At a press conference, Wednesday, February 8, during his visit to Algeria, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared that he did not intend to remove the Brazilian troops in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti until the new government there was more solid.
"The only way there will be peace and democracy in Haiti is with solid institutions," he said.
Lula then went on to say that there was no date for a withdrawal of the Brazilian mission. He said it would occur only when there was stability in Haiti or the Haitian government requested the withdrawal.
Lula admitted that in the past he was in favor of leaving Haiti right after the elections (the elections took place on Tuesday), but that now he could see that was not possible.
He mentioned seeing a documentary on the Rwanda massacre in 1994 (probably the film "Shake Hands with the Devil") and said he was impressed by what happened after peace mission troops left that country.
ABr