U.S. troops in Dominican Republic

The United States hoped sending a heavily armed brigade of several thousand troops to Barahona, a small city on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic 50 miles from the Haitian border, would go unnoticed.

But the progressive movement in the Dominican Republic held a series of demonstrations in late February exposing this potential threat to Cuba, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico, to the elections scheduled for Haiti and to progressives in the Dominican Republic itself.

The U.S. and the Dominican army put out the cover story that the U.S. troops were there to provide medical assistance. Oscar Moreta, a member of the Patriotic Anti-Imperialist Committee of Barahona, told the Cuban News Agency Prensa Latina, “Those of us who live in Barahona have been able to confirm that they have tanks, armored vehicles, attack helicopters, radar and many weapons, and we understand that those are not things used to build clinics.”

There are rumors circulating in Bara hona that the troops are the advanced guard of an eventual 14,000, designed to pose a major threat to any U.S. opponents in the region.

Although René Préval is Haiti’s president-elect, after a massive popular struggle, he can’t take office until the Haitian parliament is seated. The second round of parliamentary elections is currently scheduled for April 21-23, which means that the votes won’t be counted and the victors seated until some time in May.

The danger to Haiti is that the U.S. troops in Barahona could intervene against Préval, whom they see as an ally of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.