Moment of Truth in Haiti

One of the Very
Bad Men mentioned earlier has declared
himself the ruler of Haiti, and threatened to jail the new
prime Minister, a guy by the name of Yvon Neptune. Another, pictured
above, a convicted death squad leader, also wants a piece of the power.
Meanwhile, the new President, by constitutional succession, who took
over when
Aristide fled, is an unfortunate gentleman named Boniface Alexandre,
the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court. He hasn’t been seen in public since
he accepted the position. He seems to be frozen in a deathgrip of panic
and fear, and who can blame him, considering the successive fates of
the last few Presidents of Haiti.

This is the moment of truth for Haiti. Now is the time for the US to
step up to the plate and turn this tragic turmoil into a good thing,
a positive
change.
By
all
accounts
the Rebel
Leader Guy Philippe is a murderer, drug dealer and gangster on a major
scale, not the sort of leader we should be working with.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound as though old Boniface has either the
power base or the intestinal fortitude to pull things together, but there
must be a number of reasonable alternatives. If the US was involved,
directly or indirectly, in the pressure which forced Aristide out, we
are willing to forgive them, or at least give them the benefit of the
doubt until we learn more, if they show they had the foresight to have
a viable "Guy" of their own ready to go, and someone a bit more palatable
than "Guy Phillippe".

Ever since President Monroe came up with the concept that we have an
obligation to keep our hemisphere "safe for democracy" we have periodically
intervened in practically every independent nation in Central America
and the Caribbean. Sometimes we intervene on behalf of the democratic
aspirations of the majority of the population (Aristide I, Grenada) and
sometimes we intervene against them (DOminican Republic and Nicaragua).
Sometimes we install and then remove the same regime (Somoza family)
But we always seemed to have our "Guy" ready to go and our plot well
thought out.

Oh please let this be part of some Machiavellian plot to
install a ivy-trained technocrat
and
not
a
cowardly capitulation
to cheap
thugs
and voudou
charlatans….

story from the New
York Times