country. He could not say how many people had died. He did not know
when the roads would be cleared of debris. He wouldn’t venture a guess
on whether more survivors might still be pulled from the rubble.
“We haven’t ended the rescue operations, but we know
that as the days pass, the chances are getting smaller and smaller,”
the president told the Los Angeles Times, speaking after a news
conference held at what serves these days as his government’s
headquarters: a guarded police station behind cinder block walls near
the airport.
Preval spoke in the police station’s car park. He
looked shaken and did little to offer forceful reassurances to
Haitians. Asked repeatedly about security, Preval said the police were
acting in “extremely difficult conditions.”
He called on the Haitian people to “organize themselves” to maintain order.
The quake destroyed every major government building, including the
the Supreme Court and ministries. Preval told of telephoning government
office after government office last Tuesday after the quake, and then
calling the U.N. headquarters — all without answer. He then hopped on a
motorcycle to move through the city and survey the wasteland.
But he had since been largely invisible to his
countrymen. His news conference was held exactly one week after the
quake. When it ended, Preval turned to head back to his office in the
police station. He was confronted by a woman in red.
“Mr. President! Mr. President!” she shouted. “People
are dying. We have no water. The mayor has everything and he doesn’t
want to give it up!” she said.
“Please, please, please, just a bag of rice.”
“OK, a bag of rice,” Preval said. Then he went inside.
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/
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