VZCZCXRO7550
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #1138/01 1781909
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P 271909Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6407
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1571
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1390
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 0833
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1244

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 001138 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/13/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR MARR HA
SUBJECT: YOURI LATORTUE REACHES OUT 
 
REF: PORT-AU-PRINCE 1080 
 
PORT AU PR 00001138  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR JANET A. SANDERSON, REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D). 
 
¶1.  (S)  Summary.  Senator Youri Latortue, during a June 18 
meeting with Poloff granted at Latortue's request, expressed 
his desire to have better relations with the embassy and 
expand the reach of his political party.  Latortue explained 
that he supported forming an army that would help the state 
protect its borders and respond to emergencies, such as 
natural disasters and crime waves.  Latortue's meeting 
request was in part spurred by actions taken by the 
international community, including post, to counter 
Latortue's efforts to weaken justice reform legislation. 
Latortue's profile as a leading opponent of the government 
and future presidential candidate has risen sharply in recent 
months, even though informed Haitians widely assume that he 
was involved in drug trafficking and is still directly linked 
to criminal activity in his home base in the Artibonite. 
Latortue's influence makes it increasingly difficult for post 
to shun him completely, but we will maintain our policy of 
keeping him at arms length.  End of summary. 
 
Ambition 
---------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Going through his talking points with poloff in a 
methodical, organized manner, Latortue explained that the 
party he founded to take part in the 2005 elections,  The 
Artibonite in Action (LAAA), pursued ''decentralization, 
deconcentration, and local development,'' as a response to 
insufficient GoH development of the Artibonite Department. 
He pointed to a joint project between his party and Taiwan to 
give students access to computers at the local university as 
an example of the development partnerships that his party 
seeks.  Latortue stated his goal was to transform his 
organization from a regional to a national party.   LAAA 
would grow through either its own resources or merger or in 
coalition with other parties.  In his opinion, however, the 
current national parties are not viable coalition partners 
due to their disorganization. 
 
I am Not a Crook 
---------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Latortue stated that the international community 
plays a big role in Haitian affairs and that he must reach 
out to it if he is to be a successful, national political 
leader.  He claimed to have had good relations with the US 
Embassy in the past, but that the relationship soured 
beginning in 2004.  Unprompted, Latortue acknowledged that 
some people believe he is a drug trafficker.  He retorted 
that these were unsubstantiated claims by his and his 
''uncle's'' political enemies.  (Note.  Gerard Latortue, the 
former Prime Minister in the interim government, is in fact 
Youri's first cousin once-removed.  The two commonly referred 
to each other as uncle and nephew and are reportedly very 
close.  Youri Latortue served as PM Latortue's chief of 
security, and left that position in 2005 in order to run for 
the Senate.  He left under suspicion that he was using his 
office for personal gain and to conduct political vendettas. 
End Note.)   He closed his remarks on his political ambitions 
by avowing that he has always been, and will continue to be, 
a friend of the United States.  He said that he receives from 
Cuba and Venezuela offers to visit, but always declines 
because these countries ''do not represent his way of 
thinking.''  He also claimed to have counseled other 
government officials and parliamentarians that accepting 
these offers would appear to be playing off the United States 
and Venezuela/Cuba against each other, which is a game that 
Haiti cannot win. 
 
Go Army 
---------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  When asked why he called for the re-establishment 
of an army in a previous newspaper interview, Latortue 
responded that the constitution provided for an army, and 
that Haiti needed one.  He claimed to have raised the issue 
with President Rene Preval, who agreed in principle that the 
GoH should create a force of some type, but that the force 
should resemble a gendarmerie.  Latortue said that he did not 
envision the reestablishment of the FAd'H (Armed Forces of 
Haiti), but rather a new ''public force,'' consisting of the 
coast guard, a border guard, and a civil defense corps, which 
would respond to natural disasters.  The coast and frontier 
guards could assist the police under special circumstances, 
but not in normal operations.  Though the coast and frontier 
guards would be professionally staffed, the civil defense 
corps would be staffed by instituting an obligatory one year 
service for 18-20 year olds.  Latortue claimed that the 
obligatory service would help instill in young persons the 
need to serve their country.  He thinks that the total 
''public security force'' should number between 1,000-2,000. 
(Note.  Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis on June 20 
announced his intention to create a commission, lasting eight 
months, to examine the creation of a new ''public force'' or 
''gendarmerie'' that could operate in cooperation with the 
police.  Alexis, however, also expressed that he remained 
unenthusiastic about creating a new army.  End note.) 
 
The Trouble with Youri 
---------- 
 
¶5.  (C)  Comment.  Latortue's meeting request was spurred in 
part by a joint effort by post and MINUSTAH to counter 
efforts by Latortue to weaken the government's justice reform 
initiative.  Poloff emphasized during the meeting that post 
joined with the GoH and international community in supporting 
reform that insured the independence and integrity of the 
judicial system and provided for vetting of current justice 
officials.  Latortue professed to support the same goals; 
thus the meeting may have headed off a possible public rift 
between Latortue and his supporters in parliament and the 
international community.  (Post will report on the status of 
justice reform septel.) 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Comment Continued.  Of much greater significance is 
Latortue's blatant political ambition.  As he is in public, 
Latortue was erudite and engaging during this meeting, and 
divulged a clear strategy in his campaign to become 
president: deliver projects/money to his Department; win the 
political allegiance of students and young adults; and stay 
at the center of important national issues such as justice 
reform and the re-establishment of the army.  His public 
stance on the army positions him to take advantage of 
significant sympathy for the ex-FAd'H, which is at once also 
anti-Lavalas, and also appeals to law-and-order nostalgia. 
 
¶7.  (S)  Comment Continued.  Among political observers, it is 
an article of faith that Latortue was involved in drug 
trafficking under Aristide and during the first Preval 
administrations.  Preval himself reports that Latortue ''ran 
drugs'' out of his office in the Presidency during Aristide's 
mandate.  As reported in reftel and other reporting, it is 
similarly widely believed that Latortue has assumed 
leadership of the criminal elements in Gonaives and 
throughout the Artibonite and is working to undermine the 
government and weaken Prime Minister Alexis.  (When Latortue 
and Prime Minister Alexis had occasion to shake hands during 
a recent appearance by the PM at parlament, onlookers burst 
out laughing.)  Neverthelss, in Haiti's see-no-evil - 
hear-no-evil politcal culture, many Haitians naturally 
assume that Latortue will play an increasingly important role 
in politics as he consolidates his power, and view him as a 
serious presidential contender, even as he becomes the 
poster-boy for political corruption in Haiti. 
SANDERSON