[Peace-discuss] big news in the Caribbean

[Ricky Baldwin]

Today the news is the UN has called for the US to
close it's torture-prison at Guantanamo Bay, release
or try the incognito, uncharged suspects there, and
get with the program.  There's apool on how long it
will take the US to denounce the politically-motivated
bureaucrats at the UN as willing dupes of that commie
pinko Red Cross "organization".

And in Haiti, in the face of massive street
demonstrations the coup gov't has agreed with the
provisional election council there to let the top
vote-getter become president: Rene Preval!

Preval is the one they call Aristide's "twin" in
Haiti.  He was A's prime minister in 1991 until THAT
US-backed coup, and then after the US reluctantly
returned A in 1994 to finish the last few months of
his term, Preval was elected to succeed him. 
(Presidents can't succeed themselves in Haiti, even if
the US and the macoutes don't overthrow them.)

The US press is making a big deal out of the
agreement, which is significant, but not in the way
they mean.  All they did was agree to throw out a few
blank ballots so he'd get over 50 percent.  Maybe not
strictly kosher, but Preval had a very clear majority
(more than double his closest rival - the elite
candidate Baker did pitifully).  And that's AFTER
closing over half the polls, allowing none at all in
Cite Soleil and other slums where Aristide and Preval
were most popular, 

But the two important things: It was really the street
heat, let's recognize, that persuaded them to give up
on the second round.  And this means the US loses
again.  Preval says Aristide can come back if he
likes.   He'll almost certainly return to the reforms
they both have advocated, and the US will start
denouncing again -- in fact, some of the press stories
are already beating up on Preval.  He isn't perfect,
of course, and I'd be the last to say Haitians
couldn't criticize him or Arsitide, as you all know,
but you also know what they say about people in glass
houses ...


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