Anderson Cooper recalls Haitian teacher Yves Volel, killed in 1987 unrest

Anderson Cooper revisited the killing of his former math teacher, Yves Volel, who ran for president in Haiti in 1987 and was later assassinated. The memory of one teacher’s death became a window into a country that has repeatedly been shaken by political violence.

In a March 15, 2026 segment on 60 Minutes Overtime, Cooper’s recollection was tied to Have Faith Haiti in Port-au-Prince, where the orphanage stood as a refuge from gang violence outside its walls. Cooper said most of the children had not left the orphanage for four years because of the security situation in Haiti, a stark measure of how deeply instability has narrowed daily life in the capital.

Volel’s killing became a human-rights case. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights later received a complaint on October 19, 1987 that said Volel, identified as a presidential candidate, was murdered by members of the Port-au-Prince police. The commission’s report said the events occurred on October 13, 1987. That account added a formal record to a death that had already entered Haiti’s violent political history.

Contemporary reporting gave different details about the killing. The New York Times reported on October 14, 1987 that Volel died in an exchange of gunfire after he tried to forcibly free a prisoner, without identifying who fired the fatal shot. The Los Angeles Times described him as being shot to death while giving an address on human rights. Together, the accounts underscored how Volel’s death was interpreted through both the chaos of the moment and the political stakes surrounding it.

Cooper said the experience stayed with him long after he was a teenager. “It was an extraordinary thing when I was a teenager to witness... it continued my desire to learn more about Haiti,” he said. The remark connected a personal memory to a larger national story, one in which a teacher’s political ambition, a violent death and Haiti’s continuing insecurity remain intertwined.