INTERNATIONAL NEWS IN BRIEF
Haiti: 5,000 march to demand Aristide's return
Over 5,000 demonstrators marched June 18 from Bel Air, a
poor neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, to the Presidential Palace
in order to press their demands for the return of Haiti's
democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and
for open and fair elections.
Aristide, who was forced from Haiti in a coup planned and
implemented by the U.S. government, is currently living in
exile in South Africa. The de-facto government currently in
control is recognized only by the United States.
A similar demonstration held on May 18, Haitian Flag Day,
was met by gunfire from Haitian police, backed up by U.S. Mar
ines, that killed at least two protesters. However, police
refrained from attack ing the June 18 demonstration. The
protesters exchanged insults with U.S. Marines guard ing the
walls of the presidential palace and urged them to leave the
country.
"If they want to kill us all, that's OK, but we will not
rest until Aristide is returned," Lesly Gustave, one of the
demonstration organizers, told a German press agency.
U.S. Marines were supposed to leave by June 20 and be
replaced by a collection of UN soldiers from countries that are
former colonial possessions or neocolonies. This maneuver would
allow U.S. imperialism to operate behind a Third World screen
while extending its control into the rural areas of Haiti.
But it appears that U.S. troops are going to continue
enforcing the control of key areas like the Presidential
Palace.
--G. Dunkel
U.S. Navy 'operations' in Africa
Much of the worldwide progressive movement is very aware of
the long-time bloody U.S. imperialist role in the Middle East,
Latin America and Asia. Less is known about U.S. designs on
Africa, but that may soon change.
The U.S. Navy has initiated "Operation Summer Pulse '04,"
which entails sending U.S. battleships off the coasts of
Nigeria, Sao Tome, Equatorial Guinea and other African
oil-producing countries. Accord ing to the Pentagon's website,
"Beginning this week and continuing through August, the Navy
will exercise the full range of skills involved in
simultaneously deploying and employing carrier strike groups
around the world ... Summer Pulse '04 will include scheduled
deployments, surge operations, joint and international
exercises, and other advanced training and port visits."
What is the underlying reason for the U.S. bolstering its
military presence throughout a particular region in the most
underdeveloped continent? This "show of force" is an attempt on
behalf of U.S. big oil interests to control and exploit the
huge, untapped oil reserves in Africa. This military scheme
grows out of skyrocketing fuel prices inside the U.S. and the
deepening geopolitical instability that the Penta gon faces in
the Middle East, especially Iraq.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles
Snyder said in a speech on April 13: "A lot of this new oil is
actually offshore. There is no one to protect it unless we
build up African coastal fleets ... The United States has real
interests in Africa. We ignore the continent at our peril.
Africa will provide up to 30 percent of U.S. oil in the next 10
years."
Did the Navy brass even bother to consult with any African
leader about their plans to dominate the mineral wealth with
armed ships? Of course not. Imperialism is not a policy based
on cooperation or defending the rights of colonized peoples.
Imperialism is a predatory economic system that feeds off the
plunder and super-exploitation of the resources and labor of
oppressed countries.
The African peoples have a glorious history of anti-colonial
and pro-independence struggle. But now, more than ever, they
need to feel a strong hand of international solidarity,
especially from movements within the larger imperialist
countries. This solidarity includes demanding from the U.S. and
other rich capitalist economies billions of dollars in
reparations for real economic development and national
liberation for all African peoples.
--Monica Moorehead
Fidel Castro offers free health care to 3,000 U.S.
poor
Fidel Castro, in yet another example showing the Cuban
Revolution can "think outside the box," has pledged that the
Cuban health care system will provide free medical care to up
to 3,000 U.S. people who need such care and cannot obtain it
inside the United States. The Cuban president was speaking on
June 21 to 200,000 in Havana who were demonstrating solidarity
against the threat of military intervention from U.S.
imperialism.
Castro challenged U.S. President George Bush to allow the
poor people needing medical care to travel to Cuba. The Bush
administration had recently tightened rules against U.S.
residents visiting Cuba, even those who were born in Cuba and
have relatives there.
The Cuban revolutionary leader called attention to the 44
million U.S. residents who have no medical insurance and to the
thousands who die each year because they are unable to afford
available medical care. These, he pointed out, are many more
than the 3,000 who died in the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
He said he hoped his offer would lead to saving 3,000
lives.
Castro expressed Cuba's solidarity with the people of the
United States, even as he spoke of the Cuban people's
determination to defend their country and its socialist system
against any possible attack.
Bolivia: Corrupt mayor hung in rebellion
In mid-June, a community uprising of Indigenous people in
Ayo Ayo, an extremely poor town of about 7,000 people 55 miles
from the capital, executed Mayor Benja min Altamirano. The
people accused him of corruption. They later burned his corpse.
This was part of an ongoing rebellion of poor people, mostly
Aymara and Quechua, whose uprising last October threw out
former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and replaced him
with Carlos Mesa. Before that uprising succeeded, the Bolivian
army and police killed 66 of the people taking part in the
unarmed rebellion and wounded many more.
The main issues behind last fall's uprising involved the
plunder of Bolivian resources, especially natural gas, by
mostly U.S.-based corporations like Enron, and the poverty
imposed on most Bolivians by the privatization policies in
force the last 10 years. The current unrest is a reaction to
Mesa's failure to change these policies, especially to take
steps aiding the impoverished Bolivians.
Ruling-class media and many government officials condemned
the community's execution. But Econoticias Bolivia reported
June 16 that the action received support. Felipe Quispe, the
leader of the Unified Trade Union Confederation of Farm Workers
of Bolivia (CSUTCB), said "I believe that if it was a community
action, the CSUTCB will defend the community, because the
community is not the ones guilty (of the killing). The guilty
ones are those who manage the laws, those who administer the
laws ... those who leave unpunished and without blame those who
steal from the people."
Quispe is an Indigenous ex-guerrilla who in early June
renounced his role as an elected deputy to "be in the struggle
on the side of his people and not get corrupted by
parliamentarism."
--John Catalinotto
Reprinted from the July 1, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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