haitiVolume One solidarityAugust 2014 Number Four The newsletter of Haiti Action Committee. $3 haitisolidarity The newsletter of Haiti Action Committee.

Writers & Contributors . Nia Imara, Leslie Mullin ...... Robert Roth, Charlie Hinton ...... Seth Donnelly ...... Dave Welsh ...... Akinyele Omowale Umoja ...... Judith Mirkinson ...... Arlene Eisen Haiti Action Committee. www.haitisolidarity.net ...... [email protected] ...... (510) 483-7481

IN THIS ISSUE Cover art: “Free Palestine / Free Haiti” (Arabic) - Nia Imara Editorial - Haiti Action Committee . 3 Solidarity with El Salvador - Haiti Action Committee . 3 Ten Years Since the 2004 Coup - Dave Welsh . 4 The Fiftieth Anniversary of Freedom Summer - Akinyele Umoja . . 6 Haiti: Where Will the Poor Go? - Seth Donnelly . 8 Shameless Racism in the Venezuelan Counter-Revolution - Arlene Eisen . 12 Oscar Lopez Rivera: 33 Years is Enough - Judith Mirkinson . 16

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s we go to press, Israel is waging a criminal Haiti Solidarity includes the following articles: Hai- air and ground assault against Gaza that has ti Action Committee member Seth Donnelly’s analysis claimed nearly 2,000 Palestinian lives—over- of land takeovers and resistance in Haiti, based on a trip Awhelmingly civilians, including hundreds of children. he took there in July; HAC member Dave Welsh’s report The daily, mind-numbing images of bombed schools on events held internationally in solidarity with Haiti and residential buildings with whole families killed on the tenth anniversary of the February 2004 coup; are horrific. This brutal war, financed and supported Arlene Eisen’s account of racism in the anti-Chavez by the United States, has movement in Venezuela; an become a central human article by Judith Mirkinson rights issue of our time. We dedicate this one-year about Puerto Rican political We stand in solidarity with prisoner Oscar Lopez, who the people of Gaza and— anniversary issue of Haiti Solidarity has served over 33 years in like people around the to Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. US prisons; an article by world—demand an end to Professor Akinyele Umoja the Israeli occupation. about the 50th anniversary of This issue of Haiti Solidarity has a number of arti- Freedom Summer and the continuing fight to bring real cles on struggles throughout the Caribbean and the rest people’s government to Jackson, Mississippi; and a Haiti of Latin America. Haiti Action Committee participates Action solidarity statement upon the inauguration of in the Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition former FMLN guerrilla leader Salvador Sanchez Cerén (BALASC), which works to develop a broad picture of as president of El Salvador. themes that apply to the whole region and the impe- As always, we welcome your feedback. rial role of the United States. Haitians call themselves We dedicate this one-year anniversary issue of Haiti “the laboratory” for US policy in the Americas, and Solidarity to Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, the courageous the suppression of democracy and ongoing occupation Haitian freedom fighter who was disappeared in his in Haiti provides a case in point for Venezuela, Nica- own country on August 12, 2007. ragua, El Salvador, Bolivia, and other Latin American No one is free until all of us are free. Free Palestine. governments who work to support the majority of their A luta continua. i populations. Solidarity with the People of El Salvador aiti Action Committee congratulates President by US-sponsored military coups both times. Now they have Salvador Sanchez Cerén, the FMLN, and all those suffered under a United Nations occupation for more than in El Salvador and internationally who have fought ten years, and the Lavalas Family Party of President Aris- Hfor so many years to achieve this great victory. This elec- tide is not allowed to run candidates in so-called elections, tion demonstrates what hard work, determination, wisdom, because they would win. compassion and sacrifice can accomplish. The goals of the majority of Salvadorans in electing the We also stand in solidarity with Salvadorans as they FMLN mirror the goals of the majority of Haitians who resist the destabilization efforts of the international ruling elected Lavalas—to serve the huge majority of the people elites to undermine their democracy. Haitians know it’s not instead of transnational capital and billionaires. Freedom enough just to win elections. They overwhelmingly elected is a constant struggle. Hasta la victoria siempre! The people Jean-Bertrand Aristide twice, only to see him overthrown united will never be defeated. i

august 2014 | haiti solidarity 3 30events in 22 cities in 7 countries support Haiti’s popular movement 10 years since the 2004 Coup By

aiti marked the tenth anniversary of Dave Welsh the February 29, 2004 coup d’état with large street demonstrations—demanding the ouster of the il- Hlegal coup regime that still rules Haiti today, and an end to the US/United Nations military occupation. Meanwhile, friends of Haiti organized at least 30 events in 22 cities in seven countries, as part of the 2014 Interna- tional Days in Solidarity with the Haitian People, raising similar demands. A statement by the Haiti Action Committee read:

This is the 210th year of Haiti’s 1804 Revolution, as well as the tenth anniversary of the February 29, 2004 coup, en- gineered by the US, France, and Canada, which left a brutal legacy of pain and destruction. The actions of US-imposed President Martelly and his ally Jean-Claude Duvalier clearly 2014 International Days in Solidarity demonstrate what the 2004 coup was all about. The Haitian people are outraged by the step-by-step with the Haitian People return of Duvalierism and its embrace by the fraudulently elected Martelly government—which threatens to bring back Haiti the hated military ... which organizes sweeps of market wom- Throngs of people took the streets of Port-au-Prince on en and midnight raids on the camps of earthquake survivors February 27, marching from the burned-out ruins of Father ... which continues its repressive vendetta against members of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s St. Jean Bosco church (inspirational the majority Lavalas movement. home of the mass movement to overthrow “Baby Doc” Du- We support the Haitian people’s demand that Haiti’s sov- valier in the late 1980s), continuing through popular neigh- ereignty be respected and that the 2004 coup must be reversed. borhoods to the Champs de Mars, near the National Palace. That would mean: Among the marchers was an all-women rara band, which also performed at the eighteenth anniversary of the Aristide • Free and fair elections in which all parties can run candi- Foundation on March 8, International Women’s Day. In a dates. separate event marking the 2004 coup, a film showing was • Putting an end to the repression and the US/UN military organized in a poor working class community in the capital, occupation. screening the Kreyol-language filmAchievements of the Aris- • Rebuilding Haiti the way the Haitian 99 percent want tide Government. Resistance to the Martelly puppet regime it built: Paying a living wage in the factories instead of was not confined to the capital city. In late February, resi- sweatshop wages … Restoring farming self-sufficiency dents of the pastoral southern island of Ile a Vache marched so Haiti can feed itself again … Real Haitian control of to resist the announced land grab and dispossession of the mineral resources and aid funds … Schools, housing and islanders by outside tourist companies, a move backed by health care for the people. the Martelly regime. The protest faced heavy repression by the US-backed authorities.

4 haiti solidarity | august 2014 London, England sachusetts, where community college teachers engaged the Global Women’s Strike put on a benefit concert for the student body and passed out informational literature about grassroots movement in Haiti, honoring the resistance since the 2004 coup in Haiti. At University of California, Santa the 2004 coup. Headliner at the event was Linton Kwesi Cruz, the Haiti Action Committee addressed hundreds of Johnson, the Jamaican-born dub poet based in the UK. students, putting the coup in the context of long years of Global Women’s Strike also organized Haiti benefit concerts resistance by the Haitian people against French and US in Philadelphia and at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. domination.

The Americas Africa A Garifuna community in the southern part of the Through the wonders of modern media, in early March Central American country Belize organized workshops in millions of viewers and listeners were able to hear the mes- early March to study the Haitian Revolution of 1804 and the sage of the 2014 International Days in Solidarity with Haiti, kidnapping coup 200 years later, using materials provided with radio and TV interviews in many cities. From Johan- by the Haiti Action Committee. The Garifuna residents are nesburg an hour-long report about the situation in Haiti was engaged in local food production, “building autonomy and broadcast in English on a radio network that reaches many organizing around cultural rights,” according to our corre- countries in Africa. Press TV, which has millions of view- spondent. In Georgetown, the Red Thread women’s ers internationally, featured an interview with a journalist organization put on a program about the coup and Haiti’s about the current situation in the Central African Republic history of resistance, which appeared on television in that (CAR). He told the story of the 2004 midnight kidnapping South American country. of President and Mrs. Aristide from their home in Haiti, af- ter which they were flown on a US military plane across the Claremont/Los Angeles Atlantic to the landlocked central African country. France, A series of programs were held on two college cam- a key actor in the Haiti coup, is the former colonial power puses on March 1 and March 8, as well as at Leimert Park in in the CAR, which remains a French neo-colony to this day. Los Angeles on March 9, featuring report-backs from a US (The kidnapping began a seven-year period of enforced exile youth delegation to Haiti. The programs aimed to educate for the Aristides, as US government pressure prevented their about the US/France/Canada coup d’état and kidnapping of return to their homeland.) 2004. Organizers said the events sought to “build a sus- tained conversation around US imperialism, and recognize History of the International Days in Solidarity Haiti as the birthplace of liberty during the long night of with the Haitian People colonial terror that all America bore.” This year’s is the latest in a series of coordinated multi- Canada city protests condemning the 2004 kidnapping coup d’état and Events commemorating the disastrous 2004 coup in the US/UN occupation that followed it. These International Haiti were held in Montreal, Ottawa, Windsor and Toronto. Days were initiated by grassroots organizations in Haiti, in The Windsor Peace Coalition devoted its weekly Saturday concert with the Haiti Action Committee, to bring awareness anti-war picket to Haiti, issuing this statement: “The 2004 to the dire situation and the people’s continuing resistance. coup was followed by a military occupation by United Na- July 21, 2005 - Fifteen cities in five countries demon- tions forces that continues to this day….Ten years later the strated their outrage at the July 6 massacre by Brazilian-led people of Haiti continue to resist and demand an end to the United Nations troops in the popular neighborhood of Cite … ongoing violation of their nation’s sovereignty by the US Soleil. Also on July 21, Haitian liberation priest Father Ge- and its partners in crime, including Canada.” rard Jean-Juste, who had kicked off the emergency protest campaign July 9 at the Brazilian consulate in Miami, was The US beaten, arrested, and thrown in Haiti’s National Penitentiary. In Oakland, CA people crowded into Humanist Hall on September 30, 2005 - Outrage at the ongoing and March 1 to hear a Haitian grassroots leader give a firsthand bloody US-led campaign of repression sparked protests in 47 report on the situation in Haiti, as well as lend her melliflu- cities, 17 countries and four continents, with one message: ous voice to songs of the people’s movement. Other events “Stop the war against the Haitian people.” and film showings marking the 2004 coup were held in February 7, 2007 - The Second International Day in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Boston; in Miami, where the Solidarity with Haiti linked 62 cities in nineteen countries Haitian community organization Veye Yo devoted its Friday on five continents— (continued on page 15) night meeting February 28 to the subject; in western Mas-

august 2014 | haiti solidarity 5 The 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer The struggle continues By Akinyele Omowale Umoja

Akinyele Omowale Umoja is a founding member of both the New Afrikan People’s Organization and the Grassroots Movement. An educator and scholar-activist, he is an associate professor and chair of the department of African-American studies at , and he is the author of We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement (NYU Press, 2013). This article was first published on June 12, 2014 on www.fromthesquare.org and is reprinted here with the author’s permission. n late June, hundreds will convene ship and the National Association of To overcome the ongoing cam- in Jackson, Mississippi to com- the Advancement of Colored People paign of terror, proposed memorate the fiftieth anniversary of (NAACP). With the guidance of an intensive campaign known as the IFreedom Summer. The 1964 Freedom movement veteran , young Mississippi Summer Project. The proj- Summer was one of the most coura- Robert Moses, a Harvard graduate, ect would organize a racially-inclusive geous campaigns for freedom in the came to Mississippi in 1961 on behalf Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party history of the United States. It built of the Student Nonviolent Coordinat- (MFDP), organize voter registration, upon heroic work of Mississippi human ing Committee (SNCC). Moses began and establish a network of Freedom rights activists who labored without to recruit Mississippi Black college Schools to educate Black children in much national media attention and students and youth to organize for literacy, math, and African-American support or protection from the federal voting and human rights in the state, history. Given the lack of media atten- government. in coordination with the network local tion and the government’s failure to act, After emancipation from enslave- Black freedom fighters. The Congress Moses advocated bringing in hundreds ment, Black Mississippians were denied of Racial Equality (CORE) soon joined of white college students to volunteer basic human rights through a system Moses, SNCC, and local NAACP chap- in the summer project. The national of white supremacy and racial terror. ters in the effort to secure voting rights news media and powerful government Mississippi’s state leaders unashamedly in the state. officials would pay attention if their promoted and supported Jim Crow The white supremacist power sons and daughters were in racist, vio- apartheid in the state, which included structure responded to the upsurge lent Mississippi. denying voting rights of people of Af- of Black activism with an increased The national leadership embraced rican descent, 42 percent of its popula- campaign of racial terrorism, harassing, Moses’ proposal (despite opposition tion. Racial violence was a major force repressing, and in some cases, assassi- from the majority of Black Missis- in maintaining white supremacy in nating local Black activists and move- sippi SNCC organizers)—and in 1964, Mississippi and other southern states. ment supporters. The terrorism in the hundreds of Black and white volunteers In the early 1950s, an indigenous state, which drew almost no attention from around the United States arrived network of African-American activ- from the media, inspired the singer in segregated Mississippi to confront ists emerged under the banner of the Nina Simone to title a protest song white supremacy. Regional Council of Negro Leader- “Mississippi Goddam.” The Freedom Summer did not

6 haiti solidarity | august 2014 deter violence. On the eve of volunteers in an autonomous direction calling for not the state Democratic Party, which coming to the state, three members independent Black political organiza- he associated with the legacy of white of CORE—, Mickey tion. Some began to focus on grass- supremacy. Schwerner, and Andy Goodman—dis- roots, economic development through After Lumumba was elected with appeared and were ultimately found cooperatives. and 63 percent of the vote to the Jackson murdered in Neshoba County. Over other activists in the historic Missis- City Council in 2009, the People’s one thousand activists were arrested sippi Delta initiated the cooperative Assembly continued to organize task in the state between June and October Freedom Farms. The call for Black forces around youth and economic that year; 37 churches were bombed or political self-determination or “Black development, educational policy, and burned to the ground; and 15 people Power” was also complemented with a improving the ward’s infrastructure, were murdered, due to white suprema- call for self-defense particularly since as well as providing direction for the cist violence. Local Black communi- the federal government could not be councilman in his voting on the city’s ties re-doubled their efforts to provide relied upon for protection. Echoing the legislative body. This formula served as protection for activists and volunteers; sentiment of local Mississippians, many the model for Lumumba’s election to some formed roving, armed patrols to from previously nonviolent organi- the city’s Mayor in 2013. In the runoff protect their neighbors from attack. zations embraced the advocacy and of the Democratic primary, he earned Activists from nonviolent organiza- practice of We Will Shoot Back! 58 percent of the vote while his op- tions even picked up arms to join local The legacy of a system of apartheid ponent raised five times Lumumba’s Blacks in protecting the community. and white supremacy manifested in campaign fund. Lumumba received 86 The Mississippi Freedom Demo- contemporary institutional racism stills percent of the vote during the gen- cratic Party (MFDP) presented a effects Black Mississippi. With its large eral election. With this mandate, he persuasive challenge at the 1964 Black population, Mississippi is the planned to expand the People’s As- Democratic Convention in Atlantic poorest state in the US In Jackson, the sembly citywide and institute a plan of City. MFDP leader and spokesperson state capital, a movement has emerged worker-managed cooperatives to rein- Fannie Lou Hamer, an activist Black for grassroots Black politics. Jackson vigorate the city’s crumbling economy. sharecropper, powerfully described, is 80 percent Black, the second highest Lumumba consciously tied himself to to the US and the world, the violent African-American population of any the Mississippi Freedom Movement of terror of Mississippi. Hamer passion- major city in the US. the 1950s and 1960s. ately illustrated her experience of being The People’s Assembly was orga- Lumumba’s untimely death in evicted from the plantation where she nized in 2008 in the city’s Ward 2 to February 2014, eight months after his and her husband worked, incarcerated, elect revolutionary Attorney Chokwe inauguration to Mayor, is a setback to and brutally beaten for attempting to Lumumba to City Council. Born and his initiatives and the agenda of the As- register to vote. raised in Detroit, Lumumba first came sembly. But the struggle continues. The The National Democratic Party and to Mississippi in 1971 as a member of People’s Assembly is still building city- its leader, President Lyndon Johnson, the Provisional Government of the Re- wide and in May 2014, a Jackson Rising chose to maintain its relationship with public of New Africa (RNA). The RNA New Economies conference announced the pro-segregationist Mississippi desired to establish an independent, Cooperation Jackson, an initiative to delegation. The MFDP was offered a Black government and socialist econo- organize worker-managed cooperatives compromise of two seats within the my in the Deep South, including Jack- in the city as a model for impoverished pro-segregationist delegation. This son and the Black majority counties of Black communities in the state. compromise was rejected by the MFDP. Mississippi. Lumumba later became the As we commemorate 1964 Freedom The national Democratic Party leader- Chairman and co-founder of the pro- Summer, we must not ignore the contin- ship realized the potentiality of the Black self-determination, pro-socialist ued fight for Black self-determination, MFDP challenge, particularly as the New Afrikan People’s Organization and democracy, human rights and economic freedom struggle was winning the fight the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement justice in the Mississippi and the U.S. for voting rights. This led to the under- (MXGM). He also worked to bring The People’s Assembly and Cooperation mining of segregationist policies in the Bryon De La Beckwith, the assassin of Jackson represent contemporary mani- Democratic Party in the South and the , to justice and for a Black festations of this fight and a continua- inclusion of Black people. agenda for the city’s first Black Mayor. tion of the promise of Freedom Sum- On the other hand, some SNCC Lumumba identified himself as a “Fan- mer. Let us not forget: in Mississippi, the and CORE activist chose not to rely on nie Lou Hamer Democrat” and was a struggle for freedom continues! i political parties, but instead to move card-carrying member of the MFDP,

august 2014 | haiti solidarity 7 Haiti: Where Will the Poor Go? Seth Donnelly is a member of the Haiti Action by Seth Donnelly Committee and a Bay Area high school teacher. He regularly travels to and works in Haiti. uring my last trip to Haiti this June with a delega- visited the areas of downtown that had been subjected to tion of students and human rights observers, we these demolitions; we saw massive destruction spanning were exposed to the raw violence of the ongoing blocks and blocks, including half of the General Hospital. Dforced dispersal of the poor. On May 31, the Martelly regime We saw a bulldozer still at work and Haitians standing intensified a process—in the name of “eminent domain”—of around the rubble, perhaps some still in shock, as if another violently evicting the poor from their homes in downtown earthquake had hit. Port-au-Prince and then physically destroying their homes The initial eminent domain decree for the downtown and businesses. We met with a group of men and women was issued by President Préval in 2010, then repealed and who had been subjected to this violence, and we filmed their reissued (with some modifications) by Martelly. Ostensibly, extensive testimony. They spoke of SWAT police and bull- the goal is to rebuild the administrative center of the city, dozers coming at night, of having only ten minutes to flee but Martelly has also stated that he welcomes the involve- their homes, then witnessing the destruction of everything ment of “entrepreneurs” and the private sector. Secretary of they had. State Planning Présumé stated that “the State has a budget These survivors came to us with tears, anger, and back- of about 150 million US dollars [for the construction of the packs full of the only possessions they had left. They spoke administrative city] from several sources.”3 of having to sleep in parks or on roofs, of children being put The people who shared their testimony with us blamed out on the street, of vulnerability to infection and ongoing Martelly for their dispossession and current misery. Accord- harassment by the government. ing to these Haitians, the eminent domain project involves One man, speaking on behalf of the Representatives of not just the reconstruction of the administrative center, but the Citizens of Centre-Ville Against Forced Displacement, the transformation of the downtown into an upscale, com- stated that more than 62,000 people had lost their homes mercial zone. Further investigation is required to determine in downtown Port-au-Prince since May 31. The Martelly other facets of this plan and sources of funding or invest- regime has not provided compensation or humane, alterna- ment involved, particularly those by the “private sector” tive housing—in clear violation of the Haitian Constitution. welcomed by Martelly. Indeed, official sources acknowledge that 400 properties have been destroyed, but only seventeen people compen- Where will the poor go? sated.1 Clearly, this grossly underestimates the numbers of people rendered homeless, since legally registered pieces of here have so many tent city dwellers already property may actually consist of multiple dwellings of the gone? The Martelly regime has dismantled poor with dozens of people living within them. most of the tent cities through stick-and-carrot Secretary of State Planning Michel Présumé stated ear- Wmethods: many families have received a one-time pay- lier in the spring that the Martelly regime had taken all the ment of $500 to relocate while others have been violently necessary steps to compensate “the owners.” “We deposited evicted from the camps. The $500 payment is notoriously this money in a deposit account, owners have just to appear inadequate given the spike in land and housing prices and with their original titles, so they can receive from the expro- rents—a “market reaction” in large part to so many rich priation Committee the value of their land or their homes foreigners now living in Port-au-Prince as part of the NGO/ in accordance with the evaluation criteria for buildings.”2 UN network. Moreover, the price of rice (now “Made in the Undoubtedly, the problem with this compensation formula USA”) has increased dramatically in recent years, perhaps as is that it does not take into account the thousands of people much as 500 percent, further rendering this $500 aid pack- dispossessed of their homes who were tenants, not owners. age paltry. Accompanied by a Haitian human rights journalist, we We gained a sense of where so many desperate people

8 haiti solidarity | august 2014 Downtown Port-au-Prince where the Martelly regime has been destroying homes of the poor in the name of “eminent domain”. are relocating when we visited Canara, a “city” of approxi- his work in Haiti from the Happy Hearts Fund in the New mately 200,000 people seeking to eke out an existence in the York City Cipriani Restaurant. The award ceremony was led hills in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Out of sight, out of by Petra Nemcova, a supermodel who runs the foundation mind—that is for the foreign tourists and Haitian bourgeoi- and who is the girlfriend of the current Haitian Prime Min- sie who stay at the new Oasis hotel or who perhaps will shop ister, Laurent Lamothe. Also in the audience was Haitian soon in downtown Port-au-Prince. The people of Canara do President Michel Martelly, who received an award for his not have any meaningful access to water, electricity, educa- “leadership in education.” Outside of the lavish restaurant, tion, healthcare, food, or employment, let alone even the a group of Haitian activists and their allies protested the cement and cinder blocks to complete many of their houses. ceremony, chanting, “Clinton, where is the money for recon- People are forced to walk or travel considerable distances struction?”4 just to pay for water, food, and other supplies, if they have The timing of these awards is particularly absurd. Ac- the money. And, yet, while we were meeting with an older cording to the news website Tout Haiti, earlier this April, Haitian woman about a water cistern project our team is two prominent lawyers have petitioned Haiti’s Superior funding in her community of Canara, we heard machin- Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes to demand ery—a bulldozer and truck—at work. After the meeting, we an audit of Bill Clinton’s management of the Interim Haiti walked about 50 feet behind her dwelling and discovered Recovery Commission (IHRC). A federal audit, conducted that they were digging out a vast canyon, extracting truck- by the US Government Accountability Office and released load upon truckload of rock and sand to be sold elsewhere, on October 9, 2013, raised major concerns about the US- reportedly for the profits of a private company. She came to AID’s recent work in Haiti, particularly on Clinton-backed the edge of the canyon and yelled down to the workers not projects.5 to dig any closer to her home. While she lacked the sand, But there is a deeper issue than alleged missing funds, rock, and cement to build a simple water cistern for her mismanagement, and shoddy, incomplete aid projects. The community, an apparently private company poached these deeper issue is Clinton’s agenda for “development” in Haiti: resources for free in order to sell to those who could better a strategy that is not really healthy development at all, but afford the “market rate.” rather mal-development in the service of corporate exploita- On June 19, perhaps as the bulldozers were still clearing tion of the country’s resources and people. Expanding this the rubble of people’s homes in downtown Port-au-Prince, corporate-driven mal-development was a central agenda Bill Clinton received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” for for Clinton in the (continued on page 10)

august 2014 | haiti solidarity 9 Clinton in Haiti 1990s, just as it is for (continued from page 9) the Obama Adminis- “But less than a year after Caracol Industrial Park’s tration today. gala opening—with Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sean Penn, As President, Clinton pushed this strategy when he designer Donna Karan and Haiti’s current and former pressured the Haitian government to open up its economy presidents among the guests—the feeling these days is to US-subsidized, big business rice exports, thereby driv- disappointment. Hundreds of smallholder farmers were ing many Haitian rice farmers out of business and crippling coaxed into giving up more than 600 acres of land for the Haiti’s domestic rice industry.6 Though Clinton publicly complex, yet nearly 95 percent of that land remains un- apologized for this “trade policy,” he has been pursuing a used. A much-needed power plant was completed on the similar corporate strategy through his handling of “aid” as site, supplying the town with more electricity than ever, head of the Clinton Foundation and the IHRC since the but locals say surges of wastewater have caused floods 2010 earthquake.7 He has been a vigorous supporter of the and spoiled crops. new Caracol Industrial Park, funded in large part by US- “Most critically, fewer than 1,500 jobs have been AID. The “park” consists of garment sweatshops that offer created—paying too little, the locals say, and offering no substandard, unlivable wages. This has been a boon to com- job security. ‘We thought there was going to be some panies that can have clothing assembled in Haiti by workers benefit for us,’ says Ludwidge Fountain, 34.... He worked receiving near-slave wages, then sold in the US without hav- for two months at the park as a guard, taking home ing to pay any customs.8 However, as investigative reporter about $3.40 a day, until his contract ran out. ‘Maybe it’s Jonathan Katz notes, the “park” has not been such a boon to good for some of the people inside the park. Everyone the local Haitians: else got nothing.’” 9

10 haiti solidarity | august 2014 Likewise, Bill Clinton has funneled aid money to cating more Foundation aid into the construction of a new establish a business venture between Coca-Cola and local Marriott Hotel. mango farmers, using existing mango groves and using land Tourism, sweatshops, and export-agriculture: these are for new groves to produce exports for Coca-Cola and its integral components of Clinton’s vision for Haiti. Undoubt- “Haiti Hope” project (an Odwalla drink). About the project, edly, some of this “development” will require the coercive Clinton stated: dispersal of the rural poor who occupy land that will be turned into “free trade zones” and of the urban poor who “The Coca‑Cola Company responded to Haiti’s occupy space—either in tent cities or popular neighbor- urgent immediate needs with financial support and hoods—slated for tourist projects and up-scale commercial beverages. The Haiti Hope Project goes a step further zones. and exemplifies the innovative role that partnerships And what of Martelly, the other award recipient? Has with the private sector can play in the reconstruction of he doubled the rate of Haitian children going to school, as Hait i .”10 claimed in the Happy Heart Fund ceremony? This claim is patently false, according to Haitian grassroots educators According to Coca-Cola’s website, $9.5 million has who we interviewed. Martelly pledged to provide pay- been raised since 2010 to launch this project ments to schools on a per pupil basis, but this in a public-private partnership. Coca-Cola funding reportedly only covers a fraction claims to have 19,000 mango farmers Since coming to power, of all pupils and, to date, has not even “enrolled” in the project, frequently been received by schools for this past organized into co-ops, and that half Martelly has been rebuild- school year. Many teachers have not of these farmers are women. More- ing the Duvalierist system in been paid in months, resulting in over, Coca-Cola claims that ten which the elite get rich in ventures the recent, widespread teacher and cents on every bottle of “Odwalla with foreign interests (e.g., Clin- student protests. Apparently, super- Mango Tango Smoothie” purchased model Petra Nemcova was unaware will go back to “Haiti Hope.”11 The ton), while the poor majority is of these basic, easily verifiable reali- Clinton-Bush Fund gave a grant of further marginalized, immiserat- ties on the ground in Haiti when she more than $500,000 to the project.12 ed, and increasingly subjected awarded Martelly. Projects such as this do not advance Martelly came to power in 2011 Haiti’s vital need for food security, but to selective repression. through sham elections—what many instead tether the wellbeing of Haitian Haitians call “selections”—because the larg- farmers to the fickle tastes of more affluent, est political and most popular political party, primarily “First World” consumers. Fanmi Lavalas, the party of the poor majority, was The Clinton Foundation is also funding similar agricul- excluded from participation. Only 22 percent (or less) of the tural, “supply chain” projects involving peanut and coffee electorate voted and, of that fraction, Martelly received the farmers. The Foundation claims to be assisting these farm- winning fraction. This was reportedly the worst voter turn- ers by funding the construction of regional depots, provid- out in the Americas since 1947.15 The Obama Administra- ing marketing and technical assistance, as well as linking tion financed the selections (including legislative positions) the farmers to buyers elsewhere, such as the Four Seasons to the tune of at least $14 million.16 Moreover, the Admin- Restaurant chain.13 As with the Coca-Cola Project, this istration exerted considerable pressure, including threats “market-driven” and export-led approach to agricultural to cut off aid to Haiti, in order to insure that Martelly was development fails to directly address Haiti’s vital need for included in the runoff elections, even though he technically domestic food production and security. While Haitians placed third in the first round. Secretary of State Hillary produce more coffee, peanuts, and mangos for export, they Clinton flew to Haiti and personally intervened to help push remain dependent upon overpriced, US corporate food im- Martelly into power.17 Martelly, himself a very wealthy ports, while growing tracts of their land are being leased off entertainer, spent considerable sums of his own fortune to to “foreign investors” for “industrial parks” and tourist sites. leverage his “victory” (the equivalent of $15 billion in the Then there is the infamous Oasis Hotel in Port-au- US). Martelly’s Duvalierist ties in Haiti and his far right Prince, a huge, elite structure built to court rich tourists and connections abroad have been well documented by reporter foreign investors. It is “awkwardly” close to the houses and and historian Greg Grandin, among others.18 shacks of the poor that lack decent sanitation, plumbing, Predictably, since coming to power, Martelly has been and electricity. The Clinton-Bush fund allocated $2 million rebuilding the Duvalierist system in which the elite get rich in “aid” to construct this hotel.14 Clinton is likewise allo- in ventures with (continued on page 14)

august 2014 | haiti solidarity 11 Shameless Racism in the Venezuelan Counter-Revolution

t’s late morning in Caracas, Feb- wealthy people are pheno- By Arlene Eisen ruary 12. From the restaurant in typically European, while the hotel around the corner from nearly all those in pov- Arlene Eisen is a journalist, activist, and author. IPlaza Venezuela we can hear chant- erty are Black and Brown. She has been involved in anti-racism and anti- ing. Are they yelling “Maduro/burro Treating people of African sexism movements since the sixties. Salida”? We see smiling white people and Indigenous descent as This article is excerpted with the author’s permission streaming down the street in the first animals or criminals is fla- from Venezuelanalysis.com, March 27, 2014. huge anti-government demonstration grantly visible in Venezu- financed infrastructure designed to that signaled the onset of the current elan institutions. White supremacy in end the physical isolation and margin- outrages in Venezuela. Venezuela resembles the US and other alization of African Descendants and Olga, the restaurant manager, has settler colonial countries. Indigenous people. Set your search tan skin, dyed blond hair and brown The roots of white supremacy run engine to “MetroCable San Agustín” to eyes. She is one of the 42 percent of deep, yet the Bolivarian Revolution has find photos and details of how Chavez’ Venezuelans who self-identified as improved the lives of Venezuela’s ma- revolutionary government spent $300 white in the Census. She barks orders jority—who are people of color—unlike million to build a futuristic funicular. It to the Indigenous woman in the kitch- during the old dictatorships that served eliminates hours of climbing on foot up en. She is laughing as she glances at a Standard Oil and the US State Depart- and down treacherous mountain sides cartoon in an anti-government Caracas ment. Legal tools—including land to reach jobs, schools, health clinics newspaper. I ask if there are any inter- reform, a new Constitution written by a and other vital destinations. For tens esting stories. She unleashes a tirade Constituent Assembly, the Organic Law of thousands of shack dwellers of San about how she hates Chavismo. She Against Racial Discrimination—chip Agustin—most of whom are African says it has brought the “riff raff, brutes, away at discrimination and promote descendants—MetroCable and new thugs and criminals into the city.” She mass participation in government, and housing construction on the hill dem- is emphatic. “Caracas is flooded with in communes, councils, collectives and onstrate that the Bolivarian revolution uncultured animals who make life mis- cooperatives. These are the structures will incorporate them. erable for civilized people.” She con- of people’s power—including 30,000 Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s first cludes, “Look at the crime, insecurity, communal councils designed to ensure President with African and Indigenous murders!” It’s likely that Olga is influ- that once-marginalized people become ancestors, spoke proudly about his enced by cartoons by Kiko Rodriguez. protagonists of their futures and nur- thick lips and kinky hair. He practiced One of his more repulsive depictions ture their dignity. Between 1997 and solidarity with Black and Brown people of Chavez expresses time-worn racist 2011 the portion of Venezuela’s wealth on a world scale. He provided aid contempt for people of African descent, going to the richest 20 percent de- with no strings attached to Black and but it also foments fear and hatred. The creased from 53 percent to 44 percent. Indigenous people in the US, Haiti, Co- title is “Miko Mandante,” meaning “Ape At the end of 2013, the poverty rate lumbia and elsewhere. In 2011, a joint Commander” to mock the affectionate had dropped by 20 percent, the largest Cuban-Venezuelan project opened the title “Mi Comandante” used by masses decline in the Americas, and one of the first high school in Western Sahara’s of Venezuelan people. largest in the world. Oil revenue pays refugee camps. A project in Palestine Olga never mentioned the race of for homes for the poor, schools where provides free eye surgery. Venezuela’s poor. The extreme poor every primary student gets a free lap- The counter-revolutionary move- in 2003 were 30 percent of the popu- top, universities with open admission, ment in the streets has become the dar- lation and by 2011 only 6.8 percent. health clinics, and jobs. It also funds ling of the corporate press who never Chavismo’s accomplishments in reduc- programs against domestic violence, mention that the racism pervading this ing poverty are significant because of transgenic seeds and other campaigns movement could rival that found in the near total correlation between class for social justice. the Ku Klux Klan. Racism is one of the and race in Venezuela. Nearly all the Venezuela’s oil money also has main engines of the counter-revolution.

12 haiti solidarity | august 2014 1. Destroying progress 3. Criminalizing African contrast to the perceived “laziness” made by African Descendants Descendants, Indigenous People of coastal slaves. Seven of Venezuela’s and Indigenous People and their Organizations recent presidents (including dicta- tors) came from the Gocho region. he counter-revolutionary move- hite peoples’ criminaliza- The epitome of these, nicknamed “El ment in the streets has as one tion of Black and Brown Gocho,” was Carlos Andres Pérez who of its main objectives restoring people dates back to the imposed the 1989 neo-liberal program Twhite privilege. Cartoons, editorials, firstW rebellions by Indigenous and that forced 70 percent of Venezu- posters, graffiti blame Venezuela’s eco- enslaved people in the 1500s. African elans into poverty. All residents of the nomic problems on “squandering” the Descendants and Indigenous people Andean states are sometimes referred nation’s oil resources on the “rabble.” have been invisible on privately-owned to as Gochos. However, the counter- Racist cartoonist Weil is one of Ven- TV, except as servants or criminals. revolutionary Gochos are concentrated ezuela’s most widely reproduced. He The Bolivarian government disbanded in San Cristobal and Mérida while has 155,000 Twitter followers to whom local police forces that used to racially rural residents form the majority of the he tweets militant support for Maria profile, murder and harass African states’ voters and have elected Chavista Corina Machado (a right-wing extrem- Descendants. It has also taken steps to governors. ist leader reminiscent of Sarah Palin) reform prisons, establish alternatives to Images of white people, outfitted and other extremists promoting anti- incarceration and mobilize local com- with makeshift rifles, pistols, Molotovs, government lies, racism and violence. munities to prevent crime. However, slingshots and military equipment fill Venezuela’s privately-owned media and the screens of tweeters. Others feature 2. Anti-communism, Xenophobia, the US corporate press convey that fear flaming barricades with captions like, and Racism of crime and government “inaction” “Release the Gocho inside you.” Right- in an anti-Cuban Stew in the face of crime motivates people wing extremists like Maria Corina to demand that Maduro resign. They Machado have hyped the Gochos for raffiti, Twitter, TV and print claim that Chavista grassroots collec- their own political purposes. At rallies media perpetuate racist, anti- tives—that provide a space and struc- and press conferences, she never fails communist and xenophobic ture for previously marginalized people to associate herself with the Gochos Glies that Black Cubans have invaded to lead and participate in political of San Cristobal and Merida—the Venezuela. Photos of Black people education, cultural work and sports— first barricaders and most persistently in military uniform are retweeted are paramilitary arms of the “Maduro violent. Her poster features her wear- thousands of times to arouse fear of Dictatorship.” This racist myth under- ing a white t-shirt claiming, “We are Black people, especially Cubans. On mines a revolutionary institution—the all Tachira.” It labels her, “The Lady of March 16, Alexandra Misel tweeted communal council—that for the first Iron”—the woman who aims to over- a photo with the caption, “Are these time gives people of color a voice in throw the government and expel all pure Afrodescendants from Barlovento how resources will be spent. It blames Cubans from Venezuela so real (white) (region of Venezuela with high con- the “colectivos” for intimidation and Venezuelans may recover their dignity. centration of African Descendants) or violence, rather than the middle class So far, the vast majority of Ven- are they from Havana?” The next day, youth who vandalize public property, ezuelan people—especially African she tweeted the same photo, but with build barricades and have killed those Descendants and Indigenous people— a more alarmist caption, “Invading who try to cross or dismantle them. have rejected both the politics and troops dressed like National Guard.” strategy of the counter-revolutionary From the comments under these 4. Distortion and Glorification movement. A Bloomberg News article tweets, it is obvious Venezuelan white of Gochismo reported a bus driver’s observation, supremacists have no way to distinguish “It’s rich people trying to get economic an African descendant who is Cuban uring the 1930s, white Ven- perks. The slums won’t join them.” It from one who is Venezuelan. They claim ezuelan intellectuals promoted is time we stand in solidarity with the their violent intentions are aimed at Cu- exclusion of all but European majority in Venezuela and voice strong bans, but their practice of decapitating Dimmigrants. They pointed to the Andes opposition to US-sponsored coups or motorcyclists and shooting Bolivarians and Mérida as “the grand reservoir of intervention on the side of the counter- indicates that the racism that fuels anti- the white race for the Republic.” For revolution. i Cuban threats is also harnessed to their some, Gocho identity as hard-working terror campaign against Chavistas. mountaineers emerged in direct

august 2014 | haiti solidarity 13 Where Will the Poor Go? foreign interests receives-lifetime-achievement-award-but-where-is-the- (continued from page 11) (e.g., Clinton), while money-for-reconstruction/5388737. the poor major- 5. The GAO report is available at http://www.gao.gov/prod- ity is further marginalized, immiserated, and increasingly ucts/gao-14-47t. subjected to selective repression. Martelly has attempted 6. See Katz, “With Cheap Food Imports, Haiti Can’t Feed to rebuild the dreaded Haitian army,19 he has integrated Itself”. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/with- Duvalierist elements into his regime, and he has established cheap-food-imports-h_n_507228.html. a supportive, friendly environment for “Baby Doc” Duva- 7. See his filmed apology on “Democracy Now”, April 1, lier, now back in Haiti.20 Grassroots activists of the poor 2010. http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/1/clinton_ rice. reported to our team that they are experiencing threats on 8. For excellent coverage, see Edmonds, “Sweatshops Over their lives by a growing network of repressive agents. The Homes”. http://nacla.org/news/sweatshops-over-homes- Martelly regime has postponed legislative elective and may- haiti. oral elections, with Martelly instead selecting many mayors 9. Katz, “A Glittering Industrial Park in Haiti Falls Short”. across the country, including in Port-au-Prince. A high-level http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/10/a-glitter- judge who was calling for an investigation into Martelly and ing-industrialparkfallsshortinhaiti.html. his family for corruption mysteriously died several days 10. “Coca Cola Scheme Brings Hope to Haiti” on www.coca- after meeting with and reportedly being verbally attacked by cola.co.uk. Martelly and his Prime Minister (Lamothe). Many Haitians 11. See Moye, “Hope in Haiti: Why Job Creation and Econom- suspect death by poisoning.21 In ostentatious displays of ic Development Will Drive Nation’s Recovery”. http://www. their wealth, Martelly and his family are well-known for coca-colacompany.com/stories/hope-in-haiti-why-job- their extensive travels abroad and lavish life styles. He is creation-and-economic-development-will-drive-nations- an excellent junior partner for Bill Clinton and the Obama recovery. Administration. 12. See the “Haiti Hope Project” fact sheet on Clinton Bush The people in downtown Port-au-Prince whose homes Fund website. and businesses have been destroyed are demanding justice 13. See official website for the Clinton Foundation. and reparations. They have just experienced another earth- 14. For a detailed examination of this “aid” project, see Wi- quake and they are clear that this one is human-made, in the lentz, “Letter from Haiti: Life in the Ruins.” http://www. service of “economic development” that discards the poor. thenation.com/article/172101/letter-haiti-life-ruins. Now is the time to join our voices with them in demanding 15. For a summary of the many problems with these “selec- justice and reparations. Now is the time to join our voices tions”, see Weisbrot, “Haiti Election: a Travesty of Democ- racy” and IJDH, “The United States Should Support Fair with those of Haitian grassroots activists in the Lavalas and Inclusive Elections in Haiti.” http://www.theguardian. movement struggling courageously for the restoration of com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/10/haiti-oas- democracy in Haiti. i election-runoff. 16. Beeton, “Haiti’s Elections: Parties Banned, Media Yawns.” Endnotes http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds- &-columns/haitis-elections-parties-banned-media-yawns. 1. Personal communication. 17. Grandin, “Martelly: Haiti’s Second Great Disas- 2. Haiti Libre, “Haiti-Reconstruction: the Demolition of ter.” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opin- the Area of Public Utility.” http://www.haitilibre.com/en/ ion/2011/05/20115413435816393.html. news-8090-haiti-reconstruction-expropriation-no-title- 18. Ibid. no-compensation.html. 19. The Economist, “Haiti’s Army: Who Needs Them?” http:// 3. Haiti Libre, “Haiti-Reconstruction: Expropriation, No www.economist.com/news/americas/21588085-michel- Title, No Compensation.” http://www.haitilibre.com/en/ martelly-pushes-ahead-reviving-army-who-needs-them. news-11287-haiti-reconstruction-the-demolition-of-the- 20. CEPRI, “Former Dictator Lives the Good Life.” http:// area-of-public-utility-began-in-port-au-prince.html. Also, www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction- for a 2012 projected breakdown of funding for the particu- watch/former-dictator-lives-the-good-life-as-haitian-gov- lar components of the “administrative center” project, see ernment-has-deliberately-stalled-investigation. www.skyscrapercity.co, “Haiti-Reconstruction: the New 21. Geffrard, “Haiti: Political Assassination?” http://www. Haiti Is Emerging.” globalresearch.ca/haiti-political-assassination-suspicious- 4. For a more in-depth discussion of this event and the death-of-judge-who-called-for-prosecution-of-presiden- protest, see Dunkel, “Haiti: Bill Clinton Receives ‘Lifetime tial-family/5343313. Achievement Award’ But Where Is the Money for Recon- struction?” http://www.globalresearch.ca/haiti-bill-clinton-

14 haiti solidarity | august 2014 Oscar Lopez Oscar was told his Jurists, the AFL-CIO, the United Church of Christ, and the (continued from page 16) would be commuted Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. Four members of after serving ten Congress have called on President Obama to let him go. more years of the escape charge. Eleven accepted the offer. Although Obama has one of the worst pardon records Oscar felt that he couldn’t leave prison without his remain- of any US president, there are precedents for the commuta- ing comrade, nor would he admit guilt for the bogus escape tion of the sentences of Puerto Rican political prisoners. In charge. addition to Clinton, Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter also In 2011, Carlos Torres was given parole. In 2012, three commuted the sentences of Puerto Rican nationalists. years after he would have been released, Oscar was also up In each instance they were moved and motivated by the for parole. The FBI went to town. Right wing radio host enormous support shown by Puerto Ricans and their allies. Dick Morris called for thousands of people to flood the The United States is one of the only countries that incar- parole board switch board opposing Oscar’s release. FBI cerates its people for decades on end. Political prisoners agents lined the courtroom where the hearing was held. Fi- throughout the world have routinely been released. Only in nally, the FBI brought the children of people who had been the US are there still countless political prisoners that have killed in a bombing in New York City to testify against Os- been jailed since the sixties and seventies, many of them car. This, despite the fact, that Oscar had not been charged, former Black Panthers. let alone convicted of this event. Oscar was not only denied Oscar Lopez Rivera is a father and a grandfather. He is parole but was told not to come back for another hearing for an accomplished artist. He remains steadfast in his love for fifteen years. his people and his love for the island. The call for Oscar’s release has united Puerto Ricans In a letter to his granddaughter he wrote: of all classes and political orientations. Statehooders and nationalists have all demanded that he be brought home. “After my family, what I miss the most is the sea. Puerto Rico’s non-voting US congressional representative— a supporter of statehood for Puerto Rico—said, “I don’t see “It has been 35 years since the last time I saw it. But how they can justify another twelve years of prison after he I have painted it many times…For any Puerto Rican, has spent practically 30 years in prison, and the others who living far from the sea is almost incomprehensible. It’s were charged with the same conduct are already in the free different when you know you are free to move anywhere community. It seems to me to be excessive punishment.” and to travel to see it.” The Archbishop of Puerto Rico, the mayor of San Juan, and countless local mayors and municipalities throughout Thirty-three years is more than enough. the island have rallied for his release. Last June the national It’s time he came home. Puerto Rican Day Parade—the largest in the world—was To sign a letter to Obama and for more information, dedicated to Oscar. Ricky Martin, the Puerto Rican pop email: [email protected] i star, even called for his freedom on the Latin Grammys! Nobel laureates Desmund Tutu and Mairead Maguire Judith Mirkinson has been active in campaigns to free have urged President Obama to release him. So has the political prisoners for over forty years. In 2010 she visited government of Puerto Rico, the American Association of Haiti as a member of a women’s human rights delegation.

International Days of Solidarity from the Philippines, 50 cities on four continents organized more than 60 actions (continued from page 5) South Africa, the to denounce the coup. In Haiti protesters jammed the streets Caribbean, South of the capital to voice their anger. Why, nearly two years America, to Europe and North America—answering the call after the installation of a formally elected government in May from the popular movement in Haiti. It gave new meaning 2006, did foreign troops still occupy Haiti? Why were politi- to the slogan, “Think globally, act locally,” since the 75 far- cal prisoners still held in jail without trial? Why did coup flung activities, while coordinated behind the same banner plotters still hold key government positions? Why had coup and similar demands, were all locally organized. The heart- victims received no justice or reparations? Why was Presi- beat of it all was in Haiti, where nearly 200,000 people took dent Aristide kept in exile, and not allowed to return home? to the streets in a massive outpouring in cities and towns all (He was finally able to return only in March 2011.) The mes- over the country. sage then, like the message now, is that the coup against the February 29, 2008 - On the Third International Day, people of Haiti continues. The US/UN occupation contin- four years to the day after the Leap Year’s Day coup, people in ues. And so does the resistance of the people of Haiti. i

august 2014 | haiti solidarity 15 Oscar Lopez Rivera Oscar Lopez Rivera is the longest held political prisoner in Puerto Rican history. In fact he is the longest held political prisoner in all of Latin America. He is now 71-years-old and has served 33 years of a 75-year sentence. Who is he and why is this so? by Judith Mirkinson

scar Lopez Rivera was born in Puerto Rico and came to the US when he was fourteen. He served in Vietnam and was awarded the OBronze Star. He returned to Chicago in a time of violence and rebellion throughout the country and throughout the world. In Chicago, as in other areas of the US, there was a concerted effort by the police to crush the spirit of Black and Brown communities. Countless Black Panthers and Young Lords were victims of violence and arrest. In 1969, the Chicago police killed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. It was in this context that Oscar Lopez Rivera, along with many others, began to organize. He The eleven were given sentences ranging from 40 to 90 worked for better health care, housing, and education in the years—the judge was sorry he couldn’t give them the death Chicago Puerto Rican community and helped found the penalty. Clearly, these were political sentences totally out of first Puerto Rican cultural center and high school, both of proportion to the “crimes” involved. which are still in existence today. Oscar Lopez Rivera was arrested in 1981 and was also At the same time Puerto Ricans on the island were de- convicted of seditious conspiracy. Although he was neither manding an end to US colonialism established in 1898. charged nor convicted of any bombings nor of injuring any- Following the example of their comrades in Puerto one, he was given a sentence of 55 years. Six years later, he Rico, activists in the US formed the clandestine FALN was given an additional fifteen years for a supposed escape (Armed Forces of National Liberation). It subsequently attempt. This was EIGHT times the normal sentence for claimed credit for a series of bombings calling for Puerto actual escape! Rican independence. Oscar was placed in the notorious maximum security In 1980, eleven activists were arrested outside Chicago unit at Marion Prison in Illinois. There he was subjected to and charged with seditious conspiracy to overthrow the US continual sensory deprivation, harassment and twelve years government. Sedition is clearly a political charge: his- of solitary confinement (now deemed torture by the United torically used almost exclusively against the Puerto Rican Nations). independence movement. The eleven maintained that they In 1999, President Clinton, determining that the sen- were political prisoners and prisoners of war. They cited tences imposed were totally disproportionate, offered to UN declarations which state that Puerto Rico is a colony commute the sentences of twelve of the then thirteen Puerto and that under international law, colonial subjects have the Ricans still in prison. One, Carlos Alberto Torres was re- inherent right to fight for independence. fused commutation. (continued on page 15)

16 haiti solidarity | august 2014