U.S. Marines trained their rifles down gritty streets and into a teeming market as they patrolled the Haitian capital with other peacekeepers Thursday, drawing smiles and a few angry words, but no resistance. Hatred is still simmering among various factions nearly a week after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a rebellion that left at least 130 people dead, with new killings discovered outside Port-au-Prince.
| They're Haitians. That's in the Caribbean. They don't really know how to seethe... |
As the Marines rolled into the looted port area in eight Light Armored Vehicles and ventured into the crowds, onlookers gathered around in curiosity but showed no fear. At one point, a Marine poured a canteen of water over his head to cool off in the sweltering heat, drawing chuckles from passers-by. "I feel much safer now the Marines are here," said Frantz Labissiere, 44. "I wouldn't be here if the Marines weren't here." But not everyone shared his view. As the convoy passed an angry knot of people standing on a street corner and making faces, one youth shouted: "You took our president — now you're taking our country!"
| Yar! An' we want yer little dog, too! An' yer sister! |
Others held up photographs of Aristide, who fled the country Sunday as rebels neared the outskirts of the capital and the United States and former colonial ruler France pressed him to resign.
| "Pictures! Pictures! Two fer a buck!" |
Haiti's first freely elected leader lost a lot of popularity in Haiti -- and in Washington, which restored him to power in 1994 after he was ousted in a 1991 military coup -- because he allegedly used militant loyalists to attack and intimidate his opponents, failed to help the poor and condoned corruption. Aristide, in exile in the Central African Republic, has denied the accusations.
| Tell us something we don't know... |
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