Haiti: Ex-police chief back for old role (Dany Toussaint)

[eablair3]

Heard an interview on NPR just now where this Dany Toussaint came up. One of the possible new US backed power guys? he's an ex-bodyguard of Aristide from years ago, who Aristide had got rid of.
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Ex-police chief back for old role

Jean-Bertrand Aristide's former right-hand man reemerges to lend security to a post-Aristide, uncertain Haiti.

BY TRENTON DANIEL

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PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Another ghost from Haiti's horrible past has emerged from the power vacuum left by Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- Dany Toussaint, accused of being a killer and drug trafficker and until last year, a hard-bitten Aristide backer.

The 46-year-old Toussaint is a senator from the former president's Lavalas Family party. But he says Aristide's resignation and flight into exile prompted him to return to his work in security. He was chief of police during Aristide's first presidential term in the 1990s.

''When they talk about security, they talk about me,'' Toussaint told The Herald on Tuesday in one of his rare interviews since a bloody anti-Aristide rebellion erupted on Feb. 5.

And even though he broke with Aristide last year, he claimed to have been meeting recently with rough pro-Aristide gunmen known as chimres to persuade them to put down their weapons and assist the National Police in restoring order.

Toussaint is among the businessmen and former police and army officers who have emerged to take on pro-Aristide militants who had threatened to ''burn down the houses and cut off the heads'' of the president's opponents.

His name also is being mentioned as a player in the maneuvering to forge a new coalition government -- despite his reputation.

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/8091282.htm

[asjr]

1. Another fine mess you've gotten us into George.

n/t