VZCZCXRO7424
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #1410/01 2341901
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221901Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6727
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1617
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1435
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 0875
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1289

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 001410 
 
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: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM HA
SUBJECT: POSTCARD FROM PORT-DE-PAIX AND ILE DE LA TORTUE 
 
REF: PORT-AU-PRINCE 1141 
 
PORT AU PR 00001410  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  Summary.  Port-de-Paix, the capital city of Haiti's 
Northwest department, is Haiti's fifth largest city with a 
population of roughly 100,000.  Ile de la Tortue, also known 
as Tortuga, is an island located off the coast of 
Port-de-Paix that has a population of 35,000.  During a June 
14-16 trip, Poloff found Port-de-Paix's residents to be poor, 
but the city appeared to have basic services and organized 
commerce.  Drug-trafficking plays an important role in 
Port-de-Paix's economy, but has not produced the gang 
violence or banditry found in Port-au-Prince or Gonaives. 
Ile de la Tortue, on the other hand, is impoverished and 
completely undeveloped, even in the eyes of Haitians.  Many 
of Ile de la Tortue's residents, who appeared undernourished, 
resist adopting environmentally sustainable farming 
techniques that could increase food production down the road 
but which lower it in the short term.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  Poloff traveled to Port-de-Paix via plane and landed at 
the airport, a rocky, hardened-dirt landing strip easily 
accessible to local pedestrians as well as stray animals. 
Flying to Port-de-Paix is preferable to driving:  the 163 
mile drive from Port-au-Prince to Port-de-Paix normally takes 
eight hours over extremely rugged terrain which begins after 
passing through the city of Saint Marc.  Inside the city, 
cars and mopeds easily navigate the narrow, concrete-brick 
roads.  The only impassable road that Poloff observed was a 
muddy, trash-filled street adjacent to the central pier.  The 
roads outside the city are rough, rock-filled and prone to 
flooding.  Unlike Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince, only small 
boats can dock at Port-de-Paix's rudimentary pier; larger 
vessels must remain a short distance away in the harbor. 
 
¶3.  Port-de-Paix's residents are avid consumers of advanced 
communication services.  Mobile telecommunication towers and 
individual television satellite dishes are prevalent 
throughout the city, as are private generators.  The hotel 
where Poloff stayed has its own wind turbine (windmill) 
generator.  Many houses are fully finished and brightly 
colored.  Small, modest business establishments, such as a 
supermarket, restaurants and night clubs/bars, contribute to 
the city's economic life.  The waterside hotel a short 
distance outside the city where Poloff stayed appears to be 
an economic mainstay of the area. 
 
¶4.  During a conversation while en route from the pier to the 
hotel on June 15, Bernard Dadaille, the Haitian National 
Police (HNP) Commissaire for Port-de-Paix, claimed that 
violent crime of the sort found in Port-au-Prince is rare in 
Port-de-Paix.  Instead, he cited drug trafficking as the 
city's major criminal activity.  Dadaille said he believes 
that the drugs arrive from Port-au-Prince, after which 
smugglers use their boats and contacts to transport the drugs 
to the Bahamas, and then to the United States.  He noted that 
the drug traffickers smuggle merchandise and people as well. 
The low-level of violence growing out of the trafficking -- 
producing few leads or suspects -- and the Haitian Coast 
Guard's derelict facilities in Port-de-Paix make it difficult 
to investigate and prosecute traffickers.  Local residents, 
he told Poloff, tacitly support smuggling. 
 
¶5.  Ile de la Tortue, by contrast, is wholly undeveloped.  It 
possesses a rudimentary pier to which only small boats can 
dock.  The paved road, however, ends about 100 yards away 
from the pier.  The dirt roads contain gullies large enough 
to swallow the tires and scrape the axles of 4x4 vehicles 
with the highest clearances.  The winding dirt roads do not 
have guard rails, are prone to mudslides, and are barely wide 
enough for one vehicle.  Passing another vehicle on the road 
is a negotiated, perilous endeavor.  Soil erosion appeared 
severe.  Outside the island's main village, Poloff 
encountered unclothed children, visibly undernourished 
persons and unfinished housing.  There were no cell phones or 
satellite dishes. 
 
¶6.  Ile de la Torture has a subsistance economy.  Many 
residents appear engaged in either fishing or agriculture. 
The island contains few commercial establishments, of which 
the two funeral homes appear the most prosperous.  There are 
 
PORT AU PR 00001410  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
two hotels.  Haitian officials who were present declined to 
spend the night in either.  Poloff saw a small number of 
makeshift bars and barber shops.  Severe soil erosion stands 
in the way of farmers' producing enough food.  When Wilmarc 
Eugene, an agronomist for Caritas who participated in the 
June 15 conference on clandestine migration, (see reftel), 
explained to residents that their traditional farming methods 
caused the environmental degradation and low crop yields, the 
residents replied, ''We are hungry.  We need food.''  The 
islanders responded negatively not only to environmentally 
sustainable farming techniques, but also to non-farming 
micro-credit initiatives. 
 
¶7.  Comment.  Port-de-Paix's modest, small-town appearance 
belies the underground, illicit economy on which it depends. 
Residents who benefit from smuggling appear to understand the 
importance of remaining inconspicuous to the GoH in 
Port-au-Prince, thereby avoiding the aggressive HNP response 
recently seen in Port-au-Prince and Gonaives.  Physical 
security in Port-de-Paix is not illusory.  As in 
Port-de-Paix, which contained few armed guards, the hotel 
outside the city where Poloff and the Haitian officials 
stayed did not have armed guards.  Ile de la Tortue's 
residents, however, would like the GoH to focus its attention 
on developing the island (see reftel).  Unless the GoH or 
local government improves the island's food security, which 
would make residents better able to embrace changes that 
development would entail, the island appears condemned 
indefinitely to abject poverty. 
TIGHE