U.S. Coast Guard Monitoring Unrest in Haiti

U.S. Coast Guard officials are closely monitoring events in Haiti on the chance that recent unrest on the impoverished island might trigger a new wave of boat people trying to flee toward Florida.

"Our patrols are at their normal levels, but when we have unrest we watch carefully to make sure we stay out front of any developing situations," Chief Petty Officer Dana Warr of the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami said Monday.

So far, Coast Guard patrol cutters and aircraft have not spotted any signs of large numbers of Haitians taking to sea, Warr said.

Riots sparked by high food prices broke out in the in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes on April 3. Before waning last week, the unrest spread to the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other areas, leaving seven dead, including a Nigerian officer serving in the 9,000-member United Nations peacekeeping force that has patrolled Haiti since 2004.

The protests in Haiti come as prices for staples such as rice and wheat have skyrocketed around the globe due to several factors, including high demand and record fuel prices. Economists have warned the situation may get worse, possibly sparking more unrest and even violence if desperate, hungry people take to the streets.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Monday that the global food crisis has reached "emergency proportions," and called for the global community to "take urgent and concerted action in order to avoid the larger political and security implications of this growing crisis."

Protests over high food prices have also erupted recently in Mexico, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

On Saturday, Haitian lawmakers fired Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis for failing to increase food production, while President Rene Preval announced the government would subsidize rice in a bid to lower prices.

On Sunday, the World Bank said it would make an additional $10 million available to bolster food programs in Haiti, while the U.N. World Food Program pleaded with the international community to help it meet its goal of $96 million in aid for Haiti.

Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, is the hemisphere's poorest country. The per-capita income is only $480 a year, and about 80 percent of 8.5 million residents struggle to survive on less than $2 per day.

With the countryside stripped of vegetation to produce charcoal for cooking fires and the soil eroding, Haiti imports more than 80 percent of its rice.

Prices for rice, beans, fruit and condensed milk have leaped by 50 percent in the past year, while pasta prices have doubled.

Some Haitians have taken to eating cookies made of dirt, while others describe their hunger pangs as "eating Clorox," because their bellies burn with hunger, according to press reports.

The global spike in food prices is blamed by economists on the high price of oil, high demand, the weak U.S. dollar and the push for farmers to raise crops for biofuels instead of food, among other factors. Analysts warn that inflation seems to be heating up around the world and could have devastating consequences for poor countries.

South Florida has been hit with mass influxes of Haitian boat people in the past, with more than 100,000 picked up by the Coast Guard between 1991 and 1994, years of political turmoil in Haiti. The Coast Guard intercepted and returned 1,583 Haitians in 2007, and has picked up 490 Haitians so far this year.

Warr said the Coast Guard is protecting U.S. borders but also trying to avoid disasters at sea. Haitians often crowd aboard dilapidated vessels that are not seaworthy.

"Safety at sea is a big concern," he said. "We often find 40- to 60-foot boats crowded with more than 100 people. It's highly unstable and often there is no safety equipment on board."