(Haiti) The Great Pretender

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Gerard Latortue and the Next Haitian Meltdown

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Unloved despite his gentle attentions, Latortue has taken to lashing out, quite irrationally and usually without provocation. Aristide has long been his favourite whipping boy. He claims that Aristide is personally directing the violence by his supporters, including the beheadings of Operation Baghdad by phone from South Africa. He might be right but you'd think a head of state in a country not named the United States might give a few details to back such incredible claims. So far, not a shred of evidence has been produced that suggests that the pissed off Aristide supporters are anything more than the arms of a decapitated régime.

His latest target (verbal, since he couldn't do much anything else even if he was so inclined) are reporters. Haiti's press, working primarily for the radio, runs the gamut from left to right, from lurid yellow journalism to serious and profound social commentary. Latortue has repeatedly harangued journalists for writing "Aristide propaganda" which, in these particular cases, was not true. His comments were especially tasteless in the aftermath of the murder of two journalists, one apparently by Aristide militants and the other most likely by the police.

All of this draws attention to what is the greatest failure of the Latortue administration: his predictable but nevertheless staggering refusal to extend a hand to the disenfranchised Haitian masses who saw Aristide as one of their own. Latortue came into power with the nasty assumption that he would, like all leaders installed by foreign powers in Haiti, act as a bagman for the elite. He's done nothing to disabuse anyone of this notion.

Latortue once spoke of building a bridge to Aristide's core constituency: the poorest of the poor who have nothing to do with Operation Baghdad or the machete-wielding chimeres who tormented the peaceful opposition under Aristide. With his popularity in steady decline, Aristide's support was soft and vulnerable among large sectors of the population. But rather than try to win the masses over, Latortue's government has all but viewed them as the enemy. There isn't a single prominent official in his government who is identified with the masses, and NGO leaders who originally given the government the benefit of the doubt have been totally rebuffed. His attitude is a bit like that of a colonial viceroy rather than a native leader: judging everyone, in spite of appearances, as a potential threat - particularly if they're poor.

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Sobaka