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With rumors spreading last Friday that Cedras intended to step down, Haiti's high command summoned provincial commanders to Port-au-Prince for a secret strategy meeting. The new rump government was expected to solve one of the military's top concerns, the diminishing supply of gourdes, the local currency. In the six months since the U.N. imposed an oil and arms embargo, millions of dollars worth of gourdes have gone to the Dominican Republic to pay for black-market gasoline, which has helped keep the regime in power. Without a functioning government to authorize a run of the money presses, the military and its black-market allies were beginning to worry about their bank - accounts. Now, with Jonassaint in place to do their bidding, they will be laughing all the way to the bank again.
