Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2001
Source: The Post and Courier (SC)
Copyright: 2001 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:   http://www.charleston.net/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567

HAITI'S DRUG PROBLEM

For the first time in years, there is good news for the U.S. from Haiti. 
But there's bad news for a country that can ill afford it. Once a major, 
and continually expanding, beachhead for U.S.-bound cocaine from the 
Colombian cartels, Haiti has been the scene of countless major drug seizures.

Both the U.S. State Department, in its report on narcotics, and the General 
Accounting Office, which has produced a gloomy survey of U.S. aid to the 
poorest country in the Caribbean, record a drop in drug shipments through 
Haiti. But the State Department noted that none of "this (decrease) is 
attributable to the efforts of the Haitian government. The largest factor 
may be the difficulties traffickers experienced in moving drugs through 
Haiti because of poor infrastructure, or the seizure of drugs by rival 
traffickers or other criminals."

The State Department's dry-as-dust account of the declining flow of drugs 
to American streets via Haiti grabs attention with this report: "Cocaine is 
widely known as manna from heaven throughout Haiti, as it has become a 
source of income for entire towns."

In town after town near the coast in Haiti, cargo planes carrying tons of 
cocaine have been surrounded by a mass of humanity when they have landed on 
clandestine runways while launches bringing drugs from ships at sea have 
been met on the beaches by crowds of townspeople.

A Los Angles Times reporter found that one such town, Grand-Goave, was 
changed forever when the citizenry seized more than 8,000 pounds of cocaine 
that landed on a local beach. It made some people millionaires overnight, 
but in the words of one of its citizens: "It corrupted the town at its most 
basic level. And today, the biggest impact of all this cocaine is a new 
sense of insecurity." Before, it was "a God-fearing town where petty crime 
has been minimal and major crimes such as murder largely motivated by 
politics."

The drugs brought crime, shootings, prostitution - and drug addiction.

It is only now, with no more drug shipments coming their way, that the 
townspeople have learned that cocaine is not "manna from heaven" but a 
curse from hell. And the State Department notes that the traffickers 
haven't been put out of business.

Despite the populist drug seizures, Haiti must still be regarded as a major 
transshipment point for South American narcotics.
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