Jocelerme Privert (; born 1 February 1953) is a

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

and bureaucrat who served as the interim President of Haiti from 2016 to 2017.

Political career

Early political career

A longtime politician, he first served as the economics and finance minister under

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Jean-Bertrand Aristide (; born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991 before being deposed in a coup d'état. As a priest, he taught liberation theo ...

during 2001 and 2002. Aristide reappointed him Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities in 2002 and he served until the

2004 Haitian coup d'état A coup d'état in Haiti on 29 February 2004, following several weeks of conflict, resulted in the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office. On 5 February, a rebel group, called the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation ...

that removed Aristide from the presidency.

Accusation of massacre and incarceration

Privert was accused of involvement in the La Scierie massacre in

Saint-Marc Saint-Marc (; ) is a List of communes of Haiti, commune in western Haiti in Artibonite (department), Artibonite departement. Its geographic coordinates are . At the 2015 Census the commune had 266,642 inhabitants. It is one of the biggest cities ...

and arrested on 4 April 2004. According to Haitian organizations defending human rights, dozens of people were killed in February 2004 in the town of Saint-Marc, an opposition stronghold at that time. Jocelerme Privert was released after 26 months in prison.

Later political career

After his release from prison, he served as an advisor to then-president

René Préval René Garcia Préval (; 17 January 1943 – 3 March 2017) was a Haitian Politics of Haiti, politician and agronomist who twice was President of Haiti, from early 1996 to early 2001, and again from mid-2006 to mid-2011. He was also List of Prime ...

. He subsequently ran for a senate seat in a 2008 by-election in Nippes department, but was not elected. He was later elected

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for

Nippes Nippes (French language, French, ) or Nip (Haitian Creole) is one of the ten Departments of Haiti, departments (the highest-level political subdivisions) of Haiti located in southern Haiti. It is the most recently created department, having be ...

department in the 2010 general elections, serving from 26 April 2011 to 14 January 2016 and was elected by the Senate to serve as its president. He was also the President of the Senate Committee on Economy and Finance.

Provisional presidency

Privert was elected by the Senate as the provisional

President of Haiti The president of Haiti (, ), officially called the president of the Republic of Haiti (, , ), is the head of state of Haiti. Executive power in Haiti is divided between the president and the government, which is headed by the prime minister of ...

on 14 February 2016, pending a general election after no more than 120 days. A general run-off election date later agreed between

Jovenel Moïse Jovenel Moïse (; ; 26 June 1968 – 7 July 2021) was a Haitian politician and Businessperson, businessman who served as President of Haiti from 2017 until Assassination of Jovenel Moïse, his assassination in 2021. Moïse assumed the preside ...

and

Jude Célestin Jude Célestin (born June 19, 1962 in Port-au-Prince) is a Haitian politician who was one of two presidential candidates heading off to the second round in the 2015 presidential election race. After an education in Port-au-Prince, Célestin stud ...

was originally scheduled to be held on 24 April 2016, but the

Conseil Electoral Provisoire The Provisional Electoral Council (French language, French: ''Conseil Électoral Provisoire'', , CEP; Haitian Creole: ''Konsèy Elektoral Pwovizwa'') is the Election management body, electoral commission of Haiti. The CEP is responsible for Elect ...

decided on 5 April 2016 to hold a new election in early October 2016. On 14 June 2016, his presidential term expired, but he remained ''de facto'' president as the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

refused to meet to appoint a successor. On February 7, 2017, he was succeeded by

of the

Michel Martelly Michel Joseph Martelly (; born 12 February 1961) is a Haitian musician and politician who served as the 42nd president of Haiti from May 2011 until February 2016. On August 20, 2024, the United States sanctioned the former president for traffic ...

-founded Haitian Tèt Kale Party (PHTK) who won the November 2016 election.

Personal life

Privert met his wife, Ginette Michaud, a physician and

radiologist Radiology ( ) is the medical specialty that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide treatment within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiation), but tod ...

, in 1986. The couple married in 1988 and had three daughters: Deborah, Sarah, and Vicky. Privert is an accountant. He served in the General Tax Directorate (a governmental agency) from 1979 until the directorate was removed in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Privert, Jocelerme 1954 births 2010s in Haiti 21st-century Haitian politicians Interior ministers of Haiti Living people People from Nippes Presidents of Haiti Presidents of the Senate (Haiti)