In Jamaica, where there is a fear an influx of refugees will create social tension, the Jamaica Observer launches an uncompromising attack on Washington, Paris and Ottawa:

"The deed is done. Haiti has been raped. The act was sanctioned by the United States, Canada and France.

"These powers have firmly placed their imprimatur on a politics that rewards violence ... Mr Aristide was never the flavour of the Parisian set, the inside-the-beltway crowd of Washington or the new Canadians."

The Jamaica Observer argues that Mr Aristide was a legitimately elected president:

"Mr Aristide represented something very fundamental in Haiti. The possibility of the assertion of Haiti's majority, its underclass."

'Mafia'

A leading, leftist Mexican daily, La Jornada, takes a diametrically opposed view, believing Mr Aristide let his people down:

"Aristide forgot to tackle the misery and backwardness of the country and dedicated himself to keeping himself in power and accumulating riches for himself and his allies."

La Jornada accuses his Lavalas party of becoming "a mafia illegally carrying out the work of the public administration".

A strong case to regard some Haitians who have arrived in Jamaica as refugees Jamaica Gleaner

It also warns the West and the international financial system that their remedies for democracy and human rights reach their limits "in the profound backwardness of this Caribbean country".

Another Jamaican paper, The Gleaner, takes issue with a correspondent who wrote in that Haitian refugees would "only bring burdens on Jamaica, such as Aids, voodoo, illiteracy and bad hygiene".

Respondents to the letter "have argued that refugees should be accepted by Jamaica on compassionate grounds".

The Gleaner concludes there is "a strong case to regard some of the Haitians who have arrived in Jamaica as refugees", arguing that if the influx proves too onerous, the international community will probably look kindly on Kingston's plea for aid.

Abuses

In the Dominican Republic, Haiti's immediate neighbour, Hoy calls for an international force from an organisation like the United Nations, the Organisation of American States or the European Union to come to Haiti's aid, rather than "the unilateral option".

Dozens of changes of government, each one worse than the other El Nuevo Dia

It, too, blames the US for what it views as its role in the Haitian turmoil, without forgetting "the abuses perpetrated by Dominican governments and impresarios" against Haitian illegal immigrants used as cheap labour to the detriment of the country's own workforce.

Another Dominican paper, Listin Diario, quotes the presidential candidate of the Christian Social Reformist party, Eduardo Estrella, as saying the Aristide departure "is an opportunity to embark on a true process that will subsequently lead the nation towards democracy".

Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Dia asks "When will Haiti's children wake up from the nightmare of centuries?

"More than 200 years of confusion and disorder. Dozens of changes of government, each one worse than the other."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.