Hope Extinguished

To recap:

Haiti held presidential and legislative elections on Feb. 7. Preliminary results indicated that Rene Preval, the candidate of the masses, had a sizeable lead, and the soothsayers portended that he would easily gain the 50 percent plus one vote required to become Haiti's next president.

The masses rejoiced, and no wonder: 65 percent of Haitians live below the poverty line, and their will has been repeatedly and systematically undermined by the United States. Preval's apparent sweep seemed like a new start. A few days after the election, a very qualified calm swept Port-au-Prince.

"David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the United Nations Stabilization Mission, offered some statistics. Troops posted in and around Cité Soleil, a violent slum here in the capital, fired fewer than 700 rounds this week, compared with 4,000 rounds the week before, he said. There were only four kidnappings this week, he said, half the daily average just two weeks ago."

Twas not to last. With 90 percent of the vote tabulated, Preval looks to have received around only 48 percent. Tires are burning again, the masses are crying foul, and one might predict that the "peacekeepers" will fire at least 4,000 rounds this week.

We shouldn't be surprised. After all, any election that resulted in the victory of a candidate of the masses could not have been legitimate, at least not to the puppetmasters.