Fenton: Canada's New Ambassador in Ecuador Helped Plan Haiti Coup

December 6, 2005
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague,

Aside from the United States, two countries are widely recognized to
have played major rolls in last years rightwing paramilitary takeover
of Haiti. One is France, the island nation's colonial antagonist for
centuries. The other is Canada.

In the Narcosphere, Copublisher Anthony Fenton reports on Canadian
diplomat Christian Lapointe, who after helping plan the coup against
Haiti's democratically elected government (which has led to one of
the worst human rights situations in the hemisphere) is being sent to
Quito as Canada's new ambassador to Ecuador. With Ecuador's dynamic
social movements pushing harder and harder for their demands,
emboldened by the success of an uprising last winter that drove out
corrupt president Lucio Gutiérrez, the reasons for Lapointe's
appointment seem clear.

Fenton writes:

"With little fanfare only three days before the minority Liberal
government of Paul Martin fell by way of a non-confidence vote in
Ottawa's House of Commons (on November 28th), beleaguered Foreign
Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew appointed Christian Lapointe as
Canada's next ambassador to Ecuador. Lapointe has been serving as
Director of the Caribbean and Central America and Andean Region
Division within the Department of Foreign Affairs. This move could
spell trouble for Ecuador as Canada is in the midst of profound
changes in foreign policy that find new support for destabilization
under the cover of support for 'democracy promotion.'

"In March of 2003, Quebec Journalist Michel Vastel leaked the details
of a secret meeting on Haiti hosted by the Canadian government on
January 31-February 1st, 2003. This high-level roundtable was dubbed
the 'Ottawa Initiative on Haiti.' No Haitians were invited but it was
attended by members of the State Department, the European Commission,
officials from the OAS, including the Assistant Secretary General,
Luigi Einuadi, and the head of La Francophonie."

Read the full story, here:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/12/6/162137/804

On another note, a problem with our server left Narco News offline
for much of the day yesterday. We apologize for the inconvenience.

From somewhere in a country called América,

Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
webmaster [at] narconews.com

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