Haitian PM: "Haitian Government Could Collapse"

In an exclusive 40 minute interview with the AP, Haitian PM Jean-Max Bellerive says he worries the Haitian government could collapse. According to the PM, political opponents are attempting to capitalize on the government’s inability to respond strongly enough to the after-effects of last month’s massive earthquake. So much is this a concern of the PM that “political divisiveness,” says Bellerive, is presently one of the two most immediate fears of the government in a country with so many pressing challenges. Here’s Bellerive in his own words:

“You have the feeling that everyone is trying to do his little part and accuse the other one of not doing his part. Everyone is trying to create conflict when we have the same enemy right now: It’s misery, it's disaster.”

Nevertheless, the PM goes on, he does understand the criticism that “Haiti's leaders didn't do enough to help” in the immediate days after the earthquake. “Because we didn't have any administration we could not give the services the population is entitled to. So they say there isn't any government.” According to the AP, a legislative election that was to take place at the end of this month has already been canceled, “threatening parliament's legitimacy.” A presidential election that is set for later this year also remains in doubt. And this leads Bellerive to believe that “The government is not able to resolve this situation alone.”

From Reuters, more news on “torrential” rains that are now beginning to hit Haiti. The report leads: “Providing shelter for hundreds of thousands of homeless earthquake victims in Haiti jumped to the top of the country's relief priorities on Thursday after heavy rain turned makeshift survivors' camps into muddy quagmires.” Speaking with Reuters late Wednesday, President Rene Preval reiterated his concerns about rain and a lack of shelter. “Every time I meet with foreign leaders and delegations, I tell them that [shelter] is the most urgent need. Now that we've attended to the wounded, taken away the dead, and we're distributing food and water, the problem of shelter, the tents, is the most urgent.”

In other opinions and analysis on Haiti this morning, development specialist Paul Collier writes in Foreign Policy on how to fix the inefficiencies and unaccountability in the aid delivery process. He maintains:

“Getting the government involved in a financially sustainable way would add oversight, coordination, and increased accountability to the NGO landscape in Haiti. Here's how it could work: Although it's true that the Haitian state cannot run mass service provision, the government could realistically allocate the funding for it. So, instead of donating to NGOs, donor money would all be streamed into a common pool. A new government agency would be charged with overseeing the common pool, setting clear criteria for NGO performance, monitoring the NGOs, and giving out money from that pool based on the set standards and community needs. In return for funds, the new agency would require NGOs to co-brand their services with the government, giving it much-needed visibility.”

AEI’s Roger Noriega offers his opinion on the matter, arguing only private capital and the free market will “ensure a quick and sustainable recovery.” CEPR has a response to Noriega at its Haiti Relief and Reconstruction blog. President Rene Preval, with Nicole Guedj, pens an opinion in the Guardian yesterday calling for increased international cooperation to coordinate recovery efforts in his country. There’s news that the UN has made a massive Haiti appeal of $1.5 billion to the international community. And via CEPR, a new statement from a handful of NGOs—among them, Partners in Health, the NYU School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti—which lays out a strategy for ensuring “accountability, transparency, empowerment, and capacity building” in the recovery process, ahead of the March Haiti Donors’ Conference.

Moving to other headlines today:

· The New York Times’ leads its Americas coverage today with news that the man accused of killing New York City journalist Bradley Will while he covered street clashes in Oaxaca in 2006 was released from jail on Thursday. According to the paper, “the ruling was congruent with what the victim’s family and human rights groups have long asserted, that the journalist was not shot at close range by an antigovernment protester as the government has maintained.” Amnesty International praised the decision of the court. “This release was long overdue. Juan Manuel (the accused) has been used as a scapegoat by the Mexican authorities to claim there has been progress in the investigation around Brad Will’s death.”

· The AP reports on the beginning of a new set of migration talks between the US and Cuba, to begin today. According to the wire service, “the last time U.S. diplomats traveled to Havana, they held secret talks with their Cuban counterparts that were hailed as the most significant in decades.” Since then, however, “almost nothing has gone right for U.S.-Cuba relations,” putting today’s meetings “under a cloud of mutual mistrust and dashed hopes.” The US delegation to Havana is being led by deputy assistant secretary of state, Craig Kelly, who will be the most senior U.S. official to travel to Cuba in years. [Kelly's subordinate, Bisa Williams, led September meetings that sought to re-establishing direct mail service between the US and Cuba]. And according to reports, today’s meetings may reach beyond migration alone, with many hinting that the imprisonment of US contractor, Alan Gross, will also be discussed.

· Meanwhile, today’s talks are being strongly opposed by pro-embargo legislators, many of whom signed a letter to President Obama demanding migration meetings with the Cubans be canceled. At the Miami Herald, the Center for Democracy in the Americas’ Sarah Stephens responds. Citing Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, Stephens says the only “national security threat posed by Cuba “would be a mass migration from the island if the government decided it could not cope with rising discontent over economic conditions.” So, she asks, why suspend talks seeking to address this very problem?

· A new poll from Colombia says Alvaro Uribe would win re-election in May should he be allowed to seek a third consecutive term. If not, his ally and former Defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, is currently the strongest contender. Reuters writes: “Should Uribe run, 46 percent of those surveyed said they would vote for him, followed by former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo and leftist candidate Gustavo Petro, each with 9 percent approval, according to the Centro Nacional de Consultoria poll broadcast by CM& television Tuesday night.”

· Also from Colombia, news that Uribe and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa have confirmed a meeting to take place at the upcoming Rio Summit in Cancun. And a Reuters report looks at current “political risks” in Colombia. Among them, Uribe’s possible re-election bid, congressional elections, armed groups and traffickers, and tense relations with neighboring Venezuela.

· Honduras, reports indicate, has not been invited to the Rio Summit by host-country Mexico, indicating its reintegration into the international community is not going quite as smoothly as other reports have indicated in past weeks. Mexican foreign minister Patricia Espinosa, in a statement on the matter, said the OAS must first decide whether or not to bring the Central American country back into the fold.

· In the meantime, former Honduran President Mel Zelaya will be heading out on an international tour that will include stopovers around the region, as well as in the US and Spain. Zelaya says he will speak about the need to guarantee democracy in the region, as well as strengthen the democratic charter of the OAS to help prevent future coups against democratically elected governments in Latin America.

· Andres Oppenheimer writes about making the OAS more effective as well today. His position: “The OAS’ problem is not Insulza. It's the group’s absurd tradition of reaching decisions by consensus, which in a polarized region amounts to a recipe for not making any substantive decisions.”

· From RNS at Honduras Culture and Politics, a primer on those who will be heading the truth commission in Honduras.

· And finally a new interesting report, via Tim’s El Salvador Blog, on extractive industries in El Salvador. The 49-page “El Salvador: Gold, Guns, and Choice” is written by Prof. Richard Steiner of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Commission on Environmental Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) and looks at “the security situation in Cabanas, the recent wave of extra-judicial killings of environmental leaders opposing the mine there, continuing threats toward citizens, the government response to the situation, the CAFTA actions filed by mining companies against the government, and the effort to ban metals mining in the country.”