TruthArchive.ai - Tweets Saved By @battleforeurope
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
How is it possible that in 2 years no one has managed to get von der Leyen to hand over her “secret” text messages with Pfizer CEO Bourla in which she signed off on the purchase of 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer vaccine? Me on the scandal of the century. https://unherd.com/2024/05/pfizergate-could-still-topple-von-der-leyen/
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
The Western coverage of the Ukraine war in a nutshell: from “Putin is finished” to “Putin is winning” in the span of four months. Amazing how these people still have a job. https://t.co/PJ0rrmW3iM
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
Pope Francis on Israel’s assault on Gaza: “This is not war, it is terrorism”. https://t.co/8RLkfdINOy
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
🧵 Haiti is once again in the grip of chaos and violence. Here’s a thread on why the country’s woes can only be understood in the context of more than a century of disastrous neocolonial interventions — mostly by the US, and more recently by the UN. https://unherd.com/2023/08/did-the-un-cause-haitis-nightmare/
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
1/ Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and among the poorest in the world. And in recent years things have gotten even worse, amid political instability, natural disasters and growing levels of violence. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview#:~:text=Haiti%20remains%20the%20poorest%20country,of%20191%20countries%20in%202021
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
2/ In the past year alone, more than 2,400 have been killed — and 200,000 people have now been internally displaced — due to an unprecedented wave of gang warfare. Large portions of the country are now directly under the heavily-armed gangs’ control. https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20230818-more-than-2-400-killed-in-haiti-gang-violence-since-january-1-says-un
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
3/ Just the other day, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the international community to deploy a “robust use of force” — in the form of a UN-sanctioned multinational peacekeeping mission — to Haiti to disarm the gangs and restore order. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/un-chief-says-robust-force-needed-disarm-haitis-gangs-2023-08-15/
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@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
4/ Given the nightmarish situation in the country, one would expect Haitians to welcome such a foreign military intervention with open arms. But that is not the case. When the Haitian government first called for an international mission, at the end of lat year...
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
5/ ... many Haitians took to the streets and social media to voice their opposition in spite of the violence. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/04/1131254613/haiti-sanctions-foreign-intervention-protests-gangs-cholera
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
6/ This can only be understood in the context of the Haitians’ fraught relationship with their country’s long history of foreign interventions and occupations — and the disastrous legacy they have left behind. In 1804, Haiti became the world’s first black-led republic...
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
7/ ... and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery, beating none other than Napoleon’s legendary army, in the first successful large-scale revolt by enslaved people in modern history. https://theconversation.com/haiti-has-suffered-hugely-over-centuries-but-its-revolution-was-stunningly-innovative-183954
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
8/ But independence came at a crippling cost. In return for diplomatic recognition, France demanded reparations from the newly independent nation for property lost as a result of the revolution — including Haitian slaves. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/10/05/1042518732/-the-greatest-heist-in-history-how-haiti-was-forced-to-pay-reparations-for-freed
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
9/ It took Haiti until 1888 to officially pay back its last indemnity payment. But to do so it was forced to take out additional loans from from France, for which it continued to pay interests for several years to come. To make matters worse... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/20/world/americas/enslaved-haiti-debt-timeline.html
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
10/ ... in 1911-1919 the National City Bank of New York (today Citibank), pressured by the US government, purchased the Banque Nationale de Haiti — the country’s central bank. As the historian Michael L. Krenn, Ph.D., writes:
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
11/ “Haiti’s national bank became simply another branch of the New York financial giant and Haiti was forced to pay National City Bank to serve as the nation’s treasury service”. This resulted in the transfer of huge sums from Haiti to the New York bank. islandluminous.fiu.edu/part07-slide12…
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
12/ In 1915, in order to better secure its geostrategic and financial interests on the island, and responding to concerns raised by the National City Bank of New York, the US government deployed the Marines to Haiti — marking the beginning of the US occupation of the country.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
13/ During the almost two-decades-long occupation, which ended in 1934, Haiti was transformed into a US protectorate: ruled by the US as a military regime led by the Marines. Human rights abuses were widespread, including mass killings and forced labour. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/06/haiti-us-occupation-1915/
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
14/ In 1935, one year after the official end of the US occupation of Haiti, National City Bank sold the central bank to the Haitian government — but the US maintained financial receivership over the country’s external finances (with the resulting financial benefits) until 1947.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
15/ Between 1946 and 1950, under Dumarsais Estimé, the country’s first civilian president, Haiti enjoyed relative political and social stability. However, in 1950, Paul-Eugène Magloire, a colonel trained during the US occupation, overthrew Estimé and restored the old elite order.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
16/ This was followed by the brutal US-backed Duvalier regime: a dictatorship run first by François Duvalier (1957-1971), known as “Papa Doc”, and then by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier (“Baby Doc”) until 1986. The bloody regime enjoyed ample US support and financial aid.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
17/ Following a massive uprising which forced Duvalier to resign in 1986, Haiti began its transition to democracy. In the first elections (90-91), Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest with strong anti-imperialist leanings, became Haiti’s first democratically elected president.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
18/ Within a few months, however, he was removed in a coup, which likely saw the involvement of the CIA. The 1991 coup led to the deaths of thousands of Haitians and and Aristide was forced into exile. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/03/world/haitian-ex-paramilitary-leader-confirms-cia-relationship.html
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
19/ In 1994, amid huge protests, the Clinton administration helped restore Aristide to power, but not before getting him to sign an agreement to introduce market-oriented reforms in Haiti. Years later, Clinton himself admitted that these liberalisation policies had devastating...
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
20/ ... consequences for the poor Haitian economy: “It was a mistake… I had to live every day with the consequences of the loss capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed [its] people because of what I did, nobody else”. https://nacla.org/article/disaster-capitalism-rescue-international-community-and-haiti-after-earthquake
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
21/ After stepping aside in favour of a close ally in 1996, Aristide returned to office in 2001 in a landslide victory. Three years later, though, he was ousted in yet another coup d’état led by right-wing ex-army paramilitary units. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/coup-haiti/
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
22/ Aristide and others have alleged that the United States had a role in orchestrating the coup against him. At the time, he claimed that US forces, promptly deployed to Haiti, effectively kidnapped him and brought him out of the country against his will. edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/ame…
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
23/ In 2002, none other than the French ambassador to Haiti at the time told the New York Times that France and the United States had “effectively orchestrated ‘a coup’ against Aristide” by pressuring him to step down and forcing him into exile. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-history-colonized-france.html
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
24/ In Aristide’s place, a transitional government took over, which petitioned the UN Security Council for the intervention of an international peacekeeping force. A few months later, the UN officially launched its “Stabilisation Mission” in the country. https://news.un.org/en/story/2004/12/123292
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
25/ However, despite its presence, and the return of formal democratic rule following the 2006 elections, Haiti has continued to be plagued by violence. Several natural disasters, most notably the 2010 earthquake, which killed around 250,000 people, made the situation even worse.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
26/ The country was plunged into even further violence following the assassination, in 2021, of president Jovenel Moïse, who was shot dead inside his home by a group of mercenaries. Two years later many questions remain concerning the murder’s motives and potential masterminds.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
27/ He was replaced by Ariel Henry, a neurologist by training, who was named prime minister by Moïse just two days before his murder and was backed by major foreign powers, as well as the Organization of American States and the United Nations.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
28/ But Henry, who was effectively anointed by foreign powers, lacks any real political (or even legal, some argue) legitimation and remains deeply unpopular. The Montana Accord opposition group, which represents a broad spectrum of Haiti’s civil society...
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
29/ ... has contested the legitimacy of Henry’s government and has been demanding elections for more than a year. Last December, Henry finally reached an agreement with opposition groups to hold elections this year — but no date has yet been set. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/06/world/americas/haiti-opposition-group-montana-accord.html
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
30/ Adding to the distrust are rumours that Henry may be implicated in Moïse’s killing. The country’s chief prosecutor claimed that he had been in touch with one of the chief suspects in the killing in the days before and hours after the assassination. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/world/americas/haiti-henry-moise-assassination.html
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
32/ Henry’s weak and controversial rule has created a political vacuum which in the past year has been filled by rival armed gangs, which have effectively taken control of large portions of the country — including most of the capital. https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20230816-thousands-of-haitians-flee-gang-violence-in-port-au-prince-district
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
33/ Yet there continues to be widespread opposition among Haitians to a foreign intervention. Part of it has to do with mistrust in Henry, but on a deeper level it has to do with resentment over a century of disastrous neocolonial interventions and occupations — mostly by the US.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
34/ Unfortunately, the latest UN peacekeeping mission — which left the country in 2017, replaced by UN police until 2019 — is no exception. During their 13-year-long stay, the UN forces committed appalling crimes in Haiti.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
35/ Peacekeepers raped hundreds of women and girls, or sexually exploited them in exchange for food or support. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/11/un-peacekeeping-has-sexual-abuse-problem
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
36/ UN peacekeeping forces were also responsible for dumping toxic waste into the Artibonite River, the longest on the island of Hispaniola, causing a cholera epidemic in 2010 that cost the lives of 10,000 people. The UN has failed to pay any compensation. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-cholera-un-feature-trfn-idUSKBN2772RM
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
37/ No wonder Haitians revile the prospect of a new UN army coming to their country. For all the responsibilities that Haitians may have for the sorry state of their country, Haiti is clearly paying the price of the West’s systematic interference in the country’s affairs.
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
38/ Rather than infringe once again on its sovereignty, the best thing America and other countries can do is help Haitians recover it. A good starting point would be to stop the flow of weapons into the country — the majority of which come from the US. https://apnews.com/article/haiti-weapons-gangs-us-trafficking-f06bfb0a7d3b46a1e14ebd7bea95fd71
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
If you enjoyed this thread, check out the article that it’s based on: https://unherd.com/2023/08/did-the-un-cause-haitis-nightmare/
@battleforeurope - Thomas Fazi
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