PORT AU PRINCE – René Préval, the former president of Haiti died Friday, the Miami Herald Newspaper has reported. He was 74.
It quoted his wife, Elisabeth Delatour Préval as confirming his death.
Préval died at home in Laboule, a neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince. His wife, who wasn’t with him, said she had spoken to him “three times” on Friday.
“He was in excellent humour,” said Delatour Préval, “He asked, ‘When are you coming home?’ I refused to believe it. I cannot believe it,” she told the newspaper
Préval served as president from 1996 to 2001, and again from 2006 to 2011. He is the only president in Haitian history to have served two full presidential terms and not be jailed, exiled or killed.
An agronomist by training, Préval devoted his years out of the presidency to turning bamboo into furniture to create jobs, and to boost the national production of agricultural products. (CMC)
