US Hurt Haiti

10 years ago, Haiti became eligible for loans from the Inter-American Development Bank. The loans, totaling $146 million, would have helped immediately, funding interventions to save the lives of Haitian women and children. These funds had already been internally appropriated, designated for use in Haiti.

The United States government has a third of the voting rights on the IDB board. Documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that these loans were not dispersed because of a political decision by the US. Although the money had already been appropriated, none of it was given out - even the $54 million that was going only to water and sanitation projects, relatively apolitical lifesaving interventions.

Haiti had already paid $10 million in advance interest on the loans, but the recent election of Jean-Bertrande Aristide so displeased the Bush administration that they decided to block dispersal of these loans for any Haitians. Haiti stopped, of course, paying interest; but this caused them to "default" on the loans, which made them officially ineligible for any further loans. The FOIA-released documents demonstrate that this was a deliberate scheme, so the continued blockage of loans to Haiti would appear to be legitimate and not politically-motivated, which is exactly what it was.