Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09PORTAUPRINCE386
2009-04-08 15:34:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Port Au Prince
Cable title:  

AMBASSADOR VISITS LES CAYES

Tags:  PGOV PREL SNAR ECON USAID HA 
pdf how-to read a cable
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9830
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 2278
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 0350
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 2019
RUEHMT/AMCONSUL MONTREAL 0392
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC 1397
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCOWCV/CCGDSEVEN MIAMI FL
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000386 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CAR, DRL, S/CRS, INR/IAA
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR
TREASURY FOR MAUREEN WAFER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/08/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL SNAR ECON USAID HA
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR VISITS LES CAYES

PORT AU PR 00000386 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Ambassador Janet A. Sanderson. Reason: E.O. 12958 1.4
(b),(d)

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000386

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CAR, DRL, S/CRS, INR/IAA
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR
TREASURY FOR MAUREEN WAFER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/08/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL SNAR ECON USAID HA
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR VISITS LES CAYES

PORT AU PR 00000386 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Ambassador Janet A. Sanderson. Reason: E.O. 12958 1.4
(b),(d)

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) The Ambassador visited Les Cayes March 26. The
mayor portrayed his city as calm and relatively free of drug
trafficking but lacking sufficient funding from the central
government. The head of MINUSTAH's regional office
emphasized that political instability and drug trafficking
were continuing threats, although he expected the upcoming
Senate elections to be relatively calm because the
pro-government Lespwa party had co-opted the most formidable
candidate of Fanmi Lavalas. End Summary.

Political Picture
--------------


2. (SBU) The Ambassador visited Les Cayes, capital of the
South Department, on March 26 accompanied by the USAID
Country Director and PolCouns. She first called on Mayor
Yvon Chery. The mayor portrayed his city as calm now after
the politically-based riots of April 2008 had passed. (Note:
the April 2008 riots of food prices first broke out in Les
Cayes before spreading to Port-au-Prince. End note.) He
thought that reviving tourism could ''save'' the South
Department. Chery accused the central government of
neglecting the south after the summer hurricanes of 2008, but
the NGOs Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Caritas had
stepped in to help. The region had great agricultural
potential, with lots of water, but farmers needed technical
help if the continuing rural-to-urban migration were to be
slowed. The mayor claimed that his city did not have a high
crime rate, and that persons could walk the streets safely at
all hours. There are no kidnappings. When the Ambassador
noted there were few Haitian National Police (HNP) officers
to be seen, the mayor replied that the HNP enjoyed the help
of police and troops from MINUSTAH.


3. (SBU) Mayor Chery said that what his city lacked most
was money to deliver basic municipal services. He blamed

this situation on a ''dictatorship of parliamentarians'' in
Port-au-Prince who steered money to the capital to the
detriment of the provinces. Nevertheless, his city was
building social housing to accommodate citizens who would be
removed from housing located too close to the area's
flood-prone ravines. The mayor echoed Ambassador's
observation of good electricity service: Electricite d'Haiti
(EDH) had a local dam that kept the city supplied with
electricity virtually around the clock. The main local
business was trade (a local cement factory had closed) but
local merchants were hard pressed to pay for the transport of
goods all the way from Port-au-Prince. He recalled past days
when Les Cayes had its own international port, and urged that
it be reopened. Chery said the campaign for the April 19
Senate elections was off to a slow start in the south.


4. (C) PolCouns called on the head of MINUSTAH's regional
office, Amadou Ouadraogo (Burkino Faso) and his aide, Joseph
Benjamin Lormilus (Haiti). They recalled that the food riots
of April 2008 had broken out in several poor districts in Les
Cayes, including La Savanne. They had been organized by a
local grass-roots organization close to the pro-Aristide
party Fanmi Lavalas called Platform des Militants du Sud
(Platform of Militants of the South - PMS). At some point
during the rioting, that organization decided to storm the
local jail and free a number of inmates being held on drug
charges, an attempt that failed.


5. (C) Ouadraogo and Lormilus explained that international
assistance had poured into the area immediately following the
August-September 2008 hurricanes. However, those feeding
programs had run out early in 2009, and they feared that
social discontent was beginning to rise. MINUSTAH had noted
several recent appeals to join demonstrations in Les Cayes,
although these had not been very large. They did not
anticipate significant violence during the campaign for the
April 19 partial Senate elections. The man who had expected

PORT AU PR 00000386 002.2 OF 002


to run in the South Department under the Fanmi Lavalas (FL)
banner, Franky Exeus, had defected to Lespwa when Fanmi
Lavalas had chosen another candidate, Jacque Matelier. Exeus
had brought along a number of FL organizers to his side.
Ouadraogo and Lormilus expected that Exeus would draw off
many votes from FL, and that many other FL supporters would
stay home on election day. MINUSTAH did not anticipate
significant violence during the campaign, such as violence
directed against Exeus.



6. (C) Ouadraogo inquired about the reasons for President
Preval's and the USG's efforts to capture accused drug
trafficker Guy Philippe. PolCouns explained that Preval saw
Philippe as the most threatening example of a drug lord
trying to buy his way into politics. The CEP had disallowed
Philippe's candidacy for the April 19 Senate elections due to
his drug ties. The U.S. was assisting in efforts to try to
capture him, based on a U.S. warrant.


7. (U) The Ambassador and the USAID Country Director
participated in the ceremonial opening of USAID's Market
Chain Enhancement (MarChE) project. Implemented by the
U.S.-based Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs (CNFA),this
three-year, USD 14.9 million project aims to support the
value chains in the tourism, agriculture and handicrafts
sectors, including through provision of business development
and finance/investment services. Minister of Tourism Patric
Delatour, Les Cayes Chamber of Commerce and Industry
President Pierre Dennery, and CNFA Director John Costello
addressed the ceremony. In her remarks, the Ambassador
emphasized how MarChE would help micro-to-medium-sized
businesses improve their production and bring goods and
services to market. She emphasized how other USG-financed
projects had benefited Les Cayes, such as repairs to schools,
clinics, roads and infrastructure after last year's
hurricanes, micro-credit programs, and scholarships for needy
students.


8. (U) The Ambassador visited the local headquarters of IOM,
which since late 2008 is implementing 19 PEPFAR projects
including irrigation and drainage canals, and rehabilitation
of schools. One of these is the Sainte Claire Health Clinic
Laboratory, which IOM, using PEPFAR funds, expanded to house
a new laboratory. Visiting the facility, the Ambassador met
the clinic's staff, who see approximately 30 patients per
day. Patients find this small clinic more accessible than
the overcrowded central hospital in Les Cayes.


9. (U) The head of IOM's Les Cayes office, Brian Flannagan,
also showed the Ambassador a USAID-funded IOM project to
improve agriculture by rebuilding dilapidated irrigation
canals. The Ambassador toured an irrigation canal built in
the 1980s in L'Islet Masse, a rice-producing area just
outside Les Cayes. Recently rebuilt by IOM in consultation
with the Community Council of Islet Masse, the local farmers'
association, the 1.6 km masonry-lined canal had a number of
gates that permitted the regulation of water flow. The
project generated 566 short-term jobs. To better utilize the
increased rice yields, the farmers association took out loans
to build a rice-drying and -milling facility, which the
Ambassador toured.


10. (U) Finally, the Ambassador visited the ''Essential
Oils'' factory, one of the world's major producers of vetiver
oil, an ingredient of most perfumes. The owner, Pierre
Leger, explained how his factory purchases vetiver root from
thousands of local small farmers, boils the roots, and then
boils the fragrant oil out of this liquid. Leger said that
UN figures say that over 20,000 local farmers sell production
to his factory. The factory employs only several dozen
people, mostly security guards. He claimed that a farmer
with one hectare of vetiver can gross USD 12,500 per year, an
enormous sum by Haitian agricultural standards. Worried that
Haitian production is vulnerable to political instability,
Leger noted that various European perfume producers have
contracted him to begin production in African countries such
as Rwanda to diversify their vetiver sources.
SANDERSON