Smarck Michel, Former Haitian Premier, Dies at 75
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Version 0 of 1. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Smarck Michel, a businessman who served for almost a year as Haiti’s prime minister after the United States restored President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in the mid-1990s, died at his home here on Saturday. He was 75. The cause was a brain tumor, his son, Kenneth, said. Mr. Michel became prime minister in 1994 when a multinational military force led by the United States restored Mr. Aristide to the presidency after three years in exile. Mr. Aristide’s first term was cut short in 1991 when the army ousted him in a coup. The choice of Mr. Michel was seen as an effort to placate business leaders and members of Haiti’s middle and upper classes who felt threatened by the return of Mr. Aristide, a populist, left-leaning former Roman Catholic priest. Mr. Michel resigned almost a year later over opposition to his economic proposals, which included a privatization plan that was unpopular with Haiti’s poor majority. During Mr. Aristide’s first term, Mr. Michel served briefly as commerce and industry minister. He was dismissed from that post amid criticism of the government for not lowering the prices of food and other basic goods. Mr. Michel had instituted price controls, but they were widely ignored. Smarck Michel was born on March 29, 1937, in St. Marc, a port city north of Port-au-Prince, and moved around Haiti as a child because his father was serving in the Haitian armed forces. He attended college in New York, then returned to Haiti to help run the bakery his father had started. He later ran a grocery store in downtown Port-au-Prince. After his brief stint in politics, he returned full time to the grocery store until he closed it in 2010 and retired, his son said. In addition to his son, Mr. Michel’s survivors include his wife, Victoire Marie-Rose Sterlin, and two daughters, Patricia and Marjorie Michel. |