VZCZCXRO3220
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #1651/01 3361658
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 011658Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9216
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 2132
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1887
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 1306
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1721

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 001651 
 
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 JACMEL: FRUSTRATION IN PROVINCES 
 
PORT AU PR 00001651  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: The southern coastal city of Jacmel is 
struggling with insufficient funding from the central 
government, inadequate law enforcement, and Port-au-Prince 
corruption frightening off potential investors in Jacmel. 
Jacmel, however, has a unique advantage in the form of a 
wealthy mayor -- who likens himself to Barack Obama as an 
agent of change -- ready to deploy some of his own capital in 
the service of his city.  The city's long-dormant tourist 
industry awaits investment.  Sexual violence against women 
remains under-reported and under-prosecuted.  End summary. 
 
 
Portrait of a Small City Mayor 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (U) The coastal city of Jacmel, population 50,000, is 
located two hours from Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. 
Jacmel's current mayor, Edwin Zenny, a Haitian of Lebanese 
descent was elected in February 2007 with 76 percent of the 
vote. ''I grew up here,'' he told Poloff, ''and I've been 
telling everyone since I was two years old that I'd be mayor 
someday.  I'm kind of another Obama and bringing change.''  A 
successful businessman by any standard, Mayor Zenny made his 
fortune selling Chinese-made motorcycles throughout Haiti and 
leverages his family's local history and financial security 
in ways not possible for mayors with comparatively fewer 
resources. 
 
¶3.  (U) When elected mayor, Mayor Zenny learned that Jacmel 
contained a total of 3000 USD in its tax collection fund; 
today, the account holds close to 70,000 USD. The mayor 
attributes this to fiscal transparency and the business 
community's ability to see that the funds are actively 
invested in improving infrastructure and bettering the local 
investment climate.  Municipalities in Haiti are apportioned 
annual funds from the central government, however, since 
Zenny has taken office, Jacmel has received none of its 
allotment.  Mayor Zenny is philosophical about the situation 
and considers it just one on a long list of the capital's 
transgressions against smaller municipalities.  ''That's what 
makes this place different (Jacmel),'' he says, ''We don't 
need them.'' 
 
¶4.  (U) Many of the issues that continue to plague the rest 
of Haiti -- insufficient services, the rising cost of food 
and fuel, chronically high unemployment, instability and 
insecurity -- also affect Jacmel.  Security ranks high on the 
mayor's list of concerns, although Jacmel rarely experiences 
public demonstrations.  The Mayor claims that non-locals are 
responsible for much of the city's crime.  Despite the 
southern shore's reputation as a major drug-trafficking hub, 
even though the surrounding coastline is unpatrolled, neither 
Mayor Zenny nor the local police chief believes that Jacmel 
has a large narco-trafficking problem.  The Mayor maintains 
that when Jacmel police seized two boats for suspected 
narcotics trafficking in 2007 and asked that Port-au-Prince 
direct Haiti's Coast Guard to patrol this section of the 
coast, the central government instead confiscated the boats 
for use in the capital. 
 
¶5.  (U) Mayor Zenny appears to run Jacmel in the ''big man'' 
political tradition, building political capital and goodwill 
through spreading his personal wealth around the city.  His 
car frequently transports desperately ill citizens to the 
hospital in Port-au-Prince; he also donates his 600 USD 
monthly salary to needy local people who appear on his 
doorstep.  ''I don't need it,'' he says, ''That's another 
difference between me and that guy (the mayor) in Les Cayes; 
he needs the money.''  This September, when rising school 
tuition costs threatened to prevent many families from 
enrolling their children in school, Mayor Zenny organized 
10,000 USD in donations from the business community and a 
matching donation from one of Jacmel's more famous 
supporters, hip-hop artist and Haitian, Wyclef Jean.  When a 
visit to the extremely overcrowded and inadequate local 
prison revealed that prisoners slept on the floor for lack of 
beds, Mayor Zenny again solicited funds from local business 
people and Mr. Jean for their purchase. (Note:  The prison 
currently holds 406 inmates -- more than three times its 
capacity of approximately one hundred.  End note.) 
 
PORT AU PR 00001651  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
Law Enforcement 
--------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) The mayor regards MINUSTAH with ambivalence and 
reported that the peacekeepers' desire to pose for pictures 
with locals in front of the sea did not endear them to the 
community.  Zenny claimed that MINUSTAH's African contingents 
are not very popular with local Jacmelians as they share few 
cultural interests.  Local perceptions of MINUSTAH were 
further damaged when the U.N. force drove their armored 
vehicles through the middle of Jacmel's 2007 ''Kids' Carnaval 
Parade.''  Mayor Zenny also complained that MINUSTAH patrols 
conclude at 10:00 p.m. and that most crime in Jacmel occurs 
much later.  Police Chief Alain Auguste, however, does not 
share the mayor's opinion and is keenly aware of Jacmel's 
dependence on the U.N. forces, telling Poloff, ''We have 
nothing and MINUSTAH offers us a lot of support and 
training.'' 
 
¶7.  (U) Jacmel's police force remains severely understaffed 
and poorly equipped.  ''The training is useful,'' Police 
Chief Auguste added, ''but what we really need is the tools 
to do our jobs.''  He stated that they lack such basic 
necessities as handcuffs, radios, sufficient uniforms, and 
flashlights.  They communicate via cell phones for which they 
pay out-of-pocket.  The entire department has just thirty 
police officers, a shortage of approximately 170, and they 
are ''on-call twenty-four hours a day, every day.''  The 
chief reports that rape, theft, and murder are their most 
common arrests. 
 
Centralization Blues 
-------------------- 
 
¶8.  (U) The mayor's cousin, Amil Roland Zenny, is President 
of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce in the Southeast 
Department and the mayor's unofficial but widely recognized 
economic advisor.  Mr. Zenny expressed frustration with the 
national government, voicing the belief that Port-au-Prince 
prefers weak rural cities to sharing power with them. 
Echoing a widely held local hope that cruise ships will one 
day dock in Jacmel, Mr. Zenny remarked, ''Fifty boats pass by 
here every day, each with four hundred passengers.  All we 
need is the government to put a breakwater in our port so 
that they can stop here. We can do the rest. 
 
¶9.  (U) ''The municipality must obtain permission and funding 
from the central government for major construction projects 
and simple repairs to infrastructure, and that support is 
often lacking.  Three larger projects -- improvements to 
their local market, repairing the airport, and relocating a 
dangerous road prone to flooding away from riverbanks -- have 
all been ignored by the national government. 
 
¶10.  (U) Simple repairs to infrastructures go undone, leaving 
systems such as power generators in disrepair for long 
periods.  Tankers with fuel for Jacmel's power generators 
often arrive only one third-full; Mr. Zenny suspects that 
many leave Port-au-Prince fully loaded and suffer pilferage 
en route, but since Port-au-Prince refused his requests for 
an accounting system, he cannot prove these suspicions. 
Jacmel continues to experience frequent power outages. 
Port-au-Prince authorities would not even allow Jacmel to 
rename a tourist-friendly 3 km stretch of road ''Carnaval 
Boulevard.'' Instead, the central government assigned this 
name to a different, shorter stretch of road which cannot 
accommodate the popular annual festival. 
 
¶11.  (U) Actively seeking foreign investment in Jacmel, Mr. 
Zenny recounted numerous instances of the government's 
inability or unwillingness to support local efforts to 
improve living and economic conditions.  For example, an 
ambulance donated from the U.S. sat in Haitian Customs for 
seven months before it was released.  Golden Airlines of 
Miami committed to a Ft. Lauderdale-Jacmel flight, but, 
according to Mr. Zenny, it backed out of the deal when the 
owner refused to pay Port-au-Prince's request for an 
''unofficial'' 500,000 USD in extra fees.  A planned housing 
development continues to lag in the capital administration 
 
PORT AU PR 00001651  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
even though Zenny reports that many of the ninety-four homes 
have been pre-sold to twenty-seven international doctors who 
regularly visit Jacmel as medical service donors and who are 
also funding the project. 
 
Women's Groups Not So Positive 
------------------------------ 
 
¶12.  (U) Emilienne Jean-Marie and Manita Noel of NGO Faym 
Decide (Women Decide) do not believe that improvements in 
Jacmel extend to the social and economic status of women. 
The city's hospital, St. Michel, does not provide adequate 
maternal health care for pregnant women; and the hospital 
lacks equipment and expertise in female health care. 
Economically, the two report, women carry the main burden of 
providing basic subsistence and education for their children 
-- although this may ironically mean finding a man willing to 
contribute financially.  The rising price of food is 
affecting their ability to feed their children.  For example, 
a typical child's daily nourishment currently consists of a 
piece of bread in the morning and one hot meal of rice with a 
few beans in the evening.  Women typically have their first 
child between the ages of sixteen and seventeen, in part due 
to lack of economic potential for independent financial 
security. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13.  (U) Rape is a big concern for Jacmelian women and Police 
Chief Auguste.  Although not subject to the same types of 
sexual violence prevalent in some parts of Port-au-Prince 
(such as targeted gang rape by criminal gangs), their concern 
is warranted.  Victims of rape report that local residents, 
even judges, often consider them at fault for being on the 
streets late at night. For these reasons, as well as social 
stigma, women are often reluctant to report attacks.  Until 
the United Nations Development Fund for Women supported a 
legal advocacy program, victims found it difficult to pursue 
legal cases against perpetrators.  Commonly-held beliefs 
attribute most rapes to outside visitors, but Jean-Marie and 
Noel express concern that step-daughters are uniquely 
vulnerable to intra-family sexual violence; mothers may not 
report their husbands if it means that they may lose their 
financial support, especially if they are pregnant. 
 
 
¶14.  (U) Jacmel faces the same governance challenges as most 
Haitian municipalities:  centralized control of projects and 
financing from a corrupt and poorly functioning national 
government, exacerbated by insufficient tax revenue.  The 
city may be unique, however, in the capability of its current 
administration head to deploy his personal resources to 
mitigate its dependency on national structures.  A 
revitalized tax base and a steady increase in Carnival 
tourism one day could bring about an economic renaissance. 
SANDERSON