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Meanwhile, dissension and recriminations wrack the Lavalas alliance. A congress of the Mouvement Organization du Pays (MOP) - which is part of the supposedly-ruling Lavalas Political Platform coalition with the Parti Louvri Barye (PLB) and the Organisation Politique Lavalas (OPL) - was the forum for an acrimonious struggle between at least three vying opportunist currents. On Sept. 3, Lavalas parliamentarians held an extraordinary closed door meeting to try to establish some unity among their ranks which have been badly split on questions of how to implement neo-liberal economic reforms, how to control Macoute violence, and how to control the National Police.

To their credit, the Haitian parliament did block the signing of a $3 million loan contract this week between the Preval government and the Inter-American development Bank (IDB) on the grounds that conditions called for the executive to establish yet another money-sucking sovereignty-subverting "independent" office to administer the money and formulate a "decentralization plan" (i.e. a plan to facilitate foreign political and economic control) in a ridiculously short 30 months (i.e. before the end of Preval's term).

However, with chaos mounting, Preval's presidency could be shorter than the prescribed 5 years. Clinton administration officials seem mainly concerned that things remain stable until the November presidential elections. It is an open secret, both in Haiti and the U.S., that Haiti will be a political football in this year's campaign. Rather than denounce and reject the deadly U.S. manipulation of the country's political life, Haitian government officials and lawmakers have meekly complained to Washington about the scrimmage trampling the country. As early as last May, Haitian parliamentarians told U.S. congresspeople that the U.S. election campaign could bring violence to Haiti. "Democrats told us our fears might be justified, Republicans that they were observing the situation," Haitian Sen. Jean-Robert Martinez told the Associated Press. Martinez also said that "certain political sectors may be interested in tarnishing Clinton's image."

That threat brought a scurry of U.S. officials to Port-au-Prince last week, starting with Gen. John Sheehan, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command on Aug. 25. "The U.S. is solidly behind President Preval and the Haitian government," he declared. Next, the State Department's new special coordinator for Haiti Joseph Sullivan travelled to Haiti on Aug. 28 to announce that the U.S. government had "found" $10 million to buy equipment for the Haitian National Police (HNP). "We are going to continue to give all our assistance to achieve economic growth and social pacification," U.S. Ambassador William L. Swing said on the occasion, "in other words, we are going to continue to support the National Police." It was perhaps Swing's most eloquent summation of U.S. policy towards Haiti.

Two days later, Assistant Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, accompanied by Sheehan, made an impromptu visit to Port-au-Prince to meet with Preval. Neither the U.S. nor Haitian governments would comment on what was discussed, but everyone could guess. The visit came one day after the Aug. 29 assassination in Port-au-Prince of Yves Phanor, a naturalized U.S. citizen and instructor employed by the U.S. Justice Department to train the Haitian National Police (HNP). Another attack against occupation forces occurred in Petit Gove on Aug. 25, when a truck and two residences of U.N. soldiers were fired on.

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