Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 28 June 1968
Haiti: a James Bond denouement
The latest chapter of last month's unsuccessful invasion plan to overthrow President Duvalier is beginning to read like a new James Bond thriller. But it seems unlikely to end in the orthodox way with the discomfiture of the tyrant.
Not content with arresting three British subjects on charges of complicity in planning and financing the invasion of Haiti by exiles last month, President Francois Duvalier's government has accused British intelligence services of masterminding the plot. The 'agent' they claim to have unmasked was David Knox, director of the Bahamas government information service, who arrived in Port-au-Prince a month ago and was arrested a few days later. That Knox was a British agent was categorically denied by Charles Sanderson, first secretary at the high commission in Kingston, Jamaica, who was allowed to see him briefly at the weekend (the British embassy was withdrawn from Port-au-Prince for economy reasons two years ago). But Sanderson admitted Knox could not explain why he had gone to Haiti, or how he had acquired a fresh scar on his face. The Port-au-Prince newspaper Le Nouveau Monde declared: 'The question that naturally springs to mind is why Mr Knox came to Port-au-Prince and why he refused to reveal either his name or his job. When we learn why a man like him sought the services of two doctors for a facial plastic surgery operation, we shall then perhaps have the key to an incident which has remained a mystery up till now.'
The mystery had already deepened last week with the arrest of the Jamaican consul in Haiti, Oswald Brandt, and his son the vice-consul, Clifford Brandt, both British subjects. Members of one of the richest families in the Caribbean, the Brandts were accused of financing the invasion attempt to the tune of 150,000 dollars -- a charge they fervently denied. The Haitian Coalition, the exiles' organization based in New York, dismissed the charges with the suggestion that Duvalier was merely putting the screws on another rich family in Haiti. Nevertheless there was a feeling in Port-au-Prince that there might well be some basis to the various charges, which had apparently emerged from the questioning of captured invaders.
A Haitian exile group touring Latin America claimed in Caracas last week that at least 120 invaders were still fighting in the hills, and similar rumours were to be heard in Port-au-Prince itself. But most observers thought that since its leaders had been killed or captured, any such force was likely to be demoralized and ineffective. In any case, Haitian peasants do not generally regard Duvalier as the source of their ills, and are therefore unlikely to offer the invaders comfort or assistance.
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