Haiti was the first independent country in the American continent to eradicate slavery, and thus Haiti became the first democratic republic to totally establish the rights of men and women.

After defeating the armies of Napoleon, those of Great Britain and the armies of Spain, the Haiti of Alexander Petion became the refuge of many of the Latin American patriots who had to seek asylum due to their freedom-loving ideals. Among those who received a warm welcome in Haiti were Don Francisco de Miranda, Simon Bolivar and even our own Manuel Dorrego.

In 1815 the Haitian leader invited Bolivar, who was depressed and close to suicide in Jamaica as a refugee. Petion offered the future Libertador weapons, ships and soldiers, to retake the struggle for American independence.

The Haitian President asked Bolivar -and had him sign for it- that in exchange for this support the South American revolutionists would decree the abolition of slavery in the American continent.

Bolivar thus undertook that commitment, and left for the continent with soldiers selected by Petion himself. Already triumphant, and before his meeting with San Martin, Simon Bolivar said:

Lost Venezuela and Nueva Granada, the isle of Haiti received me with hospitality: the magnanimous President Alexander Petion lent me his protection and under his auspices he formed an expedition of 300 men comparable in courage, patriotism and virtue to the companions of Leonidas...

Only cultural colonization can explain why we do not know this epic. The Haitian warriors generously shed their blood throughout South America... fighting for our freedom.

Petion not only gave our emancipators provisions and soldiers; he gave them something much more important: a wider and more embracing political foundation for American independence. Many of our patriots were slave owners; Simon Bolivar himself came from the highest class of Caracas. In the end, Bolivar always referred to Alexander Petion as the "Author of our Liberty."

Ever since, Spain, France, Great Britain and the United States have blocked the Republic of Haiti from all international relations. The North American President, Thomas Jefferson, said that Haiti was a bad example. Slave owners could not tolerate the existence of a free country governed by Black men. Finally, the United States came to put order and militarily invaded the country in 1915. Haiti, the pioneer of American emancipation and human rights, was turned into the poorest nation on the planet.

We must admit it with embarrassment: our countries, especially Venezuela and Nueva Granada, did nothing meaningful for Haiti. They only watched from the distance, as a slow and silent genocide was carried out. In this sense, the Haitian who said recently that the earthquake was, perhaps, "the best that could have happened to us Haitians" was brutally frank. Maybe we needed the rumble and tremors of the earth to awaken us to our passive complicity and active war-mongering in which only governments and merchants are winners.

Perhaps, facing this drama that cries to the heavens, Haiti may now receive some of the help we have denied her for many years.

The time has come to act not just on behalf of the Haitian people, but for our own dignity.

-###-

Victor Ramos
President, SOS International Discrimination

Visit our blog: www.matemedios.blogspot.com

Free translation from the Spanish sent by Lucio Flores-Bernal, lucioflores907@hotmail.com, done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.