Miami Company Employing Ex-Marines for Training Members of the Haitian Forces
WASHINGTON, March 15A Miami-based company that Is reported to have a link with Haiti's National Defense and Interior Minister is employing a group of former American marines to train the...
...and Govel United States...
...They said the sylvania and chairman of the matrel, in limited quantities, Haitian Government last year House Subcommittee on For- from private dealers in the' delivered a formal communicaeign...
...This was disclosed by State Department officials, who said today in reply to inquiries that they had asked the Bureau of Customs last month to look into the training operations of the company, Aerotrade, Inc...
...The line's sta- tion chief In Miami, officials said is James 0. Byers, who also is a vice president of Aerotrade...
...Aerotrade, according to the officials, is linked through Air Haiti, an unscheduled airline, to the Haitian Minister of National Defense and Interior, Luckner Cambronne, who is widely considered to be Haiti's most powerful leader and young President Duvaller's foremost adviser...
...company" men- Moorhead, Democrat of Penn- forces and has been purchasing tioned in Mr...
...The Department of State re- designating Aerotrade as its The letter, a copy of which views these purchases on purchasing agent for arms in, has now been made available to The New York Times, said case-by-case b.iss prd and the United States...
...Abshire's letter arms, ammunition and military :was Aerotrade...
...In the informed about this training ing no military assistance to case of Hiti, we have ap- program in a letter dated Jan...
...In January, the State Depart- ment, In a then-unpubllcized move, acknowledged to a Con- gressional committee that the licensing of arms for Haiti had been resumed and, at the same time, offered the information that a private company was training Haitians in the use of United States weapons...
...Relations, David M. Ashire, to ed with a United States cm- State Department officials Representative William S. pany for training of its armed said the "U.S...
...proved modest sales aa 19 from the Assistant Secre- 1t, it aid,"theHaitianGov ments by these private dealers tary of State for Congressional ernment has privately contract- over the past year...
...continued on p. 23) (continued from p. 24) Letter Sent to Committee The officials said, in response to questions, that most of the military equipment purchased here was given to the Leopards, who have replaced the Tonton Macoute militia- that served under the elder Duvalier as a private security police force...
...At that time the United States removed a 70-man Marine training mission from Haiti...
...State Department officials said today that they had asked the Bureau of Customs to in- vestigate Aerotrad's training program after it was called to our attention that the law may be violated...
...In the last 18 months, under licenses granted by the depart- ment's own Office of Munitions Control, Aerotrade has exported to Haiti about $200,000 in anns, ncluding armored per- sonnel carriers...
...The Leopards are being trained by a group that the State Department said consisted 'of "a half dozen" foremen Marine Corps noncommissioned officers on the payroll of Aero- in response to questions from proves them (or disapproves trade...
...The craft were unarmed...
...6 Patrol Vessels Sold The officials also disclosed that last month, through an- other United States concern, the State Department licensed the sale of six 65-foot patrol vessels, valued at $1.2-million, to Haiti for her Coast Guard...
...WASHINGTON, March 15A Miami-based company that Is reported to have a link with Haiti's National Defense and Interior Minister is employing a group of former American marines to train the Haitian armed forces, and the United States Government is investigating the legality of the arrangement...
...However, officials said, Aero- trade failed to obtain a State Department license for its mili- tary-training activities and thus may have violated the provi- sions of the code of Federal regulations prohibiting unau- thorized technical military as- sistance by Americans to for- eign Governments in connection with American-made weapons...
...All were said to have been purchased from private dealers in the United States...
...Representative Moorhead that them) under munitions control The Congressionalpanael was the United States was provid- regulations," it added...
...tion to the State Department ment Information...
...Operations...
...The ban was ordered because o? mounting political terrorism by the Government of the late President Francois Duvalier and charges of misused aid funds...
...He had also played a key role in the elder Duvalier's Cabinet Colonel Cambronne, who in effect heads the Haitian militia known as the Leopards, is the majority stockholder in Air Haiti, which flies between Miami and Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital...
Vol. 6 • March 1972 • No. 3
