Michel Martelly which had been abolished in the 1990s by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Martelly was born in Port-au-Prince, the son of Gerard Martelly, a Shell Oil executive and Marie Madeleine De Martelly (1931-21 October 2016). On his mother's side, his grandfather Auguste de Pradines was a troubadour who wrote comic protest songs against the 1915-34 United States occupation of Haiti. After graduating from high school at the Institution Saint Louis de Gonzague, Martelly enlisted in the Haitian Military Academy, but (according to Martelly) was expelled after impregnating the daughter of a general. In 1984, he moved to the United States, and worked in
Michel Clérié parliament for six years. During that time, he was president of the Commerce Industry and Tourism Committee and also a member of Justice and Public Works Committee. During his electoral campaign, he was widely supported by the local population in the Grand'Anse department, especially the farmers and fishermen, with whom he still works closely. He is the special advisor of President Michel Martelly. He is the son of Guy Clérié, a former army captain, and of Ginette Laroche, the daughter of an aristocratic family of the northern part of the country (Cap-Haïtien). He married Joelle Baker, whose father owned a