WikiLeaks Haiti: The PetroCaribe Files

[Peter Lemkin]

Jan, Others, I think this is the real deal. The actual cables are on Wikileaks and I'll get the link and post. The USA acting for their real masters [Big Oil, Big Banks, Big Business, etc.] have always made their policy decisions to keep Haiti's poor and miserable, poor and miserable - still slaves in fact. Nothing is about to change. The interesting Bush Ambassador now high in the DOS is further proof, if any is needed. Obama is a Trojan Horse to bring the beast of Bush in sheep's clothing. Many of the Cables [not all] are here.

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WikiLeaks Haiti: The Nation Partners With Haïti Liberté on Release of Secret Haiti Cables

Haïti Liberté, published largely in French and Creole, is working with WikiLeaks to release and analyze the Haiti-related cables, which will be featured in a series of English-language Nation pieces, written by a variety of freelance journalists with extensive experience in Haiti and posted each Wednesday for several weeks.

The cables from US Embassies around the world cover an almost seven-year period, from April 17, 2003ten months before the February 29, 2004, coup d'état that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristideto February 28, 2010, just after the January 12 earthquake that devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding cities. They range from "Secret" and "Confidential" classifications to "Unclassified." Cables of the latter classification are not public, and many are marked "For Official Use Only" or "Sensitive."

The cables that form the basis of the articles in this series are being published in their entirety on the WikiLeaks site. However, in some cases, names will be redacted for safety reasons.

While not revealing any intelligence or military operations, and not comprising a complete set of all Port-au-Prince Embassy communiqués, the cables offer a penetrating look into US strategies and maneuvering in Haiti during the brutal coup years (20042006) and the period after President René Préval's election (20062010). We see Washington's obsession with keeping Aristide out of Haiti and the hemisphere; the microscope it trained on rebellious neighborhoods like Bel Air and Cité Soleil; and its tight supervision of Haiti's police and of the United Nations' 9,000-man military occupation known as the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Embassy officials offer candid assessments of other ambassadors and of Haitian politicians, UN officials, and other public figures. Sometimes their analysis is illuminating; more often, their assessments range from arrogant, pedantic or self-serving to false, tendentious or just plain ridiculous.

What emerges is an extraordinary portrait of Washington's aggressive management of Latin America's first sovereign nationand its bare-knuckled tactics on behalf of US corporate interests there. But the cables also show how Washington's designs are met with fierce resistance from the Haitian people. And they reveal how Haiti is a key arena for North-South struggle and East-West intrigue. Washington squares off against Caracas and Havana, particularly over oil, while Beijing and Taipei engage in fierce diplomatic arm-wrestling that threatens to derail the UN military mission in Haiti.

This release is part of the latest phase of WikiLeaks activity. Originally, WikiLeaks distributed the 251,287 leaked US Embassy cables and the Afghan war logs it obtained last year by providing them to large Western newspapers like the New York Times and the Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiegel. Since late December, WikiLeaks has selected media outlets in other countrieswell over fifty nowand provided them with the US Embassy cables relevant to their country or region. Where they have been published, these disclosures have almost invariably generated major headlines, but typically they have received scant attention in the United States.

By partnering with Haïti Liberté, and placing the cables in context for a US audience, The Nation hopes to heighten the impact of the Haiti releases in the United States and internationallyand to advance the WikiLeaks mission of transparency in government that we regard as critical to democracy.

The PetroCaribe Files: The fight Big Oil lost in Haiti (for now).

On Background: From WikiLeaks to WikiHaiti: Now that WikiLeaks is collaborating with media organizations across the globe, a huge trove of previously-unpublished State Department cables are coming to light.