20 January 2010

Haiti, Honduras and the neo-colonization of the Americas

The latest re-expansion of US colonialism in the Americas is underway. We've seen two models for US recolonization of the Americas - first in Honduras, under an oligarch coup, which initially was organized by the local business elites and had limited support from like-minded conservatives in the US. The incapacity of the Obama administration to control the US government bureaucracy particularly the US State Department, influenced by its own historical legacy of supported colonialism in the Americas and very limited contact outside of Latin American elites, resulted in the continuance of the coup regime, attempted legitimization through meaningless elections, which accomplished the main goal of driving away international media attention and therefore pressure on the US government, and the firm (re)establishment of the coup regime and its leaders into the governance of Honduras. Re-focusing on the US, whether or not Obama himself desired a new future for US-Americas relations, the end result of the Honduras coup will be a model for economic elites both in the US and in the rest of the Americas. The relationship that began the Cold-War colonialism of the Americas in Guatemala in 1953 with the deposing of President Jacobo Arbenz by local economic elites, their paid thugs, US multinationals (particularly United Fruit Company), and their paid thugs the CIA, has been reaffirmed through Honduras and no doubt encouraged the economic elites in other countries currently under-threat from democracy to consider their own golpe de estado.

The second-model is now underway in Haiti. Anyone familiar with the Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein, a much-less naive take on the affects of capitalism than her earlier No Logo, will recognize the interrelated deployment of US military, private security, NGOs, and the 'security' discourse following a 'disaster' as a situation ripe for political-economic manipulation. Haiti was the poorest country in the hemisphere, it will be even more devastated by poverty after the proverbial dust settles. It has twice suffered at the hands of a coup d'etat, backed or at least influenced by the US, of its democratically elected government who promised to address poverty through public measures. It is not unimportant to note that the second, third, and fourth poorest countries in the past four years in the region, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras (order depends on how the calculation is done), have all elected governments promising similar state-led measures to address poverty, with one already fallen to a coup of its own. The latest coup against President Aristide was preceded by an suspension of aid and loans by the US, and the development banks controlled/influenced by the US. Following that coup, political control was turned over to either individuals in Haiti who 'understood their place' - trained either by greed or fear and metaphorical handcuffs - to not challenge the idea of market-led 'development'.

But nominally Haiti remained an uncontrollable place, making Haiti poor was easy, controlling the will and desires of its people not. After all, no colonial system could ever trust the first truly successful anti-colonial revolt (White USians gaining 'liberty' from White English, while keeping slavery is hardly anti-colonial, it was a change in ownership) that happened in Haiti from 1793 to 1803. Since then, no major Atlantic colonial power has missed an opportunity to suppress Haiti - the French, the English, and the US all have had their interventions into Haiti. The history is not uncomplicated, the morality of Haitian leaders may be questionable, but there has never been a justification for the repeated colonial attempts that have enjoyed periods of success before once again Haitian people fight back. These interventions have left Haiti a poor, disjointed country. In the early 1800s Simon Bolívar received support from Haiti, as the only anti-colonial Republic in the Americas, in his attempts to liberate South America. This history is not without important symbolic and material significance and a foundation for what was to come.

The Cold War and global capitalism demanded new forms of colonialism, in many ways developed by the British in the Americas from the 1800s onwards. When colonial interests are private-corporations then the governance of a country does not need to be directly controlled by a foreign government, but in the interest of the corporation and the small representative local elites. A more nefarious and indirect face to colonialism, that nevertheless serves the same purpose: to extract wealth Northwards, maintain geographic inequality, and in particular cases serve examples. Haiti has been the Caribbean and the America's most striking example: boldness leads to repression, resistance leads to increased poverty, and independence leads to more intervention. The example has been maintained, and we can now see once again exploited.

The US, with the enlisted support of its now junior partner in colonialism in the Americas, Canada (useful for image of legitimacy and as another channel for investment, particularly in extractive industries listed on the TSX), is once again exerting its full overwhelming strength to make an example of Haiti. Where Honduras' coup demonstrates the manipulative, underhanded, covert, indirect, and economic relationships of US corporate colonialism in the Americas, Haiti is once again the expression of uncomplicated, demonstrative, and coercive colonialism. Thousands of US and Canadian troops, outside of the control of UN forces, have taken up strategic control of the major airport, will control the port facility, and are now in charge of the logistical distribution of aid. What remains of the Haitian economy (to become nearly completely dependent upon aid once there is nothing left to scavenge, what US and Canadian media are calling 'looting') around Port au Prince is under the coercive jurisdiction of the US military.


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Legitimacy is of central concern - after all the colonial powers of Europe and North America in the 21st centuries are democracies and the purse-strings are controlled by the level of discontent amongst a manipulated middle-class in the global North. Whereas legitimacy in Honduras was ensured by the appearance of 'democracy' (or what is understood to be a symbol of democracy): an election; Haiti there is no such reasonable expectation. Governance is ensued from 'security'. Coercive control over Haiti, like Naomi Klein's description of post-Katrina New Orleans, is legitimized by pictures of 'looters' and reports of apparent 'rioters'. There is no interrogation of what 'looting' means in a post-earthquake destroyed Port au Prince (easily described as collecting available resources to stave off starvation - how can you loot from a business that no longer exists?) or why people have become angry, which is what passes as rioting in apathetic and blasé middle-class North America. From this emerges the legitimization that heavily armed soldiers are needed first before aid can be delivered. The North American media audience has been prepared for this argument, so very similar to the one often repeated and cited in the War on Afghanistan - economic 'development' cannot happen until or without a massive 'securitization'. It relies on an imaginary of the development/aid worker as being weak, uncourageous, and incapable of dealing with complex and dangerous situations (they are often arts or medical graduates after all) and a neo-racialization of the poor in developing countries as irrational (they cannot recognize someone who is helping them), quick to tend towards violence, and visibly threatening. Instinctively both important imaginaries of the donating and voting middle-class (the economic support for neo-colonialism) respond easily to images of defenceless aid workers and 'scary' black Haitians, and there is a level of established comfort and recognized bravery of a heavily armed soldier. The failure to address the immediate needs of Haitians for their survival following this earthquake will be blamed on the 'fundamental' incapacity to establish 'security' rather than real explanations such as the inadequate distribution of incoming aid (which is in part a consequence of the amount of time and resources being devoted to logistically organizing the 'security' as the priority: evidenced by the repeated failed attempts of MSF to land a supplies at the Port au Prince airport).

The long term consequences of how these first few weeks are unfolding are described by Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. It will be the economic and political subservience to the neo-colonialism of the Americas. The US increasingly losing control of the economics of the world is being driven by its corporate elites to rediscover its place in the Americas as a hegemon with a backyard. Haiti and Honduras are important demonstrations of how the US will reclaim, reestablish, and reinforce its economic and political influence in the region. Being prepared and actively responding to crisis, whether real or perceived, Naomi Klein argues is the only way to resist.

Haiti and its people need help, they need aid, and they need long term solidarity - but this cannot come at the expense of a new method for re-colonizing the Americas. If you are donating money, please donate to organizations that understand the economic-political reality and put Haitians first, such as Partners in Health or MSF. These people are courageous individuals who need economic and material support, not an imagined 'security', to do their jobs. Canadians and Americans must pressure their governments to not become involved colonially in Haiti and resist media interpretations that manipulate racialized fears to legitimize the militarization of development and aid.

2 comments:

Laura said...

I read the other day that France also has some problems with US takeover of the situation. Could it have something to do with a French scientist writing about oil in Haiti? And on a similar vein, I see oil is being explored in the Falkland Islands-where there was a not so long ago dispute involving argentina...

Unknown said...

Oil I think has something to do with it, whether it is controlling the flow and use of Venezuelan oil in re-shaping the Americas or actual reserves off the coast of Haiti I do not know. But if history is any indicator, even when the US (or Canada now for that matter) is at its best, the outcomes usually do not turn out well for the rest of the Americas.