VZCZCXRO5281
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0147/01 0301916
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301916Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7580
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1771
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1579
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 1002
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1410

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000147 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
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: ASEC CU ECON HA KDEM PGOV PREL SOCI
SUBJECT: PREVAL PROVINCIAL SWING A MIXED BAG 
 
REF: PORT AU PRINCE 38 
 
PORT AU PR 00000147  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (U)  This message is sensitive but unclassified -- please 
protect accordingly. 
 
¶2. (SBU)  Summary:  President Preval recently made the first 
public tour outside the capital since assuming office.  He 
spent two days in Haiti's Central Plateau, stopping to 
inaugurate a new hospital with U.S. public health luminary 
Dr. Paul Farmer, visiting the border, and making speaking 
appearances in several towns.  Preval dished out lofty 
promises of future development in the region, including a 
sports/cultural center and a medical testing center. 
Repeating a theme of his recent public appearances, Preval 
emphasized ''national production'' as the solution to Haiti's 
economic woes, and reiterated the preeminence of peace and 
security to Haiti's development.  He also acknowledged that 
inflation is a problem and will take time and effort to rein 
in.  Preval's 48-hour excursion finally showed him applying 
his considerable political skills in public outside the 
capital.  While these appearances increased his visibility in 
the provinces, his grand promises and a number of maladroit 
statements generated some pushback from the crowds and a 
degree of critical media reaction.  End summary. 
 
¶3. (U)  Kicking off his January 21-22 swing through Haiti's 
central plateau, President Rene Preval brought his star power 
to bear at the opening of a new Partners in Health (PIH) 
funded hospital in Lascahobas.  (Note:  Partners in Health, 
AmeriCares, and the Ministry of Public Health and Population 
(MSPP) joined forces to erect the Lascahobas hospital in just 
six months.  Harvard medical professor and PIH founder, Paul 
Farmer, spearheaded the project.  End note.)  Preval entered 
the crowded pavilion to cheers of support from locals, 
students and visitors.  Sporting jeans and a casual plaid 
shirt, the President spent five minutes walking around 
greeting the attendees and blowing kisses to the crowd.  Dr. 
Farmer told Emboffs privately that Preval had jumped at the 
idea of participating when Farmer merely mentioned the 
opening to him offhand. 
 
¶4. (U)  In his keynote address, Preval indicated Lascahobas 
would be the site of the first of the sports/cultural centers 
he promised in his Independence Day speech (reftel).  He also 
vowed to build one of several proposed medical diagnostic 
centers at the Lascahobas hospital, stocked with scanners, 
ultrasound, x-ray and other equipment promised by Cuba. 
Preval then put Minister of Public Health Dr. Robert Auguste 
on the spot by asking him to confirm to the crowd that this 
was truly possible.  Pointing to three Haitian doctors 
trained in Cuba, Preval stated that he wants to see a medical 
school built in Haiti, and beseeched Dr. Farmer's help with 
such a project.  Preval then invited the American and Cuban 
doctors in attendance to join him on the stage, stating that 
he was contributing to ''reconciliation.'' 
 
¶5. (U)  Preval continued his tour of the Central Plateau -- 
accompanied by Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis, 
Minister of Public Health Dr. Robert Auguste and Minister of 
Public Works Frantz Verella -- emphasizing local production 
and long-term peace and security.  ''We absolutely must 
preserve the climate of peace in order to attract investors 
and spur development,'' he said.  He noted that the high 
price of oil on the world market made it difficult to bring 
down the cost of essential goods.  Only national production, 
he said, could lower the cost of living, and he encouraged 
Haitians to consume local, not imported, products whenever 
possible.  Preval made several stops around the Center 
Department, including the future home of a cross-border 
marketplace in Belladere and an agricultural center in 
Mirebalais. 
 
¶6. (U)  The Haitian press singled out several of Preval's 
cautionary calls for realism as evidence the President is 
shirking responsibility for citizens' wellbeing.  His 
statement to the effect that Haitians should not have voted 
for him if they expected miracles provoked the most negative 
commentary.  After learning that the majority of one audience 
he was addressing was unemployed, Preval said, ''I did not 
 
PORT AU PR 00000147  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
promise you jobs.''  Answering complaints about the high cost 
of living, Preval simply said, ''We've done what we could,'' 
and said that the remedy for high prices was increased local 
production.  A clip shown on TNH national news showed Preval 
encountering pushback from some in the audience.  Citizens 
interviewed on one local radio station monitored by Poloff 
commented, ''The nation clearly has no chance with Rene 
Preval because prices increased during both his mandates,'' 
and pointed out ''There is no national production.''  OPL 
spokesperson Paul Denis said Preval is unrealistic and shows 
no true determination to solve the nation's economic 
problems.  Fusion spokesperson Micha Gaillard told Poloff 
that Preval's ideas are ''just blather'' until the Ministries 
present specific action plans for how to augment national 
production. 
 
¶7. (SBU)  Comment:  Preval during his second term has rarely 
left the capital, and then only for private events or major 
traditional appearances such as the annual Independence Day 
speech in Gonaives.  Although a campaigner with good 
political and crowd skills, Preval since his May 2006 
inauguration has been oddly reticent about appearing in 
public.  Upon hearing of this trip, Deputy SRSG Luiz Da Costa 
commented to Poloff ''I've been trying to get him to do that 
sort of publicity tour for a year now.''  Preval's 
crowd-pleasing efforts -- blowing kisses to the throngs, 
riding a motorcycle taxi -- aimed to revive his image as a 
man close to the people.  While his key themes of security 
and national production continue to meet with general 
approval, this trip demonstrated that Preval still lacks 
answers to rising public impatience over continuing mass 
joblessness and the high cost of living.  His at times 
defensive and insensitive statements about the plight of his 
people tarnished some of the good will generated by the 
excursion. 
SANDERSON