25211: Simidor: (comment) Haiti's urban guerilla (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: daniel simidor <danielsimidor@yahoo.com>

Rape, kidnapping and all-around violence are
dramatically on the rise in Port-au-Prince.  The
maquiladora bosses are about to throw in the towel --
we just can’t operate under these conditions, they
say.  Haiti’s top cop, Leon Charles, declares that
Haiti is facing “a situation of urban guerilla.”  The
police can’t cope, he says.  The insecurity is the
result of both common crime and a political campaign
that seeks “to destabilize the country,” he adds.

Aristide was actually quite clever.  He disbanded the
military and armed his supporters to replace them.
Whether he envisioned it that way or not,
Port-au-Prince’s surrounding slums have become a
no-man’s land where the deadliest or most
sophisticated of US troops dare not enter (not worth
the risk, they say).  The Lavalas “Chimères” are the
latest of Haiti’s king-makers.  Too bad Aristide’s
cleverness is not more beneficial to the country....