Leslie Delatour

Leslie Delatour (1950–2001) was a Haitian economist.

Born in 1950, he studied at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Chicago. Notable as Haiti's Finance Minister and Governor of the Bank of Haiti, he also served as consultant at the World Bank, the Inter-American Bank and USAID. He was dubbed as "all-powerful" in Le Monde Diplomatique. He died of cancer on 24 March 2001 in Miami, Florida, United States. His widow has since married Haiti's President René Préval and his family maintains influence in Haiti.

His first notable job in Haiti was working in 1982 for Finance Minister Marc Bazin under the administration of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Bazin became favoured in international circles for an anti-corruption drive that he held as Finance Minister but was removed from his post after five months. After Jean-Claude Duvalier was ousted on 7 February 1986, Delatour was chosen to be Finance Minister starting in April 1986 under the dictatorship of General Henri Namphy. There, he subjected Haiti to neoliberal reforms and argued that as Haiti would always be dependent on someone so it might as well be dependent on the United States.

This was not popular in Haiti. Popular leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide dubbed this the "death plan". In June 1986 five days of major protests took place throughout Haiti, the protesters demanding Delatour's resignation. Henri Namphy said that this led to "almost a civil war" and promised to hold elections as a result. A November 1986 general strike followed, again with Delatour's dismissal demanded. Namphy had believed that as he led a provisional government, that it had no business carrying out sweeping reforms. Delatour believed otherwise. These reforms damaged a peasantry that had already suffered the 1982 destruction of their Creole pigs by U.S. orders as a response to an outbreak of African Swine Fever.

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