South African president Thabo Mbeki was the only foreign head of state present. Washington sent its local ambassador and Maxine Waters, a congresswoman from California who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, to represent the U.S. government.

The government, which is facing persistent calls to step down by an opposition coalition backed by Washington and Paris, tried to use the bicentennial of the Haitian Revolution to boost its position. The only successful national slave revolt in history took place in Haiti 1791-1804, resulting in the overthrow of French colonial rule and the establishment of a republic.

At the same time as the bicentennial rally, government opponents held smaller actions, clashing with Aristide supporters in the capital. Protesters organized by the Democratic Convergence coalition and the “Group of 184” demand Aristide’s resignation.

Aristide, a bourgeois nationalist figure, first won election in 1990. He was a prominent opponent of the decades-long Duvalier dictatorship, which was backed by Washington and Paris, and then other military officers who succeeded the Duvalier regime. On Sept. 30, 1991, Aristide was overthrown by a military coup and went into exile in the United States. On Oct. 14, 1994, U.S. troops invaded Haiti and restored Aristide to power. He stepped down in 1996 as part of an agreement with Washington to serve out his first term and then leave office. He then ran again and was re-elected in 2000. His current term expires in 2006.

The opposition claims that the 2000 elections were fraudulent. Opposition deputies have boycotted the National Assembly and refuse to participate in upcoming legislative elections.

Backing the opposition claims, Washington and international financial institutions it dominates have curtailed promised aid and loans to Haiti over the last year. Since 1994 Washington has given $850 million in “assistance” to Haiti, including $72 million in 2002. According to Irwin Stotsky of the University of Miami Center for the Study of Human Rights, the bulk of these funds went to support U.S. troops in Haiti and military-supported contractors like Halliburton. The rest, supposedly earmarked for health, nutrition, and education purposes, go mostly to private groups, not the government. The European Union has also frozen its funds for any projects in Haiti.

These steps by the imperialist powers have exacerbated the already existing deep economic and social crisis in Haiti. The UN Development Program’s Human Development index ranks Haiti as 134th out of 162 countries.

More than 47 percent of Haiti’s adult population is illiterate. Nearly half the population is malnourished, even though 66 percent work in agriculture. Life expectancy for males is just 49 years and for women is 50 years, in part due to the AIDS epidemic.

In 2002 Haiti exported goods worth $298 million, mostly to the United States. That same year its imports amounted to $1.14 billion—an $800 million trade deficit.

The country’s foreign debt in 1999 was $1.2 billion. Coffee and mango exports have plummeted recently. Like many Third World nations, Haiti has been hard hit by the lowest prices for coffee beans in decades.

An estimated $600 million a year sent into Haiti by relatives of Haitians in the United States and other countries helps prevent a total collapse of the economy.

When Washington returned Aristide to power in 1994 they imposed numerous conditions on him including: lowering tariffs on goods from the United States; floating the gourde, Haiti’s national currency; privatizing state-owned industries; and implementing austerity programs prescribed by the International Monetary Fund.

The Miami Herald noted that Haiti’s government lowered tariffs on chicken and rice to a maximum of 5 percent, compared to 40 percent in most Caribbean countries. “Haiti’s chicken industry went beak-up,” the Herald said. Imports of U.S. rice have doubled since 1995, but local rice and chicken growers are disappearing. Haiti, the Herald continued, “the hemisphere’s poorest nation, with a per capita income of less than $1 a day, is also home to the hemisphere’s most open market.”

While on most economic questions Aristide has implemented U.S. demands, Washington was angered when he established normal diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1996. There are currently 800 Cuban medical personnel providing sorely needed health care in Haiti.

The opposition parties, ranging from ultrarightist groups to social democrats, have used the economic and social crisis to press their demand that Aristide resign. Students at the national university have also joined these protests.

But these groups have no program beyond demanding Aristide must go. They say their goal is to “establish a climate of security and confidence for the normalization of the country.” Some former supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas party have gone over to the opposition. One of the most prominent opposition spokespeople is Andre Apaid, owner of Alpha General Assembly, a textile company with investments in the Dominican Republic. Making clear which side they’re on, the U.S. State Department condemned the Haitian government for its “response to the political demonstration that occurred January 7 in Port-au-Prince,” White House spokesperson Richard Boucher said. “A government that wishes to be considered democratic cannot continue to use street gangs as an instrument of terror and intimidation.”

During the last four months, at least 45 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in clashes between pro- and anti-Aristide forces. The opposition has also organized “strikes” by businessmen, including a two-day lockout January 8-9.

Aristide has agreed to a Catholic church proposal that the National Assembly be replaced by an interim governing council with nine members drawn from the Supreme Court, political parties, and “civil society”, to advise the president. But the opposition insists Aristide resign immediately.

The events in Haiti are a big topic of discussion among Haitians in south Florida. Like the majority of working people in Haiti, most of them supported Aristide. One Lavalas supporter who works at Point Blank Body Armor near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said in an interview, asking that his name not be used, “I don’t like the Democratic Convergence. I’m not happy with the policies Aristide is carrying out, but I think he should stay in office until the end of his term.”

Eric Simpson contributed to this article.  
 
 
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