Michel Martelly construction and briefly attended a community college in Miami. In 1986, after one semester, he returned to Haiti just as Jean-Claude Duvalier, then president-for-life, was heading into exile. In 1987, Martelly returned to Miami with his then-girlfriend, Sophia Saint-Rémy, whom he later married in a small ceremony in Miami, Florida. They returned to Haiti in 1988. Upon his return to Haiti, Martelly had his first breakthrough in the music industry when he began playing keyboard as a fill-in musician in local venues in Pétion-Ville and Kenscoff, upscale suburbs of Port-au-Prince. Martelly "sang playful, romantic numbers over a slow méringue beat
Corruption in Haiti project funding for what turned out to be a fictitious organization. No action was taken. In December 2008, Senator Joseph Lambert was linked to the murder of a Police Commissioner's wife in a case involving drug traffickers, but he was never charged. In 2008, a Police Chaplains International revealed that members of the judiciary and police force were divvying up embezzled funds in Port-de-Paix. Upon taking office in 2011, President Michel Martelly dismissed Parliament and began governing by executive order. The "New York Times" described Martelly as being "surrounded by a network of friends and aides who have been arrested