The Haiti model.

• Position: Cynical U.S. policy - Editorial

So Bill Clinton has had his little military expedition in our hemisphere, evidently a required trip for every President. And just like previous U.S. interventions in the region, the occupation of Haiti - despite the pious rhetoric - is not about "restoring democracy," as if democracy could ever be restored by outside military force. No, this occupation is about subverting democracy in Haiti, and unfortunately it is already succeeding all too well.

The Jean-Bertrand Aristide who returned as president of Haiti on October 15, 1994, is not the same Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was elected president on December 16,1990. The old Aristide came to power as the representative of a grass-roots, mass-based movement of the Haitian people - calling itself the lavalas or flood. This movement was aimed at addressing the fundamental problems of Haiti's society: a gross inequity in wealth, a repressive military structure, and an abject subservience to U.S. commercial interests.

The new Aristide has been forced to kiss the ring of the U.S. empire and has now sacrificed the basic goals of the lavalas movement.

Aristide's economic capitulation began even before he set foot back in his homeland. In August, Aristide sent his financial advisers to Paris and Madrid to cut a deal with the World Bank and other Western lenders. In exchange for $770 million in aid, Aristide agreed to decimate the public sector, deprive the populace of much-needed subsidies, and throw open the country to foreign investors, as Allan Nairn reported in Multinational Monitor.

One of Aristide's chief campaign promises in 1990 was to double the minimum wage for Haitian workers, which stands at a paltry $2 a day. You don't hear him talking about this any longer. "It's not on the agenda," Axel Peuker, a World Bank specialist on Haiti, told Nairn.

As soon as he had safely landed in Haiti, Aristide sounded the economic retreat. At the level of personnel, he began to appoint wealthy, pro-Western advisers to his cabinet. For prime minister, Aristide bowed to U.S. wishes and chose Smarck Michel, described as "an American-educated commodities trader" by The New York Times. "Mr. Michel's pragmatic, pro-market stance and his role as a successful businessman make him a generally palatable choice for the United States and international organizations and a reasonable selection for Haiti's elite, most political experts here agree," The Times reported.

At the level of policy, Aristide wasted no time before...