-Caveat Lector-
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Posted
February 4, 2002 Haiti
Where racketeers rule
Port-Au-Prince A rickety island becomes yet more unstable
SEVEN years after American troops intervened to oust a brutal military regime
and reinstate Haiti's democratically elected president, little has changed in
Latin America's poorest country. Although civilians still rule, President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide - elected again last year after a five-year gap - is
hardly living up to expectations as the great democratic hope.
Serious signs of political instability have also returned. After almost a
decade without a coup, there were two attempts last year, in July and
December. Opposition politicians and journalists have been hounded, and their
offices and homes burned, by the chimère, Mr. Aristide's hired thugs from the
slums.
Meanwhile, the economy has stagnated. Two-thirds of Haiti's 7.8m
inhabitants live in poverty, half of all adults are illiterate, and less
than a quarter of rural children attend primary school. Infant and maternal
mortality rates remain among the highest in the world, and
Haiti produces more new cases of HIV*AIDS each year than
the entire United States.
The government has failed to past a budget in six years. Instead, diplomats
suspect, the country's depleted coffers are being filled with pay-offs from
drug-dealers who use the country to trans-ship an estimated 10-15% of the
cocaine that enters the United States. With notable exceptions - one big
tabacco group is investing $40m in a Hilton franchise by the airport -
private industry is struggling to stay afloat. Some of Haiti's rich families
are selling up and moving abroad. They complain of government corruption and
a dramatic rise in kidnappings by armed gangs, some of whom are thought to
have close links to Mr. Aristide's Lavalas Family party.
The Haitian government blames the rest of the world for blocking $500m in
foreign aid, calling it economic terrorism. But the government spent an
estimated $7m to buy four official mansions, including a $1.5m hilltop spread
for the prime minister. Within the broad ranks of the Lavalas movement, which
first swept Mr. Aristide to power in 1990 as the champion of the poor,
discontent is growing. For the first time, Down with Aristide graffiti have
begun to appear. Small anti-government demonstrations have taken place around
the country, and are ruthlessly put down. On January 27th, the police used
tear-gas and live bullets to disperse a crowd of hundreds who storming a
warehouse in Port-au-
Prince in protest against corruption in a rice-importing programme.
A prospective Hilton Hotel
So far, Mr. Aristide has managed to dodge most of the blame. Last week it was
the turn of his prime minister (boyhood friend), Jean-Marie Cherestal, to
take the fall after the chimère demanded his head. The Mafia wing of the
party is trying to take Aristide hostage, said one member of Lavalas. It's
a bunch of thieves, murderers and racketeers. The president hangs on largely
because of fear of what may follow him. Aristide is one of the more
moderate in his party, says Richard Coles, a former president of the Haitian
Manufacturing Association. Mr. Coles, one of a small group of progressive
businessmen, worries that the severing of international aid merely plays into
the hands of those in Lavalas who don't believe in democracy.
Mr. Aristide himself appears to be aware of the threat
from within. A few days before the attempted coup of December, he delivered a
dressing-down to top Lavalas officials, specially warning them against any
ties to drugs. Government officials now admit that the attempted coup may
have involved dissident Mafia elements within Lavalas, led by a group of
disgraced former officers in Haiti's now-disbanded armed forces under a
former policeman, Guy Philippe. Mr. Philippe, now under arrest in the
Dominican Republic, is one of nine officers who fled Haiti in November 2000
after foolishly approaching the American embassy to seek backing for a coup.
Several are believed to have drug connections.
The government refuses to take any responsibility for its
woes. Instead, it hints at an international conspiracy to sink Mr. Aristide.
Its critics are unimpressed.
The Economist, February 2nd 2002
-
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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