Haiti Government

A disappointed Secretary of State Madeleine Albright returned to Haiti on Saturday for the second time in six months to implore its leaders to break a political impasse that is driving their country into even greater poverty day by day. The political paralysis, Albright said, has held up a World Bank loan that could ensure Haiti a 5% growth rate and "lift 1 million Haitians out of poverty."

Less than three weeks after he seized power in a coup, Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy discarded Haiti's constitution, dealing a major blow to hopes for democracy in the Caribbean nation. In a televised address from the presidential palace, Namphy promised that a new constitution will be written soon. He said the one approved overwhelmingly by voters in March, 1987, was "ratified in a climate of passion and emotion."

At precisely midnight on Leslie F. Manigat's 100th day as president of Haiti, seven gunshots pierced the silence beneath the graceful palms that shade the veranda of the famed Grand Hotel Oloffson in central Port-au-Prince. Although within earshot of the presidential palace, the harmless but unnerving gunfire last week had no discernible objective other than possibly to frighten the hotel's foreign guests.

Sending a message to Haiti's military leaders that "it's time for them to leave," the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Sunday permitting the use of force to restore democracy to the Caribbean nation. The 12-0 vote, with China and Brazil abstaining, provides the diplomatic cover for U.S.-led military action long threatened by President Clinton.

Joseph Nerette, the figurehead president of Haiti's military-run regime, on Friday defied an internationally arranged agreement to return ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power and end a choking economic embargo. Saying he would not resign his post, Nerette told the National Assembly that the agreement "violates" the Haitian constitution and is the result of unacceptable foreign interference in Haiti's internal affairs.

Her face was twisted with rage, her voice cracked with fury, her body cramped with hate. "They should be killed, all of them, killed. We will kill them. I will kill them." The murderous wail was aimed at Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the supporters who followed Haiti's first democratically elected president into exile when he was overthrown three years ago by the country's army. "They are everything that is wrong here," she shrieked as she contemplated their return. "They are the mob.

While cameras Saturday focused on the front door of the airplane from which Jean-Bertrand Aristide was disembarking, a crew was unloading a big, blue-upholstered armchair through the rear door. It was built by the youths of La Fanmi Se La Vi, Creole for The Family Is Life, an orphanage founded by the priest-president, who said he would never sit in a chair occupied by one of Haiti's previous, undemocratic presidents.

President Clinton is considering the use of U.S. military aircraft to enforce a U.N. embargo on flights in and out of Haiti, including forcing down planes suspected of carrying supporters of the island nation's military regime, officials said Saturday. The move is one of several that Clinton is contemplating to make the U.N. embargo effective and concentrate its impact on the Haitian regime, which the United States wants to push from power, officials said.

Nearly a year ago, Haitian public security chief Robert Manuel warned of "macabre plots" by international drug cartels to infiltrate his impoverished nation, co-opt its politicians, corrupt its nascent U.S.-built police force and foment disorder. The occasion: A large shipment of Colombian cocaine destined for the United States had been abandoned in the village of Aquin on Haiti's south coast. Peasants began to divide the spoils.

When the border crossing out of isolated, sanctions-bound Haiti opened to Richard Elie this weekend for the first time in months, the well-off Haitian American decided to go shopping. Big time. His list included dozens of high-priced items--from spare parts to high-tech goods--that have been banned from Haiti during its three years under economic sanctions.