Damming the Flood

Haiti and the Politics of Containment

Peter Hallward

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781844674664
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789601152
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 21st Century History
• Index: History

Long before a devastating earthquake hit in January 2010, Haiti was one of the most impoverished and oppressed countries in the world. However, in the late 1980s a remarkable popular mobilization known as Lavalas ("the flood") sought to liberate the island from decades of US-backed dictatorial rule. Damming the Flood analyzes how and why the Lavalas governments led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were overthrown, in 1991 and again in 2004, by the enemies of democracy in Haiti and abroad.
The elaborate campaign to suppress Lavalas was perhaps the most successful act of imperial sabotage since the end of the Cold War. It has left the people of Haiti at the mercy of some of the most rapacious political and economic forces on the planet.
Updated with a substantial new afterword that addresses the international response to the earthquake, Damming the Flood is both an invaluable account of recent Haitian history and an illuminating analysis of twenty-first-century imperialism.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chronology
• Acronyms
• Introduction
• 1. 1791–1991: From the First Independence to the Second
• 2. 1991–1999: The First Coup and its Consequences
• 3. 2000–2001: Aristide and the Crisis of Democracy
• 4. 2000–2003: Investing in Pluralism
• 5. 2001–2003: The Return of the Army
• 6. 2001–2004: Aristide’s Second Administration
• 7. 2001–2004: The Winner Loses?
• 8. 2003–2004: Preparing for War
• 9. 2004: The Second Coup
• 10. 2004: Revenge of the Haitian Elite
• 11. 2004–2006: Repression and Resistance
• Conclusion
• Afterword
• Appendix: “One Step at a Time”: An Interview with Jean-Bertrand Aristide (July 2006)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index