HLLN Urgent Alert: HLLN mande MINUSTA pa tire sou p�p la ki pran lari-a pou pwoteje demokrasi e v�t yo! |HLLN ask the UN not to shoot the demonstrators. We ask our Network to write to the local and national media and your congressperson- Demand US/Canada/French supported Regime in Haiti respect the people’s Feb. 7, 2006 vote. Preval won by much more than 50% plus 1 vote. According to the Miami Herald “… foreign electoral officials said an independent survey showed Preval received 54 percent of the vote, although the survey has yet to be adjusted for blank ballots, which could reduce each candidate’s percentage points slightly. (See, below “Win for Preval would be stunning defeat for Haiti’s political elite BY JOE MOZINGO | Knight Ridder Newspapers. Feb. 11, 2006 – disregard the negative mantras against President Aristide in this article and unsubstantiated claims. Disregard the attempt by the mainstream media to separate Preval’s candidacy with the coup d’etat and his victory from the people and Lavalas Movement.)
N`OT HLLN:
Ayisyen, Jodi a HLLN voye mesaj yo an Kreyol ou Frans� pou nou
On� e resp� Ayisyen pa m yo:
Men twa ou kat atik pou ede nou kontinye rele AMWE, sou moun koudeta lan KEP, ki ap eseye anile v�t p�p la ank�!!!! Nap mande moun sa yo pou yo kite p�p la VIV!!
Respekte la lwa, respekte Konstitisyon an, respekte v�t p�p la!
Men sa nou kapab f� pou ede p�p Ayisyen:
1. Ekri KEP a, lan: contact@cep-ht.org
(Gade ekxamp l�t Paul Chosi voye bay KEP a, nou mete anba..)
2. Ekri primature at lan: primature@list.primaturehaiti.org
(Gade l�t Jafrikayiti voye bay , ki anba a)
Mande KEP e Gwo Jera, pou yo respekte la lwa, respekte Konstitisyon an, respekte v�t p�p la!
Sak pi PLIS enp�tan, pa BLIYE ekri MEDYA Ayisyen e medya ent�nasyonal yo.
Di yo f� travay yo! Montre le mond antye MAGOUY kap f�t pou anile v�t p�p la ank�! F�k rejim teknokrat sa ke OAS/UN/US/France/Canada sip�te an Ayiti, f�k yo respekte la lwa, respekte Konstitisyon an, respekte v�t p�p Ayisyen an!
1. Ekri medya nasyonal e lokal (Kontak pou medya Ayisyen yo nap jwen anba a, lan e-mail sa)
Pou medya ent�nasyonal, ale w�: US Local and national media www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/local-national-media.html
2. Pou moun lan Diaspora a – Ekri Kongr�sman e Senat� pa w yo:
Contact US Congress www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/uscongress.html
Canadian Contact info for Canadian citizens: go to: www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/Canadiancontactinfo.html)
Men yon komant� ki te vinn jwen mwen y�:
“Feb. 12, 2006
Mwen ta renmen atire atansyon ezili sou direkt� egzekitif Kons�y Elektoral Ayiti a ki pa yon manm ofisy�l kons�y la, li pa gen okenn kalifikasyon ni otorite legal pou pibliye rezilta ofisy�l eleksyon 2006 yo. Pa bliye se Gerard Latortue ki te nonmen nonm sa a; Jacques Bernard, k�m patwon Kons�y Elektoral la ki, dapre lalwa pa ta dwe gen yon patwon.”
N’enp�t l�t moun ki vle voye bon enf�masyon konsa pou Ezili Dant� pataje ak p�p la, e ak kominote ent�nasyonal la, ki kapab ede nou bare v�l Gwo Jera, Ti B�na e m�t Washington Chim�re yo. M ap tan nou, prese, prese!
Sem�n sa, n’ap f� ef�, jan nou kapab, an kreyol, pou rem�sye p�p Ayisyen pou kouraj yo montre le mond antye, lan de zan koudeta sa a.
Lawouze f� banda toutan soley pa leve.
Finalman, soley leve lan CNN e New York Times. Yo di mwen ke menm NDI (National Democratic Institute) bay Preval 54%. Soley deja LEVE. V�l v�t p�p la, fwa sa, li pakapab f�t! Bliye sa Ti B�na. Al mande Gwo Jera yon ti chanb pou kache lan kay li a lan Boca Raton. Kite p�p la en repo. Laverite deja dey�!
Preval geyen. Pwen, pa vigul.
Nou lan Diaspora, n’ap kanpe av�k p�p la. Nou mande tout gouv�nman ki genyen twoup yo lan MINUSTA pou yo pase twoup yo l�d PA TIRE sou p�p yo ki pran lari a. Leve kanpe manifestan yo LEJITIM!. Se demokrasi yo, yap eseye vol� lan men yo. Menm moun andan KEP la, tankou Patrick Fequiere, retire k� yo nan magouy sa. Popilasyon an kanpe, li kanpe paske tout moun te w� sak pase Feb. 7, 2006. Preval geyen, se pa afe de bagay 50%, li geyen LAVALASEMENT!!!!
Kenbe f�m Ayisyen, pa lage. Ede p�p nou, se konsa n’ap byen ede t�t nou.
Li led li LA!
Feb. 13, 2006 at 12:20pm
----------Lan e-mail sa n’ap jwen:------------------
– L�t Paul Choisil voye bay KEP
– L�t Jafrikayiti voye bay “Premier Ministre” Latortue
– Esplikasyon sou sak ap pase kounyeya, Post de Jafrikayiti
– Le CEP en flagrant �lit de contradiction
DERNIERE HEURE ! | Haiti En Marche
– Les r�sultats appara�tront enfin sur le site – 11 : 59 pm, tr�s tardivement samedi soir. | Haiti En Marche
– Win for Preval would be stunning defeat for Haiti’s political elite
BY JOE MOZINGO | Knight Ridder Newspapers, Feb. 11, 2006 (Kote yo di ke entenasyonal obs�ve yo dit Preval genyen pa 54% san, si ou pa konte v�t “blan yo�”)
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 13:24:03 -0800
From:”Paul Choisil”
To: contact@cep-ht.org, erzilidanto@yahoo.com
Subject:Le retard injustifie des resultats complets de l’election presidentielle 2006 CEP,
Faites attention. Le monde entier vous surveille.
Depuis hier soir, vous affichez le m�me r�sultat partiel correspondant – la moiti� des proc�s-verbaux.
Ces indications g�lent – 50%, la voix du peuple.
Partout dans le monde, ce retard cr�e des soup�ons que des manoeuvres son en train de se concocter pour diminuer le choix du peuple.
Au cas ou ces soup�ons s’av�raient corrects, vous devriez r�pondre de ces actions et de leur cons�quences.
L�t Jafrikayiti voye bay “Premier Ministre” Latortue
Bulletins du “Premier Ministre” Latortue
RE: [Primature] R�sulats partiels du scrutin du 7 fevrier 2006
TO: primature@list.primaturehaiti.org
Messieurs et dames les pantins,
Je vous prie de garder vos bulletins de presse pour vous-m�mes. Le Peuple haitien a d�ja inform� le monde de son choix de Pr�sident.
Je remarque que vous cachez jusqu’a pr�sent les r�sultats du lesgilatif. Vous n�gociez les chiffres?
Bandes de Conz�s, n’avez vous donc aucune honte ! ?
Mwen pa kw� p�p Ayisyen te janm genyen yon jenerasyon ki bay moun malpwop konsa. Nou ilegal, nou vyolan, nou sot epi nou pa janm wont. S�l sa mwen rete pou mwen di ekip salopri defakto nou an, s�ke si semenn sa a nou f� yon masak anko sou p�p saa ki te ranmase kouraj li pou li rem�t pouvwa prezidansy�l la bay Ren� Garcia Pr�val, non s�lman gen pousuit jidisy� k ap f�t, men mwenmenm p�son�lman mwen bannou garanti ke m ap mete tout kouray mwen nan jefo ki va f�t pou lajistis f� nou peye tout krim nou kom�t sou yon p�p inosan depi koudeta 29 fevriye 2004 la.
Pa bliye, Gwo G�rard, premyemilis restav�k, sispann voye salopri kominike ou yo pou mwen. Dotanplis ou te deklare depi 7 fevriye 2006 ou t ap bay demisyon ou. Kidonk, mwen sipoze ou deja rem�t li bay blan ki te mete ou f� makak nan peyi a. Sispann f� bounda lou…Rompez ! Li l� pou “Cirque” lan deg�pi.
Jean E. Saint-Vil (Jafrikayiti)
Jafrikayi li ekri jodi a:
New post: Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:34 am
During all the hoopla about the numbers game the puppet electoral council is trying to occupy us with, it must be remembered the context in which these pre-programmed elections were being organized:
1) The first time ever, in recent memory, that Haiti holds elections with so many political prisoners
2) The major political party (Fanmi Lavalas) excluded from paticipation through various means, including the illegal exile of Party Leader Jean-Bertand Aristide, violent incarceration of potential candidate G�rard Jean-Juste until hours before the election, detention of other key party leaders – Neptune, Auguste, Mathelier etc…
3) A failed attempt by the white supremacist forces (IRI, EU etc…) to confuse the electorate by usurping the name of Fanmi Lavalas and getting a set of totally discredited sellout politicians to run in the election under that banner
4) A digital registration system and arrangement of reduced numbers of polling stations in a way to disenfrenchise the base of Fanmi Lavalas.
5) An electoral Council which represents exclusively the putschist camp
6) The constant meddling of the white supremacist powers that participated in the 2004 coup…issuing threats and unconventional statements like “Aristide is a man of the past, will not return to Haiti etc…”
So, despite of all that, the People of Haiti had indeed chosen to to replace vital organs with whey (li pap retire trip pou li mete pay !). Stunning every sponsor of the planned sham elections, it came out in full force – peaceful force – and detroyed all the myths invented by the right wing and the right-funded leftists who were all along claiming that the previous constitutional gvernment was overthrown by a “popular revolt”.
Guy Phillipe, the CIA hand man used to conduct said “revolt” has been credited with less than 2% of the votes.
As incredible as it sounds to the normal human being, the fools (international and national) who are dirtying their pants in Haiti today, have come up with a new stratagem…”blank votes” are said to consistantly register over 4% accross the country. Said “V�t blan” (properly named I must concede!) are expected to count in the total tally. Because without them, front runner Ren� Pr�val will win in the first round.
So, “v�t blan an” soti pou li anile v�t plis pase yon milyon Ayisyen !
As we said from the very beginning. There is something stinky going on in our world these days:
Koudeta blan, Gouv�nman popetw�l blan, Kons�y Saj blan, kat elektoral blan, Kons�y elektoral blan, kandida blan, v�t blan…
rezilta?
Se ta piyay ! Ayisyen ap reprann dwa granmoun yo ane sa a, nan jenerasyon sa a. Si gen Konze ki vle kontinye mache t�t bese zaf� ki regade yo. Jenerasyon zonbi a, sa kaba!
Noumenm nou chwazi kan. Nou ap dekrete lap�manans nan deng tout moun ki refize sivilize ase pou yo aprann viv tankou moun, nan mitan moun.
Le CEP en flagrant �lit de contradiction
PORT-AU-PRINCE, 12 F�vrier – Il est possible qu’un nouveau scandale politique soit sur le point d’�clater en Ha�ti. En effet, une �norme contradiction a �t� d�couverte dans les r�sultats post�s samedi soir sur le site Internet du conseil �lectoral provisoire (CEP).
Alors qu’on est probablement – quelques heures de la proclamation officielle des r�sultats des �lections du 7 f�vrier dernier, les r�sultats partiels communiqu�s samedi soir aux journalistes par le directeur g�n�ral du CEP, Jacques Bernard, au centre de proclamation des r�sultats situ� – l’h�tel Montana, placent le candidat favori, Ren� Pr�val, au-dessous de la barre des 50% de voix n�cessaires pour �viter d’aller – un second tour.
L’ex-pr�sident Leslie Manigat reste en deuxi�me position avec 11.88%, et – la troisi�me place l’industriel Charles Henri Baker (7.76%).
C’est la premi�re fois que Jacques Bernard �tait seul – la conf�rence de presse, jusqu’– pr�sent plusieurs conseillers �lectoraux y ont toujours �galement particip�. C’est une premi�re surprise.
La seconde surprise est qu’il a annonc� qu’il ne donnera pas les r�sultats par d�partement comme cela a �t� le cas pendant toute la semaine. Les proc�s-verbaux, a-t-il expliqu�, sont arriv�s en retard ce samedi.
Les r�sultats communiqu�s samedi soir par le directeur g�n�ral du CEP ont donc �t� seulement ceux compil�s pour tout le pays, tous les 10 d�partements g�ographiques, au niveau national (portant sur plus de 70% des proc�s-verbaux). Or les r�sultats nationaux sont une d�duction logique des r�sultats d�partementaux. Bref, on ne peut conna�tre les r�sultats nationaux sans passer par les r�sultats d�partementaux.
M. Jacques Bernard ne voulait donc pas communiquer samedi soir les r�sultats par d�partement.
De la m�me fa�on, longtemps apr�s sa conf�rence de presse, ces derniers n’�taient toujours pas encore post�s sur le site du conseil �lectoral provisoire (www.cep-ht.org).
Les r�sultats appara�tront enfin sur le site – 11 : 59 pm, tr�s tardivement samedi soir.
Nouvelle surprise. En peu de temps, le score du candidat Ren� Pr�val avait d�gringol� davantage, passant de 49.60% communiqu� par le directeur g�n�ral – l’h�tel Montana, – 49.10%.
Mais coup de th�‚tre ! Alors que la colonne de r�sultats par candidat montre 49.10% pour le candidat de LESPWA, dans le graphe qui accompagne aussi les r�sultats, Pr�val est cr�dit� de 52%.
En informatique, les chiffres sont arrondis, il n’y a pas de dixi�me, centi�me. Nous expliquons. Par exemple, Manigat obtient dans la colonne 11.72%, chiffre qui est plus pr�s de 12 : le graphe lui donne 12%. Tandis que Baker fait 8.02%, donc plus pr�s de 8, dans le graphe il obtient 8. Ainsi de suite…
Par contre, Pr�val obtient dans la colonne 49.10%, mais dans le graphe il a 52%. Conclusion : Pr�val ne peut pas avoir fait 49% ; il est suppos� avoir fait 51% et plus, ou un peu moins de 52%.
Il y a donc une contradiction �norme, et peut-�tre m�me scandaleuse, entre les r�sultats post�s dans la colonne, et ceux refl�t�s dans le graphe.
Or le graphe fonctionne automatiquement. C’est la machine qui le produit, une fois que les donn�es y sont introduites. L’homme peut commettre des erreurs, mais la machine n’en commet pas.
D’o vient donc cette erreur monumentale ?
Il est facile de conclure que quelqu’un a pu changer les chiffres dans la colonne, sans avoir une connaissance suffisante en informatique. Et en ignorant que le graphe n’acceptera pas le changement. A moins que toutes les donn�es soient re-comptabilis�es, re-tabul�es. De A – Z…
Que s’est-il donc pass� samedi soir au centre de tabulation du CEP ? Pourquoi le directeur g�n�ral Jacques Bernard s’est-il pr�sent� tout seul – la conf�rence de presse – l’h�tel Montana ? Pourquoi n’a-t-il communiqu� que les r�sultats nationaux ? En pr�textant que les r�sultats d�partementaux n’�taient pas pr�ts, alors qu’ils l’�taient forc�ment sans quoi il n’aurait pu donner des r�sultats nationaux. Nous disons bien “ des r�sultats “ et non les r�sultats, car maintenant on ne peut plus savoir si ceux qu’il a communiqu�s samedi soir sont les vrais r�sultats.
Mais nouveau coup de th�‚tre dimanche matin. Apr�s que l’information eut �clat�, une correction a �t� apport�e rapido presto sur le site du CEP pour corriger l’erreur. Il �tait 9 : 07 am.
Cette correction, entreprise h‚tivement et sans aucune explication, peut �tre consid�r�e comme �tant en elle-m�me la plus grave des accusations !
En poussant un peu plus l’investigation, on a pu constater aussi que c’est avec les donn�es concernant les nombreux candidats n’ayant pas obtenu plus de 0.9% (ils sont 33 candidats – la pr�sidence) qu’on a pu jouer pour continuer – faire descendre le score du candidat favori. En manipulant les petits chiffres, ceux qui peuvent passer facilement inaper�us, on peut, on peut…
Il revient au directeur g�n�ral du CEP, Jacques Bernard, d’apporter la r�ponse – toutes ces questions. Faut-il pr�ciser d’int�r�t capital. Que disons-nous, d’int�r�t national ! Et peut-�tre m�me international !
Les r�sultats officiels des �lections doivent �tre annonc�s ce dimanche.
Ha�ti en Marche, 12 F�vrier 2006
Port-au-Prince, 12 f�vrier 2006 &endash;(AHP)- Des dizaines de milliers d’ha�tiens sont descendus de nouveau dans les rues ce lundi – port-au-prince et dans dans la plupart des auutres gandes villes duu pays pour r�clamer du conseil �lectoral provisoire la publication de r�sultats conformes au vote du 7 f�vrier.
Apr�s les accusations de manipulations port�es par 3 conseillers �lectoraux contre le directeur ex�cutif de l’institution �lectorale, Jacques Bernad, c’est un nouveau candidat – la pr�sidence, le pasteur Chavannes Jeune qui a ffiim� reconaitre la victoire de Ren� Preval.
“ La morale chr�tienne m’emp�che de cautioner les magouilles et les manipulations commises dans le d�compte des votes, a dit le pasteur jeuue, actuellementt en 4�me position dans les r�sultats publi�s par le CEP.
Le directeur ex�cutif du CEP a encore r�tr�ci le pour centage dee Preval – 48.73 dans les r�sultats partiels post�s lundimattin sur le site internet du CEP
Le candidat de la plateforne UNION, Marc bazine , avait indiqu� samedi que c’est pour Ren� Pr�val que plus d’un milons d’�lecturs s’etaient ru�s vers les urnes le 7 f�vrier.
Parall�lement, 1 personnne a �t� tu�e et 4 autres bless�es dans une manifestation au nord de la capittalee dans le quartier de Fleuriot.
Des manifestants ont accus� des soldats de la mssion des nations-Unies d’avoir tir� sur eux.
Le pasteur jeune, afirme que c’est un droit dont disposent les ha�tiens de manifester s’ils estiment que leurs votes sont en train d’�tre detourn�s.
Le responssable du CARLI, l’une des plus credibles organisations ha�tiennes de droits de l’homme, Renan H�douville, a appel� les responsables de la MINUSTAH dont le repr�sedntant du secr�taire g�n�ral, Juan Gabriel Vald�s, – passer des instuctions aux responsables militaires pour qu’’ils fassent respecter les droits l�gitimes des manifestants
Win for Preval would be stunning defeat for Haiti’s political elite
MARMELADE, Haiti – The man Haitians overwhelmingly picked to lead their country out of turmoil is a quiet agronomist of modest means, average human frailties and a hint of mischief – a notable contrast to the hubris and burning rhetoric that has defined Haiti’s bloody history.
Rene Preval, 63, entered the race long after the other well-known candidates. The man who was president from 1996 to 2001 made no campaign promises. He did not attack his opponents. And he only recently began speaking publicly.
On Saturday, the official tally gave him 49.6 percent of the votes, with 72 percent of the stations counted. But foreign electoral officials said an independent survey showed Preval received 54 percent of the vote, although the survey has yet to be adjusted for blank ballots, which could reduce each candidate’s percentage points slightly.
Preval supporters marched past the National Palace to proclaim his victory. The second-place candidate, former President Leslie Manigat, had a mere 11.58 percent. But with 32 contenders in the race, electoral officials couldn’t say whether Preval got the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off.
An outright Preval win would be a stunning defeat for a political elite that hoped to gain power after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide – a fiery former slum priest and Preval’s political godfather – fled the country in 2004 as armed rebels moved towards the capital.
As president, Preval would face the task of rebuilding a country whose institutions have been decimated, whose political culture is fractured along class lines and whose people are exhausted by years of violence and hunger.
To do so, many observers say, he must come out of his mentor’s shadow. Specifically, Preval would have to move quickly to disarm the slum gangs that Aristide armed as virtual militias – and which have since set off a devastating wave of kidnapping and bloodshed.
“People fear that if he cannot free himself from the Aristide base, he might become a prisoner of the very violent methods of that base,” said Claude Moise, chief editorialist of the newspaper Le Matin.
Moise said he hopes Preval finds the fortitude to do what he couldn’t do earlier.
During his term in office, Preval was hobbled from the start. Aristide, who had won the presidency in 1990 but was ousted by a military coup nine months later, felt he should get an extra three years to make up for his time in exile before 20,000 U.S. troops helped restore him to power. While he reluctantly endorsed Preval on the last day of campaigning, Aristide placed his own loyalists in the government and the police.
Preval found himself at the mercy of his old friend. Even the bodyguards at the presidential National Palace were more loyal to Aristide – a point underscored when his wife found her dog bleeding from a machete slash.
“Aristide created, inside the public administration, forces that were faithful to him,” said Moise. “So Preval was accused of being weak. … I think he was fearful of Aristide.”
How much Preval has changed since then is a mystery.
He has vigilantly avoided discussing how he would handle the explosive issue of whether Aristide will return. While the militant wing of his base is demanding the return of the ousted president from exile in South Africa, most observers agree such a move would cause political chaos.
Preval has only said Haiti’s Constitution does not allow exile. Yet he notably refused to run on the ticket of Aristide’s Lavalas Family party and has accused it of corruption. He formed his own party, Lespwa, or hope in Creole. And he picked as his campaign manager Bob Manuel, a former minister in Preval’s cabinet who fled the country under threats from Aristide thugs.
If he wins the next presidential term, Preval will also have support of the 9,500-member U.N. Peacekeeping force, which arrived in 2004 to stabilize Haiti, and hundreds of millions of dollars pledged by international donors.
But Preval’s caginess on the subject of Aristide concerns his critics.
“Maybe he does want to rehabilitate himself, but he does not speak, so we do not know,” said Moise.
Since the election, Preval has secluded himself in this northern mountain village five hours by road from Port-au-Prince, where he lives in a small tin-roofed home on the central square.
It is his life here in Marmelade, his grandparents’ hometown, that he likes to talk about.
For five years, he completely disappeared from public view and began a project to help about 900 local peasants grow coffee, citrus and bamboo, with a $5 million grant from the Taiwanese government.
For an ex-president, his apparent lack of wealth is striking. Where Aristide lived in a luxurious estate with lush gardens and a swimming pool, Preval’s home is 800 square feet, maximum. His bedroom barely fits the bed. Toiletries rest on the windowsill.
A ways down the road, the cooperative now boasts a coffee and orange juice processing plant and a small factory to make bamboo furniture.
“In five years, we multiplied the peasants’ income by four,” Preval said Saturday.
He says it is this success that brought him back to politics. On July 27, more than 1,000 peasants camped out at the cooperative and urged him to run for president, Preval said.
“What they say about Preval is he speaks very little, he listens a lot,” said FranCois Severin, Preval’s longtime friend and partner in the Federation of Associations of Native Coffee Growers. “This is his advantage.”
Preval is most comfortable trying to develop loyal relationships with those he cares for, say his friends. He is funny and a bit sly – and hopelessly flirtatious with women.
When he was being treated for prostate cancer in Cuba after he left office, his ex-wife Geri spent her own money to stay with him.
And rather than making grand ideological proclamations, he seeks small solutions, friends say.
As president, he built roads and schools, lowered the price of fertilizer for peasants and began to resolve land disputes that had rural towns in bloody feuds.
“He was the one who tried to fix the place,” said Venithe Saint Cyr, 42, who grew up in the countryside but had to move to the Cite Soleil slum of Port-au-Prince to find work. “Where I came from the countryside, Preval built a road so my family could transport their goods and he kept the fertilizer down.”
But the progress Preval made was severely limited. He did not have a majority in the parliament. By 1997, his government was paralyzed.
Preval largely retreated into the National Palace. His public appearances seemed awkward. When he arrived at the gruesome scene of a 1997 ferry accident in which more than 170 people died, one of the first things he did was ask for a cold beer.
“It was a sterile presidency,” said Moise.
The legendary radio journalist and fellow agronomist Jean Dominique tried to inspire Preval, an intimate friend, to break with Aristide and grab the reins of government.
“He wanted Rene to become autonomous,” said Michele Pierre-Louis, a long-time friend of Preval. “Jean would say: `He has to have the stature of head of state. That’s what I’m working on.’”
Pierre-Louis met Preval when he was studying agronomy in Belgium and she was studying in France. When they met again in Haiti during the 1970s, they became fast friends. Wondering what to do with their lives, they scrounged financing from their parents and started a downtown bakery – the Boulangerie du Centre.
The bakery donated bread to the St. Jean Bosco church in the slum of La Saline, where Aristide was a priest. He and Preval became friends and allies in the fight against the dictatorship of Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.
“Anyone who wasn’t for revolution at the time didn’t have his heart in the right place,” said Pierre-Louis.
After Duvalier fled the country and Aristide won the country’s first totally free and democratic presidential elections, he appointed Preval as prime minister. But by the time Preval became president himself, he seemed tortured by the pressures pushing from every angle.
When friend Jean Dominique was shot outside his radio station in 2000, following programs highly critical of Aristide’s party, Preval met Pierre-Louis at the hospital.
Her brother-in-law, Father Jean Pierre-Louis, had been assassinated two years before, and police never found the assailants. She looked into Preval’s eyes.
“This happened during your presidency,” she said. “I hope this time there will be an investigation.”
She sighs at his response that day.
“I hope so,” Preval said.
Radio National D� Haiti – 223 – 5712, 0r 223-6264
Radio Metropole, 246�2626 or 246-5335
Radio Caraibe FM � 223-0644 or 223-6827
Guyler C. Delva | 558 – 9048 | guylerdelva@yahoo.fr