Since the February 29th coup d’état, tens of thousands of Haitians have regularly taken to the streets, braving clubs, tear-gas and bullets. There has also been armed resistance in Haiti’s slums as well as in the countryside.

The de facto government and the U.N. occupation forces, which are doing the dirty work of the U.S. and France, have now begun a massive and ruthless crackdown. Over the past three weeks, hundreds have been arrested and scores simply executed. The jails are filling up with political prisoners, now estimated at close to 1000.

Statement of Ben Dupuy, Secretary General of the National Popular Party (PPN)
Counter-Inaugural Rally, Washington, DC

Sisters and Brothers,

On behalf of the Haitian people, we salute the ANSWER Coalition for organizing this historic counter-inauguration rally, and we salute all of you for turning out on this cold day to protest against the policies and conduct of the administration of George W. Bush.

Never before in world history has a government wielded so much power and been so dangerous to the peace and security of the world’s people. Bush and his clique are clearly intent on world domination and have already killed hundreds of thousands to have it. Millions of people are now faced with four more years of war and aggression.

We have experienced that aggression in Haiti over the past four years. President Bush and Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide came to power at about the same time in 2001. Bush lost his popular vote. President Aristide overwhelmingly won his. But ironically, it was the Bush administration that attacked Aristide for being undemocratic.

From 2001 to 2004, the Bush administration worked systematically to overthrow the Aristide government. It used diplomatic pressure, media lies, a manufactured and well-paid opposition, an economic embargo, an arms embargo and a paramilitary contra force trained and based in the neighboring Dominican Republic. It finally succeeded in removing Aristide on February 29, 2004. On that date, U.S. Special Forces, under the direction of the deputy U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, kidnapped President Aristide from his home, put him on a U.S. military plane and flew him to Africa. He has been in exile ever since.

U.S., French and Canadian troops immediately occupied Haiti and installed the puppet government of de facto Prime Minister Gérarad Latortue. Just as in Iraq and Afghanistan, they thought it would be easy to put their own lackeys back in power.

But as we say in Creole, "yo byen konte, me mal kalkile." They counted well, but miscalculated badly. Rather than suppress the resistance of the Haitian people, they just fueled it.

Since the February 29th coup d’état, tens of thousands of Haitians have regularly taken to the streets, braving clubs, tear-gas and bullets. There has also been armed resistance in Haiti’s slums as well as in the countryside.

The de facto government and the U.N. occupation forces, which are doing the dirty work of the U.S. and France, have now begun a massive and ruthless crackdown. Over the past three weeks, hundreds have been arrested and scores simply executed. The jails are filling up with political prisoners, now estimated at close to 1000.

In an eerie parallel with last year’s siege and destruction of Falluja in Iraq, Haitian police and U.N. troops have warned the residents of one resistant neighborhood in the capital, Village de Dieu or God’s Village, that they have two weeks to clear out before the area is "cleansed." This will be by gunfire and fire.

And all of this aggression has been carried out under Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was supposedly the enlightened dove of the Bush administration. What are we now to expect as the cold-war hawk and oil-industry ideologue Condoleeza Rice takes over the State Department? They say that she is the one who coined the term "rogue state." But is there anybody who has done more to turn the U.S. into the quintessential "rogue state," so feared and despised throughout the world? And just as they did with Colin Powell, the U.S. rulers are using an African American to front for their aggression against primarily Third World people. In pre-revolutionary Haiti, we would have called them indigènes de service, that is a colonized slave who defends the colonizing master.

The National Popular Party is standing with the Haitian people in resisting the February 29 coup d’état and the foreign military occupation of Haiti. We stand with our brothers and sisters in neighboring Cuba and Venezuela, both of which are in the cross-hairs of Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush. We stand with all the people of the world who love peace, democracy and sovereignty.

Two centuries ago, our Haitian ancestors rose up and defeated Napoleon’s legions, the most powerful army of the day. Today, we see the same heroism as the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Colombia stand up to the imperial ambitions of the U.S. and its proxies.

The people of Haiti are also displaying that heroism and resistance. The National Popular Party will work tirelessly until the foreign military occupation is driven out of Haiti and constitutional, democratic government returns.

The next four years will be difficult and trying. But with you, our brothers
and sisters from all around the globe, we are assured of victory and of
creating a world free from ignorance, hunger and war.

Ben Dupuy
Secretary General, National Popular Party (PPN)
January 20, 2005