Chimères of Washington

Maybe the NYT is reading my blog!!

The Times today runs a long-overdue post-mortem on the chaos in Haiti and-- amazingly-- puts it on the front page of the Sunday edition, above the fold, then lets it ramble on for three full pages inside. The upshot is that the US-backed International Republican Institute fomented the 2004 coup by sending support-- money, training, winks and nods-- to the opposition and by stymying negotations between Aristide and the opposition. The IRI also may have had shady dealings with Guy Philippe, drug-runner extraordinaire, before he led the revolt that unseated Aristide.

This is solid reporting, and certainly welcome, but it announces nothing new of note. I agree with my human rights professor, Jim Cavallaro, who is happy to have his so-called conspiracy theories legitmated. But why didn't the Times whip this out a year ago?

And why doesn't the paper have a full-time reporter on the Haiti/ Caribbean beat? (Note to the NYT honchos who undoubtedly are reading this: I could be yours after I graduate in June.)

On a somewhat happier note, the Haitian "authorities" have finally released Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, whom Amnesty International called a prisoner of conscience, from a Port-au-Prince jail where he's been languishing for months. He's en route to Miami for-- less happily-- leukemia treatment.