By COHA Research Associate Ritika Singh
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated entire sections of the Republic of Haiti on January 12th intensified an already unbearable burden for the small Caribbean country. Described by the Inter-American Development Bank, without hyperbole, as “the most destructive natural disaster in modern times,” the Port-au-Prince earthquake and its aftershocks have left approximately 230,000 Haitians dead, displaced more than 1.2 million people, and generated an estimated $14 billion in damages.
Plagued by abject poverty and political instability for most its history, Haiti remains perpetually ranked as the most unqualifiedly destitute nation in the Western Hemisphere. Meanwhile, President René Préval continues to be engulfed by international criticism as well as much abuse at home for demonstrating a breathtaking failure in leadership at a time when his country desperately required a firm hand.
Immediately following the earthquake, Préval disappeared from the public arena, and instead of taking control, he chose to all but totally shy away from a decision-making role.
In the aftermath of his nation’s tragedy, President Préval repeatedly was criticized for failing to show leadership in a time of awesome catastrophe. According to Amy Wilentz, at the University of California at Irvine, “President René Préval of Haiti is odd… his reaction to the destruction of his country is to walk around with his shoulders down, like a beaten dog.”
Similarly, Ludovic Comeau, a former chief economist at Haiti’s central bank, said “He just doesn’t have what it takes,” in response to the president’s languorous and demonstrably ineffectual reaction to his county’s calamity. Préval’s elemental competency as president indeed has been called into question, both among Haitians and from all corners of the international community.
Plummeting Leadership Qualities
At a mass grave for earthquake victims, mourners railed against Préval, telling reporters that his pathetic behavior was as “expected” and that the country needed “someone competent to take charge.” In a country as fragile and ripped apart as Haiti, Préval’s primary aim should have been to reassure and unite his people when they were suffering most and required constant reassurances.
Instead, his invisibility, if not quietism, has triggered anger and resentment among the ranks of a legion of current critics, further exacerbating an already spear-headed political situation.
From the beginning of the crisis, COHA was told by Préval’s battalion of critics that he has turned out to be a totally inept emergency leader (for a country undergoing the most severe emergency in its history). One can think of almost no country in the world that would have so pathetically handled its post-earthquake situation, while it appeared to be totally paralyzed.
Préval and Aristide: An Ancient Relationship Gone Sour
René Préval spent the majority of his political career linked to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide with Aristide repeatedly being described by average Haitians as “a fiery populist demagogue who could command Haiti’s poor masses as firmly as Moses did the Red Sea.”
Aristide had electrified the country with his 1990 presidential campaign and then went on to win the election by an overwhelming majority. Haitians called the two men, who had been the best of friends as well as the closest of political allies for years, “the Twins.”
When Aristide was inaugurated in 1991 for his first presidential term, Préval was his immediate choice to be prime minister. However, less than a year into Aristide’s second term, his Parliament – led by René Préval – usurped his authority in a no confidence vote. Aristide attempted to rule without parliamentary support, but eventually was ousted by a military coup and was forced into exile by a US-Canadian, French and UN complot.
Upon his election, Préval now began to downplay his links to Aristide, eventually, running for the presidency in his known name in 1996 on a completely new platform and under the banner of his own LESPWA party. After several decades of being roiled by dictatorships and political unrest, the philosophical, soft-spoken, and indecisive professional agronomist appealed to a country that he hoped was looking for a level-headed and highly regarded politician to calm the country’s turbulent political atmosphere.
Préval took office amid high expectations that he would end the country’s long and tormented history of violence and economic stagnation.
Préval as a Ruler
Préval eventually turned on Aristide in order to cravenly expedite his own political aspirations. Préval was elected for a second term in 2006 after two years of intense political strife that eventually required the presence of Brazilian-led international peacekeeping forces in Haiti. Claiming the vote count was being conducted in a fraudulent manner, Préval demanded that he immediately be declared the winner.
After protests and riots had paralyzed Port-au-Prince, the Provisional Electoral Council appointed him president with 51.15% of the vote. Préval then proceeded to disqualify fifteen political parties, including Aristide’s still popular Lavalas party, from taking part in this year’s elections.
Opposition leaders, including Aristide (who, even in exile, remained highly popular with poverty-stricken Haitians) have accused Préval of restructuring the Parliament in order to facilitate the constitutional changes necessary for him to run for a third term in November 2010.
However, prospects for Préval’s third term look anything but promising for the president, who said in a radio interview after the earthquake: “I don’t do politics, okay?” Opposition parties are using Préval’s woeful and inadequate response to the earthquake as an opportunity to further stomp on his ailing administration.
Evans Paul, a longtime opposition figure, condemned Préval when he declared, “During the greatest disaster Haiti has ever faced, our president has been incapable of pulling himself together, much less this deeply divided society. He has single-handedly shown the Haitian people that he cannot lead them.”
During Préval’s first term in office, he was credited with building dozens of public schools, putting thousands of people to work, and issuing titles to thousands of hectares of farmland. In his second term, Haiti experienced modest, but hopeful levels of economic growth.
Unfortunately, Préval’s inaction since the earthquake has overshadowed all of the achievements of his previous incumbencies. Indeed, he seems to have sealed his political destiny forever.
Judith Marceline, a Haitian woman who lost everything after the quake except for the clothes she was wearing, may have described it best: “I stood in line for hours to vote for Mr Préval in 2006. Today, I wonder why I supported him.”
Rene Préval now has been working breathlessly to prove to a hopelessly skeptical world that he is no longer standing on the sidelines in the aftermath of the disaster. Struggling to counter the perception by the international community that Haiti’s government is scarcely better than a Mickey Mouse game, he has vowed that “Haiti will live on after the quake.”
The Haitian president came to Washington on March 10th with a game plan and a list of priorities for Haiti’s recovery effort. His request for continued help from the US came two weeks before international donors would meet at the United Nations on March 31st to plot the country’s long-term reconstruction. Préval is hoping the US will play a leading role at the conference and will drum up support among donors who largely had frozen funding to the government because of Haiti’s legendary history of corruption and squandered aid.
Préval says he is working hard to meet the demands of the Haitian people and the international community in facilitating the estimated $11.5 billion reconstruction effort needed to rebuild the devastated country, although it is likely that many will remain skeptical of such claims.
As coverage of the earthquake fades from the front pages of newspapers, Haiti needs an effective leader now more than ever. The leadership vacuum that the country now faces becomes more apparent every day as the country struggles to recover and rebuild its most basic institutions and infrastructure.
Although Préval may be taking important steps behind the scenes, simply helping to manage the large-scale reconstruction effort is not enough. The country needs more than an administrator in these trying times – it needs a president. In this respect, President Préval woefully has let his country down.
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being "one of the nation's most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers." For more information, visit www.coha.org
March 25, 2010
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Showing posts with label René Préval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label René Préval. Show all posts
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Haiti president describes `unimaginable' catastrophe; thousands feared dead
By JACQUELINE CHARLES, CAROL ROSENBERG, JEAN-CYRIL PRESSOIR AND JIM WYSS
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitian President René Préval issued an urgent appeal for his earthquake-shattered nation Wednesday, saying he had been stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped under the rubble of the national Parliament.
Préval, in his first interview since the earthquake, said the country was destroyed and he believed there were thousands of people dead but was reluctant to provide a number.
``We have to do an evaluation,'' Préval said, describing the scene as ``unimaginable.''
``Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,'' he said. ``There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.''
The U.N. said casualties were ``vast'' but impossible to calculate.
The International Red Cross said a third of Haiti's nine million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge, the Associated Press reported.
As the scope of the damage was becoming clear Wednesday, some Haitians were crossing the border into the Dominican Republic.
``I don't have work, I don't have a future here,'' said Antonio Bacevil, 39, a farmer wearing ragged shorts and muddy boat shoes who was on his way to Santiago. ``What you see is what I have. . . . A lot of people are dead.''
The U.S. State Department said there are 45,000 American citizens living in Haiti and efforts were being made to locate them. Of the more than 170 personnel at the U.S. Embassy, eight were injured, four of them seriously enough to be evacuated by the Coast Guard, officials said in a briefing.
Préval said he had traveled through several neighborhoods and seen the damage. ``All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe,'' he said.
The U.N. said Haiti's principal prison had collapsed and inmates had escaped.
A Florida-based shipper said the cranes at the Port-au-Prince cargo pier had toppled into the water and that much of the pier was destroyed.
The second story and dome of the ornate Presidential Palace pancaked onto the first floor. The Parliament was also in ruins, trapping Senate President Kely Bastien, Préval said.
The body of the Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, the Associated Press reported.
In Washington Wednesday, President Barack Obama said search-and-rescue teams from Florida, California and Virginia were on their way to Haiti and that USAID would be coordinating a broad-based effort to take food, water and emergency supplies to the nation.
``We have to be there for them in their hour of need,'' he said.
The military also swung into action early Wednesday, moving a 30-member advance team from Southern Command in Miami by C-130 cargo plane to work with U.S. Embassy personnel and sending a Navy reconnaissance plane from a U.S base in Comalpa, El Salvador, to study the quake damage. The Navy also diverted the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Haiti. It was expected to be off the coast Thursday.
According to media reports, survivors were digging through the rubble and stacking bodies along the streets of Haiti's capital after the powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation Tuesday afternoon. The earthquake has left the nation virtually isolated, with countless crumbled buildings, including the six-story United Nations headquarters.
The U.N. confirmed five of its workers had been killed and more than 100 were missing. Among those unaccounted for were the mission chief, Hédi Annabi, and his deputy, the U.N. said Wednesday.
Brazil's army said at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed, while Jordan's official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed, the AP reported.
Préval said he has not slept since the earthquake. Others slept in the streets fearing their homes would be toppled by aftershocks.
``This is a catastrophe,'' the first lady, Elisabeth Préval, said. ``I'm stepping over dead bodies. A lot of people are buried under buildings. The general hospital has collapsed. We need support. We need help. We need engineers.''
While official details about the scope of the damage were scarce, eyewitness accounts and media reports painted a picture of widespread destruction that could leave thousands dead.
A hospital was reported to have collapsed and people were heard screaming for help, and the World Bank offices in Petionville were also destroyed, but most of the staff were safely accounted for, the organization said.
Part of the road to Canape Vert, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, has collapsed, along with houses perched in the mountains of Petionville, where the quake was centered. Petionville is a suburb about 10 miles from downtown Port-au-Prince.
As the damage mounted, Florida Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pressed Obama for immediate humanitarian aid for Haiti and renewed their request for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals residing in the United States.
``Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti tonight as emergency responders work to ensure the safety of their citizens. It is important that the U.S. make available all possible humanitarian assistance to our friend and neighbor, Haiti,'' Lincoln Diaz-Balart said.
And Ros-Lehtinen called for the U.S. to immediately stop deporting Haitian nationals ``due to the crisis in this already devastated country.''
Broward Democrat Alcee Hastings added his name to the effort, calling it ``not only immoral, but irresponsible'' not to do so.
On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the organization had released $10 million in ``emergency funds'' to set up immediate operations. He said Assistant Secretary General Eduard Moulet would be dispatched to the region as soon as conditions permit.
OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said the OAS ``will do everything within our means to support the victims of this catastrophic phenomenon.'' He said Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin was gathering damage information to report to the group's Permanent Council Wednesday to allow member states to contribute to Haiti.
``It is at such times that people, governments and leaders across the hemisphere, as neighbors and friends of the people of Haiti, should show solidarity and support in a real, effective and immediate manner, guided by the country's government, which knows best where the most urgent need lies,'' Insulza said.
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat who represents parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, said: ``I am monitoring the situation very closely and am prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives and bring swift disaster relief to Haiti and the Haitian people at this time. I ask that all Americans please keep the Haitian people and all victims of this disaster in their thoughts and prayers.''
From Broward, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, who was in Haiti in June, said she was ``deeply saddened'' by the news.
``I know only too well how much this earthquake will add to the already immense obstacles facing the Haitian people,'' she said, adding that she would work with colleagues in Congress and the Obama administration to provide aid to Haiti.
The American Red Cross was poised to move aid from a warehouse in Panama -- blankets, kitchen sets and water containers for about 5,000 families -- as soon as a flight or means of delivery could be found, Eric Porterfield said in Washington.
Field reports, he said, indicated ``lots of damage and lots of aftershocks.''
In addition, the American Red Cross had already released $200,000 to its counterpart Haitian Red Cross.
On Wednesday, Haitian Sen. Joseph Lambert also described the scene in Haiti. Standing outside the Parliament building, he said: ``Imagine schools, hospitals, government buildings all destroyed.''
When asked about the prospect of Haiti rebuilding, Lambert said, ``It's our country. We have no other choice. It's a catastrophe, but we have no other choice but to rebuild.''
01.13.10
miamiherald
Miami Herald staff writers Nancy San Martin, Lesley Clark, Trenton Daniel, Frances Robles, Martha Brannigan, Jim Wyss, Robert Samuels, Nadege Charles, Mary Ellen Klas and Herald special correspondent Stewart Stogel contributed to this report, which was supplemented by wire services.
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitian President René Préval issued an urgent appeal for his earthquake-shattered nation Wednesday, saying he had been stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped under the rubble of the national Parliament.
Préval, in his first interview since the earthquake, said the country was destroyed and he believed there were thousands of people dead but was reluctant to provide a number.
``We have to do an evaluation,'' Préval said, describing the scene as ``unimaginable.''
``Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,'' he said. ``There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.''
The U.N. said casualties were ``vast'' but impossible to calculate.
The International Red Cross said a third of Haiti's nine million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge, the Associated Press reported.
As the scope of the damage was becoming clear Wednesday, some Haitians were crossing the border into the Dominican Republic.
``I don't have work, I don't have a future here,'' said Antonio Bacevil, 39, a farmer wearing ragged shorts and muddy boat shoes who was on his way to Santiago. ``What you see is what I have. . . . A lot of people are dead.''
The U.S. State Department said there are 45,000 American citizens living in Haiti and efforts were being made to locate them. Of the more than 170 personnel at the U.S. Embassy, eight were injured, four of them seriously enough to be evacuated by the Coast Guard, officials said in a briefing.
Préval said he had traveled through several neighborhoods and seen the damage. ``All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe,'' he said.
The U.N. said Haiti's principal prison had collapsed and inmates had escaped.
A Florida-based shipper said the cranes at the Port-au-Prince cargo pier had toppled into the water and that much of the pier was destroyed.
The second story and dome of the ornate Presidential Palace pancaked onto the first floor. The Parliament was also in ruins, trapping Senate President Kely Bastien, Préval said.
The body of the Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, the Associated Press reported.
In Washington Wednesday, President Barack Obama said search-and-rescue teams from Florida, California and Virginia were on their way to Haiti and that USAID would be coordinating a broad-based effort to take food, water and emergency supplies to the nation.
``We have to be there for them in their hour of need,'' he said.
The military also swung into action early Wednesday, moving a 30-member advance team from Southern Command in Miami by C-130 cargo plane to work with U.S. Embassy personnel and sending a Navy reconnaissance plane from a U.S base in Comalpa, El Salvador, to study the quake damage. The Navy also diverted the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Haiti. It was expected to be off the coast Thursday.
According to media reports, survivors were digging through the rubble and stacking bodies along the streets of Haiti's capital after the powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation Tuesday afternoon. The earthquake has left the nation virtually isolated, with countless crumbled buildings, including the six-story United Nations headquarters.
The U.N. confirmed five of its workers had been killed and more than 100 were missing. Among those unaccounted for were the mission chief, Hédi Annabi, and his deputy, the U.N. said Wednesday.
Brazil's army said at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed, while Jordan's official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed, the AP reported.
Préval said he has not slept since the earthquake. Others slept in the streets fearing their homes would be toppled by aftershocks.
``This is a catastrophe,'' the first lady, Elisabeth Préval, said. ``I'm stepping over dead bodies. A lot of people are buried under buildings. The general hospital has collapsed. We need support. We need help. We need engineers.''
While official details about the scope of the damage were scarce, eyewitness accounts and media reports painted a picture of widespread destruction that could leave thousands dead.
A hospital was reported to have collapsed and people were heard screaming for help, and the World Bank offices in Petionville were also destroyed, but most of the staff were safely accounted for, the organization said.
Part of the road to Canape Vert, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, has collapsed, along with houses perched in the mountains of Petionville, where the quake was centered. Petionville is a suburb about 10 miles from downtown Port-au-Prince.
As the damage mounted, Florida Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pressed Obama for immediate humanitarian aid for Haiti and renewed their request for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals residing in the United States.
``Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti tonight as emergency responders work to ensure the safety of their citizens. It is important that the U.S. make available all possible humanitarian assistance to our friend and neighbor, Haiti,'' Lincoln Diaz-Balart said.
And Ros-Lehtinen called for the U.S. to immediately stop deporting Haitian nationals ``due to the crisis in this already devastated country.''
Broward Democrat Alcee Hastings added his name to the effort, calling it ``not only immoral, but irresponsible'' not to do so.
On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the organization had released $10 million in ``emergency funds'' to set up immediate operations. He said Assistant Secretary General Eduard Moulet would be dispatched to the region as soon as conditions permit.
OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said the OAS ``will do everything within our means to support the victims of this catastrophic phenomenon.'' He said Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin was gathering damage information to report to the group's Permanent Council Wednesday to allow member states to contribute to Haiti.
``It is at such times that people, governments and leaders across the hemisphere, as neighbors and friends of the people of Haiti, should show solidarity and support in a real, effective and immediate manner, guided by the country's government, which knows best where the most urgent need lies,'' Insulza said.
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat who represents parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, said: ``I am monitoring the situation very closely and am prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives and bring swift disaster relief to Haiti and the Haitian people at this time. I ask that all Americans please keep the Haitian people and all victims of this disaster in their thoughts and prayers.''
From Broward, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, who was in Haiti in June, said she was ``deeply saddened'' by the news.
``I know only too well how much this earthquake will add to the already immense obstacles facing the Haitian people,'' she said, adding that she would work with colleagues in Congress and the Obama administration to provide aid to Haiti.
The American Red Cross was poised to move aid from a warehouse in Panama -- blankets, kitchen sets and water containers for about 5,000 families -- as soon as a flight or means of delivery could be found, Eric Porterfield said in Washington.
Field reports, he said, indicated ``lots of damage and lots of aftershocks.''
In addition, the American Red Cross had already released $200,000 to its counterpart Haitian Red Cross.
On Wednesday, Haitian Sen. Joseph Lambert also described the scene in Haiti. Standing outside the Parliament building, he said: ``Imagine schools, hospitals, government buildings all destroyed.''
When asked about the prospect of Haiti rebuilding, Lambert said, ``It's our country. We have no other choice. It's a catastrophe, but we have no other choice but to rebuild.''
01.13.10
miamiherald
Miami Herald staff writers Nancy San Martin, Lesley Clark, Trenton Daniel, Frances Robles, Martha Brannigan, Jim Wyss, Robert Samuels, Nadege Charles, Mary Ellen Klas and Herald special correspondent Stewart Stogel contributed to this report, which was supplemented by wire services.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Newly selected Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive vows to further Haiti's pro-business stance
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, November 11, 2009 - Newly selected Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has vowed to further Haiti's pro-business stance, as the country looks to capitalise on the domestic and international outpouring of business interests looking at investment opportunities in Haiti. That's according to the newly-formed Haitian Economic Development Foundation.
And President Youri Mevs says the business community is pleased with Bellerive's focus on continuing to further the pro-business direction encouraged by President René Préval.
"Humanitarian assistance to our country is indeed crucial, but expansion of the business sector in order to create jobs is the long-term solution that will most impact the future of our people," Mevs said.
Haiti has recently seen an up-swell in both domestic and international investments, with organisations such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines increasing their visibility on the island and announcements from local major enterprises such as WIN Group, which in coordination with the Soros Economic Development Fund, plans to build a US$45 million new Free Zone.
The capital was also recently the host of a conference organised by the Inter-American Development Bank, aimed at encouraging investment in the garment, agricultural and energy sectors. The conference was attended by hundreds of potential investors, including companies of the stature of Gap, Levi Strauss and American Eagle Outfitters.
A major catalyst to this activity has been the involvement of US President Bill Clinton, whose tireless work as the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti has not only brought awareness to the country's plight, but has manifested itself in actual investments.
"We believe that the opportunity before us with the international community as it relates to investment in Haiti is unprecedented," Mevs said.
"We want to let the world know that Haiti is truly open for business."
The Haitian Economic Development Foundation was designed to foster economic growth throughout Haiti. It is comprised of some of the nation's most influential enterprises and individuals, with the singular goal of attracting and fostering business in Haiti.
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