Martial Lavaud Celestin - Haiti Observer Blog

The role of Haitian Prime Minister, as that of Haitian President or any other minister of parliament or politician in the country is one laced with controversy and insecurity. There have been 17 prime ministers for the country since the post's inception in 1988, all with an average shelf life of just more than a year. To tell the story well we must start at the beginning, with Haiti's first selected Prime Minister, Martial Lavaud Célestin.

Célestin was born in Ganthier on October 4, 1913. He studied economics and the law at the Paris Faculty of Law and began his profession, as a lawyer at the ripe old age of 23. He would take his considerable learning into the diplomatic field by 1950, when he was given the post of assistant to the Foreign Affairs Department and, six years later, to the Secretary General.

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