Aristide, Jean-Bertrand, << `ar` uh STEED, zhahn behr TRAHN >> (1953-…), became the first democratically elected president of Haiti. He served as president in 1991, from 1994 to 1996, and from 2001 to 2004.
Aristide was first elected president in December 1990. He took office in February 1991 but was overthrown by military leaders in September. He fled the country. Despite international pressure, Haiti’s military leaders refused to allow Aristide to return. Then, in September 1994, the United States began sending troops to Haiti as part of an operation backed by the United Nations (UN). The operation was designed to force the Haitian military leaders to restore a democratic government on the island. The military leaders soon gave up control of the government, and in October, Aristide returned to Haiti as president.
Haiti’s Constitution bans presidents from serving two terms in a row, and Aristide left office at the end of his term in February 1996. But he remained active in politics. He was elected to the presidency again in November 2000 and took office in February 2001. In early 2004, Aristide resigned as president and fled to Africa after months of protests by his political opponents and several weeks of violent rebellion in northern Haiti. Aristide’s political opponents and the rebels claimed the elections in 2000 had been fraudulent. After his resignation, Aristide said the United States had forced him to resign. But U.S. officials denied this charge. Aristide returned to Haiti in 2011.
Aristide was born on July 15, 1953, in poverty in Port-Salut, Haiti. He became a Roman Catholic priest in the Salesian Order in 1982. He rose to prominence by speaking out against the dictatorship of President Jean-Claude Duvalier, and particularly against the oppression of the poor. Aristide’s rising popularity made him the target of several assassination attempts by the government. In 1988, the Salesians banned Aristide from preaching, claiming that his teachings advocated violence. Aristide resigned from the priesthood in 1994.
