"For Mr. Thurel, a martyr and exile from Haiti, there was a need to send a message to the military junta, the Tonton Macoutes former secret police and the bourgeoisie that Haiti's economic and political situation cannot continue," Yves Isidor, a business and economics teacher at Roxbury Community College, told reporters and about 100 people at a news conference.

Peguy Thurel, 27, Thurel's eldest son, stressed that his father's death was a political act aimed at increasing public awareness of conditions on the impoverished island nation, where an unpopular transitional military council has been accused of using violence to stem political protests.

"Mr. Thurel wanted to say that it is incredible that we keep talking about other places and nothing is done for Haiti," said community activist Franz Minuty, "and that America is training the Tonton Macoutes, who for 29 years destroyed Haiti and are still destroying it."