Voodoo and Clinton's fate

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- In this land where witch doctors carry more clout than conventional PhDs or professional campaign advisers, the average citizen has been provided a mind-boggling explanation for why Bill Clinton so handily beat President George Bush in 1992, triumphed to re-election easily in 1996 and is now facing impeachment.

Acting on the advice of a "houngan" or sorcerer, supplied by then-exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Clinton did not change his underwear the last week of the 1992 campaign, voodoo practitioners say.

The same houngan also cast a "malediction" on President Bush by manipulating a doll made in the president's image, goes the story. The torment climaxed when the houngan caused Bush's projectile vomit into the lap of the Japanese prime minister as the world press looked on, disgracing him with the public.

Those and other bizarre stories were being told the Haitian people through the Lavalassien, a newspaper published by Aristide's ruling Lavalas party. They were written by the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, who was a priest in Aristide's entourage. The Rev. Gerard claimed that Aristide had developed a powerful grip on Clinton's psyche through the power of voodoo.

The appeal and belief of voodoo and witchcraft in this largely illiterate nation cannot be overstated. Surveys have put the number of voodoo adherents as high as 85 percent, even among the educated classes. Houngans are even more important in the Haitian capital than psychiatrists are in Washington, D.C.

Grotesque as they are, the stories about voodoo's role in the 1992 election -- and its influence on Clinton are important because officials at Aristide's National Palace accepted them as factually true. They also help explain why Aristide was able to maintain an emotional grip on the Haitian masses, and why he felt he could repudiate promises to hold fair national elections in return for Clinton's help in regaining control of Haiti.

The voodoo scenario is a classic example of how, in a Third World country, what the general public accepts as truth is often more important than the truth itself.

As told in Lavalassien, in the Haiti Observateur, another popular paper, and in private interviews by participants, Clinton staffers first got the idea of invoking voodoo during conversations with Aristide who was living in exile in Washington, D.C. The aim was to learn what the future held for then candidate Clinton, and to cast spells to help influence the election. In return for what the Rev. Gerard called a "large sum of money," a houngan was retained by the Clinton campaign, the story goes, and a "wanga" or malediction was cast upon Bush to cause his electoral defeat. Clinton, for his part, agreed to wear the same pair of underpants the last week of the campaign.

Both Haitian officials and the Haiti Observateur stated that Clinton reaffirmed his faith in voodoo during his March 31, 1995 visit to the island. The official purpose of the visit as told by the American media was to celebrate Haiti's supposed "return to democracy." However, the Haitian press had a much different story. The headlines of the March 29, 1995 issue of the Haiti Observateur read: " CLINTON ASSISTERA A UNE CEREMONIE VAUDOU EN HAITI" (Clinton to assist in a voodoo ceremony in Haiti). The story, confirmed by Haitian officials, stated that initiating Clinton under the power of voodoo had two purposes -- to render him impervious to the attacks of his Republican enemies in Washington, and to guarantee his re-election. While the initiation could protect Clinton from his political enemies, they say, it could not protect him from himself.

The ceremony was said to have been hidden within a public event touted as a dedication of a monument to Haiti's boat people. The focal point was a "magic well" concealed inside a sculptor's rendition of a brick and concrete boat which was hurriedly constructed for the event in the vicinity of Aristide's residence at Tabarre.

It should be noted that Aristide, a de-frocked priest, earlier in 1995 had renounced the Catholic Church and said he was returning to the voodoo faith of his ancestors. In July of the same year, he held a large voodoo congress at the National Palace attended by over 300 leading houngans and "bocors" (black magicians -- including leaders of the dreaded "Bizango Cult," which practices zombification and human sacrifice)). Upon addressing the first voodoo congress, Aristide proclaimed voodoo to be one of the "great religions of the world alongside Christianity, Islam and Judaism and also announced funding for a national voodoo temple. Both Aristide's renunciation of the Catholic Church and his voodoo congress, while widely publicized in the Haitian press, were completely suppressed in the American news media.

In the days leading up to Clinton's visit, according to sources in Haiti, many occult preparations took place. These were intended not only to grant Clinton the power to overcome the challenges facing his presidency and defeat the Whitewater investigations, but also to give Aristide the power to continue to control Clinton.

One account that circulated in Port-au-Prince is that when Aristide dedicated the "secret well" before Clinton's visit that he "shed the blood of a newborn infant in gratitude to the gods whom he believes allowed his return to power." Whether true or not, this report is widely accepted by the Haitian people as fact.

Thereafter, in the days just before Clinton's arrival, according to the Observateur, the well became the scene of eerie nightly voodoo ceremonies with drums and incantations as the site was further empowered and sanctified.

To maximize the occult forces at work, even the date chosen for Clinton's visit -- March 31 -- was part of an elaborate ritual. The digits are the reverse of "13," which the voodoo calendar considers the most propitious date for casting spells. Thus, the voodoo practitioners say, while Clinton believed that he was coming to the well at Tabarre to sell his soul to Lucifer for power and protection through the initiation of voodoo, he was also the victim of a classic Haitian double-cross.

Several persons close to Aristide stated that they believed that Clinton's will and fate would be permanently at the mercy of "Father Aristide" -- a zombie slave so to speak, who would suffer dire consequences if he ever betrayed his pact with the dark forces invoked at Tabarre.

Since then, Clinton forced Aristide to step down at the end of his term and hold more bogus elections. True to his nature, however, Aristide has continued to rule in secret through his hand-picked surrogate, President Renee Preval. Clinton has, according to the voodoo practitioners, also betrayed his old friend by withholding millions of extra dollars that he promised would follow, an act which has undoubtedly resulted in a Haitian revision of Clinton's original contract at Tabarre.

With Clinton now facing impeachment, the Haitian sorcerers are able, once again, to claim credit for the power of their black magic.