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Jean-Bertrand Aristide

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Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born July 15, 1953) is a Haitian politician and former Roman Catholic priest who was President of Haiti in 1991, again from 1994 to 1996, and then from 2001 to 2004. Aristide was the second elected leader of Haiti and was popular among its poor inhabitants. He was overthrown twice, first in a military coup d'état in September, 1991, and subsequently in a February 2004 rebellion in which former soldiers prominently participated. After being deposed a second time he maintained from exile in South Africa that he was still the legal and legitimate president and that United States forces had kidnapped him.

Education and church career

Aristide was born in Port-Salut. He was educated at Salesian schools in Port-au-Prince and at the College Notre Dame, 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, he traveled in Europe, studying in Italy and Israel. Aristide returned to Haiti in 1983 for his ordination as a Salesian priest.

He was appointed curate of a small parish in Port-au-Prince and then a larger one in the La Saline slums, gaining the affectionate Kréyòl nickname "Titide" or "Titid" . An exponent of liberation theology, he became a leading figure in the more radical wing of the Catholic faith in Haiti (the ti legliz — from the Kréyòl for "little church"), and broadcast his sermons on the national Catholic radio station. In a January 1988 interview with National Catholic Reporter, Aristide 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...." Father Aristide was expelled from his Salesian order in 1988. At the time, the Salesians said the priest's political activities were an "incitement to hatred and violence" and out of line with his role as a clergyman. In 1995 Aristide left the priesthood. It enabled him the following year to marry Mildred Trouillot, a US citizen, with whom he now has two daughters. In office, Aristide would move to build a record number of schools and health clinics across the country but would be controversial because of the great hatred that Haiti's elites had for his government which had the mass support of the poor majority.

Aristide as President

First presidency and coup

Following the violence at the abortive 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 "Lavalas" — "the flood" or "torrent" in Kréyòl — the "little priest" was elected President with 67% of the vote.

Aristide took office on February 7, 1991, becoming Haiti's first democratically elected leader. The previous election held by the military dictatorship of Leslie Manigat was not considered democratic.

On September 30, 1991, the army staged a coup against Aristide and installed Joseph Nérette as president, but under the command of Raoul Cédras There was a large-scale exodus of boat people after Aristide was overthrown. Tens of thousands attempted to flee the Cedras regime, the United States denied refugee status to these boat people.

Aristide spent his exile first in Venezuela and then in the United States, working hard to develop international support. Under U.S. and international pressure, the military regime backed down and U.S. troops were deployed in the country. On October 15, 1994, Aristide returned to Haiti to complete his term in office. The nearly ten thousand killed under the Cedras Coup Regime and the resulting embargo during Aristide's exile was a strong blow to Haiti's already weak economy. Aristide disbanded the Haitian army, including many School of the Americas trained officers who were responsible for massive human rights violations , and established a civilian police force.

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 should serve the three years he had lost in exile prior to new elections, or whether his term in office should instead be counted strictly according to the date of his inauguration; under U.S. pressure, 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. This marked the first time in Haitian history that there was a peaceful and democratic transition of power.

Second presidency

In late 1996, Aristide broke from the OPL (which had supported IMF privatization plans) and created a new political party, the Fanmi Lavalas. The OPL, holding the majority in the Sénat and the Chambre des Députés, renamed itself the Organisation du Peuple en Lutte, maintaining the OPL acronym. The Fanmi Lavalas won the 2000 legislative election but the USAID financed elite leaders claimed that a number of the seats were invalid. Aristide then was elected democratically later that year in another landslide election in which the poor turned out in mass.

His government concentrated on building schools and hospitals but was largely hindered by a US, Canada and France backed embargo on aid to his aid-dependent government. The ex-military carried out violent raids into the central plateau and attempted a coup in a December 2001 attack on the national palace in Port-au-Prince. By January 2004 the ex-military and political opposition had joined together in a campaign to bring down the elected government which finally resulted in the US embassy bringing in US marines to pull the president out of the country.

2004 Haitian rebellion

After a rebellion in 2004 Aristide left Haiti. The role of the US in this departure is disputed.

Potential return

After René Préval, a former ally of Aristide, was elected as president of Haiti, he hinted that Aristide might return to Haiti. But since then he has not provided a timeframe for him to come back and all indication show that he won't do so as not to jeopordize the stability of the country. Following Aristide's ousting in 2004 a number of nations continued to recognize Aristide as the democratically elected president of Haiti. Not one member of CARICOM (a Caribbean economic union) recognized the provisional government which replaced Aristide. They did this to protest against U.S. intervention in Haiti to remove a head of state in the region. But once Préval was elected to power, he was recognized as the Haitian head of state by CARICOM.

In South Africa, Aristide became an honorary research fellow at the University of South Africa, learned Zulu, and on April 25 2007 received a doctorate in African Languages. On December 21 2007, a speech by Aristide marking the new year and Haiti's Independence Day was broadcast, the fourth such speech since his exile; in the speech he criticized the 2006 presidential election, in which Préval was elected, describing it as a "selection" in which "the knife of treason was planted" in the back of the Haitian people.

After the election some high ranking members of Lavalas have been targeted for violence. Lovinsky-Pierre Antoine a leading human rights organizer in Haiti and a member of Lavalas was disapeared in August 2007 . His whereabouts remain unknown. The ex-military responsible for killing thousands remain free to walk and live in the country under Preval. Under Aristide the ex-military were either in hiding, in jail (after a truth commission) or in the Dominican Republic.

Position on globalization

In 2004 Aristide published a book, The Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization, which used Haiti as a case study of globalization. Aristide specifically points out problems with the World Bank and the IMF in creating larger problems within Haitian society and the economy.

Quotes

Excerpt from speech given by Aristide on September 27, 1991. The Elite saw this speech as a direct threat by Aristide to change their "evil" ways. Anti-Aristide groups often use this speech to claim Aristide was violent. But it should also be viewed in light of a creeping coup in which the military chiefs and violent pro-duvalier elite (with all the guns in Haiti) were organizing behind the scenes for a coup. One of the few powers Aristide had was the popular mobilization behind his elected mandate.

"Now, whenever you are hungry, turn your eyes in the direction of those people who aren't hungry. Whenever you are out of work, turn your eyes in the direction of those who can put people to work. Ask them why not? What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for the sea to dry up (He actually made a play on words, rhyming "Tann" with "Pwa Tann" which means waiting for tender beans to mature). Why don't you start? It's time for you to start, because the country needs you, the country needs us economically, so that we can do better, twice as much. Whenever you feel the heat of unemployment, whenever the heat of the pavement begins to make you feel awful, whenever you feel revolt inside you, turn your eyes to the direction of those with the means. Ask them why not? What are you waiting for? Why this long wait? Are you waiting for the seas to dry up? And if you catch a cat (the slang in Creole for thief), if you catch a thief, if you catch a false, Lavalassian, if you catch a false...(he stopped right in the middle of the word), if you catch one who shouldn't be there, don't he-si-tate - to - give - him - what - he - deserves (staccato for effect and repeated twice, and his voice rising in a crescendo). Your tool in hand, your instrument in hand, your constitution in hand! Don't he - si-tate - to - give - him - what - he - deserves. Your equipment in hand, your trowel in hand, your pencil in hand, your Constitution in hand, don't he-si-tate - to - give - him - what - he - deserves."

Notes

"La pe nan tet la pe na vant" Peace in head peace in belly.

References

  1. Agence Haitienne de Presse (Independent Haitian News Service) Hidden From the Headlines: The U.S. War Against Haiti, by Laura Flynn, Robert Roth and Pierre Labossiere, published by the Haiti Action Committee, September 2003, available at www.haitiaction.net.
  2. Interviews and site visits conducted by the authors in Port-au-Prince in January and July 2004. L’enfant en Domesticité en Haiti, Produit D’Un Fossé Historique, Mildred Aristide, March 2003. Address of Jean-Bertrand Aristide on the occasion of the Haitian Bicentennial, January 1, 2004.
  3. Haiti Information Project—reports and eyewitness accounts available at www.haitiaction.net. “Option Zero in Haiti,” by Peter Hallward in the New Left Review, May–June 2004. “Haiti’s Wretched of the Earth,” Paul Farmer, Tikkun Magazine, May–June 2004. “Concretizing Democracy” (series of reports) by Michelle Karshan, Office of the Foreign Press Liaison.
  4. Haitian Government Briefing Papers issued February 7, 2003. (February 7, 2003 “The Aids Crisis and Healthcare,” “Haiti’s Police Force,” “Promoting Investment and Raising the Minimum Wage,” “Battling Corruption and Drug Trafficking,” “Justice”). L’Union (Haitian government daily paper of record).
  5. HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTS Report of the Center for the Study of Human Rights, University of Miami Law School, January 18, 2005. The whole report, including photographs, is available at www.ijdh.org/CSHRhaitireport.pdf. The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti has issued four reports documenting systematic, widespread attacks against Lavalas officials, grassroots activists and the press, and abuse of the judicial system for political reprisals. These reports are available www.ijdh.org. Haiti Accompaniment Project Reports, July 29, 2004, November, 2004, document human rights abuses and the reversal of Lavalas social and economic programs. (available at www.haitiaction.net)
  6. Now unavailable news pieces by Yahoo News, Reuters et al.
  7. Now available as well the film "Aristide and the Endless Revolution" by filmmaker Nicolas Rossier (www.aristidethefilm.com)

External links



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