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Food Crisis Not Launching Haitian Flotilla

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 4, 2008

BAIE DES MOUSTIQUES, Haiti - When soaring food prices sparked deadly riots across Haiti, many expected that people along the cactus-studded northern coast would do what they traditionally do in times of crisis: take to the seas and head for the United States.

So far it hasn't happened.

In this hamlet overlooking a pristine bay that Christopher Columbus once admired, Gary Boloney has no job and no money. But the rail-thin 38-year-old says that after two failed attempts to flee by boat, the food crisis won't make him risk it again.

The mayor, Pierre Belizaire, says people should give President Rene Preval a chance.

In the early 1990s, political violence sent tens of thousands of Haitians toward Florida aboard rickety boats, forcing President Clinton to send in troops to stabilize the country.

Now the price of rice, beans, fruit and condensed milk has gone up 50 percent in the past year. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, says its cutters have interdicted 972 Haitian migrants during the past seven months, about the same number as a year earlier. That's a fraction of the 31,000 intercepted in 1992 after a military coup.

That said, analysts warn that unless Preval tackles the rising food costs, more Haitians will chance the dangerous trip.

"It will probably rise markedly, unless the food subsidies can stabilize prices in Haiti," said Henry Carey, a professor at Georgia State University.

There are no signs of increased boat-building on Tortue Island, a traditional migrant-smuggling center 10 miles of cobalt water from Baie des Moustiques. An alleged leader of a migrant-smuggling ring, conspicuous with gold chains around his neck and wrist, declined to discuss whether rising food prices have brought him more customers. Thuggish young men followed journalists visiting the island, intimidating villagers into silence.

Many residents who may be considering leaving are deterred by stories of migrants drowning, suffocating or being eaten by sharks. Two weeks ago, 24 Haitians died when their boat capsized off the Bahamas.
Boloney tried to sail to Florida in 1994 in a stolen boat, but landed in Cuba instead. While Cuban officials processed deportation papers, his family gave him up for dead.

"I came back to my own wake," he said. "They were drinking rum, so I joined them."

His second trip ended when the boat, with about 40 people on board, ran aground on an uninhabited island.

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