Pinochet general takes over after mysterious death

The United Nations spends more on keeping its so-called peacekeeping force in Haiti, the Minustah, supplied and paid than the Haitian government spends on its budget. Just browsing through the web pages devoted to Haitian affairs would indicate how fragile “peace” and security are in Haiti.

Twenty kidnappings a week hardly rate a mention—unless some of the people kidnapped are non-Haitian. Somebody shot to death or robbed at gunpoint will be reported—if the somebody is a UN soldier or official, or a non-Haitian journalist.

Still, it was a shock when Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira Da Matta Bacellar, the Brazilian commander of Minustah, was found sitting on his balcony early Jan. 7, with a book on his lap, shot to death. From close range.

The immediate reaction of the Brazilian authorities and Haitian cops was that he had committed suicide. Then the Brazilians tried saying he had had an accident with his firearm, even though he had been a firearms instructor.

A number of Haitian journalists, including Maude LeBlanc—co-director of Haïti-Progrès, speaking on New York’s WBAI-FM morning show by telephone from Port-au-Prince—say it is possible that Bacellar was assassinated. He was a devout Catholic, not demonstrably depressed, and he was reportedly opposed to the demands of the Haitian bourgeoisie to crush the supporters of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose stronghold is Cité Soleil.

While Cité Soleil is often described as a “neighborhood,” 300,000 very poor people make it their home.

The day before Bacellar died, the political head of the UN mission in Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, announced that UN troops would “occupy Cité Soleil” and warned that “civilians could be harmed” in an interview he gave to Reuters. Bacellar opposed Valdes’plan.

The Monday after Bacellar’s death, the Haitian bourgeoisie, following the call of the Chamber of Commerce, held a “general strike”—which most accurately must be called a semi-successful lockout. Most major businesses in Port-au-Prince, like banks and big stores, closed. Outside of the capital, life went on as usual.

The aim of the lockout was to put pressure on the UN to smash Cité Soleil.

The temporary replacement for Bacellar is Chilean Gen. Eduardo Aldunate, who graduated from the U.S. School of the Americas in 1974 after participating in the attack on Chile’s presidential palace in 1973. He worked in Chile’s military intelligence under the U.S.-backed Pinochet dictatorship.

The U.S., France and Canada are determined that Haiti hold a presidential election on Feb. 7, the date set by the constitution for an elected president to take office. They do not want any poor, bitterly determined opponents to stand in the way of the election/selection they have scheduled, which is meant to validate the U.S.-led coup that overturned Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s real, democratically elected president.