Civil rights worker kidnapped in Haiti

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, forced out of Haiti by U.S. agents, is still in exile. Supporters of Fanmi Lavalas (FL), his party, are still in prison because of their political allegiance. Former members of the Haitian Army, which was abolished by Aristide when he was president, hold armed demonstrations demanding its re-establishment. U.N. forces, called MINUSTAH, still occupy the country under the direction of a Security Council dominated by the U.S.

And now Lovinsky Pierre Antoine has been kidnapped. An FL activist and organizer of the September 30th Foundation, he has been a public supporter of community groups in the impoverished but militant neighborhood of Cité Soleil that oppose MINUSTAH. He was slated to run as an FL candidate for a Senate seat in upcoming elections.

On Sunday, Aug. 12, Antoine drove some visiting members of a North American civil rights group back to their rooms. He was supposed to take them to Arcahaie the next day to meet René Civil, who has been in detention for a number of months. Civil is a prominent youth leader, closely connected to Aristide, and a frequent target of right-wing propaganda.

When Antoine didn’t show up Monday morning, the North American group called the police, who then found the rented car he was driving near the airport with nothing but a T-shirt and a few CDs in it.

Kidnapping is so common that the police have a whole procedure they follow for prominent individuals. But they didn’t for Lovinsky Pierre Antoine. There were no searches of the known haunts of kidnapping gangs, no public outcry. After a few days, when some North American activists in the Haiti solidarity movement were suspecting a political kidnapping, a demand for a $300,000 ransom surfaced. (Haïtí-Progrès, Aug. 15 to Aug. 23)

Whether this kidnapping was done for profit or out of political motives, or for both reasons, its political impact is the same. It will strengthen the hold of reactionary forces in Haiti, already strong, and make foreign solidarity groups much more cautious when they visit. It is going to be riskier for Haitians to oppose the occupation of their country and the re-establishment of the army and to support the popular protests in poor communities.