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…
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