Haiti Erupts

Haiti’s long smouldering political crisis has exploded into insurrection, with armed gangs driving the police out of the country’s fourth-largest city, Gonaïves, and others. More than 40 people have been killed so far, and the violence is far from over. Haiti’s democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, helped bring the crisis on himself. Many of the insurrectionists are former Aristide allies.

Whoever ultimately prevails in this conflict, democracy and the Haitian people are likely to be the big losers if it unfolds along its present violent trajectory. If this story is to have a happier ending, those nations must act now, with Washington in the lead. The 14 other countries of the Caribbean Community have tried to mediate. But they lack the authority and influence needed to lead Haiti back from the brink.

The Clinton administration’s dispatch of American troops helped persuade a murderous Haitian military junta to step down, paving the way for Aristide to complete his first presidential term, which had been interrupted by a coup. Unfortunately, Washington’s involvement wound down before the kinds of steps that would have deepened the roots of Haitian democracy were completed. That kind of unglamorous institution-building would

most likely have prevented the current insurrection and much of the political crisis that preceded it. — The New York Times