Gerard Latortue, interim prime minister after Aristide’s ouster, is born at Gonaives

Gerard Latortue was born at Gonaives on 19 June 1934. He spent years as a United Nations official and served briefly as foreign minister under Leslie Manigat in 1988. When Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the country on 29 February 2004, a council of the wise assembled by foreign governments picked Latortue, then living in Florida, to head the interim government. He was named on 9 March and sworn in on 12 March 2004, and stayed until 9 June 2006. His two years brought no order: political prisoners, killings in Cite Soleil, and a country run from outside. He died at Boca Raton on 27 February 2023.