Venezuela steps up aid effort to Haiti

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Venezuela steps up aid effort to Haiti, questions US military deployment

By Kiraz Janicke, Caracas

January 20, 2010 - Venezuelanalysis.com - Venezuela has stepped up its aid effort to Haiti as a second earthquake rocked the Caribbean country again today.

This follows a 7.3 magnitude earthquake which destroyed the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince last week leaving at least 75,000 people confirmed dead, 250,000 injured and millions homeless.

Echoing his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega, who accused the United States of "manipulating the tragedy to install North American troops in Haiti" and French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet, who criticised the US role in Haiti, saying the priority was "helping Haiti, not occupying Haiti", Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez also questioned the US military response to the disaster.

"It seems that the United States is militarily occupying Haiti, taking advantage of the tragedy, 6000 soldiers have arrived.

Thousands are disembarking in Haiti as if it were a war", Chávez said during his weekly television program Alo Presidente on January 18.

Haiti "needs doctors, tents, rescue teams and machinery...

Now, who said soldiers, rifles and machine guns are necessary?", he asked.

As of January 20, the US has donated US$130 million (according to US AID), sent more than 11,200 military personal, 265 government medical personal, five Navy ships, as well as five Coast Guard cutters and seven cargo planes "to assist in aid delivery, support and evacuations", Associated Press (AP) reported.

The US has delivered "more than 90,000 pounds" or 40 metric tonnes of aid and supplies the AP report continued.

The US has also taken control of the airport at Port-au-Prince.

Read the rest of the article here: links.org.au/node/1474#comment-55534

Also:

Haiti needs medical relief, not military intervention -- add your name to open letter
22 January 2010

The "open letter" published below has been initiated by the Canada Haiti Action Network.

CHAN is calling for individuals and organisations to add their names to the statement, You can add your name here.

January 21, 2010 -- We, the undersigned, are outraged by the scandalous delays in distributing essential aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Since the US Air Force seized unilateral control of the airport in Port-au-Prince, it has privileged military over civilian humanitarian flights.

As a result, untold numbers of people have died needlessly in the rubble of Port-au-Prince, Leogane and other abandoned towns.

If aid continues to be withheld, many more preventable deaths will follow.

We demand that US commanders immediately restore executive control of the relief effort to Haiti's leaders, and to help rather than replace the local officials they claim to support.

We note that obsessive foreign concerns with 'security' and 'looting' are largely refuted by actual levels of patience and solidarity on the streets of Port-au-Prince.

The decision to avoid what US commanders have called "another Somalia-type situation" by prioritizing security and military control is likely to succeed only in provoking the very kinds of unrest they condemn.

In keeping with a longstanding pattern, US and UN officials continue to treat the Haitian people and their representatives with wholly misplaced fear and suspicion.

We call on the de facto rulers of Haiti to facilitate, as the reconstruction begins, the renewal of popular participation in the determination of collective priorities and decisions.

We demand that they do everything possible to strengthen the capacity of the Haitian people to respond to this crisis.

We demand, consequently, that they allow Haiti's most popular and most inspiring political leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide (whose party won 90% of the parliamentary seats in the country's last round of democratic elections), to return immediately and safely from the unconstitutional exile to which he has been confined since the US, Canada and France helped depose him in 2004.

If reconstruction proceeds under the supervision of foreign troops and international development agencies it will not serve the interests of the vast majority of Haiti's population.

Neoliberal forms of international "aid" have already directly contributed to the systematic impoverishment of Haiti's people and the undermining of their government, and in both 1991 and 2004 the US intervened to overthrow the elected government and attack its supporters, with devastating effects.

This is why we urgently call on the countries that dominate Haiti and the region to respect Haitian sovereignty and to initiate an immediate reorientation of international aid, away from neo-liberal adjustment, sweatshop exploitation and non-governmental charity, and towards systematic investment in Haiti's own people and government.

We demand a much greater international role for Haiti's genuine allies and supporters, including Cuba, South Africa, Venezuela, the Bahamas and other members of CARICOM.

We demand that all reconstruction aid take the form of grants not loans.

We demand that Haiti's remaining foreign debt be immediately forgiven, and that the money that foreign governments still owe to Haiti -- notably the massive sums extorted by the French government from 1825 through to 1947 as compensation for the slaves and property France lost when Haiti won its independence -- be paid in full and at once.

Above all, we demand that the reconstruction of Haiti be pursued under the guidance of one overarching objective: the political and economic empowerment of the Haitian people.

Initial signatories:

Jean Saint-Vil, Canada Haiti Action Network

Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee, USA

Noam Chomsky, MIT

Niraj Joshi, Toronto Haiti Action Committee

Roger Annis, Canada Haiti Action Network

Brian Concannon Jr., Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti

BC Holmes, Toronto Haiti Action Committee

Yves Engler, Canada Haiti Action Network

Peter Hallward, Middlesex University

Kevin Pina, journalist and film-maker

Kevin Skerrett, Canada Haiti Action Network

links.org.au/comment/reply/1474/55530

Gonaives, January 23 2010, 5:18 PM

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