By: Nazaire St Fort and Jeb Sprague – HaitiAnalysis.com

Tell us about the political situation in your town and your own background?

Lamoun Chery: I was first elected in 2001 as a Casec coordinator. Then I was elected again on December 3, 2006 this time as the mayor of Roch-à-Bateau, both times with Fanmi Lavalas. I have intentions to go for higher elected positions but our town and local government needs national and international aid to satisfy the population. Fanmi Lavalas is the main political party in my area, other political parties primarily only make an appearance during elections with money from outside of the town, but Fanmi Lavalas is organizing all the time in this vicinity.

Jude Bonhomme: I studied in Agronomy and I work in this field in Roch-à-Bateau. Fanmi Lavalas has both done a lot to earn the trust of the poor but it is also part of a general awareness of our situation. But today we often do not have the money to do the things we did in the past under the Aristide government. Our town also has a deputy and another mayor both from Fanmi Lavalas.

What is the difference between the resources your local government is provided with today (August, 2007) compared with under the Fanmi Lavalas government (Feb 2001- Feb 2004)?

Lamoun Chery: Aristide provided better resources to the outlying areas. The Aristide government began construction on two schools in our area, which was a big deal, a national school called Nathan, and in the downtown of Roch-à-Bateau a national secondary school called Lycee. When he was overthrown both schools were still under construction and they remain where his government left off. The Aristide government bought land for the schools and other land to build a hospital on. Now at this moment we are looking for assistance to finish the schools. We had 400 children and 600 adults participating in our small town in the Alpha literacy program that Aristide backed. We do not have any hospitals. It is 15km from Roch-a-Bateau to Port Salut, which has a hospital. The cost of medicine is a problem and some when faced with health problems still prefer not to make the trip to the hospital because of the cost.

What is the economic activity like in your town?

Jude Bonhomme: We have some fishing that goes on but they are very poor. Most people are very poor and live by agriculture and in a simple manner. There are no bourgeoisie in Roch-à-Bateau. All the towns' folk are on the same level of poverty. We have a public market. But we must go to Les Cayes to buy specialty items like clothing or telephones. It is difficult because just this trip in a tap-tap is too expensive for most. We have 5 police officers, 3 of them are Fanmi Lavalas. The total population is 25,000 people. Most of the mayors in the coast area are all from Fanmi Lavalas. The only other political party in our town that had a small minority of votes was Union, the party of Chavannes Jeune. But the difference between the other parties and Fanmi Lavalas, is that from the beginning most people were for Fanmi Lavlas and identified with it.

Lamoun Chery: Other parties do not provide much of an opposition in out area. Some people were initially scared that the macoutes would return to do violence when Aristide was forced out in 2004, like they did after the 1991 coup. But our town was spared and the ex-military never entered. Today the people again have faith again in Lavalas and now once again it is a very, very strong party in our locality.

Are there any popular organizations and civil society groups in your town? Often in the international press we only hear about the anti-Lavalas civil society groups that are widely promoted and sponsored by international donor agencies.

Lamoun Chery: Yes, we have popular organizations. There is OPDER, the organization for protecting the environment and for the development of Roch-à-Bateau; there is COROBEL the coalition of Roch-à-Batelaise for the local development of the peasants. There are also two organizations that the fisherman have in our town. We are both members of the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH), which has an office nearby in Les Cayes. That federation is spread out across the entire country and well known for its labor organizing. The priests in the churches in our town give sermons whose words are reminders of the words our former-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide spoke when he was a priest. All these organizations are with Fanmi Lavalas and support it. We have many problems that harm our city so we'd like to have fund raising to help resolve the problems we face. We would like to talk to anyone about the problems that the poor agricultural workers face in Haiti.

Why do you think Haitian and foreign elites have worked for so long now to undermine the democratic vote and democratic institutions in Haiti?

Lamoun Chery: Well with the Haitian people voting for Fanmi Lavalas, they voted for a movement that mobilizes the poor people that are the majority of people in Haiti. The Haitian bourgeoisie are in the minority with lots of money and they don't want the other people to share in the economic possibilities. That is why they plot with powerful foreign governments to attack Fanmi Lavalas. FL works with the poor people, for the poor people and for national production. For that reason they are attacked. But we still identify with the poor and well meaning people of all countries, we need a dialogue.

If people want to visit your coastal town, what can they do?

Lamoun Chery: The people of our town are very hospitable; this is an area with long beautiful beaches where people can relax. Visitors can go to the beach. All of the people are warm and will love to meet any visitors from any where in the world. We have one hotel in our town called Amerihlove, which costs approximately US $10 dollars per night. You can get good food down on the beach too. We are not far from Port Salut and Les Cayes out on the southern peninsula of the country. For more information contact the mayor of Roch-a-Bateau, Lamoun Chery at Lacher33@yahoo.fr

Photograph by Jeb Sprague