a846: Andrew and wife Kerry Kennedy Cuomo visit Haiti Wednesday(fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Contact:  Michelle Karshan, Foreign Press Liaison
National Palace, Haiti
mkarshan@aol.com
(011509) 228-2058

New York's Andrew Cuomo and his wife, Kerry Kennedy-Cuomo will visit Haiti Wednesday, February 21, 2002 to demonstrate their support for the Haitian people. Mr. Cuomo and his wife will meet with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide at 11 am Wednesday at the National Palace and are expected to make a statement to the press immediately thereafter.

The purpose of their visit is to lend their support to the call to lift the financial sanctions against Haiti which have caused a dramatic increase in misery in  Haiti.  Mr. Cuomo and his wife have expressed their concerns over deteriorating health and education services.  This deterioration is a result of the US, European Union, Inter-American Development Bank and IMF blockade on Haiti.

While in Haiti Mr. Cuomo and his wife will visit the Montessori school at La Fanmi Se Lavi and the State University Hospital in Port-au-Prince following their comments to the press at the National Palace at approximately 12 noon.

Mr. Cuomo, an attorney and long time advocate for the homeless and other key issues on behalf of New York's poor, is the son of former three-time New York
governor, Mario Cuomo.  Mrs. Kerry Kennedy-Cuomo, is the founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, created in honor of her father's work.

- 30 -