JEAN - BERTRAND ARISTIDE

[Dealey Joe]

Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president.[1][2] A proponent of liberation theology,[3][4] Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies. He became a focal point for the pro-democracy movement first under Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and then under the military transition regime which followed. He won the Haitian general election, 1990-1991 with 67% of the vote and was briefly President of Haiti, until a September 1991 military coup. The coup regime collapsed in 1994 under US pressure and threat of force (Operation Uphold Democracy) after Aristide agreed to roll back several reforms. Aristide was then President again from 1994 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2004.Aristide was ousted in a 29 February 2004 coup d'état, in which former soldiers participated. He accused the United States of orchestrating the coup d'état against him with support from Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson and among others.[5] Aristide was forced into exile, being flown directly to the Central African Republic[5] and South Africa. He finally returned to Haiti on 18 March 2011 after seven years in exile.Aristide was born into poverty in Port-Salut, Sud Department. His father died when Aristide was only three months old,[7] and moved to Port-au-Prince with his mother, seeking a better life for him.[8] In 1958, Aristide started school with priests of the Salesian order.[9] He was educated at the College Notre Dame in Cap-Haïtien, graduating with honors in 1974. He then took a course of novitiate studies in La Vega, Dominican Republic 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, Aristide traveled in Europe, studying in Italy, Greece,[2] and Israel. He returned to Haiti in 1982 for his ordination as a Salesian priest,[10] and was appointed curate of a small parish in Port-au-Prince.Throughout the first three decades of Aristide's life, Haiti was ruled by the family dictatorships of François "Papa Doc" and Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. The misery endured by Haiti's poor made a deep impression on Aristide,[8] and he became an outspoken critic of Duvalierism.[11] Nor did he spare the hierarchy of the country's church, since a 1966 Vatican Concordat granted Duvalier the power to appoint Haiti's bishops.[12] An exponent of liberation theology,[13] Aristide denounced Duvalier's regime in one of his earliest sermons. This did not go unnoticed by the regime's top echelons. Under pressure, the provincial delegate of the Salesian Order sent Aristide into three years of exile in Montreal.[10] By 1985, as popular opposition to Duvalier's regime grew, Aristide was back preaching in Haiti. His Easter Week sermon, "A Call to Holiness," delivered at the cathedral of Port-au-Prince and later broadcast throughout Haiti, proclaimed, "The path of those Haitians who reject the regime is the path of righteousness and love."[14]Aristide became a leading figure in the ""ti legliz movement"" – Kreyòl for "little church."[15] In September 1985, he was appointed to St. Jean Bosco church, in a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. Struck by the absence of young people in the church, Aristide began to organize youth, sponsoring weekly youth masses.[16] He founded an orphanage for urban street children in 1986 called Lafanmi Selavi [Family is Life].[17]:214 Its program sought to be a model of participatory democracy for the children it served.[18] As Aristide became a leading voice for the aspirations of Haiti's dispossessed, he inevitably became a target for attack.[19] He survived at least four assassination attempts.[9] [20] The most widely publicized attempt, the St Jean Bosco massacre, occurred on 11 September 1988,[21] when over one hundred armed Tonton Macoute wearing red armbands forced their way into St. Jean Bosco as Aristide began Sunday mass.[22] As Army troops and police stood by, the men fired machine guns at the congregation and attacked fleeing parishioners with machetes. Aristide's church was burned to the ground. Thirteen people are reported to have been killed, and 77 wounded. Aristide survived and went into hiding.[17]Subsequently, Salesian officials ordered Aristide to leave Haiti, but tens of thousands of Haitians protested, blocking his access to the airport.[23] In December 1988, Aristide was expelled from his Salesian order.[24] A statement prepared in Rome called the priest's political activities an "incitement to hatred and violence," out of line with his role as a clergyman.[25] Aristide appealed the decision, saying: "The crime of which I stand accused is the crime of preaching food for all men and women."[26] In a January 1988 interview, he said "The solution is revolution, first in the spirit of the gospel; Jesus could not accept people going hungry. It is a conflict between classes, rich and poor. My role is to preach and organize...."[7] In 1994, Aristide left priesthood, ending years of tension with the church over his criticism of its hierarchy and his espousal of liberation theology.[27] The following year, Aristide married Mildred Trouillot, with whom he had two daughters.Following the violence at the aborted national elections of 1987, the 1990 elections were approached with caution. Aristide announced his candidacy for the presidency and following a six-week campaign, during which he dubbed his followers the "Front National pour le Changement et la Démocratie" (National Front for Change and Democracy, or FNCD), the "little priest" was elected President in 1990 with 67% of the vote. He was Haiti's first democratically elected president. However, just eight months into his Presidency he was overthrown by a bloody military coup. He broke from FNCD and created the Struggling People's Organization (OPL,Organisation Politique "Lavalas") – "the flood" or "torrent" in Kréyòl.A coup attempt against Aristide had taken place on January 6 , even before his inauguration, when Roger Lafontant, a Tonton Macoute leader under Duvalier, seized the provisional President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and declared himself President. After large numbers of Aristide supporters filled the streets in protest and Lafontant attempted to declare martial law, the Army crushed the incipient coup.[29]During Aristide's short-lived first period in office, he attempted to carry out substantial reforms, which brought passionate opposition from Haiti's business and military elite.[30] He sought to bring the military under civilian control, retiring the Commander in Chief of the Army Hérard Abraham, initiated investigations of human rights violations, and brought to trial several Tontons Macoute who had not fled the country.[30] He also banned the emigration of many well known Haitians until their bank accounts had been examined.[30] His relationship with the National Assembly soon deteriorated, and he attempted repeatedly to bypass it on judicial, Cabinet and ambassadorial appointments.[30] His nomination of his close friend and political ally, René Préval, as Prime Minister, provoked severe criticism from political opponents overlooked, and the National Assembly threatened a no-confidence vote against Préval in August 1991. This led to a crowd of at least 2000 at the National Palace, which threatened violence; together with Aristide's failure to explicitly reject mob violence this permitted the junta which would topple him to accuse him of human rights violations.[30][edit]1991 coup d'étatIn September 1991 the army performed a coup against him (1991 Haitian coup d'état), led by Army General Raoul Cédras, who had been promoted by Aristide in June to Commander in Chief of the Army. Aristide was deposed on 29 September 1991, and after several days sent into exile, his life only saved by the intervention of US, French and Venezuelan diplomats.[31] In accordance with the requirements of Article 149 of the Haitian Constitution, Superior Court Justice Joseph Nérette was installed as Président Provisoire to serve until elections were held within 90 days of Aristide's resignation. However, real power was held by army commander Raoul Cédras.[32] The elections were scheduled, but were canceled under pressure from the United States Government. Aristide and other sources claim that both the coup and the election cancellation were the result of pressure from the American government.[33][34][35] High ranking members of the Haitian National Intelligence Service (SIN), which had been set up and financed in the 1980s by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as part of the war on drugs, were involved in the coup, and were reportedly still receiving funding and training from the CIA for intelligence-gathering activities at the time of the coup, but this funding reportedly ended after the coup.[36] The New York Times said that "No evidence suggests that the C.I.A backed the coup or intentionally undermined President Aristide."[36] However, press reports about possible CIA involvement in Haitian politics before the coup sparked Congressional hearings in the United States.[37]A campaign of terror against Aristide supporters was started by Emmanuel Constant after Aristide was forced out. In 1993, Constant, who had been on the CIA's payroll as an informant since 1992, organized the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti (FRAPH), which targeted and killed Aristide supporters.[38][39][40]Aristide spent his exile first in Venezuela and then in the United States, working to develop international support. A United Nations trade embargo during Aristide's exile, intended to force the coup leaders to step down, was a strong blow to Haiti's already weak economy.[41] President George H.W. Bush granted an exemption from the embargo to many US companies doing business in Haiti, and President Bill Clinton extended this exemption.[42][43]In addition to this trade with the US, the coup regime was supported by massive profits from the drug trade thanks to the Haitian military's affiliation with the Cali Cartel and the drug-affiliated government in the neighboring Dominican Republic; Aristide publicly stated that his own pursuit of arresting drug dealers was one event that prompted the coup by drug-affiliated military officials Raul Cedras and Michel Francois (a claim echoed by his former Secretary of State Patrick Elie). Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) expressed concern that the only US government agency to publicly recognize the Haitian junta's role in drug trafficking was the DEA, and that despite a wealth of evidence provided by the DEA proving the junta's drug connections, the Clinton administration downplayed this factor rather than use it as a hedge against the junta (as the US government had done against Manuel Noriega). Conyers expressed concern that this silence was due to the CIA's connections to these military officers dating back to the creation of the Haitian Intelligence service known as SIN, as Alan Nairn's research has shown: "We have turned a very deaf ear to what is obviously a moving force... it leads you to wonder if our silence is because we knew this was going on and [because of] our complicity in drug activity..."[44] Nairn in particular alleged that the CIA's connections to these drug traffickers in the junta not only dated to the creation of SIN, but were ongoing during and after the coup. Nairn's claims are confirmed in part by revelations of Emmanuel Constant regarding the ties of his FRAPH organization to the CIA before and during the coup government.[edit]1994 returnUnder US and international pressure (including United Nations Security Council Resolution 940 on 31 July 1994), the military regime backed down and US troops were deployed in the country by President Bill Clinton. On 15 October 1994, Aristide returned to Haiti to complete his term in office.[45] Aristide disbanded the Haitian army, and established a civilian police force. The noted speaker, academic, and historian Noam Chomsky is highly critical of what he calls hidden American imperialist actions in Haiti: "When Clinton restored Aristide - Clinton of course supported the military junta, another little hidden story... he strongly supported it in fact. He even allowed the Texaco Oil Company to send oil to the junta in violation of presidential directives; Bush Sr. did so as well - well, he finally allowed the president to return, but on condition that he accept the programs of Marc Bazin, the US candidate that he had defeated in the 1990 election. And that meant a harsh neoliberal program, no import barriers.[46]Aristide's first term ended in February 1996, and the constitution did not allow him to serve consecutive terms. There was some dispute over whether Aristide, prior to new elections, should serve the three years he had lost in exile, or whether his term in office should instead be counted strictly according to the date of his inauguration; it was decided that the latter should be the case. René Préval, a prominent ally of Aristide and Prime Minister in 1991 under Aristide, ran during the 1995 presidential election and took 88% of the vote. There was about 25% participation in these elections.