On Apr. 25, the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) was sworn-in at the National Palace. It is a key pawn in the U.S. plan to pass the Global Fragility Act. Photo: BINUH.
By Travis Ross – May 1, 2024
In Part Two of this series, Ross shows how Washington has organized several programs to fund and influence Haitian civil society organizations (CSOs) through the Civil Society Strengthening Program and potentially fill the Government Action Control Body â a consultative body to the Presidential Council â with compliant CSO leaders who are in sync with U.S. policy goals in Haiti. In addition, USAIDâs âHaiti Electoral Security and Support Programâ threatens to allow Washington to, once again, skew the results of Haitiâs elections.
After calling an emergency meeting in Kingston, Jamaica on Mar. 11 to concoct a way to fill the void left by former Prime Minister Ariel Henryâs unexpected ouster, Washington finally swore in its nine-member âTemporary Presidential Councilâ (TPC) on Apr. 25, although the ceremony had to be done secretly at the National Palace due to the bodyâs unpopularity.
The TPC would be installed at the Villa dâAccueil, caretaker authorities had said earlier last week, claiming that a delegation of Leslie Voltaire, Himmler RĂ©bu, and Raymond Jeanty deemed the area around the Palace too dangerous. Since Feb. 29, it has been the target of many attacks from soldiers of the Viv Ansanm (Live Together) coalition of armed neighborhood committees, drawn from all around greater Port-au-Prince.
The TPC is unpopular because its nine members (seven voting, two observers) are viewed by most Haitians as sell-outs. To sit on the council, they had to agree to the third foreign military intervention into Haiti in three decades (the first two were 1994-2000 and then 2004-2019).
The proxy force that Washington wants to see occupy Haiti is called the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), to be led by Kenyan police with the assistance of armed forces from six other nations: Benin, Chad, Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas, and Bangladesh. It is not under the aegis of the United Nations Security Council.
On Apr. 30, the TPC named a new President â Edgar Leblanc Fils, leader of the Struggling Peopleâs Organization (OPL) and the Jan. 30th Collective, who holds one of the TPCâs seven voting seats â and Prime Minister â Fritz BĂ©lizaire, a former Minister of Sports under President RenĂ© PrĂ©val.
The idea now is for the TPC and its designated President and Prime Minister (the names will surely change before long) to carry out an election â Haitiâs first in eight years â under Washingtonâs watchful eye and the MSSâs muscled protection.
Using the soft-power and hard-power forces outlined in this seriesâ first two articles, Washington seeks to ensure the election of a new Haitian president who will quickly sign on the dotted line of a deal called the Global Fragility Act (GFA), which would essentially place Haiti back into colonial status with U.S. troops stationed in a nation made dependent on USAID humanitarian assistance shipments.
In 1915, U.S. Marines invaded Haiti for the first time, installing a puppet president, SudrĂ© Dartiguenave, who invited them to stay on. Washington is going to great lengths to avoid repeating the terrible optics of its early 20th centuryâs âgunboat diplomacy.â
This time it is making sure to use the MSS proxy force to install a U.S. puppet which will then invite in U.S. troops under the GFA.
The GFA will build Haitiâs âstability and autonomyâ
During a recent panel discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols explained that Washington has âa long term strategy for Haiti under the Global Fragility Act that has a ten year plan to support Haitiâs increased stability and autonomy.â The âautonomyâ Nichols hopes to foster is from China, to whose Belt and Road Initiative the GFA is a counter-measure.
The GFA was passed under President Trump in 2019 with full bipartisan support. Washingtonâs first âpartnerâ under the GFA is Haiti.
The GFA emphasizes building relationships with âlocal civil societyâ by âstrengthen[ing] the capacity of the United States to be an effective leader of international efforts to prevent extremism and violent conflict.â
This âcapacityâ includes negotiating 10-year âsecurity assistanceâ agreements with âpartnerâ nations.
The GFA aims to prevent âfragile statesâ from developing diplomatic and trade relationships with Russia and China. This adversarial stance on Russia and China results from their rapprochement with âfragile statesâ which involves geo-strategic concerns, including access to raw materials.
Haiti is often the laboratory where Washington tests its new imperialist strategies for maintaining hegemony.
A âpartnershipâ under the GFA between Haiti and Washington would ensure that Haiti remains under U.S. hegemony for decades. This would also block diplomacy and investment from countries like China.
In 2017, China offered to overhaul Port-au-Princeâs crumbling infrastructure with a $4.7 billion aid package. In return, Haiti would drop its recognition of Taiwan as the âRepublic of China.â Haiti remains one of only 11 nations (not counting the Vatican) which recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. The planetâs other 182 nations recognize only the Peopleâs Republic of China.
Indeed, in a 2019 testimony, just prior to the GFA being signed into law, IRI Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Antonio Garrastazu remarked before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Haiti has âvast national security implicationsâ to the U.S.. Garrastazu explained that âHaiti serves as an important U.S. ally in the regionâ because it counters âChinese interferenceâ by âmaintaining its strong relationship with Taiwanâ which âhelps prevent China from concluding, through its Belt and Road Initiative,⊠questionable infrastructure projects.â
Washington also wants to prevent Haiti from developing closer diplomatic relations and economic ties with Russia. President Jovenel MoĂŻse established formal diplomatic relations with Moscow only one month before his assassination two and a half years ago, accrediting Russian ambassador Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov. It was the first time Haiti had established diplomatic relations with Russia. Many argue that this could have been a factor which might have led Washington to green-light MoĂŻseâs assassination.
The U.S. governmentâs efforts to organize the MSS over the past 18 months is necessary to install a government which will agree to signing the GFA, which will create a bilateral agreement for the deployment of U.S. troops in Haiti.
U.S. Defense and State Departments Planned Psyops Campaign
In a prepared statement delivered to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the Defense Departmentâs role in the GFA on May 11, 2022, Jim Saenz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Stabilization Policy, explained that the âDoDâs role in GFA implementation is to support the efforts of the Department of State as the lead, and the USAID as the lead implementerâ to âensure that the 10-year plans âŠalign the relevant goals, objectives, plans, and benchmarks with DoD policy.â
The State department provided more detail on how the DoD would achieve these objectives in an important planning document titled âUnited States Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stabilityâ published by the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations.
It explained that in order to âprevent conflict and address global fragilityâ they will implement âspecialized activitiesâ that include âpsychological operationsâand âinformation operations engagementsâ (formerly referred to as âinformation warfareâ). In other words, the DoD and DoS will engage in what are commonly referred to as psyops â âpsychological operationsâ â to manufacture consent and distract the populations in and outside Haiti to further U.S. foreign policy goals.
Indeed, section 1631(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) provisions affirms that the DoD can conduct âmilitary operationsâ in the information environment, âincluding clandestine operations,â that are in defense of U.S. interests.
The DoD and the CIA are not the only source of psyops campaigns aimed at propagating disinformation. Canadian private military contractor INKAS, which provided armored vehicles to the Haitian National Police (PNH) attempted to conduct a social media disinformation campaign last year.
Investigative journalist Dan Cohen uncovered a coordinated social media troll campaign aimed primarily at those who opposed the Canadian governmentâs sale of armored vehicles to PM Ariel Henryâs regime.
Cohen explained that âINKAS sold armored vehicles to Haiti, some of which were delivered in October 2022.â These armored vehicles were used to enforce an attack against the FRG9âs blockade on the Varreux fuel terminal. The blockadeâs aim was to force Henry from office while protesting the governmentâs recent removal of fuel subsidies most Haitians depended on to make fuel affordable.
The social media campaign involved several troll accounts which used images of Black people taken from various websites such as unsplash.com. These troll accounts claimed Haitian identities. They either posted comments promoting the Canadian governmentâs foreign policy in Haiti or attacked Cohen and other accounts which offered criticism.
If not for Cohenâs investigative journalism, these Canadian arms manufacturer troll accounts would have grown, collecting followers and popularity. This episode is a clear warning to advocates who use social media to be wary of anonymous accounts which attack investigative journalists and offer criticism that objectively supports Washingtonâs imperialist policies in Haiti.
âManipulating the Information Environmentâ in Haiti
Organizations in and outside of Haiti have already conducted a successful campaign of disinformation and propaganda designed to distract the population and turn advocates for Haiti against each other.
At the center of this campaign are two U.S.-backed âhuman rights groups,â the RNDDH and FJKL. Multiple investigations from several sources have shown they routinely use their funding to target political opponents and propagate disinformation.
Their unsupported allegations are repeated by mainstream media and other outlets, like InSight Crime, which further propagate their disinformation.
The interconnected network of CSOs, âhuman rights groups,â and organizations funded by the U.S. government or other U.S. foundations centered on promoting neoliberalism is vast.
Indeed, in IRI Regional Director Garrastazuâs testimony to Congress, he highlighted that âby maintaining a good relationship with Haiti, the U.S. will help ensure China does not gain yet another foothold in Latin America and the Caribbean using corruption to secure preferential terms for Chinese state-owned companies and manipulating the information environment,â on which Washington clearly has a stranglehold.
Advocates for Haiti who ignore or dismiss the vast propaganda network Washington and CORE group members like Canada maintain through direct funding or the funding of NGOs and CSOs (and some private foundations like Open Society Foundations and AJWS) will inevitably contaminate their analyses with talking points drawn from this vast disinformation network. Consequently, their actions will inevitably be fruitless in preventing Washington from tightening its death-grip on Haiti by implementing the GFA.
Travis Ross is a teacher based in Montreal, Québec. He is also the co-editor of the Canada-Haiti Information Project at canada-haiti.ca. Travis has written for Haiti Liberté, Black Agenda Report, The Canada Files, TruthOut, and rabble.ca. He can be reached on Twitter.
Travis Ross
Travis Ross is a teacher based in Montreal, Québec. He is also the co-editor of the Canada-Haiti Information Project at canada-haiti.ca. Travis has written for Haiti Liberté, Black Agenda Report, TruthOut, and Rabble.ca. He can be reached on Twitter.
