Vol. 75/No. 5      February 7, 2011

In the days following the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake the U.S. military put the arrival of troops and military equipment ahead of food and medical supplies. The international rescue teams that did arrive focused on those trapped in tourist hotels, United Nations headquarters, and other such buildings, avoiding working-class areas.

Thousands of Haitian workers organized to dig out relatives and neighbors with their bare hands, distribute what food and water they had, and maintain security in their areas. The Cuban government, which already had hundreds of doctors working in Haiti, rushed more medical workers there who saved countless lives. Estimates of those killed range up to 300,000.  
 
Little of aid has materialized
In the year since, little has materialized of the billions of dollars in reconstruction funds pledged by Washington and other imperialist governments. The mountains of rubble in Port-au-Prince, the capital, have barely been touched. “Armies of shovel-wielding workers have helped clear about 5 percent of the debris under cash-for-work programs,” the Miami Herald reported in a series titled “Haiti: A Year Later.”

Of the billions of dollars raised in donations to “aid” organizations, much is still sitting in their bank accounts, and a large percentage of what has been spent has been on salaries of foreign aid workers. The Red Cross, which raised $479 million, has so far completed less than 3,000 “transitional shelters” in Haiti. World Vision, which describes itself as a “Christian humanitarian organization,” reports on its website that $24 million—almost a quarter of the money it raised—has been spent on management.

Trying to explain away the Haitian government's failure to resolve the housing crisis, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive claimed that life was not so bad in the tent camps. People there “have some basic services that they didn’t find where they were living before, and they are not paying rent,” he said. Bellerive complained that some are resisting being moved to new locations.

The Herald described conditions at an “emergency relocation” camp in Tabarre Issa. It was built at a remote site more than an hour by bus from jobs in Port-au-Prince. Melian Remis, one of the new residents, said she shares a one-room house there with seven relatives. “It’s so small we cannot do anything inside,” she said. “At night, we sleep like fish, packed in together.”

Unemployment, already very high before the earthquake, has skyrocketed to as much as 90 percent in the formal sector. Marie Siane, who works cleaning the latrines in the tent camp where she lives, said, “I know a lot of money came into Haiti, but let’s face it: I live in a house made of blankets.”

This is the context in which presidential elections took place November 28. Nineteen candidates contended in a vote to replace President René Préval, whose term is set to end February 7.

More than a week after the vote, the government announced that Mirlande Manigat of the Assembly of Progressive National Democrats received the highest vote, followed by Jude Célestin of Préval’s Unity Party, setting the stage for a runoff between the two. Musician Michel Martelly, who reportedly came in a close third, contested these results, and some of his supporters protested in the streets.

In mid-January a commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a report placing Martelly ahead of Célestin. Washington and other imperialist governments are now pressing Préval to organize a runoff between Manigat and Martelly.

Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN, threatened that release of more aid to Haiti is contingent on its government accepting the OAS report. “Sustained support from the international community, including the United States, requires a credible process,” she said.
 
 
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