To the Presidents of the Latin American Countries occupying Haiti

Today, October 17th, marks the anniversary of the assassination of Haiti ’s founding father, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. This is also the same week in which the UN occupation forces, the MINUSTAH, announced the renewal of its mandate on our land of Dessalines . These troops, led by Brazil , are mainly composed of Latin Americans, a region whose independence was largely gained with the help of the new Haitian nation.

As we pay tribute to the memory of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines,

We recall this great leader’s ultimate outcry: “And, what, I ask, are we leaving for the children of Africa on this land?!” referring to the recently liberated enslaved population here, deliberately excluded from the “spoils of war” following the revolution.

An outcry clearly opposed to the emerging new ruling classes’ plans to exploit the workers, and which led to his assassination; an outcry that, today still, confronts the imperialists’ and their local puppets’ imposed neo-liberal agenda.

We’ve handed to the regional governments occupying Haiti our stand on the mystifying “assistance” they’re pushing down our throats and the occupation-protectorate they’re imposing upon us.

This text is also circulating in various countries of the region ( Brazil , Argentina , Uruguay , Bolivia , Chile , Peru …), where progressives in each of these countries have delivered it to their respective governments, and on the streets. They’re also rallying and protesting this week to explicit their total rejection of this unbearable situation.

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Port-Au-Prince , October 16, 2008

TO THE PRESIDENTS OF THE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES OCCUPYING HAITI

Presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala through their embassies in Haiti

Since over four years, under the guise of the UN, military forces of Latin American countries under the leadership of Brazil have been occupying Haiti militarily. The arguments justifying their presence are always the same: the military occupation’s goal is to guarantee peace and stability in the country. However, this is far from the truth. Such talk about “humanitarian assistance” and economic aid is not intended to solve the Haitian people’s real basic needs. The real purpose is to defend the rich’s interests, as well as those of U.S. imperialism. Such occupations always result from a power struggle whose outcome is far from respecting the peoples’ sovereign rights.

The true goal of the occupation in Haiti is to settle that the people here can’t independently debate and emerge with the solutions necessary to solve our own problems. Accordingly, force and repression are necessarily integral parts of such a policy: countless denunciations of assassinations, rapes, blatant violations of our democratic rights have been registered against the occupation forces in the country - all being the direct consequences of military occupation.

This is why we demand that the governments of all Latin American and Caribbean countries sending troops to Haiti pull out immediately, according to the principle of respect for all peoples’ sovereign rights.

OCCUPATION FORCES, OUT NOW!

HAITIAN PEOPLE’S SOVEREIGN RIGHTS, FORWARD!

DOWN WITH FOREIGN DEBT SERVICES!

WE OWE NOTHING AND WON’T PAY!

For:

BATAY OUVRIYE (WORKERS’ STRUGGLE): Yannick Etienne
HAITIAN WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY (SOFA): Carole Jacob
HAITIAN PLATFORM ADVOCATING AN ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT (PAPDA): Camille Chalmers
POPULAR DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (MODEP): Guy Numa
DESSALINES UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION (ASID): Emmanuela Paul