Haiti Democracy Project: Supporting Coup Plotters since 2002

For a brief introduction, for those not very familiar with the cast of characters running the "Haiti Democracy Project" and it's Haitian bourgeois supporters, you might want to look at the following, albeit very incomplete list, of quotes regarding the outfit. The Haiti Democracy Project is the main lobbyist organization representing the Haitain elite in Washington, DC.

"Shame and Scandal" by the Jamaican Journalist John Maxwell (The Jamaica Observer March 12, 2006) )

Quote: "Official and unofficial organs of the US government, including USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Haiti Democracy Project, financed and organized anti-Aristide groups and political action committees made up of some who were legitimate opponents of Aristide and his movement, but also of left-over Duvalierists and easily bribed rabble rousers in all sectors of the society."

"The Struggle for Haiti An Interview with Hyppolite Pierre" by Cali Ruchala (SOBAKA February 21, 2004 )

Quote: "[Question]Sobaka: One of the strange things I've noticed is that Haiti, for being such a poor country, appears to have a lot of "friends," in the US, and they all seem to be extremely partisan one way or another. What do you think of the Haiti Democracy Project? [Answer] Hyppolite Pierre: That's about as bad as it gets as far as I'm concerned."

The Haiti Democracy Project's ties to discredited "players" in Haitian politics are mentioned in "Ron Daniels and the Haiti Support Project at it Again" by Haitian activist Marguerite Laurent ('Haïti Progrés' Vol. 22 No. 52 March 9, 2005 )

Quote: "NCHR - a human rights organization with strong ties to USAID, the U.S. Embassy, the right wing Haiti Democracy Project and the opposition to President Aristide and the Lavalas party- has accused Sò Anne of "some connection" to the December 5th violent incidents at the University. However, these innuendoes are not supported by NCHR by any facts as of yet, nor does it have the authority to press its witch-hunt campaign against Lavalas supporters."

Cooperative Research "Profile: Haiti Democracy Project" ( [Accessed on April 15, 2006]>

Quote: "November 19, 2002 - The Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) is formally established. At its official launching, which takes place at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., speakers warn that the current “crisis” in democracy in Haiti is worsening at an ever increasing pace. “....US ambassador to the OAS, Roger Noriega also speaks at the ceremony. At one point, Noriega says, referring to the contested 2000 Haitian elections (see May 21, 2000), “We have to get them [The Haitian people] that opportunity as they will not participate in a farce.” [Haiti Democracy Project, 12/20/2004]

Attending the event are some questionable figures including Stanley Lucas and Olivier Nadal. Lucas is said to be the point man in Haiti for the USAID-financed International Republican Institute, which is providing training and funds to anti-Aristide Haitian rebels in the Dominican Republic (see (2001-2004)). Nadal is a Miami-based Haitian businessman and the former president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. [Haiti Democracy Project, 12/20/2004] Nadal is implicated in a peasant massacre that occurred in the Haitian town of Piatre. In 1990, a group of peasants were killed by Nadal’s security after they squatted on unused land that he owned. [National Coalition for Haitian Rights, 5/24/2004; Haiti Progres, 8/21/1999] The prominent businessman Antoine Izmery said shortly before he was murdered that Nadal had been one of the financiers of the 1991 coup d’etat (see October 31, 1991-October 15, 1994) that ousted Aristide from office. And in 1994, the United States government froze Nadal’s assets because of his suspected involvement in the coup. [Haiti Progres, 8/21/1999]

The Haiti Democracy Project is funded by the wealthy, right-wing Haitian Boulos family, which owns several companies including Pharval Pharmaceuticals, the USAID-funded Radio Vision 2000, the Delimart supermarket, and Le Matin. In February 2002, Rudolph Boulos was under investigation for his possible involvement in the assassination of Haitian journalist Jean Dominique who had been very critical of Pharval after contamination of the company’s “Afrebril and Valodon” syrups with diethyl alcohol had resulted in the deaths of 60 children. [Haiti Democracy Project, 12/20/2004; Knight Ridder, 4/11/2004; Haiti Weekly News, 3/28/2002; Haiti Progres, 8/21/1999] "

Anthony Fenton in an interview "U.S. Gvt. Channels Millions Through National Endowment for Democracy to Fund Anti-Lavalas Groups in Haiti". ('Democracy Now!' January 23, 2006 )

Quote:"Ambassador Carney is the current interim ambassador to Haiti, and he was also a member of the lobby – the think tank in Washington called the Haiti Democracy Project that played an integral role in fomenting this demonization campaign against Aristide."

Antjhony Fenton in a letter to 'USA Today': "Haiti: "Democracy Project" working for the Elite in Washington DC." (San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center February 24, 2006 )

Quote: "Another former Haiti Democracy Project board member, Ira Lowenthal, has been in Haiti since 2004, working for USAID and UNOPS, an obscure UN agency that has been helping the IRI, NED, and others, to meddle in Haiti's political affairs."

"Haiti Democracy Project, Not So Democratic" by Jeb Sprague (The NarcoSphere May 4, 2005 )

Quote: "The HDP [Haiti Democracy Project] has clear links and friendships with the Latortue government, the Groups of 184, and the opposition to Aristide."

Tom Reeves replying to a letter to the editor of 'Dollars and Sense' (Issue #252, March/April 2004 )

Quote: "I stand by my statement that HDP [Haiti Democracy Project] is responsible for shaping the public image of the so-called "Coalition of 184 Institutions" in the United States, and that this group is little more than a list of well-known pro-elite and pro-business apologists in Haiti, most of whom have virtually no public following. Every public event or press release about the 184 in the United States, and many in Haiti, have been sponsored or orchestrated by HDP. A search of the HDP website shows 143 supportive and often fawning references to the 184. Dr. Rudolph Boulos and his family have funded HDP, and are known for their ties to Duvalierists and other right-wing elements in Haiti and in the United States—a fact publicized in Haitian media across the political spectrum. Boulos has received substantial USAID funding—as have many of the 184 groups, prominently CLED (the Center for Free Enterprise and Democracy), a right-wing pro-free market group....Very much like his HDP patron, the Brookings Institution, HDP and Morell like to portray themselves as "liberal," attempting to co-opt any genuinely progressive approach to U.S. policy on Haiti. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Marc Mohan in "The case foe Aristide", a critique of Nicolas Rossier's documentary "Aristide and the Endless Revolution" in the 'The Oregonian' ( January 13, 2006 )

Quote: "Re-elected in 2000, Aristide ran afoul of such groups as the Haiti Democracy Project, backed by American business interests, and, allegedly, the CIA."

Kevin Pina interviewed by Denis Bernstein on 'Flashpoints Radio' "Right-wing thugs revel in Bush's Victory" (Transcript on ZNet November 09, 2004 )

Quote: "[The group 184's] public relations arm is in Washington, D.C., something called the Haiti Democracy Project, which is funded by a right-wing man named Reginald Boulos [of] the Boulos family, which is very intimately involved in Cite Soleil. Both Andy Apaid and Reginald Boulos have pumped tremendous amounts of money into Cite Soleil to actually buy gangs to turn against Lavalas to then battle the pro-Lavalas gangs so that the press can sit back and say 'well, our fair and balanced reporting is to say that inter-gang violence between those who used to support Aristide and those who no longer support him,' without reporting [about] the money that's being dumped into Cite Soleil by Boulos and by Apaid who, obviously, are two of the main backers of the coup against Aristide that overthrew [him] February 29th, before he was taken out by force by U.S. Marines."

"Left, Right, Left, Right: Running off With Haiti's Democracy" by Canadian journalist Anthony Fenton (ZNet February 15, 2006 )

Quote: "Haiti Democracy Project [is] an anti-Aristide lobby group and think tank, and the foreign public relations arm of the Group of 184 and Democratic Convergence opposition bloc" "We should also recall that another Haiti Democracy Project Board member, Timothy Carney, also resigned in order to take over as interim Ambassador to Haiti. Carney has long been a fierce defender of the IRI's activities in Haiti and an ally of Haiti's elite."

"The Bush Administrations Endgame for Haiti" by Kevin Pina. ('The Black Commentator' December 4, 2003 Issue 67 )

Quote: "Let’s start from the beginning with a Washington D.C. based organization called the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) that has fashioned itself into the arbiter of Bush administration policy towards Haiti."

"Still Up Against the Death Plan in Haiti" by Tom Reeves in 'Dollars and Sense' magazine in the September/October 2003 issue. (Archived at Third World Traveler )

Quote: "his July, even the departing U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Brian Curran, lashed out against some U.S. political operatives, calling them the "Chimeres of Washington" (a Haitian term for political criminals). The most recent of these Chimeres have been associated with the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP), headed by former State Department official James Morrell and funded by the right-wing Haitian Boulos family. In December 2002, the HDP literally created from whole cloth a new public relations face for the official opposition, the "Coalition of 184 Civic Institutions," a laundry list of Haitian NGOs funded by USAID and/or the IRI, as well as by the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce and other groups."

"Who is Timothy Carney?" by Marguerite Laurent Esq. (A post on various online lists, March 18, 2006)

Quote: "As ambassador to Haiti from 1998 to 1999 Timothy M. Carney, presided over the stepped-up NED/USAID/IRI "democracy enhancement" programs in Haiti and, later as a retired career Foreign Service Officer, he became a board member of the powerful anti-Aristide Washington lobbying group, the Haiti Democracy Project, known most widely to the majority of Haitians and HLLN, as the group in Washington that worked with James Morrell, Reginald Boulos, Andy Apaid, Lionel Delatour, Stanley Lucas and Guy Phillip, et al, to plot, use Federal resources and programs and their diplomatic, State Department, Pentagon and UN/OAS connections, to help carry out the 2004 bi-centennial coup d'etat in Haiti and illegal inflict the Baco Raton regime and their death squads on Haiti."

"Both before and after the second coup d'etat, Timothy Carney, James Morrell, Haiti Democracy Project, and their radical right wing republican allies financed and promoted traditional elite reps, such as Boulos, Apaid, Baker, as "democratic forces" and legitimate opposition to the elected governments of Haiti who held significantly MORE than an 8 to 12% constituency in Haiti, while constantly emphasizing how the elected Presidents of Haiti, (Aristide and Preval), failed to deliver a better life to the Haitian people, never mentioning the destabilization, humanitarian embargo, the Washington financial, diplomatic and political support to an anti-democratic minority that was the true cause of these elected Presidents impotence.

"The American Learning Zone" by Tom Reeves (counterpunch April 14, 2004 )

Quote: "The evidence is clear: U.S. weapons (intended for the Dominican army) were smuggled into Haiti by former Haitian military and para--military, many of whom were trained and long funded by the CIA and other U.S. agents. U.S. money, both government and private, flowed into the coffers of NGOs attached to the "opposition" -- the right--wing Convergence and the neo--liberal "Group of 184," led by the Haitian business elite (including the sweat--shop owners) and widely publicized by the ultra--conservative "Haiti Democracy Project"(HDP) in Washington, D.C. Among the funders and organizers of the opposition were the IRI and NDI, the international NGOs closely tied to the U.S. Republican and Democrat Parties respectively. IRI and HDP operatives were present at meetings organized by FRAPH (a CIA--funded para--military group) and former Haitian military in the Dominican Republic -- at which Dominican authorities claimed plans were laid a year ago for a Haitian coup."

"The Theater of Coup. - Dramatis Personae: Roger Noriega and "The Opposition"." by Gilbert Wesley Purdy. (Catalyzer Journal.com 2004 )

Quote: "The IRI has distanced itself from any activities that might appear unseemly, by doing just what it has likely advised the Group of 184 to do. It has created a front group, the Haitian Democracy Project, with no ostensible ties to the IRI, to advise the Group of 184 on how to network its way to success. Media manipulation is clearly a major part of the 184 tool-kit. Coöpting token members of their political opposition and advertising them as proof of non-partisan action is also a new addition to their tactical array. In short, the means utilized by the neo-conservative far right in the U. S. political arena have been slightly modified to fit the exigencies of Haitian politics and the leadership of the Group of 184 has been thoroughly trained in their use. Right-wing radio talk shows have sprung up, wherever there are Haitian communities, excoriating Aristide and accusing him of every kind of crime. They have become the sources of stories that are often dutifully reported as fact in the U. S. press."

Brian Concannon, human rights lawyer quoted on Source Watch "Haiti Democracy Project" (Accessed on April 16, 2006 )

Quote: "The Haiti Democracy Project is "a right-wing think tank founded by Republican State Department and other officials and by Haitian elites. I believe that the primary financing came from a guy named Rudolph Boulos (a doctor in Haiti, a very strong supporter of right-wing causes and a virulent anti-Lavalas activist), and is a large recipient of USAID funds." (Brian Concannon, Director of the Institute for Democracy and Justice in Haiti, Feb. 16, 2006)."

"Closing Haiti's Open Veins: Preval's Impossible Mission" by Stephen Lendman (Available at upsidedownworld.org [Accessed on April 15, 2006])

Quote: "The Los Angeles Times [quoted] Lionel Delatour, a board member of the US connected Haiti Democracy Project and the notorious Group of 184 complicit in the 2004 coup, threatening Preval with his comment that "If he does try to bring Aristide back, Preval will NOT FINISH his presidency.""