June 22,
2007: UN peacekeepers continue to target the largest gangs, and their
leaders. On average, one or more major gangsters gets arrested, or killed, each
week, so far this year. Crime is still high, but it's less organized. The success of the 8,800 peacekeepers has led
Haitian leaders to consider replacing the foreign peacekeepers, with Haitian
peacekeepers. That's right, instead of restoring the disbanded army, Haiti
would create a paramilitary force that would back up the police, but not be an
army. The problem is that, in the past, anything that appeared to be an army,
became a source of power for a future dictator. Thus the problem is in creating
a peacemaker force that does not become another tool for some future tyrant to
take power with.
Meanwhile, the police
force continues to expand, but is losing its war against the growing drug
trade. The drug gangs, unlike the declining political and street gangs, prefer
to disable the police with cash, rather than violence. As a result, corruption
is becoming more of a problem.
