Brazilian Military’s Experience Comes Full Circle in Haiti
By
Kevin Pina
Originally published by HaitiAction.net
“Institutional
memory is a collective of facts, concepts, experiences and know-how
held by a group of people. As it transcends the individual, it
requires the ongoing transmission of these memories between members
of this group.” - Wikipedia.com
US
Marines, Canadian Special Forces and troops of the French Foreign
Legion were authorized by the UN Security Council to 'stabilize'
Haiti following the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide on
February 29, 2004. In June 2004, the United Nations sent the
militaries of Brazil, Argentina and Chile to take control of Haiti
with the objective of creating conditions for new elections. The
Brazilian armed forces were given overall control of the military
component of the UN operation.
On
February 19, 2008, Brazilian military forces stormed the neighborhood
of Village de Dieu on the outskirts of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Their troops entered with weapons drawn and began a massive sweep
with UN police in tow that ended with the arrest of dozens of young
men in the area. Residents claim this military incursion was executed
without a single warrant being presented from Haiti’s courts or
just cause. Residents of poor communities throughout Haiti say that
terrifying raids led by Brazilian forces have been common occurrences
since they arrived in 2004. For the families of those arrested and
left traumatized by these incursions, it raises serious questions
about the role Brazilian forces have played in Haiti.
For
an answer we have to look at the reporting of Pedro Dantas of the
Brazilian daily Estadão de Hoje. Dantes wrote, "Army
sources confirmed that techniques employed in the occupation of the
Morro da Providéncia favela [slum] are the ones Brazilian
soldiers use in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti."
1 Raúl Zibechi, a member of the editorial board of
Montevideo's weekly Brecha, would later conclude, “This admission
by Brazilian armed forces largely explains the interest of Lula da
Silva's government in keeping that country's troops on the Caribbean
island: to test, in the poor neighborhoods of Haiti's capital,
Port-au-Prince, containment strategies designed for application in
the slums of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and other large
cities.” 2 Zibechi’s article does not fully explain, however,
that the process began with the Brazilian military applying brutal
tactics from their own historical experiences in the slums of Haiti
upon their arrival in 2004.
"...terrifying raids led by Brazilian forces have been common occurrences
since they arrived in 2004"
The
learning curve of the Brazilian military for controlling poor urban
populations was only accelerated by their experiences in Haiti. The
military and police apparatus in Brazil already had a long history of
using violence and terror towards solving 
the complex social
challenges of the slums, known as favelas, in their own country.
According to Brazilian anthropologist Alba Zaluar in April 2004,
"Their approach is one of relentless confrontation with the poor
communities. This military posture dates back to Brazil's
dictatorship and will never win the loyalty of the favela against its
own kind." 3 To fully understand the importance of this
statement it is necessary to briefly touch upon the historical role
of Brazil‘s military and police forces.
The
1964 military coup in Brazil, against the government of João
Goulart, ushered in an unprecedented period of slaughter and torture
committed by the Brazilian military and police. Not unlike the coup
that ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti in 2004, it enjoyed the
backing of the U.S. government. According to declassified documents,
President Lyndon Johnson was being briefed by phone at his Texas
ranch, as the Brazilian military mobilized against Goulart. Johnson
stated, "I'd put everybody that had any imagination or
ingenuity...[CIA Director John] McCone...[Secretary of Defense
Robert] McNamara" on making sure the coup went forward.” 4
Following
the coup, Brazil’s military and police helped to export torture
techniques used against political dissidents. In their groundbreaking
book, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, Noam Chomsky
and Edward S. Herman write, “From Brazil, and with continuing U.S.
assistance, torture spread throughout much of Latin America in the
1960's and early 1970's, with Brazil serving as a torture-aid
subcontractor.” 5
It
is for this reason the Brazilian military shares the dubious
distinction of being one of the western hemisphere’s greatest human
rights violators in modern history. Perhaps it is no accident they
share this distinction with their counterparts appointed by the
United Nations to oversee military operations in Haiti, namely the
militaries of Argentina and Chile.
It
is exactly this history of repression and ‘military posture’ Alba
Zaluar was referring to when she addressed military and police
tactics for controlling the poor in the favelas of contemporary
Brazil. It is this same approach of ‘relentless confrontation with
the poor communities’ Zaluar described that have also come to
define Brazilian military tactics in Haiti.
In
early December 2005, Amnesty International (AI) would accuse
Brazilian security forces of human rights violations in the favelas.
The report called Brazil: 'They come in Shooting': Policing socially
excluded communities pointed to the following as an example, "The
violence was highlighted by an incident in March [2005], in which 29
people were shot dead by a "death squad" -- believed to
consist of members of Rio de Janeiro's military police force -- in
the Baixada Fluminense District of the city; it was the worst
massacre in the city's history, but not a new or isolated
phenomenon." 6
The
AI report went further and described police tactics that closely
resembled the practices of the Haitian National Police and the
Brazilian troops sent to support them following Aristide’s ouster.
The report continued, “Yet, when the police do intervene, it is
often by mounting "invasions" – violent mass raids using
no warrants or, on rare occasions, collective warrants that label the
entire community as criminal. Human rights violations and corruption
on the part of the police are rife in the favelas. The majority of
the victims of police violence are poor, black or mixed race youths
and the experience of many favela residents is that the police are
corrupt, brutal and to be feared.” Although the residents of poor
communities like Bel Air, Cite Soleil and Village de Dieu are
exclusively black, what remains is an apt description of what
transpired in Haiti between 2004-2006. The Haitian police would mount
brutal raids inside the poor communities still demonstrating for
Aristide while the Brazilian military would encircle them with a
dragnet resulting in arbitrary searches and mass extra-judicial
detentions. 7
On
July 6, 2005, less than two months after Zaluar gave her interview to
the Guardian and four months after the massacre in Baixada
Fluminense, the Brazilian military would authorize and lead a deadly
military assault against the Haitian slum of Cite Soleil. Not so
coincidentally, the neighborhood served as launching site for massive
demonstrations demanding the return of ousted president Aristide and
yet another was being planned for his upcoming birthday celebration
nine days later on July 15.
According
to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the UN
attack on the crumbling civilian neighborhood was intense, prolonged,
and carried out with heavy artillery and weaponry that Brazilian
military officials knew would cause extensive collateral damage and
the death of innocent victims. Residents and human rights groups
accused the Brazilians of leading a massacre by UN forces that
resulted in the deaths of at least 26 unarmed people with scores more
wounded. 8 According to a UN ‘After Action’ report, “[The]
firefight lasted over seven hours during which time [UN] forces
expended over 22,000 rounds of ammunition... [An official] with
MINUSTAH acknowledged that, given the flimsy construction of homes in
Cite Soleil and the large quantity of ammunition expended, it is
likely that rounds penetrated many buildings, striking unintended
targets." 9
The
‘unintended’ targets included an unarmed woman and her two young
boys shot at point blank range by UN forces. Fredi Romelus gave video
testimony describing how UN forces threw a smoke bomb into his house
forcing him to flee. 10 Thinking his wife and children were following
him out, he turned back to see soldiers with blue helmets fire into
the doorway of his house with automatic weapons. After the soldiers
left he returned to find his wife Sonia lying dead in a pool of blood
clutching the corpse of their one year-old son Nelson Romelus. Their
four year-old son Stanley lie nearby having been felled by a single
high-powered gunshot wound to the head. 11
“Hundreds, possibly
thousands of people are shot by police every year in Brazil.”
Five
months after the Brazilian led assault on Cite Soleil, an
investigation by the BBC would conclude, “Hundreds, possibly
thousands of people are shot by police every year in Brazil.” 12 In
November 2006 the BBC would also give a description of a favela known
as Heliopolis in Sao Paulo that uncannily mirrored press descriptions
of Cite Soleil. The BBC would report, “Controlled by
drug-traffickers and scarred by gun crime, it remains a no-go area
for most of this city's residents.” 13 Earlier that same year a
reporter for The Dallas Morning News would describe Cite Soleil as “a
no-go zone even for police, and young men armed with automatic rifles
zip around its avenues and back streets in stolen SUVs.” 14
Despite
the comparison these two press reports may invite, the situation in
these two countries couldn’t have been more different. The greatest
similarity between the favelas in Brazil and what has transpired in
the slums of Haiti’s capital since February 2004 has been the
brutal tactics and shoot first policies employed by Brazilian
security forces. Perhaps another similarity is that like Brazilian
authorities, the UN did not hesitate in allowing the Brazilian
military to green light a military solution by playing the age-old
game of demonizing entire communities as criminal or supporters of
criminal elements. 15 While the press widely covered complaints made
by the UN and Haiti's Chamber of Commerce of bandits, gangsters and
drug dealers controlling Cite Soleil, next to nothing was mentioned
of the frequent demonstrations mounted for Aristide’s return. Even
less was mentioned of the police opening fire on thousands of unarmed
demonstrators. What the UN ultimately portrayed as criminal
activities in the Haitian slums was in reality widespread political
resistance that had formed to the ousting of Aristide.
A
second military assault led by the Brazilians would be launched
against Cite Soleil on December 22, 2006. An initial tally of the
carnage following the raid was taken by the rights organization
Bureau des Avocats Internationaux. In it they listed 29 people killed
and 33 wounded by UN forces that day. 16 The victims included 24
year-old Lelene Mertina who was six months pregnant when a UN bullet
ripped through her abdomen instantly killing her unborn fetus. There
was also the testimony of a 16 year-old boy named Jonel Bonhomme who
was shot in the back. As he lay dying he described in detail how the
UN opened fire on unarmed civilians on his block. All told, video and
photographic documentation as well as eyewitness testimony painted a
picture all too similar to the events of July 6, 2005. 17
The
UN now stands accused by residents of Cite Soleil of having committed
two massacres in their community under the leadership of Brazilian
military forces in Haiti. To those familiar with the history of the
Brazilian military this may come as no surprise. What is surprising
is the degree to which critical thinkers have been influenced by a
Brazilian military now being recast as UN ‘peacekeepers’ in
Haiti. It may serve as good public relations but provides no comfort
for residents of poor communities in Haiti who continue to be
terrorized by military raids. For them there is little doubt the
Brazilian military relies upon the same impulses that earned it a
reputation for brutality and human rights abuses in its own country.
And while there can be no doubt that the experiences of the Brazilian
military in Haitian slums have informed their operations in the
favelas, their penchant for relying upon brute strength and superior
firepower, to solve social problems, was formed long before they came
to Haiti.
Kevin
Pina is the founding editor of the Haiti Information Project (HIP)
The
Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news
service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in
Haiti, and winner of the CENSORED 2008 REAL NEWS AWARD for Outstanding
Investigative Journalism
©2008
Haiti Information Project - All Rights Reserved
Notes
1.
Pedro Dantas, (Estadão de Hoje -São Paulo) "Exército
admite uso de tática do Haiti em favela do Rio,", 15 Dec.
2007. http://www.estado.com.br
2.
Raúl Zibechi, (Programa de las Américas) “La
militarización de las periferias urbanas”, 21 de enero de
2008. http://www.ircamericas.org/esp/4906 www.estado.com.br
Dantes
original quote cited by Zibechi was:
3.
Gareth Chetwynd, The Guardian, “Deadly setback for a model favela”,
Saturday April 17 2004.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/apr/17/brazil.garethchetwynd
4.
The National Security Archive, “BRAZIL MARKS 40th ANNIVERSARY OF
MILITARY COUP - DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS SHED LIGHT ON U.S. ROLE”,
March
31 2004. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB118/index.htm
5.
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, “The Washington Connection and
Third World Fascism”, South End Press 1979. See page pg. 48.
6.
Amnesty International, "They come in shooting": Policing
socially excluded communities”, AI Index: AMR 19/025/2005 2
December 2005
Note:
Recent versions of this report have been reduced to a Facts and
Figures page. The full report can still be found at:
http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR190252005?open&of=ENG-BRA
7.
Haiti Information Project, “Haiti’s police ratchet up violence,
dismiss human rights concerns”, June 6, 2005.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/6_6_5.html
8.
Seth Donnelly interviewed by Amy Goodman, “Eyewitnesses Describe
Massacre by UN Troops in Haiti”, July 12, 2005.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=8286
9.
Keith Yearman, Assistant Professor of Geography, College of DuPage,
“The
Cite Soleil Massacre Declassification Project”.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=8286
http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/yearman/cite_soleil.htm
10.
Shirley Pate, (HCV Analysis), “Video Evidence Released of UN
Massacre in Haiti”, January 25, 2008
11.
Haiti Information Project, “Evidence mounts of a UN massacre in
Haiti”, July 12, 2005.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/7_12_5.html
12.
Angus Stickler, BBC News, “Brazilian police 'execute thousands'”,
November 23, 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4463010.stm
13.
Steve Kingstone, BBC News, “Brazil police in 'shoot-to-kill'
claims”, November 17, 2006.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6157778.stm
14.
Reed Lindsay, The Dallas Morning News, “Shattered Haiti awaits
election”, February 5, 2006.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-haitielex_05int.ART.State.Edition1.3ec1788.html
15.
Haiti Information Project, “UN accommodates human rights abuses by
police in Haiti”, May 8, 2005.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/5_8_5/5_8_5.html
16.
Haiti Information Project, “The UNspoken truth about gangs in
Haiti”, February 15, 2007.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/2_15_7/2_15_7.html
17.
Haiti Information Project, “UN in Haiti accused of second
massacre”, January 21, 2007.
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_21_7/1_21_7.html
In this week’s segment, we discuss the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe in World War II, and the disinformation that centers on the U.S.'s role and dismisses the pivotal Soviet role in that…
Roger McKenzie is the international editor of the UK-based Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world. He joins us from Oxford to discuss his new book, “The…
The late Bruce Dixon was a co-founder and managing editor of Black Agenda Report. In 2018, he provided this commentary entitled, "US Fake History of World War II Underlies Permanent Bipartisan…
Nadiah Alyafai is a member of the US Palestinian Community Network chapter in Chicago and she joins us to discuss why the public must be aware of the Nakba and the continuity of Palestinian…
Black people who are among the rich and famous garner praise and love, and so do those who are in distress. But concerns for the masses of people and their struggles are often missing.
