CIA/Latin American Division/Port-au-Prince Station
 CIA/Latin American Division/Port-au-Prince Station(CIA/Station)   | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
| Subpage | •CIA/Latin American Division/Port-au-Prince Station/Chief |
| The CIA station for activities in Haiti, | |
The maim CIA station for activities in Haiti, based under diplomatic cover at the US embassy in the capital Port-au-Prince.
Known activities
In 1957, Francois Duvalier rose to power in Haiti. A corrupt dictator, he consolidated his power with the aid of a 10,000-member gang known as the Tontons Macoute. Seen as a liability, four years later, he was threatened by a CIA covert operation in which the agency supplied arms to opponents plotting a coup, which failed. On his death in 1971, Duvalier bequeathed his regime to his son, Jean-Claude, who received nearly $400 million in American economic aid until a revolt toppled his government and he fled the country in February 1986.[1]
Shortly afterward the CIA created the Haitian intelligence service, SIN, staffed by army officers. The stated purpose was to stem the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of cocaine through Haiti, a crucial transit point for drug traffickers. The Haitian intelligence service provided little information on drug trafficking and some of its members themselves became part in the drug trade. A United States official who worked at the American Embassy in Haiti in 1991 and 1992 said he took a dim view of SIN.[1]
"It was a military organization that distributed drugs in Haiti," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It never produced drug intelligence. The agency gave them money under counternarcotics and they used their training to do other things in the political arena. The money that was spent to train these guys in the counter-narcotics field boggled the mind -- half a million to a million a year," the official said. "They were turning it around and using it for political reasons, against whatever group they wanted to gather information on."[1]
Aristide
The CIA was hostile to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who as a leftist parish priest in the 1980s strongly attacked it and the Bush administration for backing Haiti's military rulers. Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991, before being toppled in a military coup the same year.[2]
The CIA recruited Emmanuel Constant, the leader of the paramilitary group known as FRAPH, accused of murdering, raping and beating hundreds of supporters of Haiti's then President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "We had an understanding. We had an alliance." Constant said he was given a code name, "Gamal," a sophisticated walkie-talkie and $700 a month in cash by the CIA's station chief in Haiti, with whom he met regularly, sometimes daily. His relationship with the Agency, he said, started shortly after a right-wing military junta overthrew Aristide in September 1991 and ended shortly before Aristide's return to Haiti under the "protection" of United States troops in 1994.[3] The members of the Haitian intelligence service, SIN, also attacked Aristide's supporters, as did Constant's paramilitary organization.[3]
Leaders of the junta were on the CIA's payroll from the mid-1980's until at least the early 1990's. Haitian police Chief Michel Francois also was on the CIA payroll, as was Francois' brother, Evans.[4]
In 1993, the CIA tried to discredit Aristide by circulating a report claiming that he was mentally ill.[4]
References
- ↑ a b c https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/14/world/cia-formed-haitian-unit-later-tied-to-narcotics-trade.html
- ↑ http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Peace/Americas/News/Haiti.htm
- ↑ a b https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/03/world/haitian-ex-paramilitary-leader-confirms-cia-relationship.html
- ↑ a b https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1994/rt9410/941010/10110044.htm
