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Haiti enjoys peace, fragile stability under President Préval By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times | July 29, 2007 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Shoeless boys with angry eyes and empty stomachs no longer loiter outside the green iron gates of the National Palace. The odd jobs of oppression have disappeared. In the unfamiliar atmosphere of peace, there are no more orders to bash heads or crush dissent that once earned the ragtag enforcers a plate of rice and beans or a tube of glue to sniff. A year into his second tenure as president, René Préval has broken ranks with two centuries of despots and demagogues. Préval has eschewed the politics of brutality and confrontation, quietly achieving what only a year ago seemed unimaginable: fragile unity among this country's fractious classes. Allies and adversaries alike credit the reclusive president with creating a breathing space for addressing the poverty and environmental devastation that have made Haiti the most wretched place in the Western Hemisphere. Préval has taken small steps to crack down on crime and corruption, and improve Haiti's infrastructure and food supply. But he largely holds fast to the strategy he used in the presidential race last year: Make no promises, raise no expectations. Observers say Préval's low-key approach may be what Haiti has needed, but they worry what will happen if his shaky health takes a turn for the worse or if the country's 8 million people start to lose patience with his go-slow approach. The 64-year-old began treatment for prostate cancer six years ago. Préval loathes the limelight, evading ceremony and exuding impatience with meetings, limiting them to what aides insist are essential to move mountains of corruption, injustice, squalor, and 70 percent unemployment. "Some people think he's too laid-back," conceded Lionel Delatour, a business consultant and friend. Préval hasn't made a single diplomatic appointment since taking office, Delatour said, shying away from the kind of decisions that could alienate factions in his broad coalition. "He isn't going to make waves," Delatour said. "He told his ministers that he didn't want to see massive firings" of civil servants, as occurred after his mentor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, fled after being ousted in February 2004 and a caretaker government swept his supporters from office. Aristide basked in ceremony, donning his presidential sash with relish. In contrast, Préval has yet to tour the countryside, make a public address, give a news conference, or grant an interview in his 14 months in office. "He's a very low-key president, but it would be a mistake to think he's not a hands-on president," US Ambassador Janet Sanderson said. Still, she wishes he would get out more and promote the hard-won stability he has secured to give confidence to potential tourists and investors.
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