27119: Arthur (reply) Re: 27102:(Question)Re: 27097 Preval & Lespwa (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Charles Arthur replies:

I don't know exactly what the Haiti en Marche editorial was referring to either,
but I do know that Preval's LESPWA platform is an alliance of the Parti Louvri
Barye (PLB?Open the Gate Party), and the Koordinasyon Resistans Grandans
(Eskanp-Korega?Grandans Resistance Coordination).

Some people will remember that the PLB was part of the Lavalas Political
Platform (PPL)(together with the OPL and MOP) that contested the 1995 elections
- elections that were a comprehensive victory for the PPL. Later when the PPL
fell apart - notably over differences about the neo-liberal economic reforms
demanded by the IMF/World Bank - some of those parliamentarians elected on a
PPL ticket formed the anti-neo-liberal Eskanp-Korega party. Therefore it is
correct to say that the PLB and Eskanp-Korega has enjoyed some success as
representatives of what can still be described as Lavalas.

More recently, in the 2000 elections, two candidates from the PLB, and one
candidate from Eskanp-Korega, were elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Nearly
all the other 83 seats went to Lavalas Family candidates. So, some more success
for the PLB/Eskanp-Korega parties that are now part of LESPWA platform.

Two LESPWA candidates for the Senate in the forthcoming elections (if they ever
happen!) are Jean Maxime Roumer, standing in the Grand'Anse, and Kely Bastien,
standing in the North. Roumer was a PPL Senator 1995-1999. Bastien was a PPL
Deputy, and head of the Chamber, 1995-1999.

In the 5 January 2000 issue of Haiti Progres newspaper, we read that "For
years,Korega has been the most popular and powerful organization in the
Grand?Anse." and that Father Joachim Samedi, the curate of the St. Helene
parish in Jérémie is "a Korega leader".

One more comment, according to Radio Kiskeya, the peasant organisation, KOZEPEP,
is also a part of the LESPWA platform. KOZEPEP is the Artibonite-based
organisation closely linked with Radio Haiti Inter's Jean Dominique, who
certainly was a heavyweight of the Lavalas movement until his murder in April
2000.

Finally, we must remember that René Préval himself is an "electoral heavyweight"
because he has already won a presidential election as a 'Lavalas' candidate in
December 1995.