Port-au-Prince, Haiti
The head of the United Nations mission to Haiti was found dead on his hotel balcony last week, apparently of suicide. While the cause of death is still being investigated, U.N. officials told the Associated Press that Brazilian Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar had shot himself in the head. Bacellar’s death complicates the task of the 7,400 U.N. peacekeepers who are attempting to stabilize Haiti for a much-postponed presidential election, currently scheduled for Feb. 7. This week, the country virtually ground to a halt in a general strike to protest a wave of politically motivated kidnappings. “Our best proof of loyalty” to Gen. Bacellar, said his interim replacement, Eduardo Aldunate Herman, “will be to ensure that peace and security reach every corner of this country.”
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