New peer-reviewed article

I have a new research article on Haiti published in the journal Third World Quarterly. It can be read here.  Also listen here for a related recent interview that I did with Pacifica Radio's show Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod.  I was also quoted in the Miami Herald in regards to this research.

New TWQ article on one of those countries apparently denigrated by Donald Trump: Global capitalism, Haiti, and the flexibilisation of paramilitarism https://t.co/4moFZdZQBy

— thirdworldq (@thirdworldq) January 15, 2018

Call for Papers: Paramilitarism in Global Perspective

See below the CFP for a new edited volume that I am co-editting:

The Political Violence of Capital: Paramilitary Formations

In Global Perspective

Editors: Jasmin Hristov, Jeb Sprague-Silgado and Aaron Tauss

         We are seeking proposals /abstracts of 500 words maximum for chapter contributions to the volume. We encourage submissions of proposals for works that address paramilitary violence in any part of the world. The deadline for submitting a proposal is December 1, 2016. Please include your full name, institutional affiliation, and current position in the same Word document as the abstract. Acceptance notification will be sent out by December 15. If accepted, contributors will be given a general list of guiding questions that should be addressed in their work and completed chapters would be due by March 15, 2017. 

     Please insert in the subject line of your email: “paramilitary proposal” and send your document as an attachment to: jasminmanaus[at]gmai[dot]com

      Paramilitary violence is a specific type of violence exercised by non-state actors and/or state agents operating outside the boundaries of legality, on behalf of economically and politically powerful social forces. Its objectives typically revolve around attacking social movements, activists, Leftist politicians and other individuals or groups who challenge the established social order, as well as facilitating land acquisition through the forced displacement of civilians from land of strategic economic importance. Paramilitary groups may also perform other functions such as ‘social cleansing’, and ‘protection’ of private property. Despite its anti-democratic character, over the past decades paramilitarism has evolved as a revamped strategy pursued by dominant groups and elites operating through different state apparatuses primarily in developing countries. Today paramilitary formations are present in varying degrees across the Americas and other areas worldwide. A central characteristic common to all is their alliance with capital and, frequently, a mutually supportive relationship with the state’s coercive apparatus and possibly other state institutions, ranging from complicity to active collaboration. In nations where economic elites are contesting reformist, nationalist, or Left-oriented governments, paramilitary groups have been used to destabilize the regime and undermine its popular support. As is well documented, paramilitary actors have been responsible for some of the most horrifying human rights violations and yet this type of violence is very poorly understood and investigated. In part, this has to do with the fact that paramilitaries are often categorized as “organized crime” which strips the political motivations and social consequences of their actions. 

     This edited volume examines the pervasive and persistent but little understood phenomenon of paramilitarism and its varying expressions throughout the world. Our aim is to reveal some of the most common features that characterize paramilitary groups such as: a)  use of violence to facilitate the accumulation of capital accumulation by transnational corporations and local companies integrated within the global  economy; b) engagement in human rights violations and illegal activities; c) attacks against social movements, Leftist organizations or individuals, and poor rural or urban communities; d)  collaboration with sectors of national and/or transnational state forces, e)  ‘security’ as an ideological cover, and f) a trend towards flexibilization and decentralization of forces. The objective is to compile empirically-oriented investigations that enable us to theorize and understand the role of paramilitaries in the processes of capitalist globalization and the increasing exacerbation of social inequalities. We are especially interested in demonstrating that although frequently the lines between paramilitarism and organized crime are blurry and fluid, paramilitary violence has comparatively much deeper implications and hence cannot simply be reduced to criminal activities. We are also open to exploring different possible configurations in the relationship between paramilitary groups, rival political factions, organized crime, and other actors. 

   

Symposium on Paramilitarism in the Modern Americas, November 12-13

See below, for information on an upcoming symposium at the University of Arizona, where I will be presenting updated material related to my 2012 book and put forward a theoretical approach for understanding the "flexibilization" of paramilitarism in the context of global economic restructuring.

Interview on Anti-War Radio (this Tuesday)

I will be talking about U.S. foreign policy and my forthcoming book (on Haiti) this Tuesday (at 12:30 in the afternoon east coast time) on Anti-War Radio aired in the U.S. states of Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Texas.

Interview on KPFT

Here is the interview I did on KPFT's Human Rights Show, this last Friday (November 25th). This show airs on 90.1 FM in the greater Houston, Galveston, and upper Texas Gulf Coast (and affiliates). 

WikiLeaks Reveal: U.S. and UN Officials Oversaw Integration of Ex-Army Paramilitaries into Haiti’s Police Force

by Jeb Sprague

[This article will appear this week in the newspaper Haiti Liberté]

Throughout 2004 and 2005, Haiti’s unelected de facto authorities, working alongside foreign officials, integrated at least 400 ex-army paramilitaries into the country’s police force, secret U.S. Embassy cables reveal.

            For a year and a half following the ouster of Haiti’s elected government on Feb. 29, 2004, UN, OAS, and U.S. officials, in conjunction with post-coup Haitian authorities, vetted the country’s police force – officer by officer – integrating paramilitaries with the goal of both strengthening the force and providing an alternative “career path” for paramilitaries.

Letter to the Guardian Regarding its Venezuela Coverage

See here a letter that myself and others have published in The Guardian calling for more attention on the hundreds of Venezuelan peasants that have been murdered by right wing paramilitaries and gunmen hired by wealthy land owners. Read the entire letter here.   The full letter with additional signatures is published on Venezuelanalysis.

Report on Ex-FAd’H camp near Port-au-Prince (March, 2011)

Ex-FAd'H LT Jeune Aduen Moniteur stands in front of a Duvalierist flag.

(Photos: Jeb Sprague,2011)

In March of 2011, Isabeau Doucet (a journalist writing for the Guardian & the Christian Science Monitor) and I located the ex-FAd’H (Forces armées d'Haïti--Haiti's former military) camp that was recently covered in an article by the Associated Press.  Below I describe some of what I found and related information: