HAITI: COUP D'ETAT CONTINUES inalienable objectives of our great plan for autonomy. We want to establish specific regional governments which will regroup autonomously at a municipal and
(PORT-AU-PRINCE, 2 December) US lawyer Deborah Jackson condemned "the total inadequacy of the [Haitian and US] authorities in inquiring into the accusations of community level; we want to create murders, torture and arrest" committed since the coup d'etat. Jackson was autonomous regions where the civil, participating in a fact-finding mission by three North American lawyers, members of cultural, political and social rights of the people are respected; we want autonomous
Many Haitians complained of the American troops' protection of the Haitin military regions where the people, represented by their autonomous governments, are
"It's not because of a lack of information that the government doesn't act" lawyer concerned with solving the multiple social
Michael Ratner told journalists. "In several villages peopl told me, 'This is where and economic problems of the communities such a such a member of FRAPH lives. When we want to drag this person out of and regions; by means of our own his house, when we want to follow him, there are two American soldiers stationed representatives we want to take part in the in front of the house, protecting these individuals!"
political institutions of federal entities, in
While it is true that one FRAPH leader was brought before a judge in early which our autonomous regions must be
December, in most cases, all public protest can do is to oblige the authorities to located, and likewise in the national and transfer soldiers implicated by the people to another town or 'recycle' them into the political representations; in short, we really want to participate, by means of our own
On 1 December the delegation visited the Petit-Goave prison. Four peasants had autonomous organs within Mexican society.
been imprisoned there on 4 November by Haitian and American soldiers after they
The autonomy plan has still not been participated in a demonstration against a big land owner who had stolen their land.
defined in detail. Its concrete definition must
According to former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark "the coup d'etat is still come about through the thoughts and going on in the streets, in the places where the populace lives".
commitment of the different peoples. We
Despite Aristide's return, the very people who have killed and who have been giving know that in other countries, the Indian orders since 30 September 1991 are still there. They are overpowering in number peoples who have attained autonomy have and occupy the same positions as before. They can be seen strolling down the established the kind of autonomy which streets every day searching houses and carrying out arrests.
suited them. This "process of autonomy"
The lawyers' delegation supported popular calls for the abolition of the Haitian army, presupposes discussion and agreement. All the creation of an independent "Verité" (Truth') commission, and of tribunals set up the Indian people of Mexico must take part by the population itself. In an subseauent interview with the bulletin "Haiti Info in this discussion in order to establish a form
Ramsey Clark stressed that the coming months would be crucial for the Haitian of autonomy which will suit us. We formally people, since further opportunities to get rid of the army and the tontons macoutes' declare to Mexico that the process of will surely present themselves. Clark also urged progressive movements in the USA autonomy has opened, launching this vast to increase their solidarity with Haitian associations.
debate that we want to fuel the whole
Ramsey Clark is a former US Attorney General.
country.
We have to discuss and analyse the rights and duties that will be included in our autonomy, the method in which we intend to organise our autonomous governments, the
14 the 'Haiti Commission.' the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
November 1994 elections
Left breaks two party system!
The November 27 elections did not produce the hoped-for victory of the left wing Frente
Amplio. But the neo-liberal 'Blancos' of the ruling National Party were defeated, and the left wing vote increased 50% compared to the last election in 1989. Parliament is now split evenly between the Blancos, the Frente Amplio, and the governing Colorado Party.
The implications are far reaching, in a system designed for the alternance of two pro- capitalist parties. As our Montevideo correspondent Gustavo Vasquez predicts, the bourgoisie will certainly try to split Frente Amplio, and draw the most moderate elements into government, to share responsibility for neo-liberal economic policies.
International Viewpoint #263 February 1995
THE COLORADO Party started the campaign with a 10-12 point lead. Their final score was only 27,000 votes higher than the National Party and 31,000 higher than the Frente Amplio. Either of the other parties could have won the elections had a minor political event modified the vote of a few thousand voters.
Colorado presidential candidate Julio M Sanguinetti owes his victory to Uruguay's electoral law, which allowed party to put forward candidates for the presidency and to accumulate the votes received.
President in the last Colorado government of 1984-89, Sanguinetti started his campaign on a Social Democrat ticket, choosing former Frente Amplio member Dr Batalla! as his vicepresidential candidate. But faced with an electoral swing away from his party, Sanguinetti reached out to right wing voters. He chose a televised debate with the Frente Amplio candidate Tabare Vazquez to launch a virulent anticommunist campaign. Nevertheless, Sanguinetti was careful to distance himself from neo-liberal positions, and avoided the most painful right wing proposals for Uruguayan society: privatisation, social liberalisation. Of course, his government will have to resolve these key issues. And while it is not strictly neo-liberal, the new Colorado government will do the same as the last one, and implement the "inevitable" measures. This is all the more true now that the country is integrating into the common market of the southernmost Latin American states (Mercosur). The winning candidate might want to take protectionist measures in favour of those industrial concerns which supported his campaign, but he will be obliged to introduce neoliberal reforms.
### UrugUAy
The Defeat of the 'Blancos'.
The National Party's share of the vote was only 31%, down from 38% in 1989. The most neo-liberal sector of the political elite, that which has undertaken neoliberal structural reform in the past, was beaten. Despite their promises to create 'a country and their record of reducing inflation from 120% to 40%, and balancing the state finances, the Blancos needed to combine the vote of three presidential candidates to gain even one third of the
The Blancos' privatisation offensive, frontal attack on social security, and apparent disinterest in the social and economic future of the country clashed with the Uruguayan people's attachment to the state as benefactor. So strong is this social identity that some government supporters even turned towards the Frente Amplio alliance (which proposed a former leader of the National Party as Vazquez's candidate for the vice-presidency. A Spectacular Vote.
One of the most remarkable facts of these elections has been the vigorous rise of the left. In 1989, Frente Amplio received 21.8% of the votes at a national level and 36% in Montevideo. In 1994 the Frentedominated 'Progressive Assembly' list obtained 29.8% of the national vote, and 43% in Montevideo! The left clearly gained votes in all sections of society, notably from new electors disillusioned with the other parties. The most striking progress was made in the interior of the country, the historic bastion of the traditional parties.
A narrow majority at the Frente Amplio pre-election congress adopted a pragmatic policy of 'political realism' and
'the culture of government.' This led to the formation of the Progressive Assembly, an alliance under a most moderate programme, dominated by the Frente Amplio, but including the ChristianDemocratic Party and a dissident vicepresidential candidate from the National Party. The congress also pledged to guarantee a governable system, whatever government was elected.
This adaptation was founded on the ideas of the CEPAL, the idea of a 'fair share' of economic growth. Basic reforms disappeared from this scenario: agricultural reform, the nationalisation of the banks and refusal to pay the foreign debt. Under these new principles, anti-imperialism no longer has a raison d'etre, and there is no oligarchy of power in our country. Frente still distrusted by elite
As it turned out, this strategy did not protect the Frente from the realities of the electoral campaign.
Whatever the 'respectability' certain Frente leaders tried to portray, Uruguay's dominant classes were not inspired by the Frente's history, political positions, in short its identity (even hidden behind the 'Progressive Assembly'). As a leaked videotape revealed, Minister of the Interior Gianola reassured a meeting of military leaders and Blanco and Colorado deputies that "the future of the country will be decided between the Whites and the Colorados." The rules of the game have their limits, no one should think otherwise. The left is perhaps tolerated up to a certain point but they are not welcome in this system.
Even if the electoral campaign was not marked by significant social conflicts, severe political confrontations resulted in the Frente reaffirming its earlier strategy -contrasting two opposing plans for the
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