Ertha Pascal-Trouillot
| Ertha Pascal-Trouillot | |
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President of Haiti Provisional |
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In office 13 March 1990 – 7 February 1991 |
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| Preceded by | Hérard Abraham (Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Jean-Bertrand Aristide |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 13, 1943 Pétion-Ville, Haiti |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouse(s) | Ernst Trouillot |
| Alma mater | University of Haiti |
Ertha Pascal-Trouillot (born 13 August 1943) was the provisional President of Haiti for 11 months in 1990 and 1991. She was the first woman in Haitian history to hold that office.
Her father, Thimocles, was an iron worker and died when she was young. Her mother Louise (née Dumornay) was a seamstress and embroiderer. Pascal-Trouillot was the ninth of ten children. When she was 10 years old, she and one of her brothers went to the Lycée François Duvalier and was mentored by her future husband, Ernst Trouillot, who was 21 years her senior. In 1971, she received her law degree from the École de Droit des Gonaïves in Port-au-Prince, becoming the country's first woman lawyer. Between 1975 and 1988, she held various positions as a judge in the Haitian federal courts until she became the first woman justice of the Supreme Court of Haiti.
Pascal-Trouillot was chief justice when she temporarily became Haiti's first female president on 13 March 1990, following a revolt that overthrew the government run by Prosper Avril. General Hérard Abraham remained in charge for three days and then transferred power to Pascal-Trouillot in a public ceremony. As provisional head of state, her job was to coordinate the transition to democracy with the Council of State, which had veto power over her. The Council of State was composed of 19 members picked from major Haitian institutions, political parties and the grassroots movement. She oversaw the first truly free elections in Haiti on 16 December 1990 (Haitian general election, 1990–1991), which Jean-Bertrand Aristide won with 67% of the vote.
On 6 January 1991, a coup attempt seeking to pre-empt an Aristide presidency took place when Roger Lafontant, a Tonton Macoute leader under Jean-Claude Duvalier, seized the provisional president Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and declared himself president. After large numbers of Aristide supporters filled the streets in protest and Lafontant attempted to declare martial law, the army (still led by General Abraham) crushed the incipient coup.
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