Haiti: Former President René Préval autopsy shows he died of heart disease

The results of an autopsy of former Haitian President René Préval showed the leader died in March after a heart irregularity cut off his ability to breathe, officials said on Wednesday.

The 74-year-old Préval, who was the first president in Haitian history to win a democratic election, serve a full term and peacefully hand power to a successor, died unexpectedly on March 3 after falling unconscious at his home.
“Effectively, there had been a certain suspicion because the death was sudden,” Clame-Ocnam Dameus, Haiti’s prosecutor, told journalists.

He said Préval’s heart had swollen and turned black, harming his ability to breathe. Dameus emphasized that chronic disease caused the former president’s death, not foul play.

“There was no violence. There was no trace of violence. There is no one to arrest,” he said, adding that the investigation into the cause of death was now closed.

Jean Armel Demorcy, who had led the medical investigation, said Préval suffered from chronic breathing issues for years.

Préval was a central figure in Haitian politics from the early 1990s through to his second presidency.
His legacy will always be tied to the 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, killed more than 200,000 people and brought the presidential palace crumbling to the ground.

A soft-spoken agronomist, Préval won support from Haiti’s poor majority when he first was elected president in 1996, after a bout of instability that saw his ally, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, toppled in a coup.
He served a second term as president starting in 2006.

Source: Reuters