2010-01-17 21:04:13 - If there is any doubt in any part of the world that Latin America and the Caribbean are considered the USA's backyard, then the role of the US military in responding to the earthquake in Haiti speaks for itself.

VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue writes:

Michel Chossudovsky of Global Research claims that it is the Pentagon and not the usual civilian organizations, USAID or FEMA that is leading that country's humanitarian relief.

Aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson has arrived in Port au Prince with the 2,000-member Marine Amphibious Unit and the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

The decision to send troops into Haiti was taken in Washington with Haitian President powerless to lay down sovereignty conditions, raising the questions about whether, as Chossudovsky puts it. we are talking about a humanitarian operation or an invasion.

The fact is that the US was late in responding to calls for humanitarian aid and that other countries were on the ball immediately.

Some English-speaking media sources have

admitted that Venezuela was quick off the mark sending teams of emergency experts the morning after the earthquake devastated the island and there have been editorials in UK newspapers urging the USA and European Union to do something quick.

The conservative US Heritage Foundation sets the tone of the US interests admitting that "the earthquake has both humanitarian and US national security implications [requiring] a rapid response that is not only bold but decisive."

In securing the capital's airport where civilian aid from other countries is landing by the hour, the US military has already been criticized by France for refusing one of its hospital planes permission to land.

Venezuela and Cuba fear that the US military will regulate the flow of emergency aid and relief supplies which are being brought into the country in civilian planes.

Venezuela Foreign Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean, Francisco Arias Cardenas has a key role in monitoring the situation in Haiti and any encroachment on the part of the US military against Venezuela's humanitarian aid.

President Chavez has made his position clear when he calls Haiti the "Black Christ of the Caribbean carrying its own cross."

The Black Christ is Venezuela's solidarity motive.

The USA's perspective is different. It's national security, first and foremost.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue
news.editor@vheadline.com

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