An interview with Marc-Arthur Fils-Aimé de Haitian Plaidoyer Platform for Alternative Development (PAPDA) from Haiti.

Ivan: ¿Can you give me a general overview of the situation in Haiti?

Marc-Arthur: We are living in very violent times; we are passing through the phenomenon of kidnappings and we have not experienced that before. I see two roots to this violence: the social root that accompanies misery and the political root which is the strongest one. The political parties take advantage of this violent situation to justify their defeat and to blame the bad preparation of the elections managed by the International Community.

MINUSTAH, whose objective is to bring about peace, does not actually respect its mission. Haiti has never been as violent as it is now. The goverment has also failed because it is totally dependant on the USA and on foreign capital.

There is a lack of revolutionary alternatives. The Left is very weak and there are no revolutionary movements.

Elections are not going to solve any problems beacuse all the candidates are pro neoliberalism and pro imperialism.

There is a fertile crossroads for drug dealers. The drug trade is very strong and is based in poor barrios. It also has the support of members of the government as happened in previous goverments.

Roughly, this is what is happening.

Ivan: ¿What is expected in the elections?

Marc-Arthur: Febrary 7th is a date imposed by the international comunity and it does not take into account that there is not enough preparation. In January 2006, there was a meeting in the UN Council where the elections date was decided.

Ivan: ¿Was not Haitian society consulted about this?

Marc-Arthur: Not even the political parties were consulted.

Ivan: ¿How has electoral participation been in Haiti in the past?

Marc-Arthur: Aristide's election in 1990 was massive but the last one was very weak. I do not know what is going to happen in February but I think the participation percentage will not be very high. People do not trust either the political parties or the Electoral Council. The OAS and MINUSTAH control everything.

There was great disappointment with Aristide; all hopes were deposited in Aristide. Now, political parties do not have clear programmes. There are lots of slogans like “Let us stop violence” but there are no programmes to support these proposals.

Ivan: ¿What are the proposals made by social organizations to solve or begin to solve Haitian problems?

Marc-Arthur: We have to work for peace with popular organizations. When I say popular, I mean a popular alternative vision. We work with organizations that have alternative visions.

Many times, organizations in Haiti are hit hard. The work was mainly underground during Duvalier's government. When the coup d'etat happened, there was a lot of repression of political leaders. One of the US's strategies to dismantle the struggle was to give visas to those political leaders and their families so that they would leave the country.

Many people used to think that Aristide represented an alternative. However, the hope is still there; the problem is to stop the isolation of organized groups. In this way we can build a strong movement.

Translation by Juan Diego Díaz and Amanda Procter