Originally published at Anticonquista on November 29, 2020
On November 25, 2020, the fighting peoples of the world lost a humble legend: Diego Armando Maradona. He was 60 years old at the time of his passing.
Arguably the greatest soccer player to ever grace the pitches, the spirited striker combined unparalleled skills in his sport and an unflinching outspokenness against oppression. No other sports figure’s public statements and transformation has equally captured the changing momentum across Latin America.
Maradona was for Latin Americans what Mohamed Ali was for Black people in the United States.
The Falklands War
Raised in the oppressed community of Villa Fiorito in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, “the golden kid’s” talent from an early age fetched him million dollar contracts first in his homeland and then in Spain and Italy. No stranger to controversy, “the soccer god,” with his rebellious natural hair, was irreverent before elites and defiant to the core. When a Spanish player hurled racist epithets at him because of his Indigenous ancestry, Maradona head butted him, leading to a brawl that was broadcast before King Juan Carlos, hundreds of thousands of fans in the stadium and half of Spain watching on television.
The 22-year-old player was radicalized by England’s 1982 Falklands War, which was an assault on his homeland, known in Latin America as La Guerra de las Malvinas. Causing untold agony and trauma, hundreds of soldiers died on both sides and hundreds of veterans committed suicide for years after. Former President Ronald Reagan claimed that the United States was a “mediator,” but stayed faithful to their colonial partner led by the much-reviled Margaret Thatcher.
This was the backdrop of the 1986 semi-final showdown between the two countries without diplomatic relations at the World Cup in Mexico City. Argentina was Latin America and Latin America was Argentina.
Maradona famously scored a crafty goal where slow motion highlights showed he illegally used his hand to redirect the ball into the English net. After the game when the English team accused him of cheating with his hand, he responded: “sería la mano de dios” (“it must have been the hand of god”). Sports analysts applauded the “picardia” or Argentine cunningness behind the maneuver. The second goal was a full sprint through a minefield of English defenders that went down in history as “the goal of the century.”
These heroic acts sealed Maradona’s destiny as an idol of the masses combatting neo-colonialism. To beat England in Latin America was to exact revenge on the invading enemy. The soccer field was an extension of the battle field. The arrogant English were expelled. This was the symbolic recuperation of Argentine and Latin American dignity.
“Patria es humanidad” (Our Homeland is Humanity)
Cuban revolutionary José Martí once wrote that “our homeland is humanity.” The relationship Maradona established with Cuba was the full expression of the Cuban poet’s words.
In 2000, an overweight and beleaguered Maradona traveled to Cuba to treat his drug addiction. Fidel Castro visited him in his worst moments and helped take care of him. The Cuban president took off his military coat and gave it to the patient. He said he adored Fidel because he was “genuine and cared about human problems that others brushed aside.” The down-and-out, “wretched of the earth” soccer player was not rejected in Havana. Instead, he was accepted, treated like a dignified human being and loved. This moment of healing was another of Maradona’s entry points to the tide of resistance that was flowing across the Americas.
The same year, Japan denied Maradona a visa because of strict laws barring anybody from the country who had a history with drugs. Always a “tribune of the people,” in the Leninist sense of the word, Maradona exclaimed he would never return to Japan. He fired back: “They will not let me into Japan because I did drugs. But they will allow gringos in who dropped two atomic bombs on them.”
The Frontlines in the Battle of Ideas
The Argentine took great pride in the rising of Latin America’s second independence, which began on December 6, 1998, with Hugo Chávez’s electoral victory in Venezuela.
In 2005, the Frente Amplio’s Tabaré Vázquez received former U.S. President George Bush in Uruguay in a move that was considered a betrayal by his party and the region. Bush was promoting the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, known as the FTAA. “Free trade” to Maradona and millions of Latin Americans is the freedom of U.S. capital to expand its tentacles across more of the continent.
The Bolivarian Revolution was advancing across Latin America and had recently paid off Argentina’s foreign debt. Chávez traveled to Argentina in a showdown with the warmongering U.S. leader. La Plata River divides the two countries and the two sides of history. Rising to the historical occasion, with Maradona by his side donning a “Stop Bush” t-shirt, the Venezuelan leader famously chanted: “El que no brinca es yankee” (Whoever doesn’t jump is a yankee). Maradona gave credence to Evo Morales’ catch phrase: “the empire stands with the right wing, football stands with the left.”
This was the battle of ideas Fidel spoke of.
“To be attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing but a good thing”
It is difficult to appreciate Maradona’s greatness here in the U.S., where sports loyalties are divided between baseball, U.S. football and basketball. In Latin America and Europe, soccer is king. In Napoli, restaurants have alcoves reserved for hanging religious idols. There beside them is Maradona. The mayor has announced the famed Saint Paul stadium should be renamed after one of the city’s most beloved.
The mainstream press is also remembering the football titan, but consciously shying away from his political commitments. Other outlets are accusing Maradona of being “anti-American.” Like the political leadership he so admired, Maradona never expressed ire towards the people of the United States, but rather towards its political leadership, who thought they were “the county sheriff.” Through the years of the Pink Tide, Maradona was a regular on television programs and at rallies with Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Daniel Ortega, José “Pepe” Mujica and other anti-imperialist figures of the continent.
His tattoos of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Fidel brought a new meaning to the phrase “he wore his feelings on his sleeve.” His program “De Zurda” on TeleSUR in 2014 with Victor Hugo Morales, the famed Uruguayan sportscaster, combined humor, sports analysis and leftest political commentary. Last year, following a coaching win in April, he stated: “I want to dedicate this victory to Nicolás Maduro and all Venezuelans, who are suffering. These Yankees, the sheriffs of the world, think just because they have the world’s biggest bomb they can push us around. But no, not us.”
Those who had the honor to meet Maradona remember him as a people’s person who was always accessible. Though he had his own personal struggles, he never wavered in his commitments to elevating the voices of the poor and defending the underdog. In plain proletarian English, Maradona never forgot about the hood. On November 25, 2020, the fourth anniversary of Fidel’s passing, one of his students and admirers joined him in eternity, having left so much for us all to savor and learn from.
Originally published at CovertAction Magazine on May 24, 2025
On May 2, the State Department announced “the designation of [Haitian paramilitary gangs] Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif (Big Claws) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).”
Such legislation opens the door for the Trump administration and his colonial underling, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, to potentially imprison Haiti’s gang leaders, or more accurately warlords, in Bukele’s infamous CECOT, the Spanish acronym for “The Terrorism Confinement Center.”
Currently, 252 Venezuelans, kidnapped from the streets of the U.S. languish in the maximum security prison alongside tens of thousands of Salvadoran prisoners from working-class neighborhoods, many of whom never received due process. Trump and his cabinet of billionaires are again testing the waters to see if they can abduct foreign nationals and intern them in overseas gulags.
To understand the violent gang coalition, Viv Ansanm, occupying 85% of Port-au-Prince and expanding daily, it is imperative to understand Haiti’s place in the international political economy. To understand why these paramilitary groups are the recipients of hundreds of thousands of U.S. guns, it is necessary to understand a billion-dollar taboo that has long been at the center of elite Haitian politics—cocaine.
A Crown Jewel in the Global Drug Empire
In the summer of 2023, I co-authored an article with an anti-war marine veteran for the North American Council on Latin America (NACLA), documenting why and how Haiti is awash with hundreds of thousands of U.S. guns. As I continued to listen to the Haitian masses and research the impact of the paramilitary gangs on their lives, I realized there was another root cause that had not received sufficient attention—the cocaine trade. This article will address where the importation of massive cocaine shipments come from, where they are exported to and how they fuel the relentless violence against Haiti’s voiceless, poor majority.
The best estimates are that the global drug trade is worth $650 billion. For comparison, the global pharmaceutical industry is worth an estimated $1.5 trillion while oil’s global revenue is $4.5 billion. Illicit drugs are among the most profitable commodities in the West under late capitalism.
The United States is by far the biggest consumer of drugs in the world, with millions more addicts than its closest competitors, India and China. The UN’s Global Cocaine Report shows the cocaine loading zones in South America and the routes they take to the United States and Europe. Some 61% of the global cocaine supply emanates from Colombia. What does all this have to do with Haiti, a country that is smaller than Maryland, which has no history of cocaine or drug abuse in its culture?
For the masses of Haitians seeking to survive the paramilitary war on the population, dirt-cheap kleren, or moonshine, is the local “drug of choice.” In the local ghettos, now crowded into schools and government offices which function as makeshift refugee camps, there are dozens of variations of fermented sugar cane, such as bwa kochon (pig wood), 2 zewo (2 zero) and yo ki pou pè (“the gangs should be afraid of us”). In the past decades, since the Duvalier dynasty, only the rich and powerful in the lush hills of Petion-Ville have had a culture of using the expensive party drug, spelled and pronounced kokayin in Kreyòl.
The forgotten Haitian people have other problems to deal with. In 2024, the paramilitaries, spearheaded by their charismatic spokesman, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, carried out 5,601 murders, 1,494 kidnappings and hundreds of thousands of displacements. This is merely the documented violence, as many crimes against the masses of excluded Haitians are ignored. In an important study entitled “Haiti’s Long Struggle: Military occupation, gang violence, and popular uprising,” Haitian scholars and activists Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper, Ernst Jean-Pierre, Georges Eddy Lucien and Sabine Lamour dialectically summarize the paramilitary campaign of violence that has defuturized the lives of millions. The international cocaine and marijuana trade provides key context to explain why Port-au-Prince is now the undisputed, most violent city in the world.
The 16-Year-Old President-for-Life and a Palace of Coke
Elizabeth Abbott spills the beans and shares a healthy dose of palace gossip in her 1988 “first inside account” of the dictator-for-life, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy. The Canadian journalist married Haitian hotelier Joseph Namphy making her the sister-in-law of Lieutenant General Henri Namphy, Duvalier’s Chief of the General Staff of the Army from 1984 to 1987, before becoming the 36th president of Haiti. Abbott recounts the role cocaine played during Jean-Claude and the Tonton Macoutes’ brutal rule from 1971 to 1986.
In this passage, she focuses on Duvalier’s father-in-law, Ernest Bennett:
“The Bennetts have been drug running since 1980, and with their associates had moved hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine into the U.S.”
The “first lady,” the infamous Michèle Bennett Duvalier, the Imelda Marcos of the Caribbean, fueled by cocaine money went on global shopping sprees in Paris, London and New York. Her father launched the ambitious Haiti Air, the only national airline. It was a terrible economic enterprise, losing a reported $30,000 per day. What the Bennetts lost in inefficiency and incompetence, they recovered in full from the United States’ white lie.
Michèle Bennett Duvalier and Jean-Claude Duvalier. [Source: youtube.com]
The fraudulent enterprise, Haiti Air, gave Bennett
“the opportunities to not only warehouse the drug for his Colombia partners, and to coordinate transshipments, but also to run it himself. He had huge quantities to sell, because as ‘the Godfather’ for four or five Colombian drug rings Bennett usually received payment in cocaine.”
After the 1986 popular upheaval which toppled the dictatorship,
“cocaine shipments were found at Duvalier’s wife, Michelle‘s Bon Repos Hospital, her vacation home in Fermathe, her father’s Lada-Neva car dealership, and even in the palace, along with hundreds of syringes and coke pipes.”
When the U.S. embassy protected Haiti’s most affluent couple and guided them to a gilded exile in Paris, at the last moment as they boarded their getaway flight and smuggled hundreds of thousands of dollars in paintings and jewelry with them.
Two of the passengers abandoned to their fate amidst the 1986 revolution were Michèle’s elderly grandparents.
The acting president, Jean-Claude Duvalier, his family and his top business partners were paid agents of U.S. intelligence departments and South American narco-states. But who would care about an Iran-Contra style scandal in a country known to the West as a “shithouse”? The Misinformation War has for centuries paved the way for the immiseration of the nation of Dessalines, Cristophe and Peralte.
Travesty in Haiti
In 1995, University of Florida anthropology Ph.D. student Tim Schwartz arrived in the village of Jean Makout in the remote, far northwest of Haiti to conduct his field research on child rearing and marriage customs. This was the prerequisite so that Schwartz could work for foreign “aid” groups like CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) on “farm, commerce and health projects.”
Like any outsider who goes to live in Haiti, the young Schwartz got more than he bargained for.
His highly engaging 2010 book, Travesty in Haiti: A True Account of Christian Missions, Orphanages, Food Aid, Fraud and Drug Trafficking, outlines his many adventures living in rural Haiti. His final chapter, “Colombia and the Drug Trade to the Rescue,” documents Haiti’s little-known role as a transshipment point for Colombian cocaine en route to the lucrative markets of the West.
The long-time student of all things Haiti recounts how out-of-place “Hispanic men” zoomed around Haitian hamlets and villages in dark-tinted SUVs, touting Israeli-made Uzis. Makeshift ports and airports were hastily constructed to facilitate the inter-hemispheric trade. Today, such “clandestine” airstrips and ports continue to dot the abandoned interior and porous coasts of a country that boasts of one functioning coast guard ship.
Schwartz tells the story of when the half-starved locals ambushed an airplane and seized “4,500 kilos of Colombian cocaine, a huge shipment worth at least $100 million on the streets of Miami or New York.” The long-exploited peasantry and fishing community was merely emulating the officials hours away in Port-au-Prince who thought of themselves first and the Haitian people never. It was only a matter of days before the police and other bureaucrats showed up beating up the locals, looking for their cut.
Overnight, thanks to millions of Western coke heads, the village of Jean Makout was catapulted out of the 19th century into modernity, with luxury imports, SUVs and visas. Drunk off their rags-to-riches good fortune, certain friends and inhabitants of the small town invited Schwartz himself to cash in on the collective good fortune. The traumatized visitor continues:
“My faith in development had been destroyed. I no longer had any will to be an anthropologist, and I planned to leave Haiti soon. I lingered in the Hamlet for a while, watching as people I had known for years, pastors, businessmen, police, school, teachers, people I had never suspected could be involved in drugs, came and bought kilos of cocaine.”
Schwartz’s final chapter of his ethnographic observations are straight out of the theater of the absurd. The long-time Haiti resident and expert would not be the first or last foreigner to appear defeated as he shared his final cynical conclusion:
“I think about the greatest irony of all: how the people of the Hamlet and the village, many of whom really are the poorest of the poor, had done more in one day to better their lives than the Haitian government and all the foreign NGOs had accomplished during half a century… by hijacking a cocaine shipment.”
The former superstar konpa (Haiti’s upbeat dance music) musician turned president Michel Martelly bragged in 2008 about the “legal bandits” running Haiti. In his 2024 book, Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti, Jake Johnston dedicates Chapter 19 to the “Legal Bandits,“ tracing the thread of cocaine through Haitian politics.
His book documents how kingpin Fernando Burgos-Martinez was Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel’s main man in Haiti. The magnate ran the upscale Petionville El Rancho Hotel, trafficking drugs and laundering money to the tune of tens of millions of dollars per week.
He worked closely with the head of police, Michel François, a close friend of future President Martelly. The September 1991 power grab by the corrupt generals, kleptocrats and U.S. intelligence against the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide was in fact dubbed the “cocaine coup” by many.
The U.S.-sponsored agent and berserker, Guy Philippe, who led the second 2004 paramilitary coup against Aristide, served nine years in U.S. federal prison for drug smuggling and money laundering. Philippe claims the U.S. came for him despite his loyalty because he was about to name names. Surrounded by his own paramilitary unit, Philippe is back in Haiti a generation later up to his old tricks and loyal to the same master.
In Aid State, Johnston goes on to document case after case of Martelly associates, DEA informants and wealthy Haitian-American businessmen caught with massive shipments of cocaine. No matter how big the bust or how famous the criminal, “Cocaine business controls America, Illegal business controls America,” as KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions rapped in their 1988 hit song “Illegal Business.”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a community leader from a downtown Port-au-Prince community ransacked by Viv Ansanm (Living Together, as in the gangs will no longer fight one another but unite), explained the Haitian point of view. Makenson, one of the more than one million Haitians displaced by the death squads, told me:
“The DEA, the CIA and the real power brokers cannot always get their funding approved legally. They have long taken matters into their own hands, illegally financing their underground operations, power grabs and coups through the drug and arms trade. This has long been obvious to the Haitian people. We do not produce these things here in Haiti or in our neighbor’s country, the Dominican Republic. If we investigate too closely and speak out, we too will disappear. Many know about the U.S.’s open imperial domination but there is a clandestine component as well.”
Shutting Down the Whistleblowers
Former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Keith McNichols sought to expose the agency’s corruption in Haiti in 2015. For being a whistleblower, McNichols was forced out of the country and out of his job.
His lawyer, Tom Devine, expounded upon the DEA’s bureaucracy of corruption:
“The agency circles the wagon to shield and avoid public knowledge of corrupt pockets. There’s a very well-established buddy system between those on the front lines and DEA’s internal accountability offices, as well as the regional and federal management.”
Currently, McNichols and Devine are working with the Government Accountability Project, attempting to pressure the stonewalling agency to be transparent. Even members of Congress have agreed with them and been vocal about the DEA’s lack of accountability.
The Miami Herald has published extensively on how Haiti’s “Southern departments have become critical entry points for cocaine from South America, and cannabis from the Caribbean, with Haiti being a transit hub for both.” A month before the 2024 elections President Joe Biden’s White House identified Haiti “in a list of 23 countries designated as major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries.”
The Biden administration then proceeded to shut down its DEA operations in Haiti and in 13 other countries. This is occurring as the DEA is on its way to receiving “another record budget—$3.7 billion for fiscal year 2025—to continue and expand its ‘war on drugs.’” Is this the reason the silenced masses of Haiti have been saying for decades that guns and drugs have never been native Haitian problems, but rather form part of “yon pwojè lamò” (a death project), parachuted down on them by powerful international forces.
An extensive report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research provides clear proof of the deep connections between the DEA, confidential informants, the 18 Colombian assassins of President Jovenel Moise, U.S. intelligence and a Florida-based private security firm. The New York Timeswrites that Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021 because
“He had been working on a list of powerful politicians and business people involved in Haiti’s drug trade, with the intention of handing over the dossier to the American government, according to four senior Haitian advisers and officials tasked with drafting the document.”
The corporate mouthpieces themselves like the Times offer tidbits of the truth, but do not question beyond this, never mind take any actions to halt the brutal violence gripping the Haitian capital. As the Palestinians remind us, imperialism’s think tanks, publishers and bureaucracies will document the massacres and carnage, but never challenge the underlying causes of the genocide.
While many Americans would quickly dismiss this incontrovertible proof of high-level cocaine-trafficking collusion as the ultimate plot for a fictitious CIA Hollywood film, this is everyday Haitian reality.
Barbecue and the other warlords confederated their paramilitary gangs into one coordinated alliance, called Viv Ansamn, or “Living Together,” on February 29th, 2024 in order to coordinate their big business. Haitians are quick to point out that there are forces high above the warlords in the hills of the bourgeois paradise of Petyonvil (Petionville) and Washington who are their puppet masters. While there is nothing Haitian about cocaine, the prized powder funds the wanton destruction and occupation of the once-famed tourist destination, Port-au-Prince. While there is nothing Haitian about armed criminal groups, today’s Viv Ansanm, functioning directly and indirectly as shock troops for U.S. foreign policy, has usurped the destiny of the only country to overthrow slavery and organize an anti-colonial revolution.
White Lies, Haitian Death
For decades, Haiti has functioned as a lawless free-for-all playground, where billions of dollars in cocaine profits line the pockets of a chosen few. The “War on Drugs” has long been a War on Haiti, a War on Mexico and a War on Poor People the world over. The murders of thousands and displacement of hundreds of thousands by the gang alliance keep the cocaine and enormous profits flowing.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has denounced the role criminal networks from his country have played in the increased insecurity in Haiti. In April 20024, he announced the disappearance of 1,000,000 guns, munitions and explosives from the Colombian military, many of which were suspected of making their way to Haiti alongside cocaine shipments. His colleague, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has made similar declarations, accusing the U.S. of “beheading Haiti” by facilitating the guns and arms trade.
Today, the gang paramilitè yo (paramilitary gangs) and their chef bandi (war lords) are Duvalier and the Haitian generals’ heirs. Andre Johnson alias “Izo,” the warlord of the coastal Vilaj dè Dye, openly brags about his drug cartel. The youthful drug kingpin and gangster rapper explained why Viv Ansamn confederated all of the criminal networks and attacked Sodo (Saut-d’Eau), because one of their biggest drug shipments went missing when another local gang intercepted it. Lamò san jou (Death without a date) is based out of Kwadebouke (Croix des Bouquets) and controls key routes to and from the Dominican border. Wa Mikanò (“King” Micanord Altès) runs the boat traffic importing and exporting from Wharf Jérémie, a neighborhood in the largest slum in the Western hemisphere, Cité-Soleil. Mikanò is wanted for the recent slaughter of more than 184 mostly elderly inhabitants of the neighborhood.
When the Viv Ansanm death squad alliance had to smuggle one of their foreign collaborators out of Haiti, they called upon contacts close to Dominican president Luis Abinader to fly him back to the U.S. in Abinader’s personal jet. Researcher Jeb Sprague’s book, Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, shows the role the Dominican state has long played in destabilizing its neighbor. The Dominican-Haitian border is closed to neighbors in need but always open for the U.S. guns and South American cocaine that keeps Haiti trapped in a colonial death grip, not as the poorest, but as the most exploited and plundered country in the Western Hemisphere.
All of the well-paid professionals mentioned above work as captains of Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier’s Viv Ansanm paramilitary alliance. The public face of the armed groups, Chérizier, spends hours on social media and in television interviews. He is all smiles as he brags about being “Haiti’s new Jean Jacques Dessalines.” For the past four years, Chérizier has teamed up with local and foreign journalists, sadistically whitewashing reality and insisting, despite over 1,000,000 Haitians being displaced, that this is all part of his “revolution.” While a Hollywood manipulation of reality confuses foreigners on X and YouTube in a language alien to Haiti, Haitian community leaders continue to fearlessly tell their collective truth.
The locals I lived alongside scoffed at Chérizier’s claims. Neighbors in the now fallen Solino explained Chérizier and the death squads’ role: a bandi (gang member) is the most effective enforcer of the oligarchs. Unlike the military, he has no uniform. Unlike the police, he has no face. He enjoys complete immunity. He can massacre at will. Such formulations are common wisdom among the Haitian masses and their intellectual representatives.
The consensus across the popular sectors of Haiti for anyone who is listening to their gritty Kreyòl is: The terrorist, drug-dealing gangs are a planned and organized project of imperialism. They have long sought to break the backs of our revolutionary resistance. Paramilitary agents of this death project carry U.S. weapons and traffic Colombian cocaine and Jamaican marijuana to the West. We are the victims of the ongoing war on Haiti. This is word for word what the author has heard since the February 7th, 2021 uprising from Haitian community groups and the strong voudou cultural world.
Trapped Between Two Occupations
How telling that the masses themselves use the word tewowis (terrorists) to describe Barbecue, Vitalom, Lamo San Jou and their paid soldiers. No one knows the political geography of the gangs like the people who wage a daily war to survive under their tyrannical rule.
Viv Ansanm terrorists do not allow any community organizations to exist. Feminist and community leader Astride Noël explains in “How the Gangs Cause Mass Cultural & Social Chaos: “they blame U.S. imperialism both for the arming of the paramilitary death squads and for the Kenyan, Salvadoran and other multinational mercenaries sent to invade and occupy Haiti for a fourth time in 100 years.
The Haitian people insist it is their historical responsibility to deal with their rapists, kidnappers and murderers, not the very empire who keeps them on a short leash. Ezai Jules, one of the many revolutionary leaders who has seen his father murdered and neighborhood burned to a crisp, asked rhetorically: “If this was a revolution, do you really think Washington and Santo Domingo (the Dominican government) would allow the free flow of guns to Chérizier? The gangs exist to empty out and occupy the historic neighborhoods that have given imperialism so many headaches.”
Ezai notes further that “the fact that there are foreigners masquerading as ‘leftists’ who cheer the death squads on shows us Haitians that colonialism can come from the left as well.”
The Haitians masses know that killing or imprisoning Barbecue and the other drug dealers for hire in Bukele’s Terrorism Confinement Center is no long-term solution. How can those responsible for the disease—the ongoing colonization of Haiti—again claim to have the cure?
They see Barbecue as a symptom of U.S. Full Spectrum Dominance, not as the root problem. Their analysis is that U.S. imperialism controls Fritz Alphonse Jean, the latest president of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, the paramilitary alliance and the 1,000 plus foreign troops, mostly from Kenya, deputized by the U.S. to invade their homeland. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the Trump administration are now moving to send more troops from the Organization of American States (OAS) to further occupy Haiti. Who will be trapped in the middle of these two criminal entities, both armed and controlled by imperialism?
Haitians don’t want more U.S. intervention, which has resulted in the loss of their capital city. Everyday the Palestinians of the Caribbean organize, fight and die for a future free of foreign and gang domination and a Haiti free of foreign guns and drugs. When will we listen to the voices of the voiceless, translate the untranslatable and heed the centuries-long hopes of the hopeless?
Originally published at CounterPunch on March 26, 2025
As our rights are under attack by an arrogant clique of billionaires at home, the global beacon of freedom, Haiti, confronts one of the toughest moments in its centuries-long liberation struggle.
For over four years now, burgeoning paramilitary gangs have waged a war on the 2.5 million people of Port-au-Prince. Last year, the disparate paramilitaries confederated into the Viv Ansanm gang under the leadership of former police officer turned warlord, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier. In front of our eyes, the robust capital city of the world-famous carnival, of bustling commerce and proud traditions has been reduced to a city of refugees, shelters and isolated, hold-out communities resisting with everything they have. There are still neighborhoods like Kanape Vè and Akaye where the residents are organized into Brigad Vijilans (Neighborhood Self-Defense Brigades) to fight against the rule of death squads composed of child soldiers and other lumpen cannon fodder. David readies his slingshot against a Goliath, armed to the teeth with an avalanche of U.S. weapons which rendezvous with South American cocaine in this most permeable, punctured and penetrated country of the Caribbean.
The War of Predation
The first question outsiders ask is “Why?” Why are the Viv Ansanm paramilitaries waging war on the civilian population, displacing now more than an estimated 1,000,000 Haitians, or half the capital city?
It is important to highlight that August 22, 2018 represented the birth of the PetroCaribe movement to recover billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil embezzled by the corrupt colonial state. The sight of millions of Haitians conscious, united and mobilised forced the U.S.-sponsored aristocracy to pacify the millions of rebels. They partially built and set in motion a modern-day Frakenstein, their very own tonton makouts. The masses say the gangs are worse because “the criminal police and military wore uniforms and could be identified.”
The “gangs,” as the mainstream media refers to them, are the shock troops of the Haitian bourgeoisie and foreign capital. Researchers Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper, Ernst Jean-Pierre, Georges Eddy Lucien and Sabine Lamour outline the state and gang “predation sites.” Like early police forces in the U.S. and the Duvalier’s private security force, the Tonton Makouts, Viv Ansanm are mercenaries for hire.
“Customs is one site of predation, affording the capacity to import guns, rotted carcinogenic foods, and other expired products that kill. But the bourgeoisie monopolize all industries. The Gilbert Bigio Group, for example, controls construction (iron and wood imports).”
According to these experts and the Haitian masses, the gangs have a definitive agenda. They only hunt down, corral up and occupy poor communities. The highest summits of the elites in Petionville like Pelegren, Morne Calvaire and areas of Laboul have remained untouched by “the terrorists,” or tewowis as the communities say.
Furthermore, the scholars assert, the gangs “destroyed the Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Disputes offices where government spending receipts are archived, including the dossiers concerning the PetroCaribe arrangement with Venezuela.” The Center for Economic and Policy Research reports on the medical catastrophe set in motion by four years of attacks from armed groups: “the situation is especially dire as only one of Port-au-Prince’s three major hospitals, and only 39 of 92 health facilities in the capital metro area, are now open.”
The gangs are now claiming to be openly involved in legal politics as well, appointing public officials in the areas under their domination. As the Haitian people have told me thousands of times since 2021, this is an “organised and well-planned death project.” Isn’t it curious that the gangs’ agenda is the ruling class’s agenda?
The Masters of Haiti
This video by content creator Tideone showcases the extreme wealth in the hills of Petionville that remain untouched by the gangs. The tiny bourgeoisie rules from here, with their breathtaking views, mansions and well-manicured lawns. Drone footage exposes the underground swimming pools, acres of land and elaborate architecture. The paramilitaries stop a few miles short from these private estates because they cannot bite the hand that feeds them. A feudal distance keeps diplomats and oligarchs enclosed and safe with their fancy designer shops, hotels and private doctors. There are elaborate private militarized security guarding the compounds. If the masses were to rise up in arms and penetrate the Haiti of the 0.01 percent, it would be a turkey shoot for the private police forces and paramilitaries to liquidate any threat.
But the terrorists represent no threat to them. Afterall, they are the offspring of the well-guarded elites. Parents and children have their spats but remain loyal to one another.
Viv Ansanm Takes Kenscoff
Further north of the oligarchs’ palaces is Kenscoff, a town known in Haiti for its cool breeze, winter hats and lookout points far above downtown Port-au-Prince. Haitians have long visited the serene, picturesque mountain top location to get away from the humidity and ride horses around the enchanted forests.
Kenscoff was the site of the last remaining road that existed outside of the gangs’ control to exit Port-au-Prince to the south and west. On January 28th, Viv Ansanm units attacked the Belot and Godot neighborhoods of Kenscoff. Like the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank, the raiding army shot anybody and anything that moved. Others resisted or fled into the mountains or local public plaza. The Haitian Times reported that this one attack displaced 3,000 people, including 721 children.
Different elements of the corrupt Haitian National Police (PNH) line up to defend their own interests. Some police officers collaborate with the gangs taking bribes to look the other way, to coordinate arms and drug shipments and to alert Viv Ansanm of pending attacks from the Haitian National Police (PNH). Police chief Frantz Elbe was fired amidst a hail of such accusations. Community leaders remember how guns seized from the gangs magically made their way back into the very same hands they were seized from.
Other elements of the PNH fight the gangs because it is their job and they remember the relatively more stable Haiti of recent years. Other police officers lived in these very neighborhoods and continue to fight alongside the civilian population on the barricades to defend their own families and communities. Some neighborhoods spoke of a necessary, temporary “marriage” with the police to live another day. Before the armed groups, reminiscent of the roving militias that murdered hundreds of thousands and displaced millions in 1990’s Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The PNH has historically been the agent of repression of the social movements. In 2021, they attacked the massive anti-neoliberal uprising and worked alongside the gangs, sniping and executing different popular leaders. In Haiti, all of these state and paramilitary crimes go unsolved. Impunity reigns. The message from all sides is that Resistance is futile. Izo, Lamò San Jou and the other cast of “gangbanging” warlords can move all these drugs and guns without the complicity of the state and the bourgeoisie.
Since 2021 and the advent of “the gangs,” there are now over 1,000,000 displaced Haitians, half of them children. The anti-Haitian, corporate media has conditioned us to think that Haiti is synonymous with war, displacement and tragedy. This relentless war on the population is not normal or common. No. I have known these neighborhoods personally since 1998. These neighborhoods are now gone. One of the main demands of thousands of families in the Palestine of the Caribbean is now: The Right to Return!
The Whitewashing of the Crimes
Viv Ansanm ironically means “to live together.” Smooth-talking, flamboyant gang boss Jimmy Cherezier, the public face of the confederation of the gangs since 2021, now claims Viv Ansamn is a serious political party. While his troops fire Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles piercing armored vehicles and downing helicopters, Cherizier’s preferred weapon is social media.
As Port-au-Prince continued to burn, on March 6th, Cherezier congratulated his main lieutenants Krisla and Izo for “organizing a beautiful carnival.” These gang chieftains control the Fontamara, Vilaj de Dye, Kafou and Mariyani neighborhoods which give them access to the strategic National Route 2 to travel to Haiti’s South. The battered national highways are a main vein of the international gun and drug trade. Viv Ansanm hosted the carnival, which is historically held throughout Haiti in February, in an attempt to distract from their crimes and project a false sense of stability and happiness in the gang-run city. Local leaders, sociologists and voudou priests have long been trying to educate us through grassroots media projects like ImajINAN (so named after a voudou lwa or god) about the sociology of the armed groups.
The same week that Barbecue again verified why he has earned his nefarious nickname, Colombian President Gustavo Petro pointed out in a cabinet meeting that “much of the cocaine coming from Colombia’s Catatumbo and Guajira region makes its way to the United States through Haiti.” The anti-imperialist president pleaded with the international community to stop the bloodshed.
Here we can see infamous cocaine runner Izo and his gang 5 Segonn (5 Seconds) brag about “being devils,” as they rap about their crimes and the sanguinary war on the population. More and more displaced families are coming under attack a second or third time and are retraumatized, yet Barbecue always claims to be the victim of the attacks. He says here that every accusation against his paramilitary units, turned “political party,” reflects the guilt of others. His role together with his foreign backers is to clean up the image of the anti-social death squads behind the massacres. As absurd as it seems, foreign journalists have played their role in lionizing the butcher of Port-au-Prince. Daily, Haitians ask “How come every time a foreign journalist comes to hang out and take pictures with Barbecue, hundreds of us are murdered?”
The small force of occupying Kenyan, Salvadoran and other international troops protect strategic locations but do not confront the gangs. One is left to ask: Why are they occupying Haiti to begin with? The occupation which, Marco Rubio just breathed fresh life into, may dismantle one gang, “the gangsters in flip flops,” but it will only again solidify the rule of the oligarchs, “the gangsters with ties.” Haitians know a fourth U.S. military occupation in the past century is not the answer, but rather a part of the root cause of how Haiti has been so thoroughly traumatized and decimated.
Standing with Haiti
The author reported from Solino and Nazon last year in a desperate attempt to alert the Western left that these stable working-class bastions of struggle were on the brink of falling. In late October of 2024, gang bosses Kempès and his boss Barbecue took control of these ghettos, burning, looting and murdering their way through family and community life. The thousands of families trapped in these downtown Port-au-Prince slums have now been reduced to begging and pauperism. Lucson Charles, a 22-year-old community leader and foreign language teacher, spoke to the author from Kan Antenor Firmin shelter near Turgo. He described the hunger, squalor and tension at the overcrowded high school turned refugee shelter. He went on to say: “Many families set out in the perilous hellscape in an attempt to beg for food during the day and have to sleep under the rain at night.” The Haiti Information Project reports weekly from the makeshift shelters on the deplorable conditions there.
Lucson, his family and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are now trapped in the murderous grip of Viv Ansanm with no escape possible. The walls of neocolonial humiliation are closing in on this majestic city exploding with an even more majestic, historic people. I am a student of the veteran anti-imperialist leaders from this forgotten capital city in the Western Hemisphere, a city that is the West Bank of the Americas. There is a consensus that this is the most difficult moment in Haiti’s history since the 1804 revolution against French colonialism, Napoleon and tens of thousands of invading troops. What role can progressives and anti-imperialists play to stop the march of death cutting through the heart of Haiti’s capital city and breathe fresh life into one of the epic national liberation struggles of our epoch?
Originally published at Morning Star on May 13, 2025
The latest headline on Haiti is that Trump is threatening to send Haitian gang leaders to Nayib Bukele’s Terrorism Confinement Centre, where 252 Venezuelans are currently kidnapped. On May 2, the State Department designated Haitian paramilitary gangs Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif as Foreign Terrorist Organisations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
The truth is that the paramilitary gangs are merely a symptom of the true problem plaguing Haiti — US and Core Group neocolonial rule. If the State Department was honestly interested in alleviating mass Haitian suffering, it would begin by jailing the true puppet masters, mainly themselves.
The US embassy, the Central Intelligence Agency, Colombian drug lords and the other overt and covert international actors are responsible for the flow of drugs and guns into the hands of these gangs of alienated youth sacking, raping and burning down what is left of Port-au-Prince.
The traumatisation of Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince, a capital city of the Western hemisphere, has been under siege by paramilitary gangs since at least 2021, the year of a massive social upheaval against neocolonialism. The capital of some 3.3 million is now an occupied city and a city on the run, the West Bank of the Caribbean.
The author stayed in different popular neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince a year ago, parts of which were still bustling and liveable, before the sophisticated, drugs and arms-smuggling alliance called Viv Ansamn conquered more territory. This translates as “living together,” so named because the armed groups no longer fight against one another but have rather united to turn their guns for hire onto the defenceless and voiceless Haitian masses. In a play on words, Haitian intellectual and spiritual leader Ezili Danto calls Viv Ansanm Viv Nan San, or “living in blood.”
Over one million Haitians now live as refugees in their own country.
The gangsterisation of Haiti
The Haitian intelligentsia and everyday people understand that this is a “co-ordinated and organised assault on the nation’s centuries-long quest for self-determination.” They speak of the ongoing “gangsterisation” of their homeland to demobilise the popular movement that has fought tooth and nail against the PHTK government since secretary of state Hillary Clinton first installed benighted criminal Michel Martelly as president in May 2011.
According to hundreds of Haitian leaders and their families that the author has talked to, the Haitian and US bourgeoisie have armed and unleashed their warlords, child soldiers and mercenaries for hire on an unarmed populace. Haitian scholars and activists Mamyrah Douge-Prosper, Ernst Jean-Pierre, Georges Eddy Lucien and Sabine Lamour meticulously document this consistent campaign of violence in their prodigious study of the paramilitary groups, Haiti’s Long Struggle: Military occupation, gang violence, and popular uprising.
“Between November 2018 and March 2024, ‘gangs’ led over 25 massacres and other armed attacks, involving the murder of over 1,500 people, the collective rape of over 160 girls and women, the disappearance of dozens of people, the maiming of hundreds of people, and the destruction of more than 450 homes, resulting in the internal displacement of more than 500,000 people. While at the beginning of this period, these armed groups acted in isolation and in competition with one another, in August 2020, nine armed groups federated under the leadership of former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, an effort commended by Haiti’s National Commission of Disarmament, Dismantlement and Reinsertion. In January 2024, Cherizier consolidated the rest of the gangs in the capital to launch a ‘revolution,’ taking control of the international airport surroundings to prevent Henry from returning to Haiti after his trip to Kenya. Over the next few months, the group bulldozed police stations and prisons, burned down public hospitals, universities and libraries, and killed several hundred people. They destroyed the Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Disputes offices where government spending receipts are archived, including the dossiers concerning the PetroCaribe arrangement with Venezuela.”
Analysts of Viv Ansanm put the word “gang” in quotation marks because, as popular radio host Rudy Sinon points out, the old gangs had “kreyol guns, like .38 Smith and Wesson Specials or .45 automatic handguns. These paramilitary units have the most sophisticated weapons of war to seize territory, prevent any resistance and make the police scatter.”
Sinon, the voice of Kanapeve, is both irate and deeply sad: “We can’t even bury our dead when they attack us and uproot us. We have to abandon the dead against our traditions.” While Sinon laments the enormous loss of life, assault on infrastructure and the burning of nature, which he shows for 10 minutes during this broadcast, he and millions of others are doing everything to defend the last communities that are still resisting.
Defend Kanapeve
Kanapeve has traditionally been a relatively privileged and secure section of the capital city. It is now under siege, surrounded by the mercenaries of Izo and Ti Lapli, two warlords who specialise in cocaine trafficking and kidnapping.
A former police officer, Jimmy Cherizier, or “Barbecue,” is the leader of the violent gang alliance now in control of some 85 per cent of Port-au-Prince. A France 24 documentary, The Iron Grip of the Gangs, shows the contrast between the displaced and traumatised residents and their occupiers who set up mansions and pool houses over the ashes and unburied. ImagINAN, named after a Haitian lwa (god or goddess), gives a voice to displaced Haitian organic intellectuals to reflect on the inner dynamics of the armed groups.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Walno, a young lawyer and community leader in Kanapeve, talked about the importance of ongoing protests and unity against paramilitary violence. The crowd of hundreds of thousands of refugees and frustrated inhabitants chanted, “Kanapeve will not fall like Solino or Kafou Fey. Kanapeve will not be lost territory to the gangs.” Solino and Kafou Fey are massive complexes with neighbourhoods of tens of thousands of families that recently fell to Viv Ansanm looting, raping and burning.
There have been many mass protests against the security crisis, with the main demand being that the Haitian state defend the defenceless communities. The hungry and trapped sea of humanity chanted for government officials to stop “the terrorists.” The kleptocracy in Petionville, the rich area of Port-au-Prince, plays lip service to the masses’ needs, forcing citizens to take justice into their own hands.
As the gangs expanded, the masses of Kanapeve captured and burned 10 suspected gang members in 2023, inaugurating the citizens’ self-defence movement, known as Bwa Kale. The foreign occupation, so highly touted by former president Joe Biden, secretary of state Marco Rubio and lackey President of Kenya, William Ruto, mostly stays clear of the paramilitary aggression, though two Kenyan police officers have recently been killed by Viv Ansanm.
Veterans and survivors of four US invasions and occupations in the past century, Haitians distrust foreign powers, who they see as the true sponsors of the gangs. Trapped between death squads, occupying mercenaries and a fractured, corrupt Haitian state, who are the masses supposed to turn to?
If Trump, Bukele and other mouthpieces of imperialism want to send the true terrorists to Cecot, the Spanish acronym for El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre, they would have to begin by incarcerating themselves and dismantling the very colonial machinery that has the Haitian masses trapped between two forms of occupation, both spawned by US foreign policy.
Publicado originalmente no Diálogos do Sul em 29 de julho. Este artigo foi escrito em português, mas foi arquivado em “espanhol”
Em 2 de maio, o Departamento de Estado anunciou “a designação das gangues paramilitares haitianas Viv Ansanm e Gran Grif como Organizações Terroristas Estrangeiras (FTOs) e Terroristas Globais Especialmente Designados (SDGTs)”.
Tal legislação abre caminho para que o governo de Donald Trump e seu subalterno colonial, o presidente de El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, possam potencialmente prender os líderes das gangues no infame CECOT, o Centro de Confinamento de Terroristas, de El Salvador.
Atualmente, 252 venezuelanos, sequestrados nas ruas dos EUA, estão detidos na prisão de segurança máxima junto a dezenas de milhares de prisioneiros salvadorenhos de bairros operários, muitos dos quais nunca tiveram devido processo legal. Trump e seu gabinete de bilionários estão novamente testando os limites para ver se conseguem sequestrar estrangeiros e interná-los em gulags no exterior.
Para entender a violenta coalizão de gangues Viv Ansanm, que está em 85% do território da capital haitiana, Porto Príncipe, e se expande diariamente, é imperativo compreender o papel do Haiti na economia política internacional. Para entender por que esses grupos paramilitares são destinatários de centenas de milhares de armas dos EUA, é necessário compreender um tabu bilionário há muito no centro da elite política haitiana: a cocaína.
Uma joia da coroa no império global das drogas
No verão de 2023, co-escrevi um artigo para o North American Council on Latin America (NACLA) com um veterano da marinha anti-guerra, documentando por que e como o Haiti está inundado por centenas de milhares de armas dos EUA. Ao ouvir as massas haitianas e pesquisar o impacto das gangues paramilitares em suas vidas, percebi que havia outra causa raiz que não recebeu atenção suficiente: o tráfico de cocaína. Este artigo abordará de onde vêm as enormes remessas de cocaína, para onde são exportadas e como alimentam a violência incessante contra a maioria pobre e sem voz do Haiti.
As melhores estimativas indicam que o tráfico de drogas global vale US$ 650 bilhões. Para comparação, a indústria farmacêutica global vale cerca de US$ 1,5 trilhão, enquanto o petróleo tem receita global de US$ 4,5 bilhões. Drogas ilícitas estão entre as commodities mais lucrativas do Ocidente sob o capitalismo tardio.
Os Estados Unidos são de longe os maiores consumidores de drogas do mundo, com milhões de dependentes a mais que seus concorrentes mais próximos, Índia e China. O Relatório Global de Cocaína da ONU mostra as zonas de carregamento de cocaína na América do Sul e as rotas para os Estados Unidos e Europa. Cerca de 61% do suprimento global de cocaína vem da Colômbia. O que isso tem a ver com o Haiti, um país menor que o Alagoas, sem histórico de consumo de cocaína ou abuso de drogas em sua cultura?
Para as massas haitianas tentando sobreviver à guerra civil paramilitar, o kleren — espécie de cachaça produzida de forma caseira — é a “droga de escolha” local. Moradores dos guetos locais, agora aglomerados em escolas e repartições públicas que funcionam como campos de refugiados improvisados, há dezenas de variações dessa cachaça caseira, como bwa kochon (“madeira de porco”), 2 zewo (“2 zero”) e yo ki pou pè (“as gangues é que deveriam ter medo da gente”). Nas últimas décadas, desde a dinastia Duvalier [1957-1986], só os ricos e poderosos das colinas de Petion-Ville tinham cultura de usar a cara droga festiva, chamada e pronunciada kokayin em kreyòl.
O povo haitiano esquecido tem outros problemas. Em 2024, os paramilitares, liderados por seu porta-voz carismático, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, realizaram 5.601 assassinatos, 1.494 sequestros e centenas de milhares de deslocamentos. Isso é apenas a violência documentada, já que muitos crimes contra as massas haitianas excluídas são ignorados.
Em um estudo importante chamado Haiti’s Long Struggle: Military occupation, gang violence, and popular uprising, estudiosos e ativistas haitianos resumem a campanha paramilitar de violência que destruiu o futuro de milhões. O tráfico internacional de cocaína e maconha fornece contexto-chave para explicar por que Porto Príncipe é indiscutivelmente a cidade mais violenta do mundo.
Presidente vitalício aos 19 anos e o Palácio da Coca
Elizabeth Abbott revela segredos e fofocas de bastidores em seu relato “Haiti: Os Duvalier e seu Legado”, de 1988. A jornalista canadense se casou com o hoteleiro haitiano Joseph Namphy, tornando-se cunhada do Tenente-General Henri Namphy, chefe do Estado-Maior do Exército de Duvalier de 1984 a 1987, antes de se tornar o 36º presidente do Haiti. Abbott descreve o papel da cocaína durante o governo brutal de Jean-Claude Duvalier [1971–1986] e dos Tonton Macoutes [N.T: milícia paramilitar haitiana criada em 1959 por François Duvalier, também conhecido como “Papa Doc], de 1971 a 1986.
Neste trecho, ela foca no sogro de Duvalier, Ernest Bennett:
Os Bennetts estão traficando drogas desde 1980 e, com seus associados, movimentaram centenas de milhões de dólares em cocaína para os EUA.
A “primeira-dama”, a infame Michèle Bennett Duvalier, a “Imelda Marcos” do Caribe, impulsionada por dinheiro de cocaína, fazia compras globais em Paris, Londres e Nova York. Seu pai fundou a ambiciosa Haiti Air, a única companhia aérea nacional. Foi um empreendimento econômico desastroso, com prejuízo relatado de US$ 30 mil por dia. O que perderam em ineficiência e incompetência, recuperaram com sobras da “mentira branca” norte-americana.
Michèle Bennett Duvalier e Jean-Claude Duvalier. [Créditos: youtube.com]
O empreendimento fraudulento, Haiti Air, proporcionou a Bennett:
a oportunidade não só de armazenar a droga para seus parceiros colombianos e coordenar transbordos, mas também de operar ele próprio o tráfico. Ele tinha grandes quantidades para vender, pois, como ‘padrinho’ de quatro ou cinco quadrilhas colombianas, geralmente era pago em cocaína.
remessas de cocaína foram encontradas no hospital Bon Repos da esposa de Duvalier, Michèle, em sua casa de férias em Fermathe, na concessionária de seu pai, e até mesmo no palácio, junto com centenas de seringas e cachimbos de coca.
Quando a embaixada dos EUA protegeu o casal mais rico do Haiti e os conduziu ao exílio em Paris, eles embarcaram seu voo de fuga carregando centenas de milhares de dólares em obras de arte e joias.
O presidente em exercício, Jean-Claude Duvalier, sua família e seus principais sócios de negócios eram agentes pagos de departamentos de inteligência dos EUA e narcoestados sul-americanos. Mas quem se importaria com um escândalo ao estilo Irã-Contras em um país rotulado pelo Ocidente como um “lugar desprezível”? A guerra da desinformação há séculos pavimentou o caminho para o empobrecimento da nação de Dessalines, Cristophe e Peralte.
Tragédia, violência e tráfico
Em 1995, Tim Schwartz, doutorando em antropologia na Universidade da Flórida, chegou à vila de Jean Makout, no remoto noroeste haitiano, para conduzir pesquisas sobre criação de filhos e costumes matrimoniais. Era o requisito para que pudesse trabalhar para organizações não governamentais (ONGs) estrangeiras como a Care, em “projetos agrários, comerciais e de saúde”.
Como qualquer estrangeiro que vai viver no Haiti, Schwartz se deparou com mais do que esperava.
Em seu envolvente livro de 2010, Travesty in Haiti: A True Account of Christian Missions, Orphanages, Food Aid, Fraud and Drug Trafficking, ele narra suas muitas aventuras no Haiti rural. O capítulo final, “Colômbia e o tráfico de drogas ao resgate”, documenta o pouco conhecido papel do Haiti como ponto de trânsito para cocaína colombiana rumo aos mercados lucrativos do Ocidente.
O estudioso de longa data de tudo que diz respeito ao Haiti relata como “homens hispânicos” deslocados do contexto circulavam pelas aldeias e vilarejos haitianos em SUVs com vidros escurecidos, ostentando Uzis de fabricação israelense. Portos e aeroportos improvisados eram constantemente construídos para facilitar o tráfico intercontinental. Ainda hoje, essas pistas e portos clandestinos proliferam pelo interior abandonado e costas porosas do Haiti — país que conta com um único navio da guarda costeira funcionando.
Schwartz narra o episódio em que os moradores famintos emboscaram um avião e apreenderam “4.500 kg de cocaína colombiana, um carregamento avaliado em pelo menos US$ 100 milhões nas ruas de Miami ou Nova York”. O campesinato e as comunidades pesqueiras, há muito explorados, apenas imitavam autoridades de Porto Príncipe, que pensavam primeiro em si próprios e nunca no povo. Em poucos dias, policiais e outros burocratas apareceram espancando os locais em busca do seu butim.
Num piscar de olhos, graças a milhões de consumidores ocidentais de cocaína, o vilarejo de Jean Makout foi catapultada do século 19 à modernidade, com importações de luxo, SUVs e vistos. Embriagados com a sorte repentina de quem enriqueceu do dia para a noite, certos amigos e moradores da pequena cidade chegaram a convidar o próprio Schwartz a aproveitar a bonança coletiva. O visitante traumatizado prossegue:
Minha fé no desenvolvimento havia sido destruída. Já não tinha vontade de ser antropólogo, e planejava deixar o Haiti em breve. Permaneci um tempo na aldeia, observando enquanto pessoas que conhecia havia anos — pastores, empresários, policiais, professores, gente que jamais suspeitei que pudesse estar envolvida com drogas, chegavam e compravam quilos de cocaína
O capítulo final das observações etnográficas de Schwartz parece saído diretamente do teatro do absurdo. O estudioso e residente de longa data no Haiti não seria o primeiro, nem o último estrangeiro a se declarar derrotado, ao compartilhar sua conclusão final e cínica:
Penso na maior ironia de todas: como o povo da aldeia e da vila — muitos dos quais realmente estão entre os mais pobres dos pobres — fez mais em um único dia para melhorar suas vidas do que o governo haitiano e todas as ONGs estrangeiras conseguiram em meio século… ao interceptar um carregamento de cocaína.
Os bandidos legais
O ex-superastro do konpa (música dançante haitiana) que se tornou presidente, Michel Martelly [2011–2016], se gabava, em 2008, dos “bandidos legais” que comandavam o Haiti.
Em seu livro de 2024, Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti, Jake Johnston dedica o capítulo 19 aos “bandidos legais”, traçando o fio condutor da cocaína na política haitiana. Sua obra documenta como o chefão Fernando Burgos-Martinez era o principal homem de Pablo Escobar e do cartel de Medellín no Haiti. O magnata operava o sofisticado hotel El Rancho, em Pétion-Ville, traficando drogas e lavando dinheiro na ordem de dezenas de milhões de dólares por semana.
Ele trabalhava em estreita colaboração com o chefe da polícia, Michel François, amigo próximo então futuro presidente Martelly. A tomada de poder em setembro de 1991 pelos generais corruptos, cleptocratas e agentes da inteligência dos Estados Unidos contra o presidente democraticamente eleito Jean-Bertrand Aristide [1991; 1994–1996; 2001–2004] foi apelidada por muitos de “golpe da cocaína”.
O agente patrocinado pelos Estados Unidos e combatente violento Guy Philippe, que liderou o segundo golpe paramilitar de 2004 contra Jean-Bertrand Aristide, cumpriu nove anos de prisão federal nos Estados Unidos por tráfico de drogas e lavagem de dinheiro. Philippe afirma que os EUA vieram atrás dele, apesar de sua lealdade, porque ele estava prestes a revelar nomes. Cercado por sua própria unidade paramilitar, Philippe está de volta ao Haiti, uma geração depois, repetindo seus antigos métodos e fiel ao mesmo mestre.
Em Aid State, Johnston segue documentando caso após caso de associados de Michel Martelly (2011–2016), informantes da DEA e empresários haitiano-americanos ricos flagrados com carregamentos massivos de cocaína. Não importava o tamanho da apreensão ou a fama do criminoso, o recado já havia sido dado em 1988 pela música Illegal Business, de KRS-One e Boogie Down Productions: “O negócio da cocaína controla os Estados Unidos, o negócio ilegal controla os Estados Unidos”.
Sob condição de anonimato, um líder comunitário de um bairro do centro de Porto Príncipe — saqueado pelo grupo Viv Ansanm (Viver Juntos, no sentido de que as gangues não mais lutarão entre si, mas se unirão) — explicou a perspectiva haitiana. Makenson, um dos mais de um milhão de haitianos deslocados pelas milícias da morte, me disse:
A DEA, a CIA e os verdadeiros detentores do poder nem sempre conseguem aprovar seus financiamentos legalmente. Há muito tempo passaram a agir por conta própria, financiando ilegalmente suas operações subterrâneas, tomadas de poder e golpes por meio do tráfico de drogas e de armas. Isso há muito é evidente para o povo haitiano. Não produzimos essas coisas aqui no Haiti, nem em nosso país vizinho, a República Dominicana. Se investigarmos demais e falarmos, também desapareceremos. Muitos conhecem a dominação imperial aberta dos Estados Unidos, mas há também um componente clandestino.
Silenciando os denunciantes
O ex-agente da Agência de Combate às Drogas dos Estados Unidos (DEA), Keith McNichols, tentou expor a corrupção da agência no Haiti em 2015. Por ser um denunciante (whistleblower), McNichols foi forçado a deixar o país e perdeu o emprego.
Seu advogado, Tom Devine, explicou a burocracia de corrupção dentro da DEA:
A agência se fecha para proteger e evitar que o público tome conhecimento de núcleos corruptos. Existe um sistema bem consolidado de apadrinhamento entre aqueles na linha de frente e os escritórios internos de responsabilização da DEA, além da gestão regional e federal.
Atualmente, McNichols e Devine trabalham com o Government Accountability Project, tentando pressionar a agência, que se mantém em silêncio, a agir com transparência. Até membros do Congresso têm concordado com eles e criticado abertamente a falta de responsabilização da DEA.
O Miami Heraldrealizou uma série de publicações sobre como “os estados do sul do Haiti se tornaram pontos de entrada críticos para a cocaína vinda da América do Sul e para a maconha vinda do Caribe, sendo o Haiti um ponto de transbordo para ambas”. Um mês antes das eleições de 2024, a Casa Branca do presidente dos Estados Unidos, Joe Biden, identificou o Haiti “em uma lista de 23 países designados como principais pontos de trânsito ou produtores de drogas ilícitas”.
Em seguida, o governo Biden desativou suas operações da DEA no Haiti e em outros 13 países. Isso ocorre enquanto a DEA está prestes a receber “outro orçamento recorde — US$ 3,7 bilhões para o ano fiscal de 2025 — para continuar e expandir sua ‘guerra às drogas’.” Seria por isso que as massas silenciadas do Haiti vêm dizendo há décadas que armas e drogas nunca foram problemas próprios do país, mas sim parte de yon pwojè lamò (um projeto de morte), imposto de cima por forças internacionais poderosas.
Um relatório aprofundado do Center for Economic and Policy Researchfornece provas claras das conexões profundas entre a DEA, informantes confidenciais, os 18 assassinos colombianos do presidente Jovenel Moïse, a inteligência dos Estados Unidos e uma empresa de segurança privada com sede na Flórida. O New York Timesafirma que Jovenel Moïse foi assassinado em 2021 porque
Ele estava trabalhando em uma lista de políticos e empresários poderosos envolvidos no tráfico de drogas no Haiti, com a intenção de entregar o dossiê ao governo norte-americano, segundo quatro conselheiros e autoridades haitianos encarregados de elaborar o documento.
Porta-vozes corporativos, como o New York Times, oferecem migalhas de verdade, mas não vão além disso — muito menos tomam qualquer ação para deter a violência brutal que domina a capital haitiana. Como nos lembram os palestinos, os centros de pensamento, os meios de comunicação e as burocracias do imperialismo vão registrar os massacres e a carnificina, mas jamais confrontarão as causas profundas do genocídio.
Enquanto muitos estadunidenses descartariam rapidamente essa prova incontestável da conivência de alto nível com o narcotráfico como sendo o enredo de um fictício filme da CIA em Hollywood, essa é a realidade cotidiana do povo haitiano.
Barbecue e os demais senhores da guerra reuniram suas quadrilhas paramilitares em uma aliança coordenada chamada Viv Ansanm (Viver Juntos), em 29 de fevereiro de 2024, com o objetivo de organizar seus grandes negócios. Os haitianos são os primeiros a lembrar que há forças muito acima desses chefes — nas colinas do paraíso burguês de Pétion-Ville e nos bastidores de Washington — que puxam os fios por trás das marionetes.
Embora não haja nada de haitiano na cocaína, esse pó precioso financia a destruição deliberada e a ocupação da outrora famosa capital turística, Porto Príncipe. Embora também não haja nada de haitiano nos grupos criminosos armados, a Viv Ansanm de hoje — atuando direta e indiretamente como tropas de choque da política externa dos Estados Unidos — usurpou o destino do único país a derrubar a escravidão e organizar uma revolução anticolonial.
Mentiras brancas, morte haitiana
Há décadas, o Haiti funciona como um território sem lei, um campo livre onde bilhões de dólares em lucros com a cocaína enriquecem os bolsos de uns poucos escolhidos. A chamada “guerra às drogas” sempre foi, na verdade, uma guerra contra o Haiti, contra o México e contra os pobres do mundo inteiro. Os milhares de assassinatos e as centenas de milhares de deslocados causados pela aliança de quadrilhas mantêm a cocaína circulando — e os lucros astronômicos fluindo.
O presidente da Colômbia, Gustavo Petro, denunciou o papel que redes criminosas de seu país têm desempenhado no agravamento da insegurança no Haiti. Em abril de 2024, ele anunciou o desaparecimento de 1 milhão de armas, munições e explosivos dos arsenais militares colombianos — muitos dos quais teriam chegado ao Haiti junto com carregamentos de cocaína. Seu colega, o presidente da Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, fez declarações semelhantes, acusando os Estados Unidos de “decapitar o Haiti” ao facilitar o comércio ilegal de armas.
Hoje, as gangs paramilitè yo (quadrilhas paramilitares) e seus chef bandi (chefes de gangue) são os herdeiros de Duvalier e dos generais haitianos. André Johnson, conhecido como “Izo”, chefão da costeira Vilaj dè Dye, se gaba abertamente de seu cartel de drogas. Jovem, narcotraficante e rapper, explicou que a Viv Ansanm se unificou para reunir todas as redes criminosas e atacar Sodo (Saut-d’Eau), após a perda de um de seus maiores carregamentos de drogas — interceptado por outra gangue local.
O grupo Lamò san jou (Morte sem data) opera a partir de Kwadebouke (Croix-des-Bouquets) e controla rotas estratégicas de entrada e saída na fronteira com a República Dominicana. Wa Mikanò (o “rei” Micanord Altès) coordena o tráfego marítimo de importação e exportação a partir de Wharf Jérémie, um bairro dentro da maior favela do hemisfério ocidental, Cité-Soleil. Mikanò é procurado pelo recente massacre de mais de 184 moradores, em sua maioria idosos, dessa comunidade.
Quando a aliança de esquadrões da morte da Viv Ansanm precisou retirar discretamente um colaborador estrangeiro do Haiti, recorreu a contatos próximos do presidente da República Dominicana, Luis Abinader (2020 – ), para levá-lo de volta aos Estados Unidos no jato pessoal de Abinader. O livro do pesquisador Jeb Sprague, Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, mostra o papel histórico do Estado dominicano na desestabilização do país vizinho.
A fronteira entre Haiti e República Dominicana permanece fechada para os vizinhos que precisam de ajuda, mas está sempre aberta para as armas dos Estados Unidos e a cocaína sul-americana — um fluxo contínuo que mantém o Haiti aprisionado por uma engrenagem colonial de morte, não como o país mais pobre, mas como o mais explorado e saqueado do hemisfério ocidental.
Todos os profissionais bem remunerados mencionados acima atuam como comandantes da aliança paramilitar Viv Ansanm, liderada por Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier. Como rosto público dos grupos armados, Chérizier passa horas nas redes sociais e em entrevistas televisivas. Sempre sorridente, gaba-se de ser o “novo Jean-Jacques Dessalines do Haiti”.
Há quatro anos, Chérizier colabora com jornalistas locais e estrangeiros, promovendo uma versão distorcida da realidade de forma sádica — insistindo que, apesar de mais de 1 milhão de haitianos terem sido deslocados, tudo isso faz parte de sua “revolução”. Enquanto uma manipulação hollywoodiana da realidade confunde estrangeiros na rede social X (ex-Twitter) e no YouTube, em uma linguagem alheia ao Haiti, lideranças comunitárias haitianas seguem corajosamente narrando sua verdade coletiva.
Os moradores com quem convivi zombavam das declarações de Chérizier. Vizinhos do agora destruído bairro de Solino, na região metropolitana da capital, explicavam o papel de Chérizier e dos esquadrões da morte: um bandi (integrante de gangue) é o agente mais eficaz dos oligarcas. Diferente do militar, não usa uniforme. Diferente do policial, não tem rosto. Goza de imunidade total. Pode massacrar à vontade. Esse tipo de formulação é parte do senso comum entre as massas haitianas e seus representantes intelectuais.
O consenso nos setores populares do Haiti, para quem escuta o Kreyòl das ruas, é claro: as gangues terroristas e envolvidas com o tráfico de drogas são um projeto planejado e organizado do imperialismo. Elas há tempos buscam destruir nossa resistência revolucionária. Os agentes paramilitares desse projeto de morte portam armas dos Estados Unidos e traficam cocaína colombiana e maconha jamaicana para o Ocidente. Somos vítimas da guerra em curso contra o Haiti. Isso é exatamente o que o autor tem escutado desde a revolta de 7 de fevereiro de 2021, de grupos comunitários haitianos e do forte universo cultural do vodu.
Presos entre duas ocupações
É revelador que as próprias massas utilizem a palavra tewowis (terroristas) para descrever Barbecue, Vitalom, Lamo San Jou e seus soldados pagos. Ninguém conhece tão bem a geografia política das gangues quanto o povo que trava diariamente uma guerra para sobreviver sob seu domínio tirânico.
Os terroristas da Viv Ansanm não permitem a existência de organizações comunitárias. A líder comunitária e feminista Astride Noël explica, no texto How the Gangs Cause Mass Cultural & Social Chaos, que elas culpam o imperialismo estadunidense tanto pelo armamento dos esquadrões paramilitares da morte quanto pelo envio de mercenários multinacionais — quenianos, salvadorenhos e outros — para invadir e ocupar o Haiti pela quarta vez em cem anos.
O povo haitiano insiste que é sua responsabilidade histórica lidar com seus estupradores, sequestradores e assassinos — não o império que os mantém sob rédeas curtas. Ezai Jules, um dos muitos líderes revolucionários que viu seu pai assassinado e seu bairro incendiado, pergunta retoricamente:
Se isso fosse uma revolução, você realmente acha que Washington e Santo Domingo (o governo da República Dominicana) permitiriam o fluxo livre de armas para Chérizier? As gangues existem para esvaziar e ocupar os bairros históricos que têm dado tanta dor de cabeça ao imperialismo.
Ezai observa ainda que “o fato de haver estrangeiros que se passam por ‘esquerdistas’ e aplaudem os esquadrões da morte mostra a nós, haitianos, que o colonialismo também pode vir da esquerda”.
As massas haitianas sabem que matar ou prender Barbecue e outros traficantes contratados no Centro de Confinamento do Terrorismo de Bukele não representa uma solução de longo prazo. Como podem os responsáveis pela doença — a contínua colonização do Haiti — se apresentar novamente como portadores da cura?
Elas veem Barbecue como um sintoma da Dominação de Espectro Total dos Estados Unidos, não como a raiz do problema. A análise é de que o imperialismo estadunidense controla Fritz Alphonse Jean, atual presidente do Conselho Presidencial de Transição do Haiti, a aliança paramilitar e os mais de mil soldados estrangeiros, em sua maioria do Quênia, enviados pelos EUA para invadir sua terra natal. O secretário de Estado dos EUA, Marco Rubio, e o governo de Donald Trump agora atuam para enviar mais tropas da Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA) com o objetivo de aprofundar a ocupação do Haiti.
Quem ficará preso no meio dessas duas entidades criminosas, ambas armadas e controladas pelo imperialismo?
Os haitianos não querem mais intervenções dos Estados Unidos, que já resultaram na perda de sua capital. Todos os dias, os “palestinos do Caribe” organizam-se, lutam e morrem por um futuro livre do domínio estrangeiro e das gangues, por um Haiti sem armas e drogas importadas. Quando vamos escutar as vozes dos que nunca tiveram voz, traduzir o que dizem ser intraduzível e atender às esperanças seculares dos que foram historicamente silenciados?
Este artículo originalmente fue publicado en TRT World el 8 de mayo de 2025.
El Banco Mundial clasificó a Haití como uno de los países más corruptos del mundo: ocupó el lugar 179 entre 190 naciones evaluadas. También lo consideró uno de los lugares más propicios al soborno, donde un funcionario de aduanas gana menos de 10 dólares al día, según worldsalaries.com. Un escenario de indefensión que deja a un país ya sumergido en hambre, caos y criminalidad, en manos de pandillas armadas hasta los dientes que trafican drogas, y donde EE.UU. tendría un triste papel que pocos conocen, y que es responsable por la opresión de los haitianos.
La Guardia Costera de Estados Unidos emite constantemente declaraciones sobre la prevención de la llegada irregular de haitianos a EE.UU. en embarcaciones, pero ha guardado silencio sobre el flujo de armas en la otra dirección. Se han identificado pistas de aterrizaje improvisadas en zonas rurales utilizadas por los traficantes, pero las autoridades no han regulado ni investigado los puntos de entrada ilícitos. Son las élites dueñas de estas pistas y puertos. El gobierno haitiano ha prohibido la entrada de productos extranjeros por la frontera con la República Dominicana para frenar dicho tráfico.
Para complicar aún más la lucha contra el contrabando, Haití cuenta con 1.777 kilómetros de costa. La Policía Nacional afirma tener unas pocas lanchas patrulleras en funcionamiento, pero la mayoría de los haitianos entrevistados por este cronista afirmaron que dichas embarcaciones no existían.
Haití es vulnerable al contrabando de todo tipo, pero sin duda el que más perturba la paz es el contrabando de armas. Un informe de las Naciones Unidas subrayó el papel de Estados Unidos en la violencia armada en Haití y exigió medidas para detener el flujo de este cargamento mortal.
Tales declaraciones son poco significativas ante la masacre cotidiana. Un grupo de académicos y activistas haitianos documentaron meticulosamente esta constante campaña de violencia en un estudio sobre los grupos paramilitares. Entre noviembre de 2018 y marzo de 2024, según el estudio, las pandillas lideraron más de 25 masacres y otros ataques armados, que implicaron el asesinato de más de 1.500 personas, la violación colectiva de más de 160 niñas y mujeres, la desaparición de decenas de personas, la mutilación de cientos de personas y la destrucción de más de 450 viviendas, lo que provocó el desplazamiento interno de más de 500.000 haitianos.
La crisis de armas en EE. UU. es la crisis de armas de Haití
Cientos de miles de armas de fuego adquiridas legalmente han llegado desde Estados Unidos a Haití con poca o ninguna oposición de Washington, dejando a las autoridades haitianas, señaladas de corrupción, encargadas de detener la oleada de armas de guerra. Diversas investigaciones sobre el tema señalan a Estados Unidos como el origen de casi todas las armas en Haití. Otra consecuencia poco estudiada y poco reportada de la fabricación no regulada de armas en EE.UU. es la desestabilización de la isla.
La violencia armada en Haití se ha descontrolado a medida que el país se tambalea por la dominación neocolonial de EE.UU., sus socios como Canadá y Francia, los desastres naturales, los golpes de Estado patrocinados por el extranjero, la amenaza de otra invasión, y la ocupación liderada por Washington. Los “testaferros” compran armas legalmente en estados con regulaciones laxas y las venden a contrabandistas, a menudo pertenecientes a la comunidad haitiano-estadounidense, quienes a su vez las venden a compradores en la islacon enormes ganancias.
El autor Danny Shaw acompaña a Domine Resain de MOLEGHAF (Movimiento por la Igualdad y Fraternidad de Todos los Haitianos) en una reunión comunitaria.
A pesar de expresar periódicamente su consternación por la situación de la violencia armada y la pobreza en Haití, los legisladores estadounidenses se muestran reacios a actuar para interrumpir el flujo de esta exportación letal. Aún con los constantes aumentos del gasto en defensa, que este año alcanzó un trillón de dólares, el Pentágono se muestra reacio a actuar para garantizar la seguridad de las fronteras haitianas y caribeñas.
Sirviendo al poderoso lobby de las armas, los políticos estadounidenses socavan activamente los esfuerzos para reducir el número de muertes a ambos lados del mar Caribe. El gobernador de Florida, Ron DeSantis, aprobó una ley el 12 de mayo que dificulta el rastreo de armas a empresas e investigadores.
La crisis de armas de Estados Unidos es la crisis de armas de Haití. Cada estado tiene una crisis de armas, al igual que cada ciudad y pueblo.
El último siglo de intervención de Washington ha demostrado que no es la primera vez que la acción e inacción de Estados Unidos han sido responsables de la proliferación de la violencia en Haití. El pueblo haitiano dice “no” a los paramilitares, a otra ocupación militar extranjera, y “sí” a la recuperación de la riqueza nacional y a las reparaciones tras siglos de explotación extranjera.
Originally published at Anticonquista on December 16, 2019
Since 1998, the year anti-imperialist military leader Hugo Chávez was popularly elected, when have we heard one positive word in U.S. media about Venezuela? Washington — whether Democrat or Republican — has consolidated an air-tight media, military, diplomatic and military blockade of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.
The Hybrid War
The U.S. government and multinationals have seized Citgo, Venezuela’s oil refinery company with gas stations across the U.S. Periodically, sometimes monthly, Trump announces the next round of sanctions.
The international banking system, colluding with their internal lackeys, have stripped the bolívar, the national currency, of any value. Currently, one U.S. dollar is worth 40,000 bolívars. If the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank suddenly deemed that the U.S. dollar was only worth $0.000025, people in the U.S. would have a taste of what an economic war really means. That would mean $10,000 dollars would be worth a quarter. This is a blatant act of war.
These are only a few methods of hybrid war, designed to strangle and stultify the economy of Venezuela, an oil-dependent nation, which is still casting off the chains of centuries of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Afterwards, when people predictably flee an oppressed nation under attack by oppressor nations, ABC, Fox and MSNBC are there to film the “mass exodus” and “failure of socialism because of a dictator.”
Thus far, over three million people have been forced to flee the besieged nation. Venezuela has had to endure its own Special Period, as Cuba did in the 1990s with the fall of the Soviet Union and socialist camp. The plan, as Energy Secretary Rick Fox openly said, is to stoke hunger, discontent, migration and civil war in any country that seeks its own path.
Same blueprint. Same script. Same pendejos (fools) with CNN on 24/7, intoxicated by the “American Dream,” blindly swallowing all of this propaganda.
The Ruling Class and Venezuela
Like Syria, Venezuela serves as a litmus test for politicians to prove their acceptability to the ruling class.
Despite Bernie Sanders’ open attacks on Venezuela and its democratically-elected president, Nicolás Maduro, the Washington Post continues to attack him for “not being tough enough” on 21st century socialism. The corporate media has vilified Tulsi Gabbard in a similar way for daring to say that the U.S. has no right to intervene in the sovereign affairs of Syria. Non-interventionism and the right of nations to self-determination are not talking points in the Democratic primary debates.
Liberals have predictably fell into line, condemning Venezuela every opportunity they get to prove their reliability to the power structure. ¡Que vergüenza! Disgraceful! Have they not learned anything from the past two centuries of U.S. military invasions and occupations of the hemisphere? Hence, why Chávez gave former U.S. President Barack Obama a copy of Eduardo Galeano’s “The Open Veins of Latin America” at the U.N. in 2009.
Ni Un Paso Atrás (Not One Step Back)
Imperialism has done everything in its power to halt and reverse the momentum of the Bolivarian Revolution. Yet the Bolivarian Revolution persists, defies all the odds and pushes forward.
Dec. 3, 2019, was one such demonstration of the popular support the revolution continues to enjoy. Thousands of organizers and foreign delegates attended the International Communications Congress, flooding the streets of Caracas to say no to the Interamerican Agreement of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR). TIAR is the latest military coalition led by the U.S. and Colombia, a country where the U.S. has eight military bases and an undisclosed amount of soldiers. Vendepatria (national sell-out) “president” Iván Duque’s speech was yet another declaration of war against its neighbor.
Thousands marched, danced and chanted in the streets of Caracas:
“¡Y no, y no, y no me da la gana de ser una colonia norteamericana. Y sí, y sí, y sí nos da la gana de ser una potencia latinoamericana!”
“No! No! No! We are not interested in being a U.S. colony. Yes! Yes! Yes! We are interested in being a powerful Latin American nation.”
Secretary of State Jorge Arreaza, President of the National Constituent Assembly Tania Diaz and Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela Diosdado Cabello, along with international delegates from 35 nations, condemned the TIAR and redoubled their commitment to defending Venezuela’s sovereignty.
Twenty years into their revolution, the Venezuelan masses and their elected leadership continue to be more fearless, revolutionary and chavista than ever. In 2020, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution continues pushing forward.
Este artículo originalmente fue publicado en Anticonquista el 16 de diciembre de 2019
Desde 1998, cuando el líder militar antiimperialista Hugo Chávez fue elegido popularmente, ¿cuándo hemos escuchado una palabra positiva en los medios estadounidenses sobre Venezuela? Washington, ya sea demócrata o republicano, ha consolidado un bloqueo mediático, militar, diplomático y militar de la Revolución Bolivariana de Venezuela.
La guerra híbrida
El gobierno de los Estados Unidos y las multinacionales se han apoderado de Citgo, la compañía de refinería de petróleo de Venezuela con estaciones de servicio en todo EE. UU.
El sistema bancario internacional, coludiendo con sus lacayos internos, ha despojado al bolívar, la moneda nacional, de su valor. Actualmente, un dólar estadounidense vale 40,000 bolívares. Si el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) y el Banco Mundial de repente consideran que el dólar estadounidense solo vale $0.000025, las personas en los Estados Unidos tendrían una idea de lo que realmente significa una guerra económica. Eso significaría que $10,000 dólares valdrían un quarter. Este es un acto de guerra descarado.
Estos son solo algunos de los métodos de la guerra híbrida, diseñados para estrangular y sofocar la economía de Venezuela, una nación dependiente del petróleo, que todavía se deshace de las cadenas de siglos de colonialismo y neocolonialismo. Posteriormente, cuando la gente huye previsiblemente de una nación oprimida bajo el ataque de naciones opresoras, ABC, Fox y MSNBC están allí para filmar el “éxodo masivo” y el “fracaso del socialismo debido a un dictador”.
Hasta ahora, más de tres millones de personas se han visto obligadas a huir de la nación sitiada. Venezuela ha tenido que soportar su propio Período Especial, como lo hizo Cuba en la década de 1990 con la caída de la Unión Soviética y el campo socialista. El plan, como ha dicho abiertamente el Secretario de Energía, Rick Fox, es avivar el hambre, el descontento, la migración y la guerra civil en cualquier país que busque su propio camino.
Es el mismo plano con el mismo guión. Los mismos pendejos que miran CNN todo el dia, intoxicados por el “sueño americano”, tragando ciegamente toda esta propaganda.
La clase dominante contra Venezuela
Al igual que Siria, Venezuela sirve como prueba de fuego para que los políticos demuestren su aceptabilidad ante la clase dominante.
A pesar de los ataques abiertos de Bernie Sanders contra Venezuela y su presidente elegido democráticamente, Nicolás Maduro, el Washington Post continúa atacándolo por “no ser lo suficientemente duro” contra el socialismo del siglo XXI. Los medios corporativos han vilipendiado a Tulsi Gabbard de manera similar por atreverse a decir que los Estados Unidos no tiene derecho a intervenir en los asuntos soberanos de Siria. El no intervencionismo y el derecho de las naciones a la autodeterminación no son puntos de discusión en los debates primarios demócratas.
Como era de esperar, los liberales se alinearon, condenando a Venezuela cada oportunidad que tienen de demostrar su confiabilidad a la estructura de poder. ¡Que vergüenza! ¿No han aprendido nada de los últimos dos siglos de invasiones y ocupaciones militares estadounidenses del hemisferio? Es por eso que Chávez le dio al ex presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, una copia de “Las venas abiertas de América Latina” por Eduardo Galeano en la ONU en 2009.
Ni un paso atrás
El imperialismo ha hecho todo lo posible para detener el impulso de la Revolución Bolivariana. Sin embargo, la Revolución Bolivariana persiste, desafía todos los pronósticos y avanza.
El 3 de diciembre de 2019 fue una de esas demostraciones del apoyo popular que la revolución continúa disfrutando. Miles de organizadores y delegados extranjeros asistieron al Congreso Internacional de Comunicaciones, inundando las calles de Caracas para decir no al Tratado Interamericano de Asistencia Recíproca (TIAR). TIAR es la última coalición militar liderada por Estados Unidos y Colombia, un país donde los Estados Unidos tiene ocho bases militares y una cantidad no revelada de soldados. El discurso del “presidente” vendepatria Iván Duque fue otra declaración de guerra contra su vecino.
Miles marcharon, bailaron y cantaron en las calles de Caracas:
“¡Y no, y no, y no me da la gana de ser una colonia norteamericana. Y sí, y sí, y sí nos da la gana de ser una potencia latinoamericana!”
El secretario de Estado Jorge Arreaza, el presidente de la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente Tania Díaz y el vicepresidente del Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela Diosdado Cabello, junto con delegados internacionales de 35 naciones, condenaron el TIAR y redoblaron su compromiso de defender la soberanía de Venezuela.
A veinte años de su revolución, las masas venezolanas y su liderazgo electo continúan siendo más valientes, revolucionarios y chavistas que nunca. En 2020, la Revolución Bolivariana de Venezuela continúa avanzando.
Originally published at Anticonquista on February 7, 2020
In January 2020, Donald Trump’s puppet in Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, met with reactionary British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and right-wing Colombian President Iván Duque. After losing an election as head of the National Assembly on Jan. 5, Guaidó traveled abroad in a desperate attempt to try to shore up support from the most reactionary quarters for his golpista project. Most recently, Guaidó attended Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 4, where he was lauded by the imperialists as the so-called “real president” of Venezuela. As if the hundreds of U.S. military invasions of Latin American and the Caribbean since 1898 were not enough, the great Venezuelan “patriot” now wants Trump and the U.S. to invade Venezuela.
Despite all of these offensives, however, the besieged people of Venezuela continue to build their Bolivarian Revolution. One way in which they are resisting imperialism is by strengthening their alternative, non-corporate and people-powered media. While private news corporations that propagate right-wing lies still exist in the country, the Bolivarian Revolution has developed revolutionary media that combat and debunk rampant misinformation. Not only are these alternative outlets embraced by Venezuela’s working class; they are also supported by the country’s top revolutionary leadership, which understands the importance of independent media in the war against imperialism.
Every Wednesday evening, Diosdado Cabello, the vice-president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV, hosts a television program that unites thousands of Chavistas and reaches millions of workers and campesinos who tune in from home. El Mazo Dando is just one example of a powerful, people-run media outlet that the Venezuelan masses have built since 1999. The surest proof that Cabello is an effective revolutionary leader is the hatred he, President Nicolás Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and other Chavista dirigentes stir up among the pitiyanquis and their imperial backers.
Cabello, one of the key leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution, is a military captain who coordinated a 1992 rebellion alongside Comandante Hugo Chávez and led four tanks against former neoliberal President Carlos Andrés Pérez. As one of the founders of the Bolivarian Circles, he converses for hours every day with Venezuela’s marginalized and historically-forgotten sectors of society. One of the shows hashtags encapsulates its class nature: #UnidadLuchaBatallaYVictoria (#UnityStruggleBattle&Victory).
Cabello, an example of Antonio Gramsci’s organic intellectual, elevates mass understanding of the dialectic between external pressures and internal challenges, taking the form of U.S. hybrid war and the Venezuelan people’s fierce resistance. El Mazo Dando is the heir to Aló Presidente (Hello, Mr. President), Chávez’s popular weekly television program, where he provided political education for viewers throughout the country, traveling and speaking with different communities about local and international struggles. Chávez used this direct political education to foster participatory democracy.
Diosdado Cabello hosts El Mazo Dando in Venezuela. | Source: VTV
Not Just a Show, But a Revolutionary Concert and Experience
Patria Nueva (New Fatherland), a chorus of children “armed with guitars, drums and voices that sing beautifully,” open the program performing patriotic songs. This is followed by a musical performance by the Bolivarian Armed Forces. Cabello then walks to three bulletin boards, where he has printed out a series of right-wing, pro-U.S. headlines. One by one, he focuses on each tweet, shedding light on the hardline opposition’s connections to U.S. government officials, their infighting over corruption and the moral bankruptcy within the disintegrating Guaidó camp. Mocking and exposing the true nature of the fractionalized, radical opposition, he cultivates profound love and faith in the revolutionary process.
Here it is, La Universidad Para Todos (The University for All), as it is called in Cuba. The program evolved out of centuries of revolutionary pedagogy. In the words of Cuban independence hero Jose Martí, “To be educated is to be free.” Cabello explains that this massively popular show is but one result of “the space Chávez and the Bolivarian process opened for popular media and for a new hegemony.”
Chávez’s Legacy is Stronger Than Ever
El Mazo Dando, which has no set end time, then cuts to three to five minute clips of Chávez’s historical speeches. During the filming of Aló Presidente No. 188, the revolution’s leader clarified what was la patria y la anti-patria (the fatherland and the anti-fatherland) and the historical crime of “surrendering Venezuela’s oil to foreign corporations.” Chávez emphasized that “Venezuelans were not inferior to anybody,” despite all of the neocolonial propaganda to which they had been subjected to.
The energy is electric as the crowd dances, bounces and erupts into chants:
Fascista, Fascista, qué quieres el coroto. El peo no es solo con Maduro. ¡El peo es con nosotros!
(Fascist, Fascist, you want the presidential seat. Your beef is not just with Maduro. Your beef is with all of us!)
and
Chávez no se murió, se multiplicó. ¡Se hizo millones, Chávez soy yo!
(Chávez did not die, he multiplied. He is millions, I am Chávez!)
The chants fade into the singing of patriotic Venezuelan songs as the crowd marches on the street. This was no television show; this was a revolutionary concert and a demonstration of the popular support for Chavismo, 22 years into the process. While watching the show, a veteran school teacher once poked me with her elbow in the ribs, chuckling: “It’s time to make fun of the escuálidos (a pejorative term for the right-wing elites, meaning squalid or meager based on a Chávez speech). It’s time for us to have our say. This is not a show; this a revolutionary experience.”
Venezuela, which has been on the frontlines in the struggle against imperialism for the past two decades, provides an example of what socialist leadership and people’s media should look like. The Bolivarian Revolution is actively supporting content producers who are waging war against misinformation and deception. They are also providing a radical alternative to capitalist-imperialist media, which glorify individualism, greed and decadence. Furthermore, unlike in most countries under the control of Wall Street, its top political leaders are actively supporting revolutionary, non-corporate media. Venezuela undoubtedly serves as a model for all socialists and communists around the world who want to equip their national revolutions with the weapon of people-powered media.
Este artículo originalmente fue publicadoen Anticonquista el 7 de febrero de 2020
En enero de 2020, el títere de Donald Trump en Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, se reunió con el primer ministro británico Boris Johnson y el presidente colombiano derechista Iván Duque. Después de perder una elección como jefe de la Asamblea Nacional el 5 de enero, Guaidó viajó al extranjero en un intento desesperado de tratar de obtener el apoyo de los barrios más reaccionarios para su proyecto golpista. Más recientemente, Guaidó asistió al discurso del Estado de la Unión de Trump el 4 de febrero, donde los imperialistas lo elogiaron como el llamado “verdadero presidente” de Venezuela. Como si los cientos de invasiones militares estadounidenses de América Latina y el Caribe desde 1898 no fueran suficientes, el gran “patriota” venezolano ahora quiere que Trump y los Estados Unidos invadan Venezuela.
A pesar de todas estas ofensivas, sin embargo, el pueblo sitiado de Venezuela continúa construyendo su Revolución Bolivariana. Una forma en que se resisten al imperialismo es por el fortalecimiento de sus medios alternativos, no corporativos y de poder popular. Si bien las corporaciones de noticias privadas que propagan mentiras derechistas todavía existen en el país, la Revolución Bolivariana ha desarrollado medios revolucionarios que combaten y desacreditan la desinformación desenfrenada. Estos medios alternativos no solo son aceptadas por la clase trabajadora de Venezuela; También cuentan con el apoyo del liderazgo revolucionario más importante del país, que comprende la importancia de los medios independientes en la guerra contra el imperialismo.
Todos los miércoles por la noche, Diosdado Cabello, vicepresidente del Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV, presenta un programa de televisión que une a miles de chavistas y llega a millones de trabajadores y campesinos que sintonizan desde su casa. El Mazo Dando es solo un ejemplo de un poderoso medio de comunicación dirigido por personas que las masas venezolanas han construido desde 1999. La prueba más segura de que Cabello es un líder revolucionario efectivo es el odio que él, el presidente Nicolás Maduro, la vicepresidenta Delcy Rodríguez y otros dirigentes chavistas se agitan entre los pitiyanquis y sus partidarios imperiales.
Cabello, uno de los líderes clave de la Revolución Bolivariana, es un capitán militar que coordinó una rebelión en 1992 junto al Comandante Hugo Chávez y dirigió cuatro tanques contra el ex presidente neoliberal Carlos Andrés Pérez. Como uno de los fundadores de los Círculos Bolivarianos, conversa durante horas todos los días con los sectores de la sociedad marginados e históricamente olvidados de Venezuela. Uno de los hashtags del programa resume su naturaleza de clase: #UnidadLuchaBatallaYVictoria
Cabello, un ejemplo del intelectual orgánico de Antonio Gramsci, eleva la comprensión masiva de la dialéctica entre las presiones externas y los desafíos internos, tomando la forma de una guerra híbrida estadounidense y la feroz resistencia del pueblo venezolano. El Mazo Dando es el heredero de Aló Presidente, el programa semanal de televisión de Chávez, donde brindó educación política a los televidentes de todo el país, viajando y hablando con diferentes comunidades sobre las luchas locales e internacionales. Chávez usó esta educación política directa para fomentar la democracia participativa.
Diosdado Cabello presenta su programa de televisión. | Fuente: VTV
No solo un espectáculo, sino un concierto y experiencia revolucionario
Patria Nueva, un coro de niños “armados con guitarras, tambores y voces que cantan maravillosamente,” abre el programa interpretando canciones patrióticas. Esto es seguido por una actuación musical de las Fuerzas Armadas Bolivarianas. Cabello luego camina a tres tableros de anuncios, donde ha impreso una serie de artículos y publicaciones imperialistas. Uno por uno, se enfoca en cada tweet, arrojando luz sobre las conexiones de la oposición con los funcionarios del gobierno de EE. UU., su lucha interna por la corrupción y la moral bancarrota dentro del campo desintegrado de Guaidó.
Aquí está, la universidad para todos, como se le llama en Cuba. El programa se desarrolló a partir de siglos de pedagogía revolucionaria. Como dijo el héroe de la independencia cubana José Martí, “Ser educado es ser libre”. Cabello explica que este espectáculo masivamente popular no es más que un resultado del “espacio que Chávez y el proceso bolivariano abrieron para los medios populares y para una nueva hegemonía”.
El legado de Chávez, más fuerte que nunca
El programa, que no tiene una hora de finalización establecida, luego recorta de tres a cinco minutos los discursos históricos de Chávez. Durante el rodaje de Aló Presidente No. 188, el líder de la revolución aclaró lo que era la patria y la antipatria y el crimen histórico de “entregar el petróleo de Venezuela a corporaciones extranjeras”. Chávez enfatizó que “Los venezolanos no eran inferiores a nadie”, a pesar de toda la propaganda neocolonial a la que habían sido sometidos.
La energía es eléctrica mientras la multitud baila, rebota y estalla en cantos:
Fascista, Fascista, qué quieres el coroto. El peo no es solo con Maduro. ¡El peo es con nosotros!
y
Chávez no se murió, se multiplicó. ¡Se hizo millones, Chávez soy yo!
Los cantos se desvanecen en el canto de canciones patrióticas venezolanas mientras la multitud marcha en la calle. Este no era un programa de televisión; Este fue un concierto revolucionario y una demostración del apoyo popular al Chavismo, 22 años después del proceso. Una vez, mientras miraba el programa, una maestra veterana de la escuela me golpeó con el codo en las costillas y se rió entre dientes: “Es hora de burlarse de los escuálidos. Es hora de que tengamos nuestra opinión. Esto no es un espectáculo; esta es una experiencia revolucionaria”.
Venezuela, que ha estado en primera línea en la lucha contra el imperialismo durante las últimas dos décadas, ofrece un ejemplo de cómo deberían interactuar los líderes socialistas con los medios revolucionarios. La Revolución Bolivariana está apoyando activamente a los productores de contenido que están librando una guerra contra la desinformación y el engaño. También están proporcionando una alternativa radical a los medios capitalistas e imperialistas, que glorifican el individualismo, la codicia y la decadencia.
Además, a diferencia de la mayoría de los países bajo el control de Wall Street, sus principales líderes políticos apoyan activamente a los medios revolucionarios no corporativos. Venezuela, sin duda, sirve como modelo para todos los socialistas y comunistas de todo el mundo que quieran equipar sus revoluciones nacionales con el arma de los medios de comunicación impulsados por el pueblo.
