Dispatches This Old Palace

Jean-Bertrand Aristide's presidential palace was in a state of wild disarray all last week, though the Haitian government did manage to put on a fairly elegant reception for some 500 distinguished visitors and guests on the Saturday of Aristide's return -- a triumph all the more remarkable for the palace's lack of running water. The President's people had been especially nervous since a number of the invitees supported the 1991 coup d'etat against Aristide and were no doubt looking forward to a social debacle. But the Americans arrived with six portable toilets, and the Haitians lugged water up two flights of...

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