1991, January 20 – February 7: (The Second Round, the Rumored Jailbreak, Four Macoutes Lynched and Six Killed, Aristide’s Sang-Froid and Two Days in Paris wi…

1991, January 20 – February 7: (The Second Round, the Rumored Jailbreak, Four Macoutes Lynched and Six Killed, Aristide’s Sang-Froid and Two Days in Paris with Mitterrand, Izméry Trashes the United States as the Boss of the Mafia, and the Inauguration — George Bush Declines, a Peasant Woman Hands Aristide the Sash, the Te Deum in the Church He Had So Often Fought While the Embers of the Cathedral Barely Cool, the Inaugural Address, Six Generals Retired in a Very Astute Political Move, Raoul Cédras Named Army Chief of Staff, Pascal-Trouillot Forbidden to Leave the Country, Fort Dimanche Visited as a Future Museum, Donors Chary After the Duvalier Lessons, and the Constitution Devolves Power to the Prime Minister): The second round of elections for the legislature and other offices went off on January 20 without a hitch, though turnout was light — having elected Aristide, many voters had apparently given no thought to the notion that an opposition-dominated legislature could effectively thwart much of the Lavalas program. And still the army stayed in its barracks. As February 7 drew closer, nerves in Port-au-Prince were increasingly on edge — on January 27 teledjòl had it that there was a plot afoot to free Lafontant and his associates from jail. Barricades and burning tires promptly appeared in the poorer quarters; mobs lynched four macoutes and attacked a police station in Carrefour. Only radio announcements from Mayor Evans Paul and the Army High Command affirming that Lafontant and his cronies were still in custody cooled things off — six were killed as the army restored order. Displaying remarkable sang-froid, père Aristide left as planned for two days of meetings in France with François Mitterrand and other officials. While Aristide sought aid from one of Haiti’s two largest donors, his chief backer in the elite, Antoine Izméry, was busy trashing the other — Izméry, a forty-seven-year-old Haitian of Palestinian origin who had made millions importing goods for the very elite père Aristide so despised, seemed an unlikely soul mate for the new president, claiming that Ambassador Adams had provided the impetus for the Lafontant coup attempt and that Jimmy Carter had tried to get Aristide to concede the election before the first votes were counted, calling Haiti a safe house for bandits with a Mafia organization controlling it whose boss was the United States. Under such circumstances, George Bush could be excused for declining to attend Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s inaugural on February 7, 1991 — the United States was represented by Ambassador Alvin Adams and the Secretary for Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis Sullivan. They, along with Jimmy Carter and scores of dignitaries from around the world, looked on as the thirty-seven-year-old noir from Port Salut took the oath of office. After taking the oath, Jean-Bertrand Aristide accepted the blue and red sash of office from a peasant woman. As supporters blew on conch shells, the newest president of Haiti went to the cathedral for the traditional Te Deum from the Church with which he had so often been at odds — the embers of the eighteenth-century church a few hundred yards away had barely cooled. Then, in front of the Palace, he delivered an inaugural address that mesmerized the thousands gathered on the lawn and behind the palace fence. In what one diplomat called a very astute political move, he retired six of the army’s eight remaining generals, thanking them for their service to the nation. Another move that would prove freighted with consequences was the appointment of an up-and-coming mulâtre officer, Raoul Cédras, as army chief of staff. In an implicit rebuke to the outgoing administration, he immediately forbade outgoing President Pascal-Trouillot, her entire cabinet, and senior electoral officials from leaving the country for a month. The next day, in a move whose symbolism no Haitian could miss, he visited Fort Dimanche, which he announced would be turned into a museum. The Aristide government started with a large reservoir of good will as well as concrete commitments for aid from the international community — donors were chary though, having incorporated the expensive lessons of the Duvalier years, of providing funds on anything but carefully designed projects with realistic goals, which in practice meant that pending the Haitian government getting its act together, little money would be coming in, translating to no substantial change in the plight of the urban or rural poor in the first months despite their great expectations. By the terms of the 1987 constitution, much of the power that had been traditionally concentrated in the hands of the president devolved to the Prime Minister and the cabinet.