In Haiti, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping force has died of an apparent suicide. Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar was found Saturday on the balcony of his hotel room with a gunshot wound to the head. Lt. Bacellar’s death comes amid growing pressure from Haiti’s business sector and the international community to take on armed groups in Haiti’s poorest slums. On Friday — one day before Lt. Bacellar’s death — U.N. mission head Juan Gabriel Valdes announced the UN would invade the poor slum of Cite Soleil, a stronghold for supporters of Lavalas, the party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Several UN officials told Reuters Lt. Bacellar had opposed the plan.

Meanwhile, the news service Haiti Information Project is reporting Lt. Bacellar held a tense meeting with Haiti’s business leaders the night before his death. The president of Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce, Reginald Boulos, had already announced a nationwide general strike set for today aimed at pressuring the UN to crack down on neighborhoods like Cité Soleil.

In place of Lt. Bacellar, Chilean Gen. Eduardo Aldunate Herman has been named interim head of the UN force. The organization School of the Americas Watch reports Gen. Herman was one of 11 former high-ranking Chilean military officials under former dictator Augusto Pinochet who trained at the US-run School of Americas.