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FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6009
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1524
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1345
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000829 
 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (PARA 8, TEXT) 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR FISK 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR 
DRL 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA 
TREASURY FOR JEFFREY LEVINE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SNAR KCRM HA VE
SUBJECT: ALBA AFTERMATH: HAITI SHRUGGED 
 
REF: A. CARACAS 844 
 
     ¶B. PORT AU PRINCE 773 
     ¶C. PORT AU PRINCE 781 
     ¶D. PORT AU PRINCE 819 
 
PORT AU PR 00000829  001.4 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  This message is sensitive but unclassified -- please 
protect accordingly. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Summary: Media coverage and popular reaction to 
President Preval's return from the ALBA summit in Caracas 
(ref A) unsurprisingly focused almost entirely on the details 
of the agreement between Preval and President Chavez and what 
prospects are that Chavez might actually deliver.  Of most 
immediate interest are Chavez' promises to provide a combined 
total of 160 megawatts of electricity (Preval focuses on the 
60 megawatts he will save by using low-energy light bulbs) in 
Haiti and 100 percent of Haiti's energy (read gasoline) 
needs, though most media observers note that promises made by 
Venezuela to Haiti under the PetroCaribe accord, signed one 
year ago, have gone unmet.  Haitians appear to attach no 
significance to the context in which Preval elicits these 
commitments -- Preval parading with Chavez' rogues gallery of 
ALBA leaders -- and evince virtually Q interest in Chavez' 
regional agenda.  End Summary. 
 
And a Set of Kitchen Knives 
---------- 
 
¶4.  (U) President Preval on April 29 announced the following 
results to the press on his return to Haiti from Venezuela. 
The Cubans will replace two million light bulbs throughout 
Port-au-Prince with low-energy bulbs.  The initiative will 
cost USD four million, but save the country 60 megawatts of 
electricity, which costs the country USD 70 million annually. 
 Venezuela promised to repair the power plant in Carrefour, 
generating an additional 40 megawatts of electricity. 
Additionally, Venezuela will by December of this year build 
new power plants across the country to add 30 megawatts to 
Port-au-Prince's electrical grid and 15 additional megawatts 
each for Gonaives and Cap-Haitian, all of which will use 
heavy Venezuelan fuel oil, a more efficient and 
less-expensive alternative to diesel.  Chavez also promised 
supply 100 percent of Haiti's energy needs and improved the 
purchase terms.  During his visit here last March, he doubled 
the Petrocaribe agreement allotment from 7,000 barrels per 
day (b/d) to 14,000 b/d (ref B).  As Preval explained to the 
Ambassador in ref D, Chavez agreed to give Haiti a loan on 50 
percent of all fuel that it purchases through the Petrocaribe 
agreement.  Additionally, Chavez promised to build a 
petrochemical complex, a natural gas plant, and an oil 
refinery to refine the crude sent from Venezuela. 
 
¶5. (U) Two Hundred Eight Five Haitian doctors returning from 
their studies in Cuba will work to provide basic medical care 
countrywide.  Cuba will construct two basic health care 
centers in each of Haiti's 133 communes and one advanced 
diagnostic center in each of Haiti's ten departments.  Preval 
announced that the equipment and materials for the centers 
are already available in Cuba.  Cuba and Venezuela will help 
Haiti resolve illiteracy with USD 20 million per year for 
three years.  The three governments will also open an ''ALBA 
office'' in Port-au-Prince in the near future.  (Note: During 
the discussions surrounding Chavez's visit to Port-au-Prince 
in March, Preval had referred to 
 ''a tri-lateral cooperation office.'' End Note.) 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Comment:  The Haitian media coverage virtually 
ignored the ALBA summit's pomp and circumstance, Chavez' 
grandiose declarations, and Preval's own address.  (Preval 
managed to be both brief and rambling, but did make a point 
of twice noting that Haiti was not a member of ALBA.)  Though 
the extravagant promises and commitments that Preval 
announced on his return made for splashy headlines and news 
reports, most Haitians (including Preval himself) are already 
wary and skeptical of Chavez.  They remember that Chavez 
promised them great things when Preval signed the PetroCaribe 
 
PORT AU PR 00000829  002.4 OF 002 
 
 
agreement one year ago and are well aware that there is less 
electricity throughout the country and that gas prices have 
risen since then. 
SANDERSON