Tim Schwartz is the author of Travesty in Haiti: A True Account of Christian Missions, Orphanages, Fraud, Food Aid and Drug Trafficking. He's currently in Port-au-Prince reporting on the situation in Haiti and has kindly agreed to let us print his articles on the Hour blog. Here's his latest.

Chavez and Castro win the aid game, outside the media spotlight

The United States has been sharply criticized for causing "aid-lock" at the Port-au-Prince airport. Emergency medical teams from Europe and the U.S. all arrived a full day, and in many cases two weeks, after the crisis began. United Nations agencies and NGOs that should be experts in aid distribution have instead focused food distribution on central sites. The move has compelled massive crowds to gather, inciting frustration and anger among recipients, at times deteriorating into riotous mayhem. Meanwhile, Cubans and Venezuelans have been quietly and efficiently going about the business of helping.

In Leogane, the earthquake epicentre, it is common to hear from different teams that they were the first on the ground. As Bill Coltart of the Canadian Medical Assistance Teams explained, "We had an assessment team here on Saturday after the earthquake. I believe we were the first foreigners to visit Leogane."  But three Cuban doctors were already on the ground in Leogane treating Haitians before the quake struck - part of many hundreds of Cuban medical personnel in the country for more than 10 years now. Before the first sunrise on the rubble and destruction of the earthquake, more Cuban medical personnel and supplies had landed at the Port-au-Prince airport. Indeed, by the time the first Canadians, Americans, Germans, French, Austrians, Spanish, Swiss and Japanese began actually deploying on the ground in Leogane - on Tuesday, January 19, one full week after the earthquake - 25 Cuban doctors and three nurses were quietly and efficiently tending to the wounded.

Today, outside of the town of Leogane, in a place called Katrine Flor - named for the woman who sewed the original Haitian flag and who was born here - a makeshift encampment of plastic and blanket shelters has been replaced with an orderly line of large, drab army tents. In front of the tents, a rectangular area has been cordoned off with rope and red tape. Stacked neatly in the middle of the cordoned-off area are boxes of cooking oil and food rations. In front of all of this, facing the paved road where anyone passing by could see, a large banner proclaimed the tent city "Village Simon Bolivar," and next to it a huge Venezuelan flag moved with the breeze. The population was quietly assembled. Recipients methodically come forth, one at a time, to receive a box and a container of cooking oil. Then they left. 

When I asked Jean Riker, a resident of the tent city, what agency was responsible for organizing the distribution, he explained, "No agency. We are doing it ourselves."

Riker explained that the day before, a representative of the Venezuelan government had come by to ask how many people were in the camp. The man then said that tent-city residents would have to organize the distribution. Riker was one of the residents chosen to handle the distribution process. Today, the Venezuelans brought the aid.

"That's the thing I like about Chavez," Riker commented, "He brings the aid, gives it to us and he doesn't need to know anything more about it. He respects us."