René Préval

Infobox President
name = René Garcia Préval


imagesize = 200px
order = President of Haiti
primeminister = Gérard Latortue
Jacques-Édouard Alexis
Michèle Pierre-Louis
term_start = 14 May 2006
predecessor = Boniface Alexandre
primeminister2 = Claudette Werleigh
Rosny Smarth
Jacques-Édouard Alexis
term_start2 = 7 February 1996
term_end2 = 7 February 2001
predecessor2 = Jean-Bertrand Aristide
successor2 = Jean-Bertrand Aristide
order3 = Prime Minister of Haiti
president3 = Jean-Bertrand Aristide
term_start3 = 13 February 1991
term_end3 = 11 October 1991
predecessor3 = Martial Célestin
successor3 = Jean-Jacques Honorat
birth_date = birth date and age|1943|01|17|df=y
birth_place = Port-au-Prince, Haiti
party = FE
alma_mater = College of Gembloux
University of Louvain
University of Pisa

René Garcia Préval (: IPA|/ʀəne pʀeval/) (born January 17, 1943) is a Haitian politician and agronomist who has been the President of the Republic of Haiti since May 2006. He previously served as President from February 7, 1996 to February 7, 2001 and as Prime Minister from February 1991 to October 11, 1991.

Early life and career

Préval was born in Port-au-Prince and was raised in his father's hometown of Marmelade, a village town in the Artibonite Department. He studied agronomy at the College of Gembloux and the University of Louvain in Belgium [ [https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/haiti-news/2006-February/001337.html] Dead link|date=March 2008] and also studied geothermal sciences at the University of Pisa in Pisa, Italy. [ [http://www.haiti.org/president_of_haiti.htm Embassy of the Republic of Haiti, Washington D.C ] ] He left Haiti with his family in 1963.

Préval's father, an agronomist too, had risen to the position of Minister of Agriculture in the government of Général Paul Magloire, the predecessor of Duvalier. Leaving Haiti because his political past presented him as a potential opponent, Preval's father found work with UN agencies in Africa.

After spending five years in Brooklyn, New York, occasionally working as a restaurant waiter, Préval returned to Haiti and obtained a position with the National Institute for Mineral Resources. Préval was very much involved in the agricultural workings of society. After a few years, he opened a bakery in Port-au-Prince with some business partners. While operating his company, he continued to be active in political circles and charity work. Providing bread to the orphanage of Salesian Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, with whom he developed a close relationship.

After the election of Aristide as president in 1990, Préval served as his Prime Minister from February 13 to October 11, 1991, going into exile following the September 30, 1991 military coup.

First presidency

In 1996, Préval was elected as president for a five-year term, with 88% of the popular vote. Upon his 1996 inauguration, Préval became the second democratically elected head of state in the country's two-hundred-year history. In 2001, he became the first President of Haiti ever to leave office as a result of the natural expiration of his term.

As president Préval instituted a number of economic reforms, most notably the privatization of various government companies. Some have suggested that these privatizations were a result of Préval bowing to the pressure exerted on him by external entities including the IMF. The unemployment rate (though still quite high) had fallen to its lowest level since the fall of Duvalier by the end of Préval's term. Préval also instituted an aggressive program of agrarian reform in Haiti's countryside. His rule, however, was also marked by fierce political clashes with a parliament dominated by opposition party members (OPL) and an increasingly vocal Fanmi Lavalas (party of the former president) which opposed the structural adjustment and privatization program of Preval's government.

As president, Préval was a strong supporter of investigations and trials related to human rights violations committed by military and police personnel. He was though widely criticized by grassroots popular organizations for caving into foreign donor agencies that demanded Haiti engage in massive privatizations.

Préval dissolved the parliament in 1999 and ruled by decree for the duration of the final year of his presidency.cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/737270.stm
title = Haiti goes to the polls
author=Peter Greste
publisher = BBC
accessmonthday = August 13
accessyear = 2006 ]

Second presidency

Préval ran again as the Lespwa candidate in the Haitian presidential election of 2006. The election took place after nearly two years of international peacekeeping, which some described as an unelected dictatorship. Partial election results, released on February 9, indicated that he had won with about sixty percent of the vote, but as further results were released, his share of the vote slipped to 48.7% – thus making a run-off necessary. Several days of popular demonstrations in favour of Préval followed in Port-au-Prince and other cities in Haiti. On February 14, Préval claimed that there had been fraud among the vote counts, and demanded that he be declared the winner outright of the first round. Protesters paralyzed the capital with burning barricades and stormed a luxury hotel -the Montana Hotel, located in the affluent suburb of Petionville- to demand results from Haiti's nearly week-old election as ex-President Rene Preval fell further below the 50 per cent needed to win the presidency. On February 16, 2006, Préval was declared the winner of the presidential election by the Provisional Electoral Council with 51.15 percent of the vote, after the exclusion of "blank" ballots from the count.

He was sworn in on May 14, following Haiti's legislative run-off vote in April;cite web
url = http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20060327T210000-0500_101448_OBS_HAITIAN_PRESIDENT_ELECT_TAKES_POWER_MAY___.asp
title =Haitian president-elect takes power
publisher= Jamaica Observer / Associated Press
accessmonthday = August 13
accessyear = 2006] [http://www.angus-reid.com/tracker/view/7164 Angus Reid page on Haiti] .] he could not be sworn in until a sitting Parliament was in place. When he was sworn in, Préval emphasized the importance of unity, saying that division was Haiti's "main problem" and that Haitians had to "work together". On May 17, he nominated Jacques-Édouard Alexis, who had served as Prime Minister during Préval's first term, as Prime Minister again. After taking office, Préval immediately signed an oil deal with Venezuela and traveled to the United States, Cuba, and France.

Préval drew much of his support from Haiti's poorest people; he was especially widely supported in the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. However, many of the poor demanded that the former President Aristide be allowed to return and that civil enterprise workers fired by the Latortue government be reinstated. This caused increasing tension in the poor slums of Port-au-Prince.Thompson, Ginger. Candidate of Haiti's Poor Leads in Early Tally With 61% of Vote. "The New York Times", February 10, 2006.] Preval promised to build a massive road system which would boost trade and transportation around the country.

Latin American integration

. Haitian and Dominican relations have strengthened largely in part due to Preval's willingness to end volatile temperaments and the two presidents' determination of brotherly cooperation. Preval's first foreign visitation was actually in the neighboring country in which he was graciously welcomed by the Dominican government. Preval then visited the United States, where he was congratulated by U.S. President Bush for his reelection. Preval had claimed that with the exception of his nearby visit to the Dominican Republic, he wanted the United States to be his first diplomatic visit in office, putting it ahead of his eventual diplomatic visits to Venezuela, Cuba and France. The US considered Preval's meeting with Bush a good sign of excellent US-Haitian relations under his administration.

April 2008 riots

In early April 2008, riots broke out over the high cost of food; since 2007, prices for a number of essential foods, including rice, had risen by about 50%. [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/010DE3E1-EB5D-420B-BA4C-118AC1DEEF35.htm "Haitians riot over price rise"] , Al Jazeera, April 6, 2008.] As the riots continued, rioters attacked the presidential palace on April 8 but were driven away by UN soldiers. [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2F14DC83-B602-4FC4-9452-3A49886B0AC1.htm "Haitians storm president's palace"] , Al Jazeera, April 9, 2008.] On April 9, Préval called for calm; he said that high food prices were a problem around the world, but that the problem would not be solved by destroying stores, and he said that he had "ordered Haitian police and UN soldiers to put an end to the looting". Despite demands for all taxes on food imports to be lifted, Préval said that he could not do so because the money was greatly needed; [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E451DE47-5548-40C5-B311-5AD2AFDDC396.htm "Haitian president calls for calm"] , Al Jazeera, April 9, 2008.] he pledged to increase food production in Haiti so that the country would not be so dependent on imports, but this fell short of what many protesters demanded. [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D33E1E37-5999-4610-918A-DBFA5542EDA1.htm "Haiti senators call on PM to quit"] , Al Jazeera, April 10, 2008.] On April 12, the Senate voted to remove Prime Minister Alexis‎ from office, and Préval announced that the price of a bag of rice weighing 23kg would be reduced from $51 to $43. According to Préval, the rice would be subsidized with international aid, and the private sector was willing to reduce the price by three dollars. He also said that he was going to seek Venezuelan assistance in improving the economic situation. [ [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2C124C17-7F2B-49C8-B000-BBBDC2B83CBB.htm "Haiti senators vote to remove PM"] , Al Jazeera, April 12, 2008.]

References

External links

* [http://www.prevalhaiti.com Rene Preval Blog]
* [http://www.haitielection2005.com/presidential_candidates.php/23 Rene Preval 2005 Elections Archives]
* [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=rene_preval Rene Preval entry at Cooperative Research.org]
* [http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact2000/fields/executive_branch.html United States Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook (2000)]
* [http://haiti.uhhp.com/rulers/rene_garcia_preval.html Profile of H.E. Mr. Réné Garcia Preval]
* [http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/07/Worldandnation/Ex_leader_still_enigm.shtml St. Petersburg times] - Ex-leader still enigma as Haitians cast ballots
* [http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107612.html Brief analysis of Préval's rise to Head of State 2006]
* [http://www.coha.org/2006/05/13/rene-preval-haiti-may-get-one-last-chance-in-spite-of-washington%e2%80%99s-best-efforts/ Rene Preval Haiti May Get One Last Chance in Spite of Washington's Best Efforts] Council on Hemispheric Affairs
* [https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/haiti-news/2006-February/001337.html Prensa Latina February 2006 "No Match for Rene Preval in Haiti"]
* [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=rene_preval Profile Rene Preval"]
* [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=5&objectid=10368355 Preval supporters protest Haiti election results]