23552: Severe: Reply to 23538/ Adding to the Tedium (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Constantin Severe <csevere@hotmail.com>

I must admit when it comes to M.Latortue I am of two minds. Looking at his
resume, he would seem the perfect candidate for interim PM. International
experience, no political affiliations, removed from the effort to oust
Aristide, and no real hope for a political future.  Looking back at his
tenure so far, I think Latortue's lack of political experience have hurt him
and Haiti. The man has no real base of support and is the habit of making
statements that come back to bite him in the rear

So where do we go from here? In a functioning democracy the current
government would have been subject to a vote of no confidence already,  but
we are speaking of Haiti so the "Rule of Leadership #1: No Consequences to
me, but to the People" applies. Failing that elections need to happen as
soon as possible, Haiti is currently in a state of inertia due to a lack of
effective leadership and the government not having a popular mandate. Of
course elections can't occur under the current conditions but the current
conditions can theoretically last years.

So that brings us to the UN doing what it said it was going to do when the
security council authorized MINUSTAH. The UN forces in Haiti need to be
raised to effective levels. When you look back to the successful
peacekeeping operations for the last decade or so there has been the
involvement of a strong regional power like Austrailia in East Timor or NATO
in Bosnia. I almost choke on the words, but the US is going to have to get
more involved in Haiti. The Miami Herald has called for the Marines to be
sent back to Haiti.  I don't know if that would be ideal given the level of
antipathy felt by many sectors towards the current US administration.

Latortue's tenure doesn't necessarily have to end in failure the man is
obviously bright and engergetic. His government has made some small steps of
progress when the country hasn't been submerged in the latest crisis.