Keith Mines, director for Latin America at the United States Institute of Peace: “Few believe at this point that Haitians alone will be able to restore security to their country, the correlation of forces now leans heavily in the direction of the gangs, who are well-funded and heavily armed. The rise of vigilante groups provides some counterforce but also raises the specter of civil war-like violence. Now, all it would take is for one gang to march on the palace and Haiti becomes Somalia, 1992. The international community is unenthused about helping, however, which is puzzling when one considers a Caribbean country of 11 million in the throes of famine. All the key players–the United States, Canada and Brazil–are fearful of getting drawn into a protracted operation, but even on the safer diplomatic side are frozen. A misguided sense of guilt over past mistakes, coupled with an equally misguided sense that intervention, even non-military intervention, never works, gives potential international partners cover to hide behind a…”