Misery on our doorstep

HAITIANS DANCED IN THE streets of Port-au-Prince last week to celebrate the negotiated settlement of a 10-day standoff after their chaotic Feb. 7 presidential election. But only a concerted international effort will keep incoming populist President Rene Preval from steering his failed state even deeper into misery.

Preval’s victory, while declared a bit too soon by Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, is indisputable. Now the question is whether the world will deem his new government worthy of rescue.

Poor Haiti. Cursed by a history of slavery, poverty and tyranny, it lacks the terrorists, oil or nuclear weapons to compete with Iraq and Iran for Washington’s attention. And so, despite the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the need to prevent states from failing and becoming breeding grounds for terror and instability, the United States has done little as poverty and violence have consumed this nation just 600 miles from its shores.

The overstretched American military has supplied exactly four of the 7,200 international peacekeepers now in Haiti, and just 50 of the 1,900 civilian police officers. China has sent almost three times as many police.

President Bush should ramp up aid to Haiti for three strategic reasons: Florida, drugs and Hugo Chavez.

It’s hard to imagine that conditions on the island could get worse, but if the Preval government fails, boatloads of Haitians could once again begin washing up on Florida’s shores. Haiti is already the transit point for up to 14% of the cocaine destined for the U.S. market; more poverty and political chaos will only make the drug trafficking worse.

Perhaps most provocative to the Bush administration is the possibility that Venezuelan President Chavez, sitting on about $24 billion in foreign reserves, may decide to share some of his oil wealth with Haiti’s poor, thus competing with Washington for influence in our hemisphere.

But the primary reason we should help Haiti is that it is a humanitarian disgrace on our doorstep. Per-capita income is $390 a year, more than 5% of the population has HIV/AIDS and 40% of its children aren’t in school. Preval has promised to put every child in a classroom; at a minimum, we should help him do so.

But this year, the administration cut child survival and health funding for Haiti by 20% and development assistance by 22%; and although the international community has pledged $1.2 billion in aid, it has only coughed up about $400 million so far. The United States should commit to $100 million a year in aid for 10 years -- enough to jump-start Preval’s reforms.

More than 60% of Haitians voted in this election, many walking miles to cast their ballots. Their faith in democracy, such as it is, should be rewarded.