User:Hrydri/sandbox

Argentine Antarctica One of the most interesting projects I did in high school was a lesson on the geopolitics of Antarctica. That was the first topic I thought of when I read the assignment. Since I knew that Chile and Argentina were both involved in land disputes in Antarctica, I decided to check out the pages related to those countries and see which needed improvement. I thought this article was especially interesting because it covers the demographics of the region, and I learned that the first Antarctic babies were Argentinian! Some keywords associated with the article are Tierra del Fuego Province, Antarctic Treaty System, and Argentine Antarctica. The article is C-class, which is evident because it spends a lot more time on history, and not as much on the Argentinian claim as I would expect. The citations are also not consistent; the history section is the best cited, but could be improved, while the claim and demographic sections have little to no citations. Overall, the coverage needs to be significantly improved, especially because this article is rated as "top-importance" on the importance scale.

Papaye Peasant Movement

As this is a C-class article, I was not expecting great coverage of this topic going into my evaluation. Although on its face the article looks meatier than some other Haitian articles, there was a lack of detail and recent coverage in the content. There were no connections made to the MPP's sister organization, the MPNKP, which does not even have its own article. The tone was neutral, which was good. The worst aspect of this article was the sourcing. Many claims lacked citation, and most of those that were cited were defunct (as the MPP website no longer exists). This article could be vastly improved, especially considering the MPP is Haiti's largest peasant organization.

Possible Articles:

Jean-Henry Céant

Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale

Patagonian Welsh

Indigenismo

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Article Editing

Aftermath

The military targeted pro-Astride elected officials, as well as rural development and peasant organizations, neighborhood and community associations, and trade unions. Literacy, pro-democracy, students' and women's groups were also persecuted. Civilian deaths increased during this period, as did incidences of mass arrests without warrants. Around 250,000 people had fled the city of Port-au-Prince by December 1991, fleeing not only political violence but economic hardship. However, persecution was not limited to the cities. Peasants made up a large part of Aristide's voter base, and thus were subject to military violence, including the destruction of food-storage silos and the killing of livestock.

The military regime reduced freedom of the press by silencing radio stations, the most important news medium in the country. On the first day of the coup, at least 10 radio stations were destroyed or shut down. Radio personnel were arrested, tortured, and even executed. Significant arrests include those of Jacques Gary Simeon (head of Radio Caraibes), Paul Jean-Mario (a reporter for Radio Antilles), and Felix Lamy (director of Radio Galaxie).

The military's human rights abuses sparked an exodus of Haitian boat people. A tent camp was set up at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for those who were picked up by the US Coast Guard. As of February 4, 1992, more than 14,000 Haitian refugees had arrived at Guantanamo, but only 3609 qualified to apply for political asylum. The Bush administration began repatriation of refugees on February 3, 1992. On May 24, Executive Order 12807 was issued, which ended all screening of the Haitian boat people. This order violated the international principle of nonrefoulement, although the administration argued that this was irrelevant as the reason for the refugee crisis was economic and not due to political persecution. The Supreme Court supported this argument, deciding that the Refugee Convention did not apply on the high seas. After declaring its intention to close the Guantanamo camp, the US began to return Haitians immediately after their interception, without allowing them to apply for asylum. The only way to apply for asylum now was through the US embassy in Port-au-Prince.

International Involvement

Early on, international organizations such as the OAS and the UN condemned the coup and expressed their support for Aristide's regime. The OAS implemented a trade embargo in October 1991. On November 24, 1992, the UN adopted a resolution urging member states to impose a trade embargo, although it did not impose a world-wide oil and arms embargo until June 23, 1993. Sanctions were suspended following the Governors Island agreement, but reimposed in October 1993 following accusations of renewed human rights violations by the military regime.

The economic blockade had severe effects on an already-impoverished country. 140,000 private-sector jobs were lost. To compensate with the lack of fuel, people cut down more trees, which accelerated deforestation. The lack of electricity had a massive impact on public health, as vaccines and medications couldn’t be preserved.

Initially, the Bush administration denounced the military coup. However, they were in favor of limiting Aristide's presidential power once he was returned to office, as this was the desire of Haiti’s military and economic elite.

The response of other Caribbean states to the crisis varied, but was generally anti-refugee. The Dominican Republic, which supported the Haitian military regime, sought to stem the flow of over 30,000 refugees with an increased police and army presence on the border. The Bahamas had a similarly hostile response to refugees. Even countries such as Jamaica who allowed refugee settlement offered minimal processing. Some countries, such as Venezuela, directly refused to accept refugees for settlement, despite displaying support for the Aristide regime. Following Aristide's return in November 1994, a number of Caribbean states introduced programs for the repatriation of Haitians living in their countries. The most significant numbers came from the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and the Turks and Caicos.