HAITIAN CANDIDATES ARE UNDER SUSPICION

Several Are Linked to Illicit Drugs by DEA

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- At least three candidates in Haiti's
elections scheduled for Jan. 8 have links to a cocaine-trafficking
industry that wants to ensure the next government is weak and
corruptible, a half-dozen Haitian and U.S. officials say.

Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates -- Guy Philippe
and Dany Toussaint -- have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials. A Senate candidate
who is a nephew of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has close
links to a gang that controls drug smuggling in the port of Gonaives,
according to the Haitian and U.S. officials.

Haiti, where the average person struggles on less than $1 a day, is a
pass-through point for about 8 percent of the Colombian cocaine
detected heading to U.S. streets, according to U.S. State Department
narcotics reports.

Despite the presence of 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed after the
rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year, the
arrival of cocaine "is essentially unimpeded," said the State
Department's 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Analysts fear that traffickers are quietly working to subvert any
return to an elected democracy, either by backing candidates they can
control or sowing chaos on the streets to delay the balloting.

"At this point the entire transition is at risk," said Mark Schneider
of the International Crisis Group, a non-profit that analyzes
conflict around the world. "Drug traffickers don't want a
functioning, effective government with a functioning, effective
police force and customs.

"They have their hooks in the police, they have their hooks in parts
of the transitional government," he said.

U.S. prosecutors in Miami have gone after 10 of the biggest
traffickers and corrupt officials of the Aristide years. But there
are plenty of suspicions about officials of the current interim government.

Diplomats and counterdrug agents have expressed particular concerns
about Youri Latortue -- the security chief for his uncle, the prime
minister, and a senate candidate for the Gonaives region, a major
drug-smuggling area.

The U.S. Embassy warned the prime minister in private in March 2004
that his nephew was linked to illegal activities and should not be
part of the government, according to one top U.S. official familiar
with the issue, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized
to discuss the issue. At that time, Washington refused the nephew a U.S. visa.

The prime minister publicly defended his nephew, saying he trusted
him and, in a nation that has seen 32 coups in 200 years, he wanted
the nephew to stay on as his chief of security and intelligence.

U.N. civilian police are concerned that Youri Latortue is trying to
take control of the diplomatic lounge at the Port-au-Prince
international airport, one way that drug traffickers have
traditionally bypassed official scrutiny while entering and leaving
Haiti, one top U.N. official told Knight Ridder.

Youri Latortue, meanwhile, has struck a political alliance with Guy
Philippe, one of the leaders of the rebellion that ousted Aristide
and now a candidate for the presidency. The two apparently knew each
other when they served in the Haitian police.

The DEA suspected Philippe was involved in drug trafficking when he
was police chief in the northern port of Cap Haitien, Haiti's
second-biggest city.

Philippe has vehemently denied such allegations.