BY ROLLANDE GIRARD
MIAMI - Thousands of people participated in a street festival in the Haitian community here October 15 to mark the first anniversary of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return from exile.
Aristide, who was elected president in 1990, was toppled by a coup d'etat in September 1991, and lived in exile for three years. On October 15, 1994, he returned to Haiti after the invasion of the country by 20,000 U.S. troops. Today several thousand U.S. and United Nations troops continue to occupy the island. Most of these soldiers are scheduled to leave in February.
Serge Lausier, a participant in the street festival, told this reporter that the situation in Haiti is "better than it was before, we were living with no government, step by step I believe everything will be as it is supposed to be."
Others argued that things are not changing - the situation is very difficult economically and political murders still occur, although much less than before the return of Aristide.
While the numbers of Haitian refugees has dropped since Aristide's return, more than 1,000 Haitians seeking asylum have arrived on the U.S. shores or have been stopped at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard since the beginning of 1995.
On October 1, about 300 Haitians arrived on a boat in Miami's port. They were detected by a Miami police officer, who saw some of them walking down a street barefoot. When stopped, several of the Haitians had only a phone number and 25 cents on them to make a phone call to their relatives.
Mary, a garment worker at Bag Specialists in Miami, told her coworkers that a Latino cab driver came to her church with several of the Haitians from the boat.
The driver said he had found them wandering the streets and took them to a Haitian church where he thought they could get help.
Most Haitians have had very little chance to gain asylum in the U.S. since Aristide was returned to Haiti. The U.S. government and other institutions have considerably reduced their financial aid to groups such as the Haitian Refugee Center (HRC). The HRC has seen its budget shrink by more than $200,000. Of the 15 attorneys and legal aids that the center used to employ, now only one lawyer is left. He has not been able to take any new cases since June, due to heavy work load.
According to the Miami Herald, "Inflation in Haiti has dropped from 52 percent to less than 25 percent for the fiscal year ending September 30.... 10,000 people are employed in the assembly industry." The Herald noted that 35,000 to 40,000 were employed in this industry before Aristide was overthrown in 1991.
International lenders, who pledged to invest $1.2 billion, now insist that the Haitian government must privatize the nine most important national industries including the two national banks, the airport, electric and telephone companies.
One of the main proponents of this privatization plan, Prime Minister Smarck Michel, resigned his post October 16 reportedly because of the mounting pressure against the privatizations in the Haitian government reflecting the widespread opposition in the country.
Reverend Gerard Jean Juste, an Aristide aide, made a recent visit to Miami. He told his audience at a meeting of Veye Yo, a Haitian rights group here, that the privatizations would provide better services and remove some of the corrupt officials previously appointed to these corporations. Some in the audience expressed skepticism about this being true.
Philippe Hood said at the October 15 street festival that "there would be less jobs, so people are afraid" of the impact of the privatizations.
Some Haitians here are also afraid of what will happen when Aristide leaves the presidency. Another election will be scheduled soon and the new president is to take over on February 7, 1996.
Juan Gabriel said he is worried about the future. He said that "the Macoutes [right-wing paramilitary thugs organized during the Duvalier dictatorship] are waiting for January to take power again."
Seth Galinsky, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for City Commission Group II in Miami, said at the street festival that "the U.S. invasion and occupation of Haiti is not resolving any of the problems. On the contrary, it is the decades of U.S. intervention, which has brought only exploitation and repression. The people of Haiti have shown that they will fight for their sovereignty and for social justice."