Pubdate: Mon, 26 Dec 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Joe Mozingo, Knight Ridder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

HAITIAN CANDIDATES ARE UNDER SUSPICION

Several Are Linked to Illicit Drugs by DEA

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- At least three candidates in Haiti's 
elections scheduled for Jan. 8 have links to a cocaine-trafficking 
industry that wants to ensure the next government is weak and 
corruptible, a half-dozen Haitian and U.S. officials say.

Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates -- Guy Philippe 
and Dany Toussaint -- have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by 
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials. A Senate candidate 
who is a nephew of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has close 
links to a gang that controls drug smuggling in the port of Gonaives, 
according to the Haitian and U.S. officials.

Haiti, where the average person struggles on less than $1 a day, is a 
pass-through point for about 8 percent of the Colombian cocaine 
detected heading to U.S. streets, according to U.S. State Department 
narcotics reports.

Despite the presence of 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed after the 
rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year, the 
arrival of cocaine "is essentially unimpeded," said the State 
Department's 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Analysts fear that traffickers are quietly working to subvert any 
return to an elected democracy, either by backing candidates they can 
control or sowing chaos on the streets to delay the balloting.

"At this point the entire transition is at risk," said Mark Schneider 
of the International Crisis Group, a non-profit that analyzes 
conflict around the world. "Drug traffickers don't want a 
functioning, effective government with a functioning, effective 
police force and customs.

"They have their hooks in the police, they have their hooks in parts 
of the transitional government," he said.

U.S. prosecutors in Miami have gone after 10 of the biggest 
traffickers and corrupt officials of the Aristide years. But there 
are plenty of suspicions about officials of the current interim government.

Diplomats and counterdrug agents have expressed particular concerns 
about Youri Latortue -- the security chief for his uncle, the prime 
minister, and a senate candidate for the Gonaives region, a major 
drug-smuggling area.

The U.S. Embassy warned the prime minister in private in March 2004 
that his nephew was linked to illegal activities and should not be 
part of the government, according to one top U.S. official familiar 
with the issue, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized 
to discuss the issue. At that time, Washington refused the nephew a U.S. visa.

The prime minister publicly defended his nephew, saying he trusted 
him and, in a nation that has seen 32 coups in 200 years, he wanted 
the nephew to stay on as his chief of security and intelligence.

U.N. civilian police are concerned that Youri Latortue is trying to 
take control of the diplomatic lounge at the Port-au-Prince 
international airport, one way that drug traffickers have 
traditionally bypassed official scrutiny while entering and leaving 
Haiti, one top U.N. official told Knight Ridder.

Youri Latortue, meanwhile, has struck a political alliance with Guy 
Philippe, one of the leaders of the rebellion that ousted Aristide 
and now a candidate for the presidency. The two apparently knew each 
other when they served in the Haitian police.

The DEA suspected Philippe was involved in drug trafficking when he 
was police chief in the northern port of Cap Haitien, Haiti's 
second-biggest city.

Philippe has vehemently denied such allegations. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake