Haitians protest in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Haitians who support Jean-Bertrand Aristide demonstrated Oct. 29 against Marc Bazin, whose handlers in the State Department call “Mr. Clean.” Bazin is now running for president in Haiti. He made a few campaign appearances in New York the last weekend in October, looking for support and money in the U.S. portion of the Haitian Diaspora.

Bazin ran against Aristide in 1990, with millions of dollars in aid from the United States. He got less than 15 percent of the vote while Aristide got over 65 percent. After the first military coup against Aristide, he accepted the military’s offer of the post of prime minister.

He currently is claiming that his party, the Movement for the Inauguration of Democracy in Haiti, is in alliance with the Lavalas Party that Aristide founded. This claim is vehemently rejected by Lavalas supporters in New York.

Bazin’s claim is a ploy to make it appear that part of the popular movement accepts the overthrow of Aristide. This ploy can obstruct the efforts of Haitian activists to rally their community against the U.S./Canadian/UN occupation of their country.

— G. Dunkel