But Brazil, like the United States, should start where it has the most influence: and currently that is Haiti, where Brazil heads up the UN military mission (MINUSTAH) that is occupying Haiti.
MINUSTAH has developed a reputation for brutality and
human right violations. These include a raid on one of Haiti’s largest poor neighborhoods in July 2005 that left dozens of civilians killed or wounded.
Why should Brazil participate in denying Haitians’ basic human and democratic rights? And to add further injury, MINUSTAH has caused a cholera epidemic that has killed 2300 people and infected more than 100,000, most likely through gross criminal negligence of dumping human waste into the Artibonite river. Thousands of Hatians have taken to the streets to demand that they leave.
Dilma should listen to her base, and to the people of Haiti, who want MINUSTAH out. As the CUT stated, Brazil should “send doctors and engineers, not occupying troops.”