In the morning, the encounter with the ambassador of Brazil, Paulo Cordeiro de Andrade, and with the commander in chief of the UN forces, General Carlos Alberto Santos Cruz. The head of the diplomatic corpse is much more than just an ambassador in Haiti: he is in charge of the government tasks. It is said here that he has more power than president himself. (.)
The meeting is a confrontation. Torinho explains our position and hands in the letter we had brought from Brazil demanding withdrawal of troops. The ambassador and the general respond in a way that proves they are prepared for it. Other members of our team attack occupation. Our journalist. broadcasts the debate through the Conlutas blog. The ambassador’s argument is crafty: today things are much calmer in Haiti thanks to Brazilian troops and the troops of other countries as well, because the activity of the armed band of Lavalas (military group responding to Aristide, the deposed president) relented. It is a “necessary” action. What the ambassador does not reveal is whom this “tranquillity” is meant to benefit. (.) It was necessary to attract “investments” and to apply an extremely tough neoliberal economic plan in the country.
This means to guarantee a plan of privatisations announced by president Preval: telephones, health and airport and a nearly 40% increase in fuel. The Brazilian troops are trying to secure “tranquillity” for the bourgeoisie and for the imperialists. At the same time they repress strikes, as the Larsco, where soldiers entered the factory to attack workers. The meeting finished and no agreement was reached. (.). Local press begins to speak about us.
In the afternoon we hold a meeting with Haiti University students. Yesterday there was a confrontation between the students and the local police and five demonstrators were injured. The university was almost empty and activity jeopardised. The classroom bears the name of Alexandra Kollontai (famous Russian revolutionary of the 1917). Student started arriving. There were over two hundred. Toninho explains the aim of the reason for our presence there and is eagerly applauded. Janita of the Conlutas and militant PSOL describes this morning’s meeting with the ambassador. Soto, a student leader of Conlute and PSTU militant, a good agitator, infuses zeal into the audience and harvests the best applause.
On our way back to the hotel, there is an incredible scene: a TV set on the terrace of a house was transmitting the Brazil-Mexico football match. Some three hundred people crowd the sidewalks and force the cars to hoot their way through the throng. We decided to see the last part of the match with the Haitians. The buzz is incredible even if our team does not help to make things better (.). None of them has as much as a mug of beer in their hand, because there is no much poverty. Finally they grumble at Dunga. Seeing this enthusiasm, those fans, stronger than the Brazilian ones, we can understand the criminal trick played by Lula: in order to bless the military occupation he brought a Brazilian team to play in Haiti. In this way he manipulated the strong cultural and racial identity of the Haitians and Brazilian placing it in the service of a reactionary policy. And yet, the BO comrades say that there have been some graffiti saying “Adriano, yes. Ribeiro, no.” Adriano is a player of a previous Brazilian football team. Ribeiro was the general commanding the troops.
