Charles Henri Baker
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Charles-Henri Jean-Marie Baker (born June 3, 1955) is a Haitian industrialist and former Haitian Presidential Candidate. Baker was a candidate for president in Haiti's 2006 election. He initially billed himself as an independent and allied himself with the Komba de Chavannes Jean Baptiste and Evans Lescouflair party. Baker is a former member of the Group of 184 (Groupe 184), a loose federation of business leaders, church officials and NGOs associated with the U.S. government-funded USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, opposed to the Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Baker was widely considered the candidate of choice of Haiti's middle and upper classes as well as the favored candidate of the international business community; political groups backing Baker were heavily financed by foreign aid agencies such as USAID and he played a role in the 2004 Haitian coup d'état. He was also the only presidential candidate to gather over 108,000 signatures necessary to run as an independent. However, he was defeated in the election by Lespwa candidate René Préval.
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[edit] Early life
Baker was born in Port-au-Prince. His father Edouard Baker was a prominent engineer and agronomist and a well-known soccer player. His mother Louise Barranco, a Businesswoman, was the founder of the first supermarket chain in Haiti. Baker has two brothers and three sisters.
After completing his elementary education in Haiti, he traveled to the United States. In 1972 he graduated from Redondo Union High School. He later attended Saint Leo University in Florida, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration in 1976. In 1975, he married Marie Florence Apaid, sister of André Apaid. He has four children and one grandchild.
[edit] Business career
Baker began his business career as a manager at the age 21 in his family-owned and -operated supermarket chain. When his father became ill, he took over the family-owned 90-acre farm Habitation Dujour, which grew sugarcane, banana, and tobacco. Eventually, the land expanded another 120 acres which made it the largest flue-cured tobacco farm in Haiti, with more than 200 acres. Simultaneously, from 1982 to 1985 he worked with the tobacco growers of Haiti through the Comme Il Faut Company, where he held the position of Assistant to the Leaf Growing Manager.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Baker began to purchase garment factories. These factories, which have been called sweatshops by labor rights and human rights organizations, employ hundreds of Haitians who are paid very little and have no benefits. Baker sells the garments produced in these factories to major corporations such as Sara Lee, Walmart and K-Mart. In 2000, he joined the Association des Industries d’Haïti as member and a year later became Vice Chair.
[edit] 2006 presidential election
In August 2005, Baker announced his intentions to run for the president of Haiti in the elections originally planned for November 2005 but later moved to February 2006.
Amid confusion at polling places and voting irregularities, Baker and his Respect coalition received 8.24 percent of the vote, losing to René Préval.
[edit] External references
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