Clinton to be named special U.N. envoy to Haiti
Former President Clinton will be named special U.N. envoy to this impoverished Caribbean nation that has been mired in political and social turmoil for decades, his spokesman said Monday.
An official announcement is expected from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today, Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said.
Clinton is popular among many of Haiti’s poor because as president in 1994, he used the threat of military force to oust a dictatorship there.
U.S. Army troops and Marines then quickly arrived to pave the way for the return of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted in a coup.
In March, Clinton toured Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, with the U.N. chief to encourage investment after a year that saw a food crisis, destabilizing riots and four devastating tropical storms.
He also attended an April donors conference in Washington that resulted in pledges of $324 million for Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.
U.N. officials did not immediately comment.
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