Jean-Bertrand Aristide

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Dr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born July 15, 1953), nicknamed Titide, was a President of Haiti (1991, 1994 - 1996, 2001 - 2004). Formerly a Catholic priest, he became the first democratically elected leader of Haiti in 1991, five years after the fall of the Duvalier regime.

Aristide was born in Port-Salut, Haiti. He was educated at schools in Port-au-Prince and at the College Notre Dame, graduating in 1974. He then took a course of novitiate studies in La Vega before returning to Haiti to study philosophy at the Grand Seminaire Notre Dame and psychology at the State University of Haiti. After completing his post-graduate studies in 1979, he travelled in Europe, studying in Italy and Israel.

Aristide returned to Haiti in 1983 for his ordination. He was appointed curate of a small parish in Port-au-Prince and then a larger one in the La Saline slums. He became a leading figure in the more radical wing of the Catholic faith in Haiti (the ti legliz - from the Creole for "little church"), broadcasting his sermons on the national Catholic radio. The Duvalier regime tried repeatedly to silence him. Only the collapse of the regime in April 1986 saved him. In September of 1988, Aristide was expelled from his Salesian order due to the political nature of his acts.

Following the violence at the abortive national elections of 1987, the 1990 polls were approached with caution. Aristide announced his candidacy for the presidency and following a six week campaign (Lavalas) the "little priest" was elected President with 67% of the vote.

Contents

First Presidency and Coup

Taking office on February 7, 1991, Aristide quickly made signal improvements in the quality of government. However his popularity did not extend to the army and on September 30, 1991 a military coup d'etat forced Aristide to flee. The coup created a large-scale exodus of boat people. The United States Coast Guard rescued a total of 41,342 Haitians during 1991 and 1992, more than the number of rescued refugees from the previous 10 years combined.

Aristide spent his exile in Venezuela and then in the United States, working hard to develop international support. The military junta did not last: the United Nations approved intervention and under the threat of a US-led invasion, the regime collapsed. On October 15, 1994, Aristide returned to Haiti to complete his term in office. The military rule had dealt a strong blow to Haiti's weak economy and much of Aristide's time was taken with economic measures. He also purged the Haitian army of many School of the Americas trained officers and established a civilian police force. In the Assembl�e Nationale elections of June 1995, a multi-party coalition, the Organisation Politique Lavalas (OPL) won a convincing victory.

In 1995 Aristide left the priesthood. In 1996 he married Mildred Trouillot, an American citizen.

Aristide's first term ended in February 1996, and the constitution did not allow him to serve consecutive terms. [[Ren� Pr�val]], a prominent ally of Aristide and Prime Minister since 1991 under Aristide, ran during the 1995 presidential election and took 88% of the vote.

Second Presidency

In late 1996, Aristide broke from the OPL and created a new political party, the Fanmi Lavalas (FL). The OPL, holding the majority of the S�nat and the Chambre des D�put�s, renamed itself the Organisation du Peuple en Lutte, maintaining the OPL acronym. Elections in April 1997 for the S�nat chamber of the Assembl�e Nationale drew only about 5% of registered voters and were plagued with allegations of fraud, the Preval government refused to accept the results.

New elections in May of 2000 for almost the entire Assembl�e Nationale drew voter turnout of more than 60%. The FL won a sweeping victory, but the methods used by the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP) in counting the votes were rejected by opposition parties, which united as the Convergence Democratique (CD) and demanded that the elections be ignored.

Aristide won the presidential election in November of 2000 with 91.8% of the vote. Most of the opposition parties boycotted this election, claiming that they had no fair chance. On February 7, 2001, Aristide was sworn in for his second term as President of Haiti. That same day, the CD swore in Gerard Gourgue as head of a new provisonal government. Aristide agreed to reform the CEP, but he did not include any supporters of the opposition in the new body. Jean-Marie Cherestal was made the new Prime Minister in March 2001.

The CD rejected both changes and in response the Government tried to have Gourgue arrested. The economy suffered as political control stalled. Aristide made moves to placate the opposition - in June 2001 certain senators holding contested seats resigned - but talks between the FL and the CD repeatedly failed. There was an attempted coup in mid-December 2001 and Cherestal resigned in January 2002, as the economy continued to slump.

Due to the objections of the opposition, elections were not held as scheduled in late 2003, and consequently the terms of most legislators expired in January, forcing Aristide to rule by decree. He promised to organize elections within six months, but the opposition refused to accept anything less than Aristide's resignation.

Departure from Haiti

In January 2004, political violence between Aristide supporters and supporters of the opposition escalated sharply, and on February 5, 2004, a rebel group calling itself the "Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front" seized control of Haiti's fourth-largest city, Gonaives, marking the beginning of a major revolt against Aristide. By February 22, the rebels had captured Haiti's second-largest city, [[Cap-Ha�tien]], and effectively split Haiti between a rebel-held north and a government-held south. The rebellion, led by US citizen Andy Apaid, has been referred to as a "military coup" by Aristide's lawyer, who claimed that the heavy weaponry used by them was shipped in from the Dominican Republic [1].

Rebels continued to advance as the end of February approached to within miles of the capital. In the early morning of February 29, Aristide was escorted by a US-dispatched airplane to the Central African Republic, where he was held incommunicado. Many media sources reported that Aristide had resigned and been refused asylum by South Africa. On April 1, Maxine Waters along with Randall Robinson, a family friend of the Aristides, each reported that Aristide had called them using a smuggled cellular telephone in order to claim that he had been forced to resign against his will by United States diplomats and Marines, and to allege he was abducted against his will, and that he continued to be held hostage by an undisclosed armed military guard. [2] Another claim from Aristide to CNN is that there were unidentified Americans and Haitians who had forced Mr. Aristide resign and board the plane leaving Haiti. [3]

Both Maxine Waters and United States congressman Charles Rangel, [4] who alse reported talking to Aristide via cellular telephone, said that Aristide said he had not been handcuffed while being led away, while the Agence France Press reported that the caretaker at Aristide's house claimed that Aristide had been handcuffed and had been led away at gunpoint.[5]

The United States vice-president Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell both reported that Aristide had resigned willingly [6], [7]. The Associated Press reports that the Central African Republic has tried to get Aristide to stop repeating his charges [8].


References

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