A Glittering Industrial Park
in Haiti Falls Short” http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/10/a-glittering-industrialparkfallsshortinhaiti.html.
10. "Coca Cola Scheme Brings Hope to
Haiti" on www.coca-cola.co.uk.
11. See Moye, "Hope in Haiti: Why Job
Creation and Economic Development Will Drive Nation’s
Recovery” http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/hope-in-haiti-why-job-
creation-and-economic-development-will-drive-nations-recovery.
12. See the "Haiti Hope Project" fact
sheet on Clinton Bush Fund website.
13. See official website for the
Clinton Foundation.
14. For a detailed examination of this
"aid" project, see Wilentz, "Letter from Haiti: Life in the
Ruins " http://www.thenation.com/article/172101/letter-haiti-life-ruins.
15. For a summary of the many problems
with these "selections", see Weisbrot, "Haiti Election: a
Travesty of Democracy" and IJDH, "The United States Should
Support Fair and Inclusive Elections in Haiti " http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/10/haiti-oas-election-runoff
16. Beeton, "Haiti's Elections: Parties
Banned, Media Yawns " http://www cepr net/index
php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/haitis-elections-parties-banned-media-yawns.
17. Grandin, "Martelly: Haiti's Second
Great Disaster,” http://www aljazeera
com/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115413435816393 html.
18. Ibid
19. The Economist, "Haiti's Army: Who
Needs Them?"
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21588085-michel-martelly-pushes-ahead-reviving-army-who-needs-them.
20. CEPR, "Former Dictator Lives the
Good Life "
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/former-dictator-lives-the-good-life-as-haitian-government-has-deliberately-stalled-investigation.
21. Geffrard, "Haiti: Political Assassination?"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/haiti-political-assassination-suspicious-death-of-judge-who-called-for-prosecution-of-presidential-family/5343313. |