CBC In Depth
INDEPTH: HAITI
Key Players
CBC News Online | February 22, 2006

René Préval:

René Préval (AP Photo)
Préval was declared the winner of Haiti's Feb. 7, 2006, election – nine days after the polls closed. It was the second time he was elected president. He held the post from 1996 to 2001, becoming the country's second democratically elected president – and the first to serve his full term. He took 88 per cent of the vote in the 1996 election. In 2006, he took 51 per cent of the vote, good enough to secure the presidency on the first ballot.

During his first term, he oversaw the privatization of a number of government companies. He later conceded that he did not accomplish all that he wanted to. But he stressed that his regime was not corrupt and did not violate human rights.

Préval was Aristide's prime minister from February to October 1991, but went into exile after the military coup. He returned to Haiti with Aristide after the U.S. military intervened in 2004. Préval has been closely linked with Aristide since the fall of the Duvalier dynasty in 1986. Aristide once referred to him as "my twin." Préval has never been a member of Aristide's Lavalas Family Party.

A week after he was confirmed as winner of the 2006 election, Préval said he was ready to welcome Aristide home.

"Article 41 of the Haitian Constitution says that no Haitian needs a visa to enter or leave the country," he said, adding that there is no exception to cover cases like that of Aristide.

Boniface Alexandre:

Boniface Alexandre (CP PHOTO/Fred Chartrand)
As Chief Justice of Haiti's Supreme Court, Boniface Alexander was next in line for the presidency when Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned in 2004. One of his first acts after he was sworn in was to ask the United Nations to send in a peacekeeping force. Almost 9,000 soldiers and police officers from 41 countries moved in to quell the violence.

Alexandre established a reputation for competence and honesty while he served on the Supreme Court, despite a judiciary that was tainted with allegations of corruption. Haiti's constitution prevented Alexandre from running for the presidency. He said he only wanted to hold the job for as long as was necessary.

Gérard Latortue

Gerard Latortue talks to reporters during a press conference in Port-au-Prince, March 12, 2004. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
When Gérard Latortue was named interim prime minister of Haiti, he was at home in Florida, where he had been living for the previous 10 years. He hadn't set foot in the country of his birth in about 15 years, having worked as an academic, United Nations official, radio talk-show host and international business consultant.

Latortue had last been in Haiti in 1988, when he returned from exile to serve as foreign minister in the government of Leslie Manigat. But an army coup four months later persuaded him to return to his UN job.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide failed to lure him out of south Florida with the offer of a cabinet post in 2001. Like Alexandre, Latortue has said he only wanted the job of interim prime minister for as long as necessary.

Evans Paul:

Former mayor of Port-au-Prince and campaign manager for Aristide in 1990, Paul is leader of the Democratic Convergence. While Paul worked for Aristide the first time he was president, he worked against Aristide in his second run at the job. Paul was the opposition leader before Aristide resigned as president in 2004.

Paul is one of several prominent Haitians who claim to have been abducted and tortured by the former military regime who were involved in the lucrative drug trade. A former journalist and playwright, Paul was also jailed for opposing Jean-Claude Duvalier.

Guy Phillipe

Guy Phillipe (AP Photo)
Guy Philippe headed the armed uprising in 2004 that eventually led to Aristide's resignation. He is a former member of the Haitian army and former police chief in some of Haiti's larger cities. He's also suspected of drug trafficking and of planning attacks on Haiti's police academy and its national palace in 2001.

During Haiti's military rule from 1991 to 1995, Philippe studied security at the police academy in Quito, Ecuador, and served as security chief for then-president René Preval, an ally of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The New Army:

This is the term used to refer to the various groups of rebels and gangsters who controlled Haiti after Aristide's resignation, including groups such as the Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti (FRAPH) and the Resistance Front.

Louis Jodel Chamblain:

Louis-Jodel Chamblain (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Leader of a group of exiled soldiers from the former military regime who have been living in exile in the Dominican Republic since 1994. Chamblain is a former sergeant and was the leader of the so-called "Death Squad" which is accused of killing thousands of Aristide supporters. He founded the Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti (FRAPH) in 1993. FRAPH members were responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic governance.

Chamblain has been convicted, in absentia, and received life two sentences for his role in the assassinations of Aristide's Justice Minister Guy Mallary and Aristide financier Antoine Izmery. Chamblain returned to Haiti in February 2004 to join the rebellion.

In April 2004, Chamblain turned himself in to face retrial for his role in Izmery's killing. He was acquitted and released from jail in August 2005.

Jean Pierre Baptiste (alias Jean Tatoune):

Former paramilitary leader and member of FRAPH who was sentenced to life in prison for his participation in a massacre. He was among a group of 150 convicts who were sprung from prison when a rebel army attacked the prison in 2002. Gang members under Jean Tatoune's direction have been accused of numerous abuses against government officials and supporters.

Butteur Metayer:

Leader of the initial uprising in Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city. Metayer is head of the "Cannibal Army," a local gang that previously enforced loyalty to Aristide. The former president denied having any involvement with the gang. Metayer turned on Aristide, accusing him of having his brother Amyot killed to silence him from giving damaging information about Aristide. Metayer took control of the Cannibal Army, renamed it the Resistance Front and declared that he ruled Gonaives.



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