18453: Simidor: Give Haiti a chance (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Simidor <karioka9@mail.arczip.com>

A Letter to the Editor:

Re “Haiti’s Descent” (NY Times editorial, Feb. 5)
[Read editorial at http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/1535.htm]

As someone who petitioned and marched over a decade ago to uphold President Aristide’s constitutional mandate against a bloody military junta, I disagree with your prescribed solution to the Haitian crisis. The actual regime in Haiti is democratic in name only. Mr. Aristide came back to power with a weak mandate: less than 15% of the electorate voted in the 2000 presidential elections.  But instead of using his office to heal the country’s wounds, he has unleashed his cohorts to subvert the Constitution and set up a corrupt and repressive regime that harks back to “Haiti's unhappy 200-year history of dictatorships, punctuated by revolutionary upheavals and military coups.”

There is no reasonable expectation of free and fair elections in 2006, with Mr. Aristide in power. “Aristide is king,” shout the rent-a-crowd demonstrations in front of the National Palace. Mr. Aristide, for his part, has stated publicly that his party will remain in control at least through 2015. In this climate, the chances are nil that an independent candidate will be able to lead an undisturbed campaign against the party in power.

The Haitian people are acutely aware that time is running out for their dying country. The needs of the country are too urgent to playact with a president who has betrayed his mandate and every promise made to the people, and who absurdly clings to the legality of his mandate while violating daily the Constitution, the rule of law and the rights of his people. Mr. Aristide should step down to spare the country the tragedy of a civil war or yet another foreign occupation.

Sincerely,

Daniel Simidor
email: karioka9@arczip.com