Pubdate: Sat, 24 Dec 2005
Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Watertown Daily Times
Contact:  http://www.wdt.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/792
Author: Knight Ridder Newspapers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

CANDIDATES IN HAITI TIED TO DRUG TRADE

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - At least three candidates in Haiti's upcoming
elections 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.

And a Senate candidate who's 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 nonprofit 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 added.

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 counter-drug 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 of 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's not authorized to
discuss the issue. At that time, Washington refused the nephew a U.S.
visa.

The French newspaper Le Figaro last year reported the nephew's
nickname was "Mr. 30 Percent" for the commissions he allegedly demands
on government contracts.

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 The Miami Herald.

And there are credible reports that Youri has close ties to a gang of
armed thugs in Gonaives that controls the drug trafficking through the
seaport, the official added.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin