Yvon Neptune

Yvon Neptune

Yvon Neptune (born November 8, 1946 in Cavaillon ) was Prime Minister of Haiti from 2002 to 2004 .

Life

He studied architecture in Haiti and in the USA , where he lived for more than 20 years and worked for the company Emery Roth & Sons in New York . He denounced the coup d'état of March 30, 1991 in his home country, supported the Haitian exiles and became an advisor to Jean-Bertrand Aristide , in whose wake he returned to Haiti on October 15, 1994. He was then spokesman for the Lavalas party and president of the Senate.

He was appointed by President Aristide on March 4, 2002, elected by Parliament on March 12, and took office on March 15, 2002. On March 2, 2004, shortly after Aristide's controversial resignation, an angry crowd tried unsuccessfully to arrest Neptune for alleged corruption. A week later, US Marines killed two armed attackers while guarding his residence.

Neptune was replaced on March 12, 2004 by a transitional government. It was led by Gérard Latortue , who had been appointed three days earlier. On March 27, 2004, the interim government issued a travel ban against Neptune and 36 other senior officials of the Aristide government in order to better investigate allegations of corruption. Neptune went into hiding and called the ban a "witch hunt".

On February 19, 2005 Neptune was during a jail break in Port-au-Prince by peacekeepers of the United Nations taken into protective custody and then handed over to the Haitian authorities again.