Haiti: A History of Exploitation

Haiti’s Revolution and US and French Policy

Haiti: Slaves and Revolution – After thousands of slaves were taken from Africa to Haiti in the 17th and 18th centuries Haiti became the richest of the French colonies providing sugar, the 18th century cash crop, for France to sell and profit from throughout the world. By the end of the 18th century there were 500,000 to 700,000 slaves working on plantations and they outnumbered the master class by 10 to 1. The first slave revolt broke out in 1791 and continued until the Haitians successfully defeated Napoleon’s military and declared their independence from France in 1804.  This was the only successful slave revolt in human history. Haiti became the world’s first independent black republic and the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere (after the US).

US Recognition of Haiti – At the time of the Haitian revolution the US was only 30 years old and permitted slavery. President Jefferson began the policy of US refusal to recognize Haitian dependence and set forth policies to isolate Haiti. The US did not recognize Haiti until President Lincoln did so in 1863 after US slave states seceded.

Economic Embargo, Reparations (1825-1947) and Debt – The US and France imposed a crippling economic embargo and US sanctions which lasted until 1863. The embargo prevented Haiti from selling sugar. France then used its military to force Haiti to pay reparations for lost property (the slaves who were freed). The reparations were 150 million francs. In comparison, France sold the entire Louisiana territory to the US for nearly half that amount – 80 million francs.

When these reparations payments proved too burdensome, a US bank, National City Bank, offered a “debt exchange” in which Haiti borrowed money from the US to pay off France in exchange for a lower-interest, longer-term debt equivalent to 80% of the entire Haitian budget for the foreseeable future. The entire debt was not paid off until 1947. The current value of loans Haiti paid to the US and France over the years: $20 Billion. The Haitian economy was strangled for more than a century.

US and Haiti in the 20th Century and to the Present

US Occupation 1915-1934 – Because of the debt, President Woodrow Wilson ordered the US Marines to invade Haiti in 1915 and they stayed for 19 years. They took control of the government and the bank to enforce continued repayment of the original debt owed to National City Bank. The US seized the Treasury, exiled the president and established Jim Crow policies to divide Haitian society.  During this period the US set up a Haitian army in the image of the US Jim Crow Marines. Over 2000 Haitians were killed in one skirmish alone. The US siphoned off money from Haiti through its control of customs, collection of taxes and operation of many other government operations.

The US decided the Haitian Constitution, which offered sanctuary to every escaped slave of any color, as well as citizenship and the right to own property, was a hindrance to development and Assistant Secretary of the US Navy, Franklin Roosevelt, was charged with rewriting the Constitution. Under the revision, foreigners could own land and soon the land was deforested to provide lumber, rubber and other products for the wealthy abroad. Flying over the island of Hispaniola which hosts the Dominican Republic and Haiti, one sees a green Dominican Republic and a brown Haiti. The absence of trees in Haiti is due to predatory behavior by foreigners and it contradicts the values of the Haitian (Vodun) culture which reverences nature, especially trees.

US Support of Haitian Dictators and Lack of Support of Elected President (1934-1986) – In 1934 the US set up the Garde d’Haiti that acted as a proxy for US interests which continued until 1957. Within this period, between the years 1941 and 1945, the US supported a mulatto president, Elie Lescot, who expelled peasants from rural areas and cleared trees so the US could use the land for agribusiness. Two dictators, “Papa Doc” and Baby Doc” Duvalier, ruled from 1957-1986 strengthened by economic and military support from the US. Francois Duvalier, Papa Doc, murdered tens of thousands and played to the US cold-war fear that Communism would expand from nearby Cuba to win acceptance of his policies. In 1971 the power passed to his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Baby Doc. The Duvaliers’ atrocious human rights record did not matter to the US. The Duvaliers stole from the Haitians, looted the nation, created hundreds of millions in national debt and murdered as many as 60,000 Haitians through their militia, the Tonton Macoutes. It is estimated that the Duvaliers created 40% of the $1.3 billion debt. Until recently, Haiti was still required to make debt repayments of interest and principal. This debt has now been forgiven in the aftermath of the earthquake of 2010.

Post Duvalier Period (1987-Present) – This period is best characterized as one of instability with several coups and elections (aborted, rigged and, occasionally, fair) as the US tried to counter the revolutionary spirit that was infecting the region and so switched to supporting façade elections that were, in fact, purchased elections.

Yet in 1991 Haitians elected a poor priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who did not fit this pattern and who resisted the dictates of the US and the International Monetary Fund. At his inauguration on February 7, 1991 he declared the second independence of Haiti, independence from the economic domination of the US and France. The US immediately, through the CIA, began a campaign to discredit him and his political party, Lavalas.  Due to his nationalist orientation, within months he was deposed by the military with US support and sent to Washington, DC in September 1991. He was reinstated near the end of his term in 1994. Aristide was reelected in 2000 but on February 29, 2004, three years after his inauguration, he was kidnapped and removed again with the assistance of US Ambassador James Foley, CIA agents and US Marines. He is now in forced exile in South Africa; the US refuses to allow his return.

Globalization: Trade and Loan Policies

Prior to 1980, Haiti imported no rice, a food staple, or sugar as it was the sugar growing capital of the region.  The trading policies of the US and international baking systems (International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) forced Haiti to open its markets to the world and then the US dumped subsidized rice and sugar into Haiti. Beginning in 1985 US Farm Bill rice subsidies to US farmers increased so that by 1987 40% of the rice growers’ profits came from the US government. This undercut the Haitian farmers whose prices could not compete with the subsidized imports.  In 1986 Haiti imported 7000 tons of rice annually; by 1996 Haiti was importing 196,000 tons of rice annually at a cost of $100 million per year. Haiti became the third largest world market for subsidized US rice benefitting US farmers at the expense of the agricultural sector of Haiti.

Haiti is made of limestone, the foundation of cement. Yet the Haitian cement company was privatized and then shut down. Now most of the cement is imported from the US. Other industries have been privatized and then sold to foreigners or wealthy Haitian investors: telephone companies and flour producers, for example. The state-owned flour mill was sold to a group of investors linked to one of Haiti’s largest banks for $9 million. It produces annual profits of $20-30 million and serves to concentrate wealth in the Haitian elite, the 1% of the population which holds 45% of the wealth.

Haiti now relies on imported food. This is a result of the neo-liberal trade policies of the mid-1980’s and 1990’s under the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Without the ability to sell crops and compete with US subsidized imports, Haitians have fled rural areas and moved to the cities. Port-au-Prince was built for 250,000 people but now has about 3 million inhabitants mostly living in poverty and squalor.

An example of the destructive impact of globalization is the eradication of the Haitian Creole pig population in the 1980’s.  This small, black Creole pig was at the heart of peasant economy. It was a hearty breed, well adapted to Haiti’s climate and situation, being able to survive three days without food. Over 80% of the rural households raised pigs which helped maintain the soil’s fertility and represented a savings bank as a pig would be sold to pay for emergencies, school expenses and celebrations. In 1982 international agencies said the pigs were sick and had to be killed and that they would be replaced with better pigs. The pigs were killed within 13 months. When these “better” pigs arrived two years later from Iowa, they required clean drinking water to survive (unavailable to 80% of the population), imported feed (costing $90/year per pig - equal to nearly the annual income of $130) and special roofed pigpens. Haitian peasants dubbed them “prince a quatre pieds” (four-footed princes). Nor did the meat taste as good. The pig repopulation effort was a failure and cost Haitian peasants $600 million dollars. School enrollment dropped 30%. This project effected a devastating decapitalization of the peasant economy and an incalculable negative impact on Haiti’s soil and agricultural productivity.  The Haitian peasants have not recovered yet. This was for many Haitians their first experience of globalization. So when they are told today that “economic reform” and privatization will benefit them, they are understandably wary. They shake their heads and remember the Creole pigs.

Many assume the US provides significant aid to developing countries. In fact, it is only .03% of GNP. In 1995 the Director of US AID testified that 84 cents of every dollar of aid goes back to the US for the purchase of goods and services. In 1995 severely indebted low-income countries paid one billion dollars more in debt and interest to the International Monetary Fund than they received from it. In 2002 the US blocked a $500 million dollar loan to Haiti from the International Development Bank. Even though Haiti never received the loan payments, Haiti was forced to pay interest on the loan to keep the loan on the books. This prevents Haiti from engaging in public projects like education and roads. There are many deficits: no modern water supply system, no town planning, no safe roads, in short, no infrastructure typical of other Caribbean nations. This lack of infrastructure is one of the major reasons that the rebuilding of Haiti has been able to proceed as it has in other nations.

Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton

February 2011 (synopsized from many sources)