by M.C. L

Created on: August 19, 2010

The implication of some articles regarding the death of Mireille Durocher is that the Aristide government or Haiti's largest political party Lavalas was involved in her assassination. Reporting this as a fact is simply to repeat gossip and rumor and is not factual. The murder of Mrs. Durocher was never solved. Mrs. Durocher was Dominican Sarodj Bertin's mother, who is competing in the Miss Universe pageant. Although Bertin has lived in the Dominican Republic since she was 9, she was selected to compete in the Miss Universe pageant as Miss Haiti.

Here's the line that is pertinent from a Google News article (see link below):

"Sarodj Bertin had a privileged childhood in Puerto Principe [Port-au-Prince] until age 9, when her mother, lawyer and opposition leader Mireille Durocher Bertin, was gunned down after announcing the creation of a political party that would compete with that of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the upcoming elections."

Another article from the LA Times from 1995 clarifies the matter further (see link below):

"These officials said Fisher wrote to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government, outlining the plot. As a result, Justice Minister Jean-Joseph Exume called Durocher in and told her that U.S. military intelligence believed she was in real danger. Although advised "to take all precautions," she did not get protection from U.S. or Haitian forces, the sources said."

Turns out, it's a mystery who killed Mrs. Durocher. The fact that she was planning to lead an opposition party was not necessarily the motive. In fact, the Aristide government warned her that she was in danger.

According to a NY Times article, Mrs. Durocher also had a very shady character as a client in the car with her that day. He may very well have been the target of the assassination plot. Junior Baillergeau was a reputed drug trafficker.

Another interesting twist is that Mrs. Durocher held a high profile position on a violent death squad organization responsible for the deaths and massacres of thousands of Haitians called FRAPH. FRAPH's deadly background is available at History Commons and Peace not War  (see links below).

Ben Dupuy had this to say about Mrs. Durocher's murder in an article at Third World Traveler (see link below):

"But the dream didn't last for long. As 1995 progressed, friction between Aristide and the U.S. began to surface. For example, on March 28, three days before President Clinton was to visit Haiti, a putschist political figure, Mireille Durocher

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