Word: padgett
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...Padgett: Some of them may be what you could term Aristide's Frankensteins. Instead of relying on the actual police force in Haiti, Aristide tended to promote armed groups out in the streets to defend his government from its enemies. And that strategy is in many ways backfiring on him. Guy Phillipe, the most visible figure in the rebel front, used to be a police honcho. But other key figures, such as Louis Jodel Chamblain, are veterans of Fraph, a paramilitary organization created during the anti-Aristide military coup of 1991 (reversed in 1994 by U.S. intervention), whose function...
...disbanded by Aristide in 1994, and who now control half of the country. Mounting chaos and the threat of a bloodbath have increased pressure on U.S. to take action, but thus far the Bush administration has confined its efforts to the diplomatic front. TIME's Miami bureau chief Tim Padgett, who is covering the Haitian crisis, picks up the story in conversation with Time.com...
...Padgett: There are two main political opposition groups. The Democratic Convergence is composed mostly of former allies of President Aristide who have become disgusted by what they call his authoritarian, incompetent, even mystical style of governing. This group was particularly outraged at the electoral fraud perpetrated during the parliamentary elections of 2000 - a problem Aristide has been dragging his feet over addressing. The second grouping, which calls itself the Group of 184, represents more of Haiti's business community who are also fed up with the situation under Aristide. Both groups say they're not aligned with the armed rebels...
...Padgett: Both groups have come together specifically under the call for Aristide to stand down. You might say that the Convergence represents an exasperation of a wide section of Haiti's political spectrum over how the country has been governed, while the Group of 184 represents the exasperation of the business community over the economic disaster that has befallen Haiti on Aristide's watch. Both groups have distanced themselves from the rebels. In fact, the more territory the rebels win, the more irrelevant the political opposition begins to look. And that's a real problem for the country...
Mexican President Vicente Fox got some good news on the eve of the Summit of the Americas, which he will host this week in Monterrey, Mexico: President Bush proposed immigration reforms aimed at helping millions of Mexican migrants. Fox talked with TIME's Tim Padgett about the plan, his political fortunes and his amigo George W. Bush...