Former Haiti president dead at 74
Rene Preval, a low-key technocrat who led Haiti as president during the devastating January 2010 earthquake and a messy and prolonged recovery, has died. He was 74.
Preval, who had the distinction of being the only democratically elected president to win and complete two terms in a country notorious for political upheaval, died Friday, according to a statement issued by President Jovenel Moise.
The cause of death was not released but Preval had been treated for prostate cancer in Cuba in 2001. Moise said the former president died at his home in the Port-au-Prince district of Laboule.
“I learned with sadness the death of former President Rene Preval,” Moise said on his Twitter account. “I prostrate myself before the remains of this worthy son of Haiti.”
Former President Michel Martelly, who succeeded Preval, said “Rene, my brother, my friend and adviser, your departure leaves us in shock.”
Preval was elected by a landslide in 1995 as the chosen successor of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and turned power back over to Aristide when he left office five years later after a term marked by political infighting.
His second term, which started in 2006, was marred by the disastrous earthquake of January 12, 2010, which the government said killed more than 310,000 people and displaced more than one million. Many Haitians accused him of a fumbling response to the tragedy.