Haiti’s President Aristide Announces Engagement

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who gave up his priest’s vestments to enter the fray of Haitian politics, may soon be walking down the church aisle as a bridegroom.

Aristide, 42, known for his bookish manner and Spartan lifestyle, confirmed to journalists late Thursday that he was engaged.

Although he declined to identify his fiancee, sources close to the president said she is Mildred Trouillot, 33, a Haitian American lawyer who has been working for him and is a member of one of Haiti’s wealthiest and most powerful families.

“As far as the date is concerned, I don’t have one yet. When I know, I will tell you,” a smiling Aristide told reporters.

News of the romance immediately spread throughout the capital and overshadowed preparations for Haiti’s presidential election set for Dec. 17. Aristide said this week that he will step down from office Feb. 7, as required by the constitution, but that he might run for president again in 2000.

Although rumors had circulated for weeks that Aristide had become close to a female associate who worked long hours with him at his office, many were surprised to learn of the wedding plan. “The president was attracted to her but needed some coaching from other men in the office on how to make a move,” one foreign official said.

Trouillot is a distant relative of Ertha Pascal Trouillot, who led Haiti in 1990 in the months leading up to Aristide’s election in the nation’s first democratic vote.