Agronomist - Haiti Observer Blog

Every century is graced by certain men who have helped to write the course of many countries, including their own. At the turn of the 20th Century, in 1904 to be exact, Haiti gave birth to just one of its contributions to that circle.

When Emile Saint-Lot first caught the fever to defend his country, he was all but a boy, witnessing first-hand the military invasion by the US, which occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1937. He would go on to study and practice journalism and to teach law, finally becoming a senator and civil court chief justice. His election as senator of the West on the 19th of June, 1946 came a year after his taking the role of Haiti's first United Nations Ambassador. He also served as a Security Council member, with the task of voting on whole nations' independence. He would cast this powerful vote for countries like Libya (about whose independence he presented an impassioned speech to the UN in 1957), Somalia and Israel.

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René Garcia Préval had his first turn as Haitian president the first elected in the country's independent history who served a full term lasting from the 7th of February 1996 to the 7th of February 2001, previously having briefly served as Prime Minister in 1991. Préval won the five year seat with 88% of the popular vote, making him the second head of state elected through a democratic process in Haiti's 200 years of history.

Rene Préval used his presidency to influence the implementation of various reforms to the economy, leading to a significant fall in the rate of unemployment by the end of his term, and to support the investigation of instances of human rights violations perpetrated by the police and the military. He brought about the privatization of government companies and, after dissolving parliament in 1999, spent the duration of his presidency ruling by decree.

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Haitian politics has been shaped by decades of power struggles between people in power, as well as with the country's citizens. Long-time politician René Préval has witnessed and experienced them all.

Before becoming a politician, Préval first became an agronomist, which has something to do with the science and technology of agriculture. After acquiring his studies in Belgium and Italy and living in New York for five years, he went home to Haiti and worked for the National Institute for Mineral Resources and was very active in agricultural activities in Haitian society. Préval then put up his own bakery and remained active political movements and charity, which led him to meet Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's first democratic president. In 1991, he served as Haiti's Prime Minister for eight months before going into exile after a military coup.

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