Occupation

Here is a picture of US Marines boarding the U.S.C Connecticut july 1915 as they are heading to Haiti

In the beginning, following the assassination of Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, a Pro-U.S Haitian President, the U.S President Woodrow Wilson sent a first team of U.S Marines into Haiti on July 28, 1915. They were sent to restore order and maintain political and economic stability in the country. However, in the wake of the First World War, the President Wilson at the same time also wanted to establish U.S dominance in the region by keeping the German settlers away from Haiti. Because, the peasant guerrillas (cocos) from the northern Haiti were heavily burdened with German loans and they wanted the Germans to invade and restore order in the country.

Thus the 19- year U.S. occupation in Haiti began with the landing of 3,000 Marines at Port-au-Prince under the leadership of Admiral William B. Caperton and that continued until 1935. However, prior to that in December 1914, in the fear of foreign intervention, Wilson administration sent U.S. Marines to Haiti who removed $500,000 from the Haitian National Bank for safe keeping in New York.

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For the past 10 years, with their occupancy in Haiti since 2004, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has maintained a reign of terror. An Intergovernmental body created for promoting human rights and maintaining peace sounds more like tyrannical to Haitians. The troop first arrived in June 2004, just one month after Aristide's kidnapping. One of its first act was to support the illegal administration that followed the coup. Haitians are never satisfied with the MINUSTAH. There are many reasons for their dislike. Some of which include: (1) MINUSTAH people continually harass and humiliate Haitians; (2) They enjoy immunity from prosecution; (3) They often sabotage democracy and electoral processes for own interest; (4) Interferes in Haiti's political affairs; (5) They were ineffective, cowardice and hardly cooperative during the earthquake emergencies; (6) Carriers of many contagious diseases; (7) The presence of UN troop on Haitian soil is illegal.

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