{"id":610,"date":"2017-03-06T15:05:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T15:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=610"},"modified":"2017-03-06T15:21:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T15:21:16","slug":"former-haiti-president-rene-preval-dies-aged-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2017\/03\/06\/former-haiti-president-rene-preval-dies-aged-74\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Haiti President Rene Preval dies aged 74 (BBC)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Haiti&#8217;s former President Rene Preval, has died at age of 74. The cause of death is not known.<\/p>\n<p>In a country marred by poverty and political instability, he became the only democratically-elected president to serve two separate full terms.<!--more--><br \/>\nMr Preval was first elected in 1995 but it was during his second term that he faced his biggest challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Haiti was hit by a powerful earthquake in January 2010, which killed up to 300,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>The quake destroyed much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and displaced at least one million people.<\/p>\n<p>Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Americas, has struggled to recover from the tragedy.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Orphanage bread<\/h2>\n<p>His government&#8217;s handling of the humanitarian crisis was criticised at the time.<\/p>\n<p>But many Haitians have paid tribute to a leader who during his time in office improved the country&#8217;s infrastructure, worked on land reform and was not accused of human rights violations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I bow low before the remains of this worthy son of Haiti,&#8221; tweeted President Jovenel Moise.<\/p>\n<p>Former President Michel Martelly, who succeeded Mr Preval in 2011, said he was saddened by the news.<\/p>\n<p>He described him as &#8220;a dignified son of Haiti&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div class=\"story-body\">\n<div class=\"story-body__inner\">\n<p>Mr Preval was born in 1943, in a rural area of northern Haiti.<\/p>\n<p>His father fled the country in the early days of the brutal regime led by Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc.<\/p>\n<p>He lived in New York, Italy and Belgium, where he graduated as an agronomist.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Preval returned to Haiti in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n<p>He opened a bakery and began providing bread for an orphanage run by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest who would lead an uprising against Duvalier&#8217;s son, Baby Doc.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Aristide was elected president in 1990, paving the way for Mr Preval&#8217;s successful political career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags-container\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haiti&#8217;s former President Rene Preval, has died at age of 74. The cause of death is not known. In a country marred by poverty and political instability, he became the only democratically-elected president to serve two separate full terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}