Jonassaint, Emile

▪ 1996

      Haitian politician (b. 1913, Port-de-Paix, Haiti—d. Oct. 24, 1995, Port-au-Prince, Haiti), served as president of Haiti for five months in 1994 as the puppet of the military regime that had overthrown the elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 1991. He oversaw some of the regime's harshest human rights abuses. Jonassaint agreed to step down when a U.S. peace mission negotiated a compromise that averted an imminent invasion by U.S. forces. Instead, a peaceful occupation began the next morning, and Aristide was restored to office the next month. Jonassaint's career in politics began in the 1950s when he was a senator in Gen. Paul Magloire's dictatorship. During the years of the Duvalier family's rule, however, he withdrew from political life and practiced law and worked as a classics professor. Jonassaint was picked (1986) to be president of a constituent assembly organized to draft a new constitution after the ouster of Jean-Claude Duvalier. He served on the Supreme Court until Aristide ordered him to retire in 1991 because of his age, but he was placed back on the court later that year when the military took over. Jonassaint was a firm believer in voodoo, sprinkled his speeches with spiritual references, and often invoked the name of Agaou, a voodoo god.

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