United States officials led a far-reaching international campaign aimed at keeping former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide exiled in South Africa, secret US State Department cables show.
Aristide, who won the 2000 presidential elections, was rendered a virtual prisoner for the past seven years.
Aristide was overthrown in a bloody February 2004 coup supported by Washington and fomented by right-wing paramilitary forces and the Haitian elite.
Ansel Herz
Disaster capitalists flocked to Haiti in a 鈥済old rush鈥 for contracts to rebuild the country after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, wrote the current US ambassador Kenneth Merten in a secret Febuary 1, 2010 cable obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by Haiti Liberte.
鈥淭HE GOLD RUSH IS ON!鈥 Merten headlined a section of his 6pm situation report 鈥 or Sitrep 鈥 back to Washington.