Word: haitianize
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...hellish anarchy swallowing the capital is a vivid sign that whatever government follows Aristide's isn't likely to be any more democratic. When Philippe, 36, served as Cap Haitien's police chief in the late 1990s, Colombian cocaine shipments flowed virtually unobstructed through its port, according to Haitian and U.S. officials--one reason that Haiti is now the largest narcotics transshipment center in the Caribbean. Philippe's ragtag militia, motivated by a hatred for Aristide, numbers only a few hundred men wielding old automatic rifles. But they stormed virtually unopposed into Cap Haitien last week after gobbling up numerous...
...owns, is a former Aristide bodyguard who once headed Haiti's police force. He adroitly made a clean break with the President and his Lavalas Party last year when it seemed Aristide's popularity was plummeting. Toussaint, 46, is no stranger to controversy; he has been investigated by Haitian and U.S. officials for crimes ranging from the assassinations of Aristide foes to narcotics trafficking. In a conversation with TIME at his home, Toussaint dismisses the various charges as "lacking any proof." As for his ambitions, Toussaint says, "Yes, I would run for President," claiming that he has the street muscle...
Aristide's slide marks the end of another disappointing chapter in Haitian politics. This one began in 1994, when the U.S. intervened to restore Aristide to power after a military coup aborted his first presidency in 1991. With 20,000 troops on the ground, Washington embarked on an effort many Haitians now characterize as a half-baked nation-building program that yielded little more than ill-trained, corruption-prone institutions, like the police force Philippe led in Cap Haitien. The U.S., Philippe says, "is partly responsible for what is happening...
Philippe, who seems certain to emerge as a Haitian power broker if his uprising succeeds, insists that things will get better. He claims he wants to revive democratic institutions that he says Aristide has smothered--including the military that Aristide dismantled in 1995. "I'm not fighting for personal political power," says Philippe. "Democracy is not a five-year term, it's a set of principles." But Philippe, who fled Haiti in 2000 under suspicion of ties to drug trafficking and returned only last month to lead the uprising, has his own issues. According to classified Haitian documents seen...
Philippe has welcomed into his army troublesome figures like Louis-Jodel Chamblain. A former army officer, Chamblain was convicted in absentia in 1995 by a Haitian court for crimes that include participating in a 1994 massacre of at least 15 people while he helped head a paramilitary death squad that terrorized Aristide supporters after the 1991 coup. "Who hasn't made mistakes?" Philippe says with a shrug. "Now he is fighting for a good cause." Good or bad, it is already a cause soaked in blood. --With reporting by Mark Thompson/Washington