In February 2004, American aircraft landed in Port-au-Prince and, by morning, Haiti’s elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was gone. Haiti isn’t an exception. It’s part of a longer history of the U.S. removing democratically elected governments when they conflict with U.S. strategic or economic interests.
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Image: Jean-Bertrand Aristide celebrates inauguration as Haiti’s first democratically elected president in decades, Port-au-Prince, 1991. Photo: Associated Press.
In Haiti, that pattern stretched back decades. U.S. Marines first entered in 1915 and remained for 19 years, rewriting the constitution, taking control of customs and the treasury, and building the military institution that would dominate Haitian politics long after the occupation formally ended.
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Image: U.S. Marines search for Haitian rebels in 1919. U.S. National Archives.
That military repeatedly shaped who could rule. In 1991, only months after Aristide’s first democratic victory, soldiers forced him from office. By 2004, armed rebels—many veterans of earlier coups and paramilitary campaigns—were again moving toward Port-au-Prince as American forces returned.
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Image: Soldiers of C Company, 2nd Battalion 22nd Infantry, 10th Mountain Division securing Port-au-Prince Airport on the first day of Operation Uphold Democracy, Sept. 22 1994, Wikimedia Commons.
“Papa Doc” and “Baby Doc” Duvalier 1957–1986. Recall the photos of the military that took over whose skin tones went from light at the microphones to dark at the back.
Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco
@stevewfolds