HAITE COUP DETAT CONTINUES (PORT-AU-PRINCE, 2 December) US lawyer Deborah Jackson condemned "the total inadequacy of the [Haitian and US] authorities in inquiring into the accusations of murders, torture and arrest" committed since the coup d'etat. Jackson was participating in a fact-finding mission by three North American lawyers, members of the 'Haiti Commission.' Many Haitians complained of the American troops' protection of the Haitian military and paramilitary. "It's not because of a lack of information that the government doesn't act" lawyer Michael Ratner told journalists. "In several villages peopl told me, This is where such a such a member of FRAPH lives. When we want to drag this person out of his house, when we want to follow him, there are two American soldiers stationed in front of the house, protecting these individuals"." While it is true that one FRAPH leader was brought before a judge in early December, in most cases, all public protest can do is to oblige the authorities to transfer soldiers implicated by the people to another town or 'recycle' them into the new police force. On 1 December the delegation visited the Petit-Goave prison. Four peasants had been imprisoned there on 4 November by Haitian and American soldiers after they participated in a demonstration against a big land owner who had stolen their land. According to former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark "the coup d'etat is still going on in the streets, in the places where the populace lives". Despite Aristide's return, the very people who have killed and who have been giving orders since 30 September 1991 are still there. They are overpowering in number and occupy the same positions as before. They can be seen strolling down the streets every day searching houses and carrying out arrests. The lawyers' delegation supported popular calls for the abolition of the Haitian army, the creation of an independent "Verite" (Truth") commission, and of tribunals set up by the population itself. In an subsequent interview with the bulletin 'Haiti Info' Ramsey Clark stressed that the coming months would be crucial for the Haitian people, since further opportunities to get rid of the army and the 'tontons macoutes' will surely present themselves. Clark also urged progressive movements in the USA to increase their solidarity with Haitian associations. * Ramsey Clark is a former US Attorney General. Michael Ratner defends Haitians from the diaspora, notably refugees interned at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Deborah Jackson is a member of the American Lawyers Association. *
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International Viewpoint #263 February 1995
BE URUGUAY -November 1994 elections Left breaks two party system! The November 27 elections did not produce the hoped-for victory of the left wing Frente Amplio. But the neo-liberal 'Blancos' of the ruling National Party were defeated, and the left wing vote increased 50% compared to the last election in 1989. Parliament is now split evenly between the Blancos, the Frente Amplio, and the governing Colorado Party. The implications are far reaching, in a system designed for the alternance of two pro-capitalist parties. As our Montevideo correspondent Gustavo Vasquez predicts, the bourgoisie will certainly try to split Frente Amplio, and draw the most moderate elements into government, to share responsibility for neo-liberal economic policies.
THE COLORADO Party started the campaign with a 10-12 point lead. Their final score was only 27,000 votes higher than the National Party and 31,000 higher than the Frente Amplio. Either of the other parties could have won the elections had a minor political event modified the vote of a few thousand voters.
Colorado presidential candidate Julio M Sanguinetti owes his victory to Uruguay's electoral law, which allowed each party to put forward several candidates for the presidency and to accumulate the votes received.
President in the last Colorado government of 1984-89, Sanguinetti started his campaign on a Social Democrat ticket, choosing former Frente Amplio member Dr Batallal as his vicepresidential candidate. But faced with an electoral swing away from his party, Sanguinetti reached out to right wing voters. He chose a televised debate with the Frente Amplio candidate Tabare Vazquez to launch a virulent anticommunist campaign. Nevertheless, Sanguinetti was careful to distance himself from neo-liberal positions, and avoided the most paintul right wing proposals for Uruguayan society: privatisation, social security reform and economic liberalisation. Of course, his government will have to resolve these key issues. And while it is not strictly neo-liberal, the new Colorado government will do the same as the last one, and implement the "inevitable" neo-liberal economic measures. This is all the more true now that the country is integrating into the common market of the southernmost Latin American states (Mercosur). The winning candidate might want to take protectionist measures in favour of those industrial concerns which supported his campaign, but he will be obliged to introduce neoliberal reforms.
The Defeat of the 'Blancos'.
The National Party's share of the vote was only 31%, down from 38% in 1989 The most neo-liberal sector of the political elite, that which has undertaken neoliberal structural reform in the past, was beaten. Despite their promises to create 'a country of services,' and their record of reducing inflation from 120% to 40%, and balancing the state finances, the Blancos needed to combine the vote of three presidential candidates to gain even one third of the national vote.
The Blancos' privatisation offensive, frontal attack on social security, and apparent disinterest in the social and economic future of the country clashed with the Uruguayan people's attachment to the state as benefactor. So strong is this social identity that some government supporters even turned towards the Frente Amplio alliance (which proposed a former leader of the National Party as Vazquez's candidate for the vice-presidency. A Spectacular Vote.
One of the most remarkable facts of these elections has been the vigorous rise of the left. In 1989, Frente Amplio received 21.8% of the votes at a national level and 36% in Montevideo. In 1994 the Frentedominated Progressive Assembly' list obtained 29.8% of the national vote, and 43% in Montevideo! The left clearly gained votes in all sections of society, notably from new electors disillusioned with the other parties. The most striking progress was made in the interior of the country, the historic bastion of the traditional parties.
A narrow majority at the Frente Amplio pre-election congress adopted a pragmatic policy of 'political realism' and
"the culture of government.' This led to the formation of the Progressive Assembly, an alliance under a most moderate programme, dominated by the Frente Amplio, but including the ChristianDemocratic Party and a dissident vicepresidential candidate from the National Party. The congress also pledged to guarantee a governable system, whatever government was elected
This adaptation was founded on the ideas of the CEPAL, the idea of a 'fair share' of economic growth. Basic reforms disappeared from this scenario: agricultural reform, the nationalisation of the banks and refusal to pay the foreign debt. Under these new principles, anti-imperialism no longer has a raison d'etre, and there is no oligarchy of power in our country. Frente still distrusted by elite
As it turned out, this strategy did not protect the Frente from the realities of the electoral campaign.
Whatever the 'respectability' certain Frente leaders tried to portray, Uruguay's dominant classes were not inspired by the Frente's history, political positions, in short its identity (even hidden behind the *Progressive Assembly'). As a leaked videotape revealed, Minister of the Interior Gianola reassured a meeting of military leaders and Blanco and Colorado deputies that "the future of the country will be decided between the Whites and the Colorados." The rules of the game have their limits, no one should think otherwise. The left is perhaps tolerated up to a certain point but they are not welcome in this system.
Even if the electoral campaign was not marked by significant social conflicts, severe political confrontations resulted in the Frente reaffirming its earlier strategy -contrasting two opposing plans for the
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International Viewpoint #263 February 1995
country: a conservative plan personified by the National and Colorado Parties and a