Premise
Hillary Clinton has trumpeted her experience and touted especially loudly her foreign policy bonafides. Specifically, the term she served as President Obama’s Secretary of State. In that period, from 2009 to 2013, several significant international events occurred with the Haitian earthquake and its aftermath being one of them.
Her Haitian legacy is one of a small group of people who survive on corruption & grease, a “graft caste” so-to-speak, and that’s the subject of this article.
Background
The relevant section of Haitian history begins in 2004, with the presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president (in a previous term). In 2004, a coup against Aristide forced him from power. Until 2011, an international effort, led by the United States, prevented Aristide’s return. In 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, devastating the Caribbean nation. An outbreak of Cholera also didn’t help matters.
As the rumbling stopped, the recovery began, and that’s where this article begins.
Analysis
After the earthquake, a flood of attention, support, and solidarity rushed into the destitute nation. Relief funds, humanitarian organizations, etc. all pledged support and hurried to help.
That’s where the Clinton legacy begins.
Promises the world...
As reported by Jonathan Katz in Politico, the “hotbed of U.S. post-quake reconstruction” was Massif du Nord. It was chosen, in part, “...to encourage people to disperse from places devastated by the 2010 disaster.”
It is indicative because, as she writes in her book Hard Choices, it was [via Politico] “an opportunity, to road-test new approaches to development that could be applied more broadly around the world.” As Politico put it: “That approach had business at its center: Aid would be replaced by investment, the growth of which would in turn benefit the United States.”
The flagship of this new development was “...the $300 million, 600-acre Caracol Industrial Park, financed by U.S. taxpayer money and Inter-American Development Bank and geared toward making clothes for export to the United States.” Part of the push included, of course, lobbying the U.S. Congress to eliminate tariffs, funded by business interests and “...led by Andrew Samet, a former Clinton Labor Department official, and Ronald Sorini, who was the chief U.S. Trade Representative negotiator on textiles during the North American Free Trade Agreement talks.”
The selling point was clear: “Clinton predicted that with the right support to the garment sector, 100,000 jobs would be created ‘in short order.’” A coalition of players including a South Korean firm, the Haitian government, and the Clinton Foundation worked to make these promises a reality.
The symbolism was also crystal clear: “If things went as planned, Caracol would be a triumph of the Clintons’ core model: the ‘public/private partnership’—U.S. taxpayer dollars, Haitian land and private corporations working together to put cheap clothes on American shelves and wages in Haitian pockets.”
...and DELIVERS a profit.
Again, quoting Politico’s piece: [cited above]
”Today’s reality, though, falls far short of the 2012 dream—despite an incredible financial investment. Far from 100,000 jobs—or even the 60,000 promised within five years of the park’s opening—Caracol currently employs just 5,479 people full time. That comes out to roughly $55,000 in investment per job created so far; or, to put it another way, about 30 times more per job than the average Sae-A worker makes per year.”
”...some 336 families say they were forced off the land to make way for Caracol and were not compensated enough to make up for the loss of livelihoods. It was good, productive farmland in a deforested, hungry country—chosen by the park’s planners precisely because of its access to a good water supply.”
A telling line from that piece, quoting a local Haitian activist: “I think they have monetary interests and political interests in the park.”
Another telling line, directly after: “Though striking a populist pose, in practice [the Clintons] were attracted to power in Haiti, which meant making alliances and friendships within the Haitian elite.”
”Their project responded...to those [priorities] supported by Haiti’s economic elites, who stood to benefit the most from them.”
”Many of the most notable investments the Clintons helped launch...have primarily benefited wealthy foreigners and island’s ruling elite, who needed little help to begin with.”
Indeed, as reported in The Washington Post: “...some of the most high-profile projects they have backed — including a just-opened Marriott, another luxury hotel and the industrial park — have helped foreign investors and Haiti’s wealthy elites more than its poor.”
Or, as Politico stated: “...the response to the Haiti quake would focus on priorities set by those surrounding them, rather than those of majority of Haitians. The new email tranche shows how quickly the construction of low-wage garment factories and prioritizing exports to the U.S. market came to the center of the U.S.-led response in Haiti.”
“Little more than two weeks after the disaster, Mills...forwarded the secretary a New York Times op-ed...rebranding the pre-quake strategy as a form of post-quake reconstruction.”
Her Haitian recovery legacy is perhaps best summarized by Law Street Media's Emily Dalgo: “Hillary Clinton’s efforts in Haiti have fueled political corruption, destroyed arable farmland, and have forced hundreds of families to leave their homes and their jobs to make room for a factory that has not given even a fraction of the amount to Haiti as it has taken.”
A Haitian Vacation.
Another telling feature of Clinton’s Haitian legacy is told by this line in the previously cited Politico piece: “The Clintons have also had a hand in nearly all the new luxury hotel projects that have sprung up around the Haitian capital.”
”For instance, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund invested more than $2 million in the Royal Oasis hotel, where a sleek suite with hardwood floors costs more than $200 a night and the shops sell $150 designer purses and $120 men’s dress shirts.”
Another example [via cited Washington Post]: “A 2011 housing expo that cost more than $2 million, including $500,000 from the Clinton Foundation, was supposed to be a model for thousands of new units but instead has resulted in little more than a few dozen abandoned model homes occupied by squatters.”
”Bill Clinton also introduced Marriott officials to Denis O’Brien, an Irish telecom billionaire who has contributed millions to the Clinton Foundation. The result is a $45 million Marriott hotel...”
”The ultra-modern hotel is adjacent to the headquarters of Digicel, a communications giant owned by O’Brien. When The Post visited recently, many, if not most, guests seemed to be foreign businessmen connected to Digicel.”
[Cited Politico article]
“Denis O’Brien, the billionaire owner of the major cellphone provider Digicel and principal investor in the swank $45 million Marriott that just opened in Port-au-Prince, said Bill Clinton conceived the project.”
Coincidentally, O’Brien & Digicel are also major donors to the Clinton Foundation. As Haitian politician & minister Leslie Voltaire put it: “I don’t want to use names, but I have seen bad businessmen around Mr. Clinton badmouthing the good businessmen and then the good businessmen, seeing that, come into the Clinton Foundation. It’s life, it’s like that...”
There are also, legitimately or illegitimately, concerns about a Haitian gold mine.
Elections have consequences...
Despite having just endured an earthquake and Cholera outbreak, Haitian elections were held in late 2010. Immediately, the election lost any credibility when, as released cables from Wikileaks highlight [via Haïti Liberté], the electoral council “...had unwisely and unjustly excluded the country’s largest party, the Lavalas Family...” (the party of Aristide). Additional issues, as a report from CEPR states, “...found many more tally sheets that had irregularities in the vote totals that were sufficient to disqualify them, and a large number of clerical errors that further undermines the credibility of the vote count.” As the report states, ~71.5% were “no vote” and that “If there is a second round, it will be based on arbitrary assumptions and/or exclusions.”
...and “arbitrary assumptions and/or exclusions.”
That’s the other part of Clinton’s Haitian legacy: [quoting CEPR] “...how U.S. officials worked closely with the Haitian private sector as they forced Haitian authorities to change the results of the first round presidential elections in late 2010.”
”Preliminary results from the deeply flawed 2010 presidential and legislative elections were announced on December 7, 2010, showing René Préval’s hand-picked successor Jude Célestin and university professor Mirlande Manigat advancing to a second-round runoff.”
An important piece of Haitian political information:
Jude Célestin was the center-left candidate. René Préval split from the Lavalas Family years back.
Mirlande Manigat was the right-wing nationalist candidate. Her husband, Leslie Manigat, served under the military junta and was crushed when he ran in a democratic election.
Michel Martelly was the centrist business candidate. He is also a popular Haitian musician.
That’s when [previous CEPR citation] “U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten wrote to Cheryl Mills, Tom Adams and Daniel Restrepo, all key State Department Haiti staff” that “...Reginald Boulos, one of the largest industrialists in Haiti and a member of the Private Sector Economic Forum...” would support René Préval staying until February. At the same time Merten was in-contact with Michel Martelly’s campaign. The Haitian government then requests Organization of American States (OAS) aid, who recommended replacing Jude Célestin with Michel Martelly. According to Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive: [via CEPR citation] “We tried to resist and did, until the visit of Hillary Clinton. That was when Préval understood he had no way out and accepted” As Boulos is quoted as saying: [via CEPR citation] “Everyone in the diplomatic circles and among the Haitian political leaders will confirm the role played by the Private Sector Economic Forum over the past 6 months.” It should be noted that this same Boulos supported the 2004 coup and lobbied the (Bush) State Department for more ammunition, which was granted, according to Wikileaks [via CEPR citation].
Consequences indeed
As the previously cited Politico article mentions: “At his inauguration, Martelly pledged his country would at last be ‘open for business.’”
As Wikileaks released: [via The Nation]
”The US Embassy aided Levi’s, Hanes contractors in their fight against an increase in Haiti’s minimum wage.”
”...the proposal engendered fierce opposition from Haiti’s tiny assembly zone elite, which Washington had long been supporting with direct financial aid and free trade deals.”
“...factory owners… had the vigorous backing of the US Agency for International Development and the US Embassy when they took that stand.”
“A deputy chief of mission, David E. Lindwall, said the $5 per day minimum ‘did not take economic reality into account’ but was a populist measure aimed at appealing to “the unemployed and underpaid masses.”
Summation
If you have the time, there’s a project on Haiti from the Pulitzer Center, including an approximately hour-long video.
This is Sec. Clinton’s legacy, her “crown-jewel”. A country whose heart was sucked out to satiate the vampire squids; Vampire squids whose tentacles wrap all around Clinton. Sound familiar?
(Don’t worry though, she has changed, at least when running for president)
Abraham Lincoln: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."