AMERICANIZATION:

U.N. Troops Fight Haiti's Gangs One Street at a Time (MARC LACEY, 2/09/07, NY Times)

For years, street gangs have run Haiti right alongside the politicians. With a disbanded army and a corrupted wreck of a police force, successive presidents have either used the gangs against political rivals or just bought them off.

Recently, something extraordinary has occurred. President René Préval decided to take on the gangs and set the 8,000 United Nations peacekeepers loose on them, a risky move that will determine the security of the country and the success of his young government.

"We're taking back Port-au-Prince centimeter by centimeter," said Lt. Col. Abdesslam Elamarti, a peacekeeper from Morocco. "We're pressing these gangs so the population can live in peace."

Building and staffing prisons would even be useful public works programs.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 10, 2007 8:20 AM