Researched by Leora Johnson and Rob Hunter
The US government plans to expropriate and demolish the homes of hundreds of Haitians in the giant shantytown of Cite Soleil to make room for expansion of a military base. The infamous US government contractor DynCorp, a quasi-official arm of the Pentagon and the CIA, is responsible for expanding the base which houses the soldiers of the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) in the most bullet-ridden battleground of the foreign military occupation that began after US Special Forces kidnapped and exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004. Citizens have since been victimized by recurring massacres at the hands of MINUSTAH. According to Cite Soleil mayor Charles Joseph and a DynCorp foreman at the site, funding for the base expansion is provided by the State Department’s US Agency for International Development (USAID)— a very unorthodox use of development aid. Washington’s strategists furthermore covet the prime real estate on which Cite Soleil sits. The quadrant has a port, is close to the airport, sits on the main road to the north, and is ringed by factories and the old Haitian American Sugar Company complex.
“UN Military Base Expanding: What is Washington up to in Cité Soleil?” Kim Ives,
Haiti Liberté, 9/04/2008
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2008/9/3/un-military-base-expanding-what-is-washington-up-to-in-cit-soleil