PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- (AP) -- At his 1996 inaugural, Haitian President
Rene
Preval promised to turn his impoverished nation into ``a vast construction
site'' and
``re-establish the authority of the state.''
The bearded former street activist has yet to do either.
Rather, Preval's presidency has seen a slow but steady unraveling of constitutional
government in Haiti, capped this week by his decision to bypass a hostile
parliament
and impose a government by decree.
The opposition is accusing him of conspiring with his mentor -- former
President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- to establish a virtual dictatorship.
Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, is as mired in poverty
as ever.
Parliamentary elections invalidated by fraud allegations in 1997 have yet
to be
rescheduled. Haiti hasn't had a budget in two years, and millions of dollars
in foreign
aid are on indefinite hold.
Much of the blame goes to an opposition-dominated parliament that, since
June 1997,
had refused to act on Preval's nominees for prime minister. The last premier,
Rosny
Smarth, resigned to protest what he called Preval's complicity in the electoral
fraud.
But by declaring Monday that he will no longer recognize parliament, Preval
exposed
himself to charges of laying the groundwork for a return to dictatorship
in Haiti -- a
country ruthlessly governed by the Duvalier dynasty for 29 years.
The beneficiary, his critics suggest, is Aristide, a former slum priest
who became a
symbol of democracy in Haiti and now plans another run for the presidency
in 2000.
The left-leaning Preval has been closely associated with Aristide since
the fall of
dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986.
A grassroots militant at the time, Preval met Aristide at a children's
shelter the priest
ran in Port-au-Prince. He joined other activists in helping groom Aristide
for the
presidency and was named premier after Aristide was elected in 1990.
Preval followed Aristide into exile when the army overthrew him in a bloody
September 1991 coup. He returned to Haiti after a U.S. invasion restored
Aristide to
power in 1994.
Aristide came to refer to Preval, who is 56, as his ``twin,'' although
the
often-reclusive Preval lacks Aristide's charisma and mass popularity.
Yet Aristide was reluctant to endorse Preval's nomination to run for president
in
1995. Analysts inferred there was a falling out between them.
A poor orator, Preval shines in small groups. He detests formality, often
shunning
suits for jeans. He is famous for hard drinking and joke-telling, but only
among a
close circle of friends.
Preval, who studied agronomy at two universities in Belgium, has devoted
much of
his presidency to agriculture, sponsoring an ambitious land reform in Haiti's
breadbasket, the central Artibonite Valley.
He also increased Haiti's ties with neighboring Caribbean countries and
improved
often tense relations with the Dominican Republic, with which it shares
the island of
Hispaniola.
In contrast to Aristide, Preval's sincerity about adopting sometimes-painful
economic
measures backed by foreign donor nations hasn't been called into question.
Yet he has fared little better than Aristide in reviving the economy, which
was
ruined by decades of corrupt rule and an international embargo during the
1991-94
military regime. And the year-and-a-half long fight with parliament over
a new
premier has not helped.
Preval has kept a relatively low profile throughout the current crisis.
Since
announcing Monday that he wouldn't recognize parliament, he hasn't made
a public
comment -- even after his sister, Marie-Claude Calvin, was wounded Tuesday
by
gunmen in Port-au-Prince in a street attack that has yet to be solved.
Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald