“Down with terrorism, down with terrorism,” they chanted in spontaneous small groups.It remains to be seen what the opposition’s next move will be. The tide of anti-Aristide sentiment is unmistakable; the result of years of inaction on Haiti’s disastrous economy, compounded by multiple signs of corruption and personal enrichment, and a loss of faith by the international community.But so is the bedrock of support the President enjoys from Haiti’s urban poor, whose leaders are armed and financed by him and enjoy almost unrestricted access to the presidential palace. The showdown between the two sides may be hard to stop, but it is harder still to imagine a positive outcome if the current clashes escalate into a full-scale civil war.The opposition is weak and divided, unsure whether to embrace the armed insurrection in Gonaives (started by former Aristide supporters who feel betrayed by him) or to hope, like the students, that they can galvanise a non-violent mass movement. Minutes later, an unmarked van stuffed with men brandishing automatic weapons sped by, followed by an equally well-equipped police van. Many of the young men wore masks, and at least one brandished a baseball bat.Shortly after the scheduled 9am start time of the protest, a suspected opposition sympathiser was chased up a street and beaten. Port-au-Prince remained relatively calm, but the tension is palpable. Yesterday, for the second time in five days, the opposition attempted to organise a mass protest to demand Mr Aristide’s removal.And, for the second time in five days, they were greeted with makeshift barricades set up in the early hours of the morning, burning tyres and an ugly gang of a few hundred chimeres – muscular young Aristide supporters – many of them from the slums, who patrolled the Place du Canape Vert, spitting invective at reporters and accusing the international press of spreading lies about their country.

Reports from Haiti’s second largest city, Cap-Haitien suggested that pro-Aristide forces were waging a successful campaign of intimidation against their adversaries, burning as many as five houses or businesses a day and issuing specific threats to families that they want to see leave. How can breaking the dean’s knees be acceptable in a democratic society?”Students like Mr Vaval dream of a mass movement of civil disobedience, free of the violence that has killed more than 40 people in clashes between rebels and pro-government forces in the north of the country for the past week. But that dream is fast disintegrating, as any semblance of democratic dialogue gives way to the lure of weapons, demagoguery and naked ambition in one of the world’s poorest corners.The town of Gonaives – crucial because it is the gateway for traffic moving between the north and the south of the country – is in rebel hands, and fighting is raging in the port of St Marc, 65 miles north of Port-au-Prince, the capital.At least two more people were shot dead in St Marc overnight. The government is corrupt and unsustainable, and the country has arrived at a point of enormous frustration Freedom and human rights no longer exist. Outside, vandalised faculty vehicles, their windscreens smashed and their interiors torched, stand as forlorn monuments to the violence of 5 December.Every day since then, several dozen hard-core student activists have congregated on campus and plotted what they say is the only hope for Haiti’s future: the overthrow of Mr Aristide and his Lavalas party, most commonly referred to asle pouvoir.Mr Vaval, a psychology student who, with classes suspended indefinitely, is now working full-time against the government, said: “This is the crucible of the resistance.

Josue Vaval pointed to the large hole in the wall of the social science faculty at the University of Haiti where armed supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had burst through a couple of months ago, opened fire on demonstrating students, smashed their way through faculty offices and broke both the dean’s knees with clubs. His new prime minister spent $2m of government funds on a luxury compound in the capital, Port-au-Prince.Discontent has been mounting ever since, particularly among the elite. Loyalty to Aristide in the slums remains solid, but not unchallenged, as a new generation with no memories of his first incarnation seek someone to blame.. Haiti’s almost non-existent economy, making it the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has only stagnated further.The country has an unemployment rate of more than 80 per cent, Aids is a serious problem, there is widespread malnutrition and many people get sick through contaminated water supplies and piles of rubbish left in the streets.Aristide was overthrown in a military coup in 1991, but returned three years later escorted by 20,000 American troops in what seemed like a new beginning for Haiti Instead, his rule has been marked by corruption. Rather than attacking the social and economic problems of Haiti’s slums, he has empowered their inhabitants by giving gang leaders guns and money in exchange for their loyalty.A watershed moment came after the elections of 2000, which observers said were seriously flawed. Separately, a retired commander of the Texas Guard has complained that Mr Bush’s aides went through the records just before Mr Bush embarked on his presidential run in 1998, to make sure that no embarrassing material would surface.According to The New York Times, the retired officer, Bill Burkett, will claim in a book this week that a Bush aide – Dan Bartlett, who is now Mr Bush’s communications director at the White House – ordered that damaging information should be removed from Mr Bush’s personnel file Mr Bartlett denied that there had been any tampering..

Jean-Bertrand Aristide still claims to be a populist champion, the same man who rose from near-obscurity in the 1980s as a priest preaching liberation theology and denouncing capitalism as evil. Mr Kerry now says he supports civil unions between gays, but not marriage.But Mr Bush is having troubles of his own. The White House release of the President’s pay and attendance records during his Guard Service between 1969 and 1973 has not disposed of charges that Mr Bush failed to attend required training sessions in 1972, when he was transferred to Alabama. Yesterday, the White House released records of a dental check up Mr Bush had in Alabama in January 1973 But Democrats say that this proves nothing. The White House, meanwhile, is backing away from an earlier undertaking to release Mr Bush’s Guard records in their entirety.