a134: Ecuador-Haiti (new story)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ANDRES CALA

   SANTO DOMINGO, Dec 25 (AP) -- Ecuador deported a suspected planner of a
failed Haitian coup to the Dominican Republic Tuesday, where he eluded
authorities trying to block his entry.
   The Dominican Foreign Ministry had ordered officials to detain Guy
Philippe, the former police chief of Cap-Haitien in northern Haiti, and
send him back to Ecuador. But an officer failed to make the needed
arrangements, said Gen. Fernando Cruz, head of the National Department of
Investigations.
   "We are trying to locate him to deport him back to Ecuador," Cruz said.
   On Dec. 17, two dozen gunmen launched a failed assault against Haiti's
National Palace. A man captured in the raid said Philippe had attended a
meeting in the Dominican Republic at which the coup was planned. Philippe
has denied involvement.
   Philippe arrived in Ecuador the day after the coup attempt on a flight
from Panama. Haiti asked Ecuador to extradite him, but authorities decided
to deport him to Panama, the country from which he arrived.
   But Panamanian authorities refused to let him enter and Ecuador then
decided to send him to the Dominican Republic.
   The Dominican Republic and Haiti -- which share the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola -- do not have an extradition treaty and have a history of
strained relations. The Dominican Republic has often refused to hand over
those suspected of political crimes in Haiti.