May 25, 2023 • 29 mins
Oz asks the question he’s been wondering all along: could the CIA know anything about the broadcaster murders?
Available to all on May 25, 2023.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Previously on Silenced.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You have to remember the Haitian government. Instead of getting
assistance from them, a lot of them were involved in
all this, so you couldn't rely on them for any
kind of resources or information that would be crucial for
the investigation.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Blues temist. He was openly friendly with William. You connected
to Williams. This means you can do bad things because
William Migalla was a dangerous man leading the country after
the Valley left.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
There was also a widespread assumption that the US, through
the CIA, was part of it, or at least gave.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
The green light.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
In the last episode, handful of sunglass wearing paramilitary guys
turned away the USS Harlan County and prevented Aristes restoration.
The Haitian military and its henchmen Frapp were ascendant, but
soon power and alliances would dramatically shift again. From Kaleidoscope
(01:23):
and iHeart podcasts, This is Silenced, I'm as Volocian.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
And Anna Arana, This is episode five the Agency.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
One Sunday evening in nineteen ninety five, Haitian Americans across
the US turned on sixty minutes on CBS I'm at
Bradley Tonight on sixty Minutes in the nineteen nineties. This
was the primetime news show with millions of viewers.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
There's so few Haitians on a program like that, So yeah,
everybody I knew was watching.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Eduige Dante cat is now a celebrated author, But that night,
she was twenty six, and like everyone she knew, she
was tuned in, getting ready for an explosive interview ed.
Bradley was about to sit down with the leader of FRAPP,
Emmanuel Toteau Constant b role plays of Toto. Constant walking
(02:54):
the streets of Haiti, Tall, thin with a thick mustache.
This was the man who turned back the USS Holland County,
who'd said he would make Poorlo prince another Mogadishu.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Back then, he was a man on top of his world.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
This is where he can be found today in the
county jail in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Cut to Conston in an orange jumpsuit, towering over his guards.
To all the world, he was the scourge of the US,
having turned around their ship. But that night, speaking from
a cinder block cell, Constant claimed he'd actually been working
for US intelligence. Bradley asked him why he chosen this
(03:36):
moment for that revelation.
Speaker 8 (03:38):
I've been betrayed, I've been emiliated, and I think it's
about time for the world on the American public to
note that me, Emmanuel Total Constant is not what they're saying.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Constin claimed that shortly after Steed's ouster, he began spending
a lot of time with the CIA station chief in Haiti.
Every day, the chief would pick Constant up in his
car and they drive and talk. He claimed to have
a code name and an agency walkie talkie. He also
(04:19):
said he was paid around seven hundred dollars a month
in cash.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
I don't think that particular declaration was expected.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Edwich was shocked.
Speaker 7 (04:29):
Every once in a while, it happens where you have
someone who comes out of these situations and tells a
bit of truth.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Constant was saying what many of the VAO broadcasters had
been saying all along, that members of FRAPP had the
backing of US intelligence.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
I think a lot of people had suspected that he
was in some ways supported by the United States. Like
I don't think everybody knew to what extent if somewhere
had said it, like if one of these folks on
the radio would have said it, they would have been
like huh, you know, but out of his own mouth,
(05:11):
it's just like, WHOA.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
I feel like that beautiful woman that everybody wants to
go to bed with at night secretly, and this time
I want to date. I want everybody to know that
we are dating Constance.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
As far as he was concerned, was that so called
beautiful woman that the CIA was dating. And now evidently
he felt jilted, so he was out for revenge. He
started telling secrets and threatened to reveal more details of
covert CIA operations unless, of course, he was released from jail.
Speaker 8 (05:48):
We had an understanding, we had an alliance. So if
I'm guilty of those crimes that are accusing me of,
the CIA is also guilty because I knew what you
were doing, Because they knew exactly what I was doing.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
It showed sort of the level of infiltration right into
Haitian politics.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
From the very start of our investigation, there have been
these questions lurking in the shadows of our reporting. What
role was the CIA playing in Haiti and could the
CIA have had something to do with the broadcaster murders
in Miami. This interview with Toto Constant brought the question
out of the shadows and into the spotlight after it aired,
(06:36):
According to press reports, the US government began to scramble
at the highest levels, and within a few months Constant
was released from jail on one condition that he kept
his mouth shut. First he turned around a US Navy ship.
And now he seemed to have successfully blackmailed the US government.
(06:57):
So what did Constant know that was so so explosive
and could it have something to do with the murders
in Miami.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Constance's interview was riveting television. It's rare to hear an
intelligence asset just lay things bare like that. But during
the Cold War the CIA interferre blatantly in many Latin
American countries.
Speaker 9 (07:22):
The CIA's secret war in Central America became a little
less secret. Today, Soviet made weapons have been secretly turned
over to the CIA to arm US back guerrillas.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
The goal was to stop the spread of communism throughout
the continent.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
The CIA has provided anti Sandinista rebels with planes used
in bombing raids.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
They claimed they were trained and financed by the CIA.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
So Anna. The CIA's activities in Latin America throughout the
Cold War are well documented, I guess, but what without
too specifically in Haiti.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
I think the problem for Haiti was that it's right
next to Cuba, and there was always concern that Cuban
communism would come over. I found some fascinating CIA analysis
get online concerns that quote a desperate Haitian government might
eventually turn to the USSR.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So this was real cold warrior stuff happening right at
the end of the eighties. But why choose someone like
Constan as a partner in all of this?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Well, Constanta is your typical Latin American right winger, upper class,
fluent in English, or an educated I met a bunch
of these types reporting in Latin America. They had a
knack for convincing you as intelligence that they thought like
them and could help them achieve their goals for a
little money.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
But the one thing I've been wondering about ever since
seeing that sixty minutes interview is could there be any
connection between all of this and the murders in the
le eity. Constant represented everything that the VEUO broadcasters would protest,
and at the same time he was definitively in cahoots
with the CIA.
Speaker 6 (09:05):
It's market territory because once we start to talk about
the CIA, people tend to believe conspiracy theories and go
down this rabbit holes. I know that's what people sometimes
like to do on podcasts. So let's start with the
facts and go back to assume conversation we had with
an all colleague of mine.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
The CI's most powerful weapon abroad is was, and will
forever be, a suitcase crammed with one hundred dollars bills.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Tim Weiner has covered the CIA for a long time.
He reported on a Haitian intelligence service created by the CIA.
Speaker 10 (09:45):
The CIA, after Baby Duck Fell in nineteen eighty six,
created a Haitian intelligence service is step Reice, Intelligence and Nacional,
which has thefortunate acronyms SIN.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
The CIA intended SIN to be a counter narcotics force
in Haiti to stop the movement of cocaine through the island,
something like a Haitian FBI. There was just one problem.
The Haitian army was in charge of SIN, but they
also controlled the cocaine trade, the military, the narcos, the
Haitian FBI. In reality, they were all the same people.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
So the CI was enriching military drug traffickers who were
also using the money they gained by drug traffic to
oppress the people of Haiti.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
The CIA's attempt to quote unquote stabilize the island helped
turn Haiti into a narco paradise, but the agency could
accept some unintended negative consequences in their game to keep
Haiti from turning communists. Then the emergence of Aristeed confirmed
their worst fears, a full blown leftist priest railing against
(10:59):
the corrupt military, capitalism, and US influence. This was the
opposite of what the CIA wanted. Risteed won a landslide election,
but within a few months he was gone overthrown by
the military, and.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
By a shocking coincidence, some of the people who were
the coup leaders were also paid CIA agents.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That's right, several of the military officers who led the
coup against Aristide were on the CIA's payroll at the time.
There were even rumors that the guy at the top,
Raoul Cedras, was an asset and that the CIA had
greenlit the overthrow of Aristide. After the coup, the CIA
(11:51):
claimed to cut off relationships with its friends in the military,
but the CIA's leading analyst for the region reported to
Congress that the newly deposed president had not been fit
to lead.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
The gist of his reporting was that Arispeed was at
times irrational. According to these officials, Aristage suffer's bouts of depression,
displays symptoms of megalomania and often loses touch with realities.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
A Republican senator used the CIA assessment to publicly brand
him a quote psychopath. The analysis was based on questionable
evidence that the CIA had gathered from paid assets, one
of whom was Toto Constant.
Speaker 9 (12:37):
Did you give them copies of some of his medical files?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:42):
I did.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Watching the sixty minutes interview with Constant in light of
Tim Winer's revelations about the CIA's role in Haiti, helped
me understand that there was an invisible force connecting all
these events that seemed so implausible. In October nineteen ninety three,
when a few dozen armed men turned around a US
(13:05):
Navy ship. At the time, it seemed like a dangerous situation. Remember,
we talked to people who were there who felt their
lives had been at risk, but Constance said it was
all just theater.
Speaker 8 (13:24):
I guarantee that the demonstration was simply a media frenzy
that we wanted to create. No life was threatened.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Constant told sixty Minutes that he didn't formed the CIA
station chief in Haiti in advance of his planned to
stage a protest on the dock, but that message never
reached the White House. In fact, the CIA actually told
Clinton the opposite, that they did think the protests posed
a threat and recommended that the President turn the ship around,
(13:58):
which he did. Clinton's own intelligence service had manipulated him,
and when this came out on Sixty Minutes, it was
a huge embarrassment for the president. Constant aired a lot
of dirty laundry. He didn't stay locked up for long.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Total Constant was sprung from prison and re should feel
that he wouldn't go back to prison if he refrained
from discussing his relationship with the CIA.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So what else did Constant know? What else could he
expose that the government was so anxious to keep quiet?
Could there be a connection to murders on us soil?
That's after the break, so Anna, I have to be
(14:57):
honest with you, and you know this pretty well by now.
But ever since I read your report in the CPJ
about the murders in Little Haiti, one of the things
that fascinated me the most are these hints of some
kind of conspiracy involving US intelligence.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
I know that's way up, you're really That's one of
the main reasons I hesitated to work on this story
with you at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Well, that and you were wondering if I was still
wearing diapers. But what is it about this particular issue
that makes you recoil?
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Well, it's my training, ass and it's one thing for
me to acknowledge the agency's involvement in Latin America, But
the CIA is expressly forbidden from operating on US soil,
and unless I have evidence.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Right, But you know what about the Bay of Pigs
invasion fermented in Miami of all places.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
Sure, yeah, but that was in the sixties and it
was a disaster. I think they learned a lesson from that.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
But here and me for a second. Here, we know
that THEO were the explicit enemy of the cocaine colonels,
and we know from Tim Winer that many of the
cocaine colonels who overthrew Aristide were themselves being paid by
the CIA. So is it that far fetched to think
(16:14):
that somebody in Haiti who may have approved these murders
was themselves a CIA asset?
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Yeah? Being an asset, that's one thing. Being an agent
as another. I think having been ordered by the General
Saint Haiti is one thing, but that doesn't mean that
the chain of command went to the CIA.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, let's stick with the General's idea for a second,
because even if it was ordered by them, and they
were being paid by the CIA at the time, what
does that say about the agency's responsibility. And I do
want to pick up on what you just said about
who may have ordered it, because it makes me think
back to some of the court filings. And in particular,
two detectives went to go and see Billie Alexander in jail,
(16:55):
the trigger man on the Fritz door and John Claude murders,
and he said to them, what if I told you
these murders had been ordered from Haiti.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
It was a rumor going around in little Haiti at
the time, but we don't know for sure. In my experience,
a lot of people from countries like Haiti who have
been battered by US policy and intelligence I have a
tendency where they see the CIA hiding behind every tree.
Sure it is possible, but every unsolved murder is not
(17:27):
a CIA plot.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
But when we went to go and see Detective irvins Ford,
who's one of the most senior Haitian American law enforcement
officials in Miami. He told us the same thing that
Billy said, who do you say was most threatened in
Miami by the power and influence the video?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The generals that was behind the scene.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Remember Tim Winer told us at the time that many
of those generals were tied to the CIA. The head
of the military, Raoul Cedras, was reportedly in constant communication
with the agency, was on the payroll. And if detective forward,
and it's not just Ford, but if Detective Ford is
right that the motive for the murders did originate in
(18:09):
Haiti with senior military figures, then is it really so
much of a stretched hypothesize that they may have sought
the CIA's approval in advance. And these radio guys, how
youscribed them earlier, were effectively.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Kingmakers still are today.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And so there was must there's a fear from the
military guys that if these guys voices got too loud,
they could change the US political quantum.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
They could change the US Over the years. This is
not something I've been personally involved in. CIA has been
involved there. There's always a large percentage of Haitians who
strongly believe the US allowed chaos there for their own gain.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Here was a senior Haitian American law enforcement official implying
that the pro democracy movement in Little Haiti was maybe
getting too powerful for the CIA's comfort, threatening to ultimately
bring down their preferred partners in Haiti. A nineteen ninety
four Washington Post article revealed that the CIA was monitoring
(19:17):
the leader of the pro democracy movement in Miami, Father
Jean Just. We asked Irvin's Ford about that the keeping
tabs on Jean just as far as you know.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
This rule, this rulemort, I wouldnt doubt it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It wouldn't doubt it.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I wouldnt doubt it, no, because he started becoming very,
very influential. It's almost like when he spoke he had
thirty forty thousand Haitians in Miami that would literally do witty.
He became it was very powerful here.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
I want mention.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Him that he was trying to sort of build something
similar to Martin Luther King.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
I would say more like Malcolm X.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Larry Rocher of the New York Times told us that
Father Jeans himself was far too high profile for anyone
to attack directly, but the picking off his senior followers
could undermine the whole movement. And when we interviewed historian
Robert Faton I told him that many at the time
thought the CIA was somehow involved in the broadcaster murders.
(20:23):
I wanted to tread carefully even bring this up.
Speaker 11 (20:26):
Well, I think the CIA, if they were not necessarily
directly involved, but they clearly gave a green light because
those guys were on the payroll.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
To be clear, Robert doesn't know whether the CIA had
any involvement in the radio murders, but he does believe
that since the CIA greenlit all of the important decisions
made by the military leaders in Haiti at the time,
those military leaders had a broad mandate and a sense
of impunity.
Speaker 11 (20:52):
They were on the payroll of the CIA, and that
was known and it became officially known. This is not
some sort of Haitian imagination. This was very real.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I still don't think it's the last word on the
Miami murders. We don't have documents, and the CIA is
a black box.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Well, there is an archive of documents where if the
smoking gun exists, it's likely to be hidden and we'll
get to that after the break. But meantime, the military
in Haiti was starting to overplay their hand, and even
the CIA was struggling to protect their old friends.
Speaker 11 (21:30):
They are not fooling around. The planes are in the air,
so either you desist or is it going to come
for you.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That's after the break.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
After the failed attempt to return our state to power
in late nineteen ninety three, the brutality of the military
regime went into overdrive. The chaos being created by the
generals and power had real consequences for Haitians. Total Constan
and his forces went door to door in one neighborhood,
(22:10):
slaughtering our state supporters. It was known as the Rabbato massacre.
So people were risking their lives and record numbers to
flee to Miami in rickety boats.
Speaker 12 (22:22):
There was both people crisis at the time, a really
acute one.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Michelle Montaz of Radio It was an exile in the US.
She watched as boats arrived by the hundreds.
Speaker 12 (22:35):
And people were drowning because those boats were not safe
and the US public was not really ready to hear
of dead bodies. A few miles from the coast of Florida,
the fact that so many people were fleeing Haiti was
helping us to convince the US that something had to
(22:57):
be done.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
The images on the news of where a problem for
President Clinton, who was facing reelection. Pressure grew for the
US to act.
Speaker 9 (23:07):
If democracy fails, we faced the prospect of tens, if
not hundreds, of thousands of refugees fleeing that country, with
their destination being the United States, particularly Florida.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
In September nineteen ninety four, Clinton turned up the heat.
He began to assemble troops for an invasion.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
The message of the United States to the Haitian dictators
is clear, your time is up. Leave now, or we
will force you from power.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
As a last ditch measure, he sent a delegation to
Haiti to try to persuade the generals to step aside peacefully.
Speaker 11 (23:48):
And the story is that when Clinton got serious and
sent Sam Nunn and Colint Powell and the Jimmy Carter
to Hate to tell the military that if they didn't desist,
they would be attacked.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Haitian historian Robert Fatton he told us Sadras thought Clinton
was just bluffing.
Speaker 11 (24:11):
Sidas didn't believe it because he said, you know, I'm
bid bad. Now, what the hell are you talking about.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He had been in contact with the CIA throughout this
whole time and may have felt protected by that relationship.
After all, every other time the Haitian military had faced
down the US government, the US government had blinked.
Speaker 11 (24:33):
And then apparently there was a phone call from someone
from Fort Bragg that he knew. He said, they are
not fooling around. The planes are in the air. So
either you desisted or is it going to come for you.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Clinton was serious. Nearly twenty five thousand troops were on
their way to Haiti.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Today.
Speaker 10 (24:51):
Another American warship left Norfolk bound for Haiti to get
in place for a possible invasion.
Speaker 9 (24:56):
The US aircraft carrier Voaded with helicopters has headed for
the tonight.
Speaker 11 (25:01):
So in a matter of a few minutes they decide, okay, fine,
that's okay, we are going to depart.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
At the last moment, Sadras agreed to step down, and
he got a sweetheart deal in the process. He received housing, transportation,
living expenses in exile worth more than a million dollars
before he left. The American embassy even paid to rent
Sadras's house. His beach house and his mother in law's house.
Speaker 11 (25:31):
There is a moment where I remember watching CNN when
they were showing the potential departure of the army and
said that As was supposed to be there and he
was not showing up, and the CNN guy said that
there must be some problem in the agreement. It wasn't
that they were signing contracts for renting the houses of Siddhas.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Despite everything he'd done, the US was literally paying off
Sadras and allowing him to leave unscathed, Unlike the thousands
who'd fled his regime's violence, some of whom drowned at
sea trying to reach safety. Sadras went into exile in Panama,
and the rest of the coup leaders scattered too, including
(26:17):
Toto Constant, who ended up in the US, where he
gave that sixty minutes interview and was then released. He
became a New York City realtor and was later jailed
again for mortgage fraud and larceny, not murder or torture
or assassination. Decades later, he was ultimately deported to Haiti. Meanwhile,
(26:39):
Aristide had been restored to the Haitian presidency in nineteen
ninety four, but as a condition of his return he
had to accept some terrible compromises. He had to grant
amnesty to the military and by extension, FRAPP. When the
US military arrived to facilitate the transfer of power, they
(27:01):
raided the FRAPP and Army headquarters and found a trove
of one hundred and sixty thousand pages of documents. The
Airasi government demanded the return of those documents, saying that
they might reveal details about the CIA's dealings with Frapp
that could aid their prosecution, but the US never gave
back the documents. We tried to get our hands on
(27:23):
them too, but they remain tantalizingly out of reach. So
if there is a smoking gun in the FRAP documents
regarding the Miami murders, will likely never know.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Next time we track down one person who may know more,
Lewis Thermatus. Oh h, we're journalists. There's Luis Armatus.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Silenced is a Kaleidoscope content original produced by Margaret Catcher,
Jen Kinney, and Padwini Rugunov, research assistance from Sybylla Phipps,
Jeremy big Wood, and Kira Sinis. Edited by Lacy Roberts
Executive produced by Kate Osborne, reported and hosted by Anna
(28:33):
Arana and me Osvaaloshan. Fact checking kry Nicole Pasorca. Music
by Oliver Rodigan aka k Denzer, Mix and sound design
by Kyle Murdoch. Thanks to mangosh Ha, Tikta, Costaslinas and
viny Shuri. Our executive producers That I Heart are Katrina
Novel and Nikki Etour. If you like what you hear,
(28:56):
please rate, review, share, and subscribe to our channel. Thank you,
Previously on Silenced.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You have to remember the Haitian government. Instead of getting
assistance from them, a lot of them were involved in
all this, so you couldn't rely on them for any
kind of resources or information that would be crucial for
the investigation.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Blues temist. He was openly friendly with William. You connected
to Williams. This means you can do bad things because
William Migalla was a dangerous man leading the country after
the Valley left.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
There was also a widespread assumption that the US, through
the CIA, was part of it, or at least gave.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
The green light.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
In the last episode, handful of sunglass wearing paramilitary guys
turned away the USS Harlan County and prevented Aristes restoration.
The Haitian military and its henchmen Frapp were ascendant, but
soon power and alliances would dramatically shift again. From Kaleidoscope
(01:23):
and iHeart podcasts, This is Silenced, I'm as Volocian.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
And Anna Arana, This is episode five the Agency.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
One Sunday evening in nineteen ninety five, Haitian Americans across
the US turned on sixty minutes on CBS I'm at
Bradley Tonight on sixty Minutes in the nineteen nineties. This
was the primetime news show with millions of viewers.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
There's so few Haitians on a program like that, So yeah,
everybody I knew was watching.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Eduige Dante cat is now a celebrated author, But that night,
she was twenty six, and like everyone she knew, she
was tuned in, getting ready for an explosive interview ed.
Bradley was about to sit down with the leader of FRAPP,
Emmanuel Toteau Constant b role plays of Toto. Constant walking
(02:54):
the streets of Haiti, Tall, thin with a thick mustache.
This was the man who turned back the USS Holland County,
who'd said he would make Poorlo prince another Mogadishu.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Back then, he was a man on top of his world.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
This is where he can be found today in the
county jail in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Cut to Conston in an orange jumpsuit, towering over his guards.
To all the world, he was the scourge of the US,
having turned around their ship. But that night, speaking from
a cinder block cell, Constant claimed he'd actually been working
for US intelligence. Bradley asked him why he chosen this
(03:36):
moment for that revelation.
Speaker 8 (03:38):
I've been betrayed, I've been emiliated, and I think it's
about time for the world on the American public to
note that me, Emmanuel Total Constant is not what they're saying.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Constin claimed that shortly after Steed's ouster, he began spending
a lot of time with the CIA station chief in Haiti.
Every day, the chief would pick Constant up in his
car and they drive and talk. He claimed to have
a code name and an agency walkie talkie. He also
(04:19):
said he was paid around seven hundred dollars a month
in cash.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
I don't think that particular declaration was expected.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Edwich was shocked.
Speaker 7 (04:29):
Every once in a while, it happens where you have
someone who comes out of these situations and tells a
bit of truth.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Constant was saying what many of the VAO broadcasters had
been saying all along, that members of FRAPP had the
backing of US intelligence.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
I think a lot of people had suspected that he
was in some ways supported by the United States. Like
I don't think everybody knew to what extent if somewhere
had said it, like if one of these folks on
the radio would have said it, they would have been
like huh, you know, but out of his own mouth,
(05:11):
it's just like, WHOA.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
I feel like that beautiful woman that everybody wants to
go to bed with at night secretly, and this time
I want to date. I want everybody to know that
we are dating Constance.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
As far as he was concerned, was that so called
beautiful woman that the CIA was dating. And now evidently
he felt jilted, so he was out for revenge. He
started telling secrets and threatened to reveal more details of
covert CIA operations unless, of course, he was released from jail.
Speaker 8 (05:48):
We had an understanding, we had an alliance. So if
I'm guilty of those crimes that are accusing me of,
the CIA is also guilty because I knew what you
were doing, Because they knew exactly what I was doing.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
It showed sort of the level of infiltration right into
Haitian politics.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
From the very start of our investigation, there have been
these questions lurking in the shadows of our reporting. What
role was the CIA playing in Haiti and could the
CIA have had something to do with the broadcaster murders
in Miami. This interview with Toto Constant brought the question
out of the shadows and into the spotlight after it aired,
(06:36):
According to press reports, the US government began to scramble
at the highest levels, and within a few months Constant
was released from jail on one condition that he kept
his mouth shut. First he turned around a US Navy ship.
And now he seemed to have successfully blackmailed the US government.
(06:57):
So what did Constant know that was so so explosive
and could it have something to do with the murders
in Miami.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Constance's interview was riveting television. It's rare to hear an
intelligence asset just lay things bare like that. But during
the Cold War the CIA interferre blatantly in many Latin
American countries.
Speaker 9 (07:22):
The CIA's secret war in Central America became a little
less secret. Today, Soviet made weapons have been secretly turned
over to the CIA to arm US back guerrillas.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
The goal was to stop the spread of communism throughout
the continent.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
The CIA has provided anti Sandinista rebels with planes used
in bombing raids.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
They claimed they were trained and financed by the CIA.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
So Anna. The CIA's activities in Latin America throughout the
Cold War are well documented, I guess, but what without
too specifically in Haiti.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
I think the problem for Haiti was that it's right
next to Cuba, and there was always concern that Cuban
communism would come over. I found some fascinating CIA analysis
get online concerns that quote a desperate Haitian government might
eventually turn to the USSR.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So this was real cold warrior stuff happening right at
the end of the eighties. But why choose someone like
Constan as a partner in all of this?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Well, Constanta is your typical Latin American right winger, upper class,
fluent in English, or an educated I met a bunch
of these types reporting in Latin America. They had a
knack for convincing you as intelligence that they thought like
them and could help them achieve their goals for a
little money.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
But the one thing I've been wondering about ever since
seeing that sixty minutes interview is could there be any
connection between all of this and the murders in the
le eity. Constant represented everything that the VEUO broadcasters would protest,
and at the same time he was definitively in cahoots
with the CIA.
Speaker 6 (09:05):
It's market territory because once we start to talk about
the CIA, people tend to believe conspiracy theories and go
down this rabbit holes. I know that's what people sometimes
like to do on podcasts. So let's start with the
facts and go back to assume conversation we had with
an all colleague of mine.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
The CI's most powerful weapon abroad is was, and will
forever be, a suitcase crammed with one hundred dollars bills.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Tim Weiner has covered the CIA for a long time.
He reported on a Haitian intelligence service created by the CIA.
Speaker 10 (09:45):
The CIA, after Baby Duck Fell in nineteen eighty six,
created a Haitian intelligence service is step Reice, Intelligence and Nacional,
which has thefortunate acronyms SIN.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
The CIA intended SIN to be a counter narcotics force
in Haiti to stop the movement of cocaine through the island,
something like a Haitian FBI. There was just one problem.
The Haitian army was in charge of SIN, but they
also controlled the cocaine trade, the military, the narcos, the
Haitian FBI. In reality, they were all the same people.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
So the CI was enriching military drug traffickers who were
also using the money they gained by drug traffic to
oppress the people of Haiti.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
The CIA's attempt to quote unquote stabilize the island helped
turn Haiti into a narco paradise, but the agency could
accept some unintended negative consequences in their game to keep
Haiti from turning communists. Then the emergence of Aristeed confirmed
their worst fears, a full blown leftist priest railing against
(10:59):
the corrupt military, capitalism, and US influence. This was the
opposite of what the CIA wanted. Risteed won a landslide election,
but within a few months he was gone overthrown by
the military, and.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
By a shocking coincidence, some of the people who were
the coup leaders were also paid CIA agents.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That's right, several of the military officers who led the
coup against Aristide were on the CIA's payroll at the time.
There were even rumors that the guy at the top,
Raoul Cedras, was an asset and that the CIA had
greenlit the overthrow of Aristide. After the coup, the CIA
(11:51):
claimed to cut off relationships with its friends in the military,
but the CIA's leading analyst for the region reported to
Congress that the newly deposed president had not been fit
to lead.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
The gist of his reporting was that Arispeed was at
times irrational. According to these officials, Aristage suffer's bouts of depression,
displays symptoms of megalomania and often loses touch with realities.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
A Republican senator used the CIA assessment to publicly brand
him a quote psychopath. The analysis was based on questionable
evidence that the CIA had gathered from paid assets, one
of whom was Toto Constant.
Speaker 9 (12:37):
Did you give them copies of some of his medical files?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:42):
I did.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Watching the sixty minutes interview with Constant in light of
Tim Winer's revelations about the CIA's role in Haiti, helped
me understand that there was an invisible force connecting all
these events that seemed so implausible. In October nineteen ninety three,
when a few dozen armed men turned around a US
(13:05):
Navy ship. At the time, it seemed like a dangerous situation. Remember,
we talked to people who were there who felt their
lives had been at risk, but Constance said it was
all just theater.
Speaker 8 (13:24):
I guarantee that the demonstration was simply a media frenzy
that we wanted to create. No life was threatened.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Constant told sixty Minutes that he didn't formed the CIA
station chief in Haiti in advance of his planned to
stage a protest on the dock, but that message never
reached the White House. In fact, the CIA actually told
Clinton the opposite, that they did think the protests posed
a threat and recommended that the President turn the ship around,
(13:58):
which he did. Clinton's own intelligence service had manipulated him,
and when this came out on Sixty Minutes, it was
a huge embarrassment for the president. Constant aired a lot
of dirty laundry. He didn't stay locked up for long.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Total Constant was sprung from prison and re should feel
that he wouldn't go back to prison if he refrained
from discussing his relationship with the CIA.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So what else did Constant know? What else could he
expose that the government was so anxious to keep quiet?
Could there be a connection to murders on us soil?
That's after the break, so Anna, I have to be
(14:57):
honest with you, and you know this pretty well by now.
But ever since I read your report in the CPJ
about the murders in Little Haiti, one of the things
that fascinated me the most are these hints of some
kind of conspiracy involving US intelligence.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
I know that's way up, you're really That's one of
the main reasons I hesitated to work on this story
with you at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Well, that and you were wondering if I was still
wearing diapers. But what is it about this particular issue
that makes you recoil?
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Well, it's my training, ass and it's one thing for
me to acknowledge the agency's involvement in Latin America, But
the CIA is expressly forbidden from operating on US soil,
and unless I have evidence.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Right, But you know what about the Bay of Pigs
invasion fermented in Miami of all places.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
Sure, yeah, but that was in the sixties and it
was a disaster. I think they learned a lesson from that.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
But here and me for a second. Here, we know
that THEO were the explicit enemy of the cocaine colonels,
and we know from Tim Winer that many of the
cocaine colonels who overthrew Aristide were themselves being paid by
the CIA. So is it that far fetched to think
(16:14):
that somebody in Haiti who may have approved these murders
was themselves a CIA asset?
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Yeah? Being an asset, that's one thing. Being an agent
as another. I think having been ordered by the General
Saint Haiti is one thing, but that doesn't mean that
the chain of command went to the CIA.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, let's stick with the General's idea for a second,
because even if it was ordered by them, and they
were being paid by the CIA at the time, what
does that say about the agency's responsibility. And I do
want to pick up on what you just said about
who may have ordered it, because it makes me think
back to some of the court filings. And in particular,
two detectives went to go and see Billie Alexander in jail,
(16:55):
the trigger man on the Fritz door and John Claude murders,
and he said to them, what if I told you
these murders had been ordered from Haiti.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
It was a rumor going around in little Haiti at
the time, but we don't know for sure. In my experience,
a lot of people from countries like Haiti who have
been battered by US policy and intelligence I have a
tendency where they see the CIA hiding behind every tree.
Sure it is possible, but every unsolved murder is not
(17:27):
a CIA plot.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
But when we went to go and see Detective irvins Ford,
who's one of the most senior Haitian American law enforcement
officials in Miami. He told us the same thing that
Billy said, who do you say was most threatened in
Miami by the power and influence the video?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
The generals that was behind the scene.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Remember Tim Winer told us at the time that many
of those generals were tied to the CIA. The head
of the military, Raoul Cedras, was reportedly in constant communication
with the agency, was on the payroll. And if detective forward,
and it's not just Ford, but if Detective Ford is
right that the motive for the murders did originate in
(18:09):
Haiti with senior military figures, then is it really so
much of a stretched hypothesize that they may have sought
the CIA's approval in advance. And these radio guys, how
youscribed them earlier, were effectively.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Kingmakers still are today.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And so there was must there's a fear from the
military guys that if these guys voices got too loud,
they could change the US political quantum.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
They could change the US Over the years. This is
not something I've been personally involved in. CIA has been
involved there. There's always a large percentage of Haitians who
strongly believe the US allowed chaos there for their own gain.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Here was a senior Haitian American law enforcement official implying
that the pro democracy movement in Little Haiti was maybe
getting too powerful for the CIA's comfort, threatening to ultimately
bring down their preferred partners in Haiti. A nineteen ninety
four Washington Post article revealed that the CIA was monitoring
(19:17):
the leader of the pro democracy movement in Miami, Father
Jean Just. We asked Irvin's Ford about that the keeping
tabs on Jean just as far as you know.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
This rule, this rulemort, I wouldnt doubt it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It wouldn't doubt it.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I wouldnt doubt it, no, because he started becoming very,
very influential. It's almost like when he spoke he had
thirty forty thousand Haitians in Miami that would literally do witty.
He became it was very powerful here.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
I want mention.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Him that he was trying to sort of build something
similar to Martin Luther King.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
I would say more like Malcolm X.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Larry Rocher of the New York Times told us that
Father Jeans himself was far too high profile for anyone
to attack directly, but the picking off his senior followers
could undermine the whole movement. And when we interviewed historian
Robert Faton I told him that many at the time
thought the CIA was somehow involved in the broadcaster murders.
(20:23):
I wanted to tread carefully even bring this up.
Speaker 11 (20:26):
Well, I think the CIA, if they were not necessarily
directly involved, but they clearly gave a green light because
those guys were on the payroll.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
To be clear, Robert doesn't know whether the CIA had
any involvement in the radio murders, but he does believe
that since the CIA greenlit all of the important decisions
made by the military leaders in Haiti at the time,
those military leaders had a broad mandate and a sense
of impunity.
Speaker 11 (20:52):
They were on the payroll of the CIA, and that
was known and it became officially known. This is not
some sort of Haitian imagination. This was very real.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I still don't think it's the last word on the
Miami murders. We don't have documents, and the CIA is
a black box.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Well, there is an archive of documents where if the
smoking gun exists, it's likely to be hidden and we'll
get to that after the break. But meantime, the military
in Haiti was starting to overplay their hand, and even
the CIA was struggling to protect their old friends.
Speaker 11 (21:30):
They are not fooling around. The planes are in the air,
so either you desist or is it going to come
for you.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That's after the break.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
After the failed attempt to return our state to power
in late nineteen ninety three, the brutality of the military
regime went into overdrive. The chaos being created by the
generals and power had real consequences for Haitians. Total Constan
and his forces went door to door in one neighborhood,
(22:10):
slaughtering our state supporters. It was known as the Rabbato massacre.
So people were risking their lives and record numbers to
flee to Miami in rickety boats.
Speaker 12 (22:22):
There was both people crisis at the time, a really
acute one.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Michelle Montaz of Radio It was an exile in the US.
She watched as boats arrived by the hundreds.
Speaker 12 (22:35):
And people were drowning because those boats were not safe
and the US public was not really ready to hear
of dead bodies. A few miles from the coast of Florida,
the fact that so many people were fleeing Haiti was
helping us to convince the US that something had to
(22:57):
be done.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
The images on the news of where a problem for
President Clinton, who was facing reelection. Pressure grew for the
US to act.
Speaker 9 (23:07):
If democracy fails, we faced the prospect of tens, if
not hundreds, of thousands of refugees fleeing that country, with
their destination being the United States, particularly Florida.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
In September nineteen ninety four, Clinton turned up the heat.
He began to assemble troops for an invasion.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
The message of the United States to the Haitian dictators
is clear, your time is up. Leave now, or we
will force you from power.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
As a last ditch measure, he sent a delegation to
Haiti to try to persuade the generals to step aside peacefully.
Speaker 11 (23:48):
And the story is that when Clinton got serious and
sent Sam Nunn and Colint Powell and the Jimmy Carter
to Hate to tell the military that if they didn't desist,
they would be attacked.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Haitian historian Robert Fatton he told us Sadras thought Clinton
was just bluffing.
Speaker 11 (24:11):
Sidas didn't believe it because he said, you know, I'm
bid bad. Now, what the hell are you talking about.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He had been in contact with the CIA throughout this
whole time and may have felt protected by that relationship.
After all, every other time the Haitian military had faced
down the US government, the US government had blinked.
Speaker 11 (24:33):
And then apparently there was a phone call from someone
from Fort Bragg that he knew. He said, they are
not fooling around. The planes are in the air. So
either you desisted or is it going to come for you.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Clinton was serious. Nearly twenty five thousand troops were on
their way to Haiti.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Today.
Speaker 10 (24:51):
Another American warship left Norfolk bound for Haiti to get
in place for a possible invasion.
Speaker 9 (24:56):
The US aircraft carrier Voaded with helicopters has headed for
the tonight.
Speaker 11 (25:01):
So in a matter of a few minutes they decide, okay, fine,
that's okay, we are going to depart.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
At the last moment, Sadras agreed to step down, and
he got a sweetheart deal in the process. He received housing, transportation,
living expenses in exile worth more than a million dollars
before he left. The American embassy even paid to rent
Sadras's house. His beach house and his mother in law's house.
Speaker 11 (25:31):
There is a moment where I remember watching CNN when
they were showing the potential departure of the army and
said that As was supposed to be there and he
was not showing up, and the CNN guy said that
there must be some problem in the agreement. It wasn't
that they were signing contracts for renting the houses of Siddhas.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Despite everything he'd done, the US was literally paying off
Sadras and allowing him to leave unscathed, Unlike the thousands
who'd fled his regime's violence, some of whom drowned at
sea trying to reach safety. Sadras went into exile in Panama,
and the rest of the coup leaders scattered too, including
(26:17):
Toto Constant, who ended up in the US, where he
gave that sixty minutes interview and was then released. He
became a New York City realtor and was later jailed
again for mortgage fraud and larceny, not murder or torture
or assassination. Decades later, he was ultimately deported to Haiti. Meanwhile,
(26:39):
Aristide had been restored to the Haitian presidency in nineteen
ninety four, but as a condition of his return he
had to accept some terrible compromises. He had to grant
amnesty to the military and by extension, FRAPP. When the
US military arrived to facilitate the transfer of power, they
(27:01):
raided the FRAPP and Army headquarters and found a trove
of one hundred and sixty thousand pages of documents. The
Airasi government demanded the return of those documents, saying that
they might reveal details about the CIA's dealings with Frapp
that could aid their prosecution, but the US never gave
back the documents. We tried to get our hands on
(27:23):
them too, but they remain tantalizingly out of reach. So
if there is a smoking gun in the FRAP documents
regarding the Miami murders, will likely never know.
Speaker 6 (27:48):
Next time we track down one person who may know more,
Lewis Thermatus. Oh h, we're journalists. There's Luis Armatus.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Silenced is a Kaleidoscope content original produced by Margaret Catcher,
Jen Kinney, and Padwini Rugunov, research assistance from Sybylla Phipps,
Jeremy big Wood, and Kira Sinis. Edited by Lacy Roberts
Executive produced by Kate Osborne, reported and hosted by Anna
(28:33):
Arana and me Osvaaloshan. Fact checking kry Nicole Pasorca. Music
by Oliver Rodigan aka k Denzer, Mix and sound design
by Kyle Murdoch. Thanks to mangosh Ha, Tikta, Costaslinas and
viny Shuri. Our executive producers That I Heart are Katrina
Novel and Nikki Etour. If you like what you hear,
(28:56):
please rate, review, share, and subscribe to our channel. Thank you,
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