16634: Chamberlain: 16628: Haiti/UN question (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

Haiti was indeed one of the original signatories of the UN Charter in San
Francisco in 1945.

Signing for Haiti was foreign minister Gérard Lescot, one of President Elie
Lescot's two cabinet minister sons (the other was interior minister).  Both
were in their 20s.  After his dad was overthrown a few months later, the
modest Gérard led a quiet rest-of-his-life and died in the 1980s.  He ran a
night-club in Pétionville for a while and I remember one time when he, I
and a couple of pals went drinking in the "Dominican" bars along the
Carrefour road.

One day, JCDuvalier saw the upper-class Lescot walking down the road in
Laboule (toffs don't walk in the street in Haiti) and reportedly asked who
it was.  When told, and informed that he didn't have any money, he ordered
that Lescot receive a state pension.


        Greg Chamberlain