Haiti 2010: Earthquake, cholera, fixed elections and resistance

By G. Dunkel

Jan 19, 2011

Haiti has endured a year of unimaginable and profound suffering, under a government dedicated to greed and serving the interests of the imperialists. More than 1.5 million people are living in huts or under sheets and tarps throughout Port-au-Prince, still homeless since last January’s earthquake. There is an unemployment rate of 80 percent. More than 3,600 people have died and another 171,000 are infected from the cholera epidemic, imported by Minustah, the U.N.’s occupation force.

But the last year also saw mass, popular anger and militant street protests over the terrible conditions and the fraudulent November elections and phony vote count.

The voting was so obviously rigged that 12 of the 18 presidential candidates demanded the elections be annulled. Some candidates even demanded that Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) members be arrested on fraud and incitement to violence charges.

The CEP announced on Dec. 7 that President Rene Préval’s protégé Jude Célestin had edged out popular singer Michel Martelly for a run-off spot in the presidential election against Mirlande Manigat.

However, the popular reaction was swift and angry. Protesters shut down most of the major cities. Barricades were burned. As a result, the CEP and Préval backed down and said the results were provisional.

The Organization of American States then sent a “technical” mission to Haiti at the end of December to review the election’s vote counts, aiming to arrive at a politically acceptable arrangement for the Haitian ruling class and their imperialist patrons.

The OAS’s subsequent report found rampant voting irregularities and fraud, which invalidated the purported voting results. It said that Manigat was in the lead, with Martelly second and Célestin third. Haiti-Libre says that it appears that Manigat and Martelly will be the candidates for the second round. However, this result was only due to the people’s struggle in the streets against the phony election.

The elections were fake from the start because the most popular political party, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas, was excluded from the ballot by the CEP — because if Fanmi Lavalas, a party detested by the imperialists, ran, it would win. Even the CEP found that less than 23 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, very likely because they didn’t like the choices.

The Préval administration hasn’t even been able to keep its handpicked members on the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, in charge of approving all international fund allocations donated after the earthquake, from kicking up a fuss. The 12 Haitian members wrote an open letter to the IHRC chair, former U.S. President Bill Clinton: “The twelve Haitian members signing this letter feel completely disconnected from the activities of the IHRC. ... In spite of our role in the governance structure of the institution, we have so far received no follow-up on the IHRC activities.” (Le Matin, Dec. 12)

Before the earthquake, Haiti had the lowest income of any country in the Western Hemisphere, the least developed state institutions like schools, roads and water systems, and no functioning sewage treatment plant. This was the result of 200 years of economic isolation and intensely greedy neocolonial exploitation. Losing 316,000 people in the earthquake, with hundreds of thousands more severely injured, put unbearable stress on its institutions.

This natural disaster cost Haiti $7.75 billion last year, and the country’s gross domestic product declined by 7 percent, according to the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Barely any of the large donations pledged by the imperialist countries have arrived, nor have they provided much help in building housing and sanitation facilities or providing medical care. Private nongovernmental organizations have offered some relief and medical care — services that governments furnish in wealthier, more developed countries.

The cholera epidemic is a huge problem. Clean water, soap and latrines would prevent cholera from spreading, but millions of Haitians have no access to these simple necessities. The disease is easy to treat, but, according to Reuters, the Cuban Medical Brigade and Doctors Without Borders provide most of the care to cholera victims. (Jan. 5)

The government hasn’t yet chosen one of the proposed plans to move the earthquake debris, so barely 5 percent of the debris has been removed. Without this, houses or even temporary shelters can’t be built. The one large-scale temporary housing project, for about 15,000 families, was put together on a flood plain with no reasonable access to schools or jobs. Some of the shelters first put up are now falling apart.

However, despite the deep hardships endured by the Haitian people, they are fighting back. When Préval tried to commemorate Haiti’s independence in Gonaïve’s main square on Jan. 1, the people booed him down. Anger is growing among the people of Haiti, especially those living in the camps, who have had no improvements in their living situation.