Aristides (or Aristeides, Greek: Ἀριστείδης, 530 BC – 468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just", he flourished in the early quarter of Athens' Classical period and is remembered for his generalship in the Persian War. The ancient historian Herodotus cited him as "the best and most honourable man in Athens",^[1] and he received similarly reverent treatment in the writing of the philosopher Plato.

Biography[link]

Aristides was the son of Lysimachus, and a member of a family of moderate fortune. Of his early life, it is only told that he became a follower of the statesman Cleisthenes and sided with the aristocratic party in Athenian politics. He first came to notice as strategos in command of his native tribe Antiochis at the Battle of Marathon, and it was no doubt in consequence of the distinction which he then achieved that he was elected archon for the ensuing year (489—488). In pursuance of a conservative policy which aimed at maintaining Athens as a land power, he was one of the chief opponents of the naval policy proposed by Themistocles.

The conflict between the two leaders ended in the ostracism of Aristides at a date variously given between 485 and 482. It is said that, on this occasion, an illiterate voter, who did not know him, came up to him, and giving him his voting sherd, desired him to write upon it the name of Aristides. The latter asked if Aristides had wronged him. "No," was the reply, "and I do not even know him, but it irritates me to hear him everywhere called 'the Just'." Aristides then wrote his own name on the ballot.^[2]

Early in 480, Aristides profited by the decree recalling exiles to help in the defence of Athens against Persian invaders, and was elected strategos for the year 480—479. In the Battle of Salamis, he gave loyal support to Themistocles, and crowned the victory by landing Athenian infantry on the island of Psyttaleia and annihilating the Persian garrison stationed there.

In 479, he was re-elected strategos, and given special powers as commander of the Athenian forces at the Battle of Plataea; he is also said to have suppressed a conspiracy among some oligarchic malcontents in the army. He so won the confidence of the Ionian allies that, after revolting from the Spartan admiral Pausanias, they gave him the chief command and left him with absolute discretion in fixing the contributions of the newly formed confederacy, the Delian League. His assessment was universally accepted as equitable, and continued as the basis of taxation for the greater part of the league’s duration.

He continued to hold a predominant position in Athens. At first he seems to have remained on good terms with Themistocles, whom he is said to have helped in outwitting the Spartans over the rebuilding of the walls of Athens.

He is said by some authorities to have died at Athens, by others on a journey to the Black Sea. The date of his death is given by Nepos as 468; at any rate, he lived to witness the ostracism of Themistocles, towards whom he always displayed generosity, but he died before the rise of Pericles. His estate seems to have suffered severely from the Persian invasions, for apparently he did not leave enough money to defray the expenses of his burial, and it is known that his descendants even in the 4th century received state pensions.

Authorities[link]

Herodotus is practically the only trustworthy authority. But Plutarch, though writing during the Roman Empire, had at his disposal a range of historical sources that no longer survive, and he was a conscientious scholar who weighed his evidence carefully. Aristides is praised by Socrates in Plato's dialogues Gorgias and Meno as an exceptional instance of good leadership.^[3][4]

References[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Aristides de Sousa Mendes
Born	Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches (1885-07-19)July 19, 1885 Cabanas de Viriato, Viseu, Portugal
Died	April 3, 1954(1954-04-03) (aged 68)
Nationality	Portuguese
Alma mater	University of Coimbra
Occupation	Diplomat
Known for	Saving the lives of more than 30,000 refugees seeking to escape the Nazi terror during World War II
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse	Maria Angelina Ribeiro de Abranches
Parents	José de Sousa Mendes (father) Maria Angelina Ribeiro de Abranches de Abreu Castelo-Branco (mother)

Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, GCC, OL (July 19, 1885 – April 3, 1954; Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐɾiʃˈtiðɨʒ ðɨ ˈsowzɐ ˈmẽdɨʃ]) was a Portuguese diplomat. He ignored and defied the orders of his own government for the safety of war refugees fleeing from invading German military forces in the early years of World War II. Between June 16 and June 23, 1940, he frantically issued Portuguese visas free of charge, to over 30,000 refugees seeking to escape the Nazi terror, 12,000 of whom were Jews.

Early life[link]

Aristides de Sousa Mendes was born in Cabanas de Viriato, in Carregal do Sal, in the district of Viseu, Centro Region of Portugal, on July 19, 1885. His ancestry included a notable aristocratic line: his mother, Maria Angelina Ribeiro de Abranches de Abreu Castelo-Branco, was a maternal granddaughter of the 2nd Viscount of Midões. His father, José de Sousa Mendes, had been a Judge on the Supreme Court; and his twin brother, César, would become Foreign Minister in 1932–33, during António de Oliveira Salazar's regime.

Sousa Mendes and his twin studied law at the University of Coimbra, and each obtained his law degree in 1908. In that same year, Sousa Mendes married his childhood sweetheart, Maria Angelina Ribeiro de Abranches (born August 20, 1888); they eventually had fourteen children, born in the various countries in which he served.

Shortly after his marriage, Sousa Mendes began the diplomatic career that would take him and his family around the world. Early in his career, he served in Zanzibar, Kenya, Brazil, and the United States before being assigned to Antwerp, Belgium, in 1931. In Belgium, he met Nobel Prize winners Maurice Maeterlinck and Albert Einstein. After almost ten years of dedicated service in Belgium, Sousa Mendes was assigned to the consulate of Bordeaux, France.

His acts as diplomat[link]

The consul was still in Bordeaux at the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of France by the Nazi army of Adolf Hitler. Salazar managed to maintain Portugal's neutrality in the war. On November 11, 1939, he issued orders that consuls were not to issue Portuguese visas to "foreigners of indefinite or contested nationality; the stateless; or Jews expelled from their countries of origin". This order was followed only six months later by one stating that "under no circumstances" were visas to be issued without prior case-by-case approval from Lisbon. Similar policies against Jewish immigration were adopted much earlier by the United States and the United Kingdom^{[citation needed]}.

The Jewish Virtual Library biography of Sousa Mendes records the consul's response as follows:

"Within days of the new orders, Sousa Mendes was taken to task for having granted a visa to a Viennese refugee, Professor Arnold Wizrntzer. Called to task by his superiors, Sousa Mendes answered: "He informed me that, were he unable to leave France that very day, he would be interned in a concentration [read, detention] camp, leaving his wife and minor son stranded. I considered it a duty of elementary humanity to prevent such an extremity."^[1]

Thus it was in a deliberate act of disobedience that Sousa Mendes issued an estimated 30,000 visas to Jews and other persecuted minorities: political dissidents, army officers from occupied countries, and priests and nuns. These visas were not all to individuals, but sometimes to families; in at least one case, the visa covered a family of nine people.^[2] Sousa Mendes was inspired to this act in part through his friendship with Rabbi Chaim (Haim) Kruger,^[3] who had fled to France from Antwerp.

The earliest of these visas were issued in the months between the 1939 and mid-1940 decrees, a period during which he attempted to protect his family by sending all but two sons home to Portugal and sending constant telegrams to Lisbon with coded requests for approval of the visas, in order to preserve his post while obeying his conscience. The majority of the visas, however, were issued after a harrowing three-day crisis of conscience in mid-June, 1940, shortly after Franco changed the status of Spain from "neutral" to "non-belligerent",^[1] which suggested time was running out for Portugal to follow its neighbor. The consul offered a visa to his friend the rabbi, who responded, "I can't accept a visa for us and leave my people behind."^[4] The distraught consul took to his bed in confusion from June 14 to the 16th. From his crisis, Sousa Mendes emerged on June 17, 1940, determined to obey what he called a "divine power" and grant visas to everyone in need, at whatever cost to himself.

June 17-July 8: the French-Portuguese exodus[link]

Working feverishly with Rabbi Kruger, the two remaining Sousa Mendes sons and their mother, and a few refugees, the consul formed an assembly line that processed visas all through that day and well into the night. They made whatever changes were necessary to the usual procedure: the consul signing with just his surname, not registering the visas or collecting fees, and stamping visas on pieces of paper. The sense of urgency was heightened even more when Marshal Philippe Pétain announced that day that France would sign a peace agreement with Germany. The assembly line kept working all through the following day. A delegate of the House of Habsburg, after having to wait his turn in the seemingly endless line, left with 19 visas for the imperial family of the Archduke, who later returned in person to obtain an additional stack of visas for Austrian refugees.

On into June 19, the assembly line marched on through stacks and stacks of visas, even as the city was bombed by German planes. At this point, Sousa Mendes rushed to the consulate at Bayonne, near the Spanish border where his visas were being honored for the crowds rushing out of the country. Finding that consulate overwhelmed, he took over responsibility from his subordinate there, Consul Machado, and set up a second assembly line to process thousands more exit documents. (Machado reported this behavior to Portugal's ambassador to Spain, Pedro Teotónio Pereira, whose maternal grandfather was German, who favored Germany and worried that accepting those unacceptable to Hitler would ruin Portugal's relationship with Franco; Teotónio Pereira promptly set out for the French border.)

Sousa Mendes continued on to Hendaye to assist there, thus narrowly missing two cablegrams from Lisbon sent June 22 to Bordeaux and Bayonne ordering him to stop even as France's armistice with Germany became official. In an article for a religious magazine in 1996, his son John Paul de Abranches told the story:

"As his diplomatic car reached the French border town of Hendaye, my father encountered a large group of stranded refugees for whom he had previously issued visas. Those people had been turned away because the Portuguese government had phoned the guards, commanding, 'Do not honor Mendes's signature on visas.'"

"Ordering his driver to slow down, Father waved the group to follow him to a border checkpoint that had no telephones. In the official black limousine with its diplomatic license tags, Father led those refugees across the border toward freedom."^[4]

Sousa Mendes traveled to the border at Irun on June 23, where he personally raised the gate to allow disputed passages into Spain to occur. It was at this point that Ambassador Teotónio Pereira arrived at Irun, declared Sousa Mendes mentally incompetent and invalidated all further visas.^[5] An Associated Press story the next day reported that some 10,000 persons attempting to cross over into Spain were excluded because authorities no longer granted recognition to their visas.^[1]

As Sousa Mendes continued the flow of visas, Salazar sent a telegram on June 24 recalling him to Portugal, an order he received upon returning to Bordeaux on June 26 but followed only slowly, not arriving in Portugal until July 8. Along the way he issued Portuguese passports to refugees now trapped in occupied France, saving them by preventing their deportation to concentration camps.^[1]

Dishonor and disgrace[link]

He saved an enormous number of lives, but lost his career for this. In 1941, Salazar lost political trust in Sousa Mendes and forced the diplomat to quit his career, subsequently ordering as well that no one in Portugal show him any charity.^[6] He found he also could not resume his law career, as he was prevented from registration, and he was made to surrender his foreign-issue driver's license.^[4] Just before the war's end in 1945, he suffered a stroke that left him at least partially paralyzed. In his later years, the formerly much-honored diplomat was abandoned by most of his colleagues and friends and often blamed by some of his close family members.^[7] Aided by a local Jewish refugee agency — which had begun to feed the family and pay their rent upon discovering the situation — the children moved to other countries one by one in search of opportunities they were now denied in Portugal, though all accounts by them indicate they never blamed their father or regretted his decision. His wife, Angelina, died in 1948. Stripped of his pension, he died in poverty on April 3, 1954, still in disgrace with his government.

This ill-treatment by his government for acts considered heroic in other countries was not unique to Sousa Mendes. Others similarly dishonored include Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania; Carl Lutz, the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary; and Paul Grüninger, chief of police in the Swiss canton of Sankt-Gallen (Saint-Gall). Ironically, the actions that caused Salazar to dismiss his diplomatic representative brought considerable praise to him and to Portugal, seen internationally as a haven of hospitality for refugee Jews; the magazine Life called Salazar "the greatest Portuguese since Henry the Navigator" (July 29, 1940).^[1][4][7]

Posthumous honors[link]

Aristides de Sousa Mendes plaza in Vienna

Family members seeking to clear his name sought to have his story published in magazines and began to contact Jewish visa recipients living in New York. In 1966 Sousa Mendes was honored at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial to the Holocaust as one of the "Righteous Among The Nations," one of the first steps in the long journey. In 1986, inspired by the election of a civilian president in Portugal, his son John Paul Abranches began to circulate a petition to the Portuguese president within his adopted country, the United States. He and his wife Joan worked with Robert Jacobvitz, an executive at the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay (Oakland, CA), to start and run the "International Committee to Commemorate Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes." They were able to gain the support of various political actors, including: Colette Avital, the Israeli Ambassador to Portugal who liaised with the Portuguese government;^[8] and two members of the California delegation of the United States House of Representatives, Portuguese-American Rep. Tony Coelho and Rep. Henry Waxman, who had a family member saved by Sousa Mendes' signature, who introduced a resolution in Congress to recognize his humanitarian action (passed in 1987).

Also in 1987, the Portuguese Republic began to rehabilitate Sousa Mendes' memory and granted a posthumous Order of Liberty medal, one of that country's highest honors, although the consul's diplomatic honors still were not restored. On March 18, 1988 the Portuguese parliament officially dismissed all charges, restoring him to the diplomatic corps by unanimous vote and honoring him with a standing ovation. He was promoted to the rank of Ambassador^[9] He also was issued the Cross of Merit for his actions in Bordeaux. In December of that year, the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, Edward Rowell presented copies of the congressional resolution from the previous year to Pedro Nuno de Sousa Mendes, one of the sons who had helped in the assembly line at Bordeaux, and to President Mário Soares at the Palácio de Belém. In 1994 former President Soares dedicated a bust of Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux, along with a commemorative plaque at 14 quai Louis-XVIII, the address at which the consulate at Bordeaux had been housed.^[10]

In 1995, a commemorative stamp was issued in Portugal.[1]

In 2004, the 50th anniversary of Sousa Mendes' death, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Angelo Roncalli Committee organized more than 80 commemorations around the world. Religious, cultural and educational activities took place in 30 countries in the five continents.^[11]

A great homage was done in memory of Aristides Sousa Mendes at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 11 May and 10 November 2005, in a benefit performance on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of UNESCO and the fortieth anniversary of Portugal's admittance. The baritone Jorge Chaminé gave a recital at the Great Hall. The French writer Jean Lacouture wrote that "in more than 50 years as a listener all over the world, I never heard such an incredible performance. What a marvellous homage to this great man!"

The mansion that Sousa Mendes had to abandon and sell in the poverty of his final years was left for decades to rot and decay, and at one time was to be razed and replaced by a hotel. However, with reparations funds given by the Portuguese government to Sousa Mendes' heirs in 2000, the family decided to create the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Foundation (Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, in Portuguese). With assistance from government officials, the foundation purchased the family home in order to develop a museum in his honor.^[12] The house was classified as a Portuguese National Monument on February 3, 2005. The two events at UNESCO raised a 6,000 euro donation for the foundation; even so, the foundation's president said in 2006 that the organization was finding it difficult to raise sufficient additional funds for the renovation.^[13]

On 14 January 2007, he was voted into the top ten of the poll show Os Grandes Portugueses (English: The Greatest Portuguese), on 25 March 2007, the day of the results revelation, he was voted into third place, behind deceased communist leader Álvaro Cunhal (runner-up) and deceased dictator António de Oliveira Salazar (winner).

In February 2008, Portuguese Parliamentary Speaker Jaime Gama led a session which launched a virtual Museum, on the World-Wide Web; it offers access to photographs and other documents chronicling Mendes' life. The site includes content in Portuguese, but translations into other languages are planned.^[9]

Notable people issued visas by Sousa Mendes[link]

• Otto von Habsburg, heir of the Austrian-Hungarian Emperor, who was detested by Hitler and condemned to death by him
• Norbert Gingold, pianist
• Charles Oulmont, French writer
• Robert Montgomery ^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• The Belgian cabinet
• Sylvain Bromberger, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT

Quotations[link]

I will not condone murder, therefore I disobey and continue to disobey Salazar.

I would rather stand with God against man, than with man against God.

If thousands of Jews suffer because of a non-Jewish demon [Hitler], then surely a Christian can suffer with so many Jews.^[14][15]

I could not have acted otherwise, and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Aristides de Sousa Mendes

See also[link]

• Individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust

Notes[link]

• This article was expanded partially with material from the articles on Sousa Mendes in the Portuguese and French Wikipedias.

11. [http://www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7406&eeid=5704108&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=2&ck=&ch=ne&rg=blsadstrgt&_lid=332&_lnm=tg+ne+topnews&ck=ristides de Sousa Mendes, o Cônsul injustiçado, by Diana Andringa, Portugal, 1983

Further reading[link]

• Fralon, Jose Alain (author) and Graham, Peter (translator). A Good Man in Evil Times: The Story of Aristides De Sousa Mendes—The Man Who Saved the Lives of Countless Refugees in World War II. 2001, Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN 0-7867-0848-4.

External links[link]

• www.AristidesDeSousaMendes.com (in Portuguese and French)
• Aristides de Sousa Mendes Virtual Museum (in Portuguese) (archives, documents, interviews, testimonials)
• Jewish Virtual Library: Aristides de Sousa Mendes
• Hero of the People Series: Aristides de Sousa Mendes
• Holocaust Rescuers Bibliography
• Aristides de Sousa Mendes Foundation

Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Aristide meeting U.S. President Bill Clinton in the White House in 1994.
49th and 53rd President of Haiti
In office 7 February 1991 – 29 September 1991
Prime Minister	René Préval
Preceded by	Ertha Pascal-Trouillot
Succeeded by	Raoul Cédras
In office 12 October 1994 – 7 February 1996
Prime Minister	Smarck Michel Claudette Werleigh
Preceded by	Émile Jonassaint
Succeeded by	René Préval
In office 7 February 2001 – 29 February 2004
Prime Minister	Jean Marie Chérestal Yvon Neptune
Preceded by	René Préval
Succeeded by	Boniface Alexandre
Personal details
Born	(1953-07-15) 15 July 1953 (age 58) Port-Salut, Sud Department
Nationality	Haitian
Political party	Lavalas
Spouse(s)	Mildred Trouillot (m.1996)
Children	two daughters
Alma mater	College Notre Dame State University of Haiti
Occupation	Priest
Religion	Roman Catholic

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 unexpectedly 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.^[6]

Early life and church career[link]

Aristide was born into poverty in Port-Salut, Sud Department. His father died when Aristide was only three months old,^[7] and Aristide 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,[1] 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, 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."^[13]

Aristide became a leading figure in the ""ti legliz movement"" – Kreyòl for "little church."^[14] 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.^[15] He founded an orphanage for urban street children in 1986 called Lafanmi Selavi [Family is Life].^[16]:214 Its program sought to be a model of participatory democracy for the children it served.^[17] As Aristide became a leading voice for the aspirations of Haiti's dispossessed, he inevitably became a target for attack.^[18] He survived at least four assassination attempts.^[9][19] The most widely publicized attempt, the St Jean Bosco massacre, occurred on 11 September 1988,^[20] when over one hundred armed Tonton Macoute wearing red armbands forced their way into St. Jean Bosco as Aristide began Sunday mass.^[21] 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.^[16]

Subsequently, Salesian officials ordered Aristide to leave Haiti, but tens of thousands of Haitians protested, blocking his access to the airport.^[22] In December 1988, Aristide was expelled from his Salesian order.^[23] 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.^[24] Aristide appealed the decision, saying: "The crime of which I stand accused is the crime of preaching food for all men and women."^[25] 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.^[26] The following year, Aristide married Mildred Trouillot, with whom he had two daughters.^[27]

First presidency (1991–1996)[link]

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.^[28]

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.^[29] 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.^[29] He also banned the emigration of many well known Haitians until their bank accounts had been examined.^[29] His relationship with the National Assembly soon deteriorated, and he attempted repeatedly to bypass it on judicial, Cabinet and ambassadorial appointments.^[29] 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.^[29]

1991 coup d'état[link]

In 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.^[30] 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.^[31] 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.^[32][33][34] 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.^[35] The New York Times said that "No evidence suggests that the C.I.A backed the coup or intentionally undermined President Aristide."^[35] However, press reports about possible CIA involvement in Haitian politics before the coup sparked Congressional hearings in the United States.^[36]

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.^[37][38][39]

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.^[40] 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.^[41][42]

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..."^[43] 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.

1994 return[link]

Under 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.^[44] 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.^[45]

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.^{[unreliable source?][46]}

Opposition (1996–2001)[link]

In late 1996, Aristide broke from the OPL over what he called its "distance from the people"^[32] 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 in May, but a number of Senate seats which should have had second-round runoffs were allocated to Lavalas candidates which, while leading, had not achieved a first-round majority of all votes cast. Fanmi Lavalas controlled the Provisional Election Commission which made the decision.^[47] Aristide then was elected later that year in the 2000 presidential election, an election boycotted by most opposition political parties, now organised into the Convergence Démocratique. Although the US government claimed that the election turnout was hardly over 10%, international observers saw turnout of around 50%, and at the time, CNN reported a turnout of 60% with over 92% voting for Aristide.^[48] Only later did allegations surface mentioning the above figure of a 10% voter turnout.^[49]

Second presidency (2001–2004)[link]

Aristide called for France, the former colonizer of the country, to pay $21 billion^[50] in restitution to Haiti for the 90 million gold francs supplied to France by Haiti in restitution for French property that was misappropriated in the Haitian rebellion, over the period from 1825 to 1947. Later it was revealed that this claim of repayment from France might have been one of the main reasons behind the coup d'état of 2004.^[51]

2004 destabilization and coup[link]

In February 2004, the assassination of gang leader Amiot Metayer sparked a violent rebellion that culminated in Aristide's removal from office. Amiot's brother, Buteur Metayer, blamed Aristide for the assassination, and used this as an argument given in order to form the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti.^[52] Joined by other groups^[53] the rebels quickly took control of the North, and eventually laid siege to, and then invaded, the capital. Under disputed circumstances, Aristide was flown out of the country by the U.S. on 28 February 2004.^[54]

Earlier in February, Aristide's lawyer had claimed that the U.S. was arming anti-Aristide troops.^[55] Aristide later stated that France and the US had a role in what he termed "a kidnapping" that took him from Haiti to South Africa via the Central African Republic.^[56] However, authorities said his temporary asylum there had been negotiated by the United States, France and Gabon.^[57] On 1 March 2004, US Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), along with Aristide family friend Randall Robinson, reported Aristide had told them that he had been forced to resign and had been abducted from the country by the United States and that he had been held hostage by an armed military guard.^[58]

After Aristide was removed from Haiti, looters raided his villa.^[59] Most barricades were lifted the day after Aristide left as the shooting had stopped; order was maintained by Haitian police, along with armed rebels and local vigilante groups.^[60] Almost immediately after the Aristides were transported from Haiti, Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson, dispatched a Member of Parliament, Sharon Hay-Webster, to the Central African Republic. The leadership of that country agreed that Aristide and his family could go to Jamaica. The Aristides were in the island for several months until the Jamaican government gained acceptance by the Republic of South Africa for the family to relocate there.

Aristide has accused the U.S. of deposing him.^[5][61] According to Rep. Maxine Waters D-California, Mildred Aristide called her at her home at 6:30 am to inform her "the coup d'etat has been completed", and Jean-Bertrand Aristide said the US Embassy in Haiti's chief of staff came to his house to say he would be killed "and a lot of Haitians would be killed" if he refused to resign immediately and said he "has to go now."^[5] Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York expressed similar words, saying Aristide had told him he was "disappointed that the international community had let him down" and "that he resigned under pressure" – "As a matter of fact, he was very apprehensive for his life. They made it clear that he had to go now or he would be killed."^[5] When asked for his response to these statements Colin Powell said that "it might have been better for members of Congress who have heard these stories to ask us about the stories before going public with them so we don't make a difficult situation that much more difficult" and he alleged that Aristide "did not democratically govern or govern well".^[5] CARICOM, an organization of Caribbean countries that included Haiti, called for a United Nations investigation into Aristide's removal, but were reportedly pressured by the US and France to drop their request. Some observers suggest the rebellion and removal of Aristide were covertly orchestrated by these two countries.^[62][63] Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson released a statement saying "we are bound to question whether his resignation was truly voluntary, as it comes after the capture of sections of Haiti by armed insurgents and the failure of the international community to provide the requisite support. The removal of President Aristide in these circumstances sets a dangerous precedent for democratically elected governments anywhere and everywhere, as it promotes the removal of duly elected persons from office by the power of rebel forces."^[5] In a 2006 interview, Aristide said the US went back on their word regarding compromises he made with them over privatization of enterprises to ensure that part of the profits would go to the Haitian people and then "relied on a disinformation campaign" to discredit him.^[64]

Exile (2004–2011)[link]

After being cast into exile, in mid-2004 Aristide, his family, and bodyguards were welcomed to South Africa by several cabinet ministers, 20 senior diplomats, and a guard of honour.^[65][66] Receiving a salary from and provided staff by the South African government,^[67] Aristide lived with his family in a government villa in Pretoria.^[68] In South Africa, Aristide became an honorary research fellow at the University of South Africa, learned Zulu, and on 25 April 2007, received a doctorate in African Languages.^[69]

On 21 December 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.^[70]

Since the election, some high ranking members of Lavalas have been targets for violence.^[71][72] Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a leading human rights organizer in Haiti and a member of Lavalas, disappeared in August 2007.^[73] His whereabouts remain unknown and a news article states,"Like many protesters, Wilson Mesilien, coordinator of the pro-Aristide 30 September Foundation wore a T-shirt demanding the return of foundation leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a human rights activist and critic of both UN and US involvement in Haiti."^[74]

Return to Haiti[link]

After René Préval, a former ally of Aristide, was elected president of Haiti in 2006, he said it would be possible for Aristide to return to Haiti.^[75][76]

On 16 December 2009, several thousand protesters marched through Port-au-Prince calling for Aristide's return to Haiti, and protesting the exclusion of Aristide's populist Fanmi Lavalas party from upcoming elections.^[77]

On 12 January 2010, Aristide sent his condolences to victims of the earthquake in Haiti just a few hours after it occurred, and stated that he wishes to return to help rebuild the country.^[78][79]

On 7 November 2010, in an exclusive interview with independent reporter Nicolas Rossier in Eurasia Review and the Huffington Post, Aristide declared that the 2010 elections were not inclusive of his party Fanmi Lavalas and therefore not fair and free. He also confirmed his wishes to go back to Haiti but that he was not allowed to travel out of South Africa.^[80]

In February 2011, Aristide announced "I will return to Haiti" within days of the ruling Haitian government removing impediments to him receiving his Haitian passport.^[81] Since he was ousted by the US government in 2004, Aristide has said that he would return to the field of education.^[82] This would mark the 2nd return of former political leaders, as former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier returned to Haiti in January 2011^[83] An anonymous government official told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the Haitian government had issued a passport for Aristide on 7 February, but his lawyer stated that they had not received the document, nor been informed of its issue by the government.^[84]

On March 15, 2011, Aristide's Lavalas party stated in an interview that his return is due to both health reasons for needing warmer climate as well as to aid earthquake victims.^[85]

On March 17, 2011, Aristide departed for Haiti from his exile in South Africa. U.S. President Barack Obama had asked South African President Jacob Zuma to delay Aristide's departure to prevent him from returning to Haiti before a presidential run-off election scheduled for Sunday. Aristide's party was barred from participating in the elections, and the U.S. fears his return could be "destabilizing".^[86] On Friday, March 18, 2011, he arrived at Port-au-Prince airport, and was greeted by thousands of supporters.^[87] He told the crowd waiting at the airport, "The exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion of the Haitian people. In 1804, the Haitian revolution marked the end of slavery. Today, may the Haitian people end exiles and coup d’états, while peacefully moving from social exclusion to inclusion."^[6]

Accomplishments[link]

Under Aristide's leadership, his party implemented many major reforms. These included greatly increasing access to health care and education for the general population; increasing adult literacy and protections for those accused of crimes; improving training for judges, prohibiting human trafficking, disbanding the Haitian military (which primarily had been used against the Haitian people), establishing improved human rights and political freedom; doubling the minimum wage, instituting land reform and assistance to small farmers, providing boat construction training to fishermen, establishing a food distribution network to provide low cost food to the poor at below market prices, building low-cost housing, and attempting to reduce the level of government corruption.^[88]

Achievements in education[link]

During successive Lavalas administrations, Jean Bertrand Aristide and Rene Preval built 195 new primary schools and 104 secondary schools. Prior to Aristide's election in 1990, there were just 34 secondary schools nationwide. Lavalas also provided thousands of scholarships so that children could afford to attend church/private schools. Between 2001 and 2004, the percentage of children enrolled in primary school education rose to 72%, and an estimated 300,000 adults took part in Lavalas sponsored adult literacy campaigns. This helped the adult literacy rate raise from 35% to 55%.^[89]

Achievements in health care[link]

In addition to numerous educational advances, Aristide and Lavalas embarked on an ambitious plan to develop the public primary health care system with Cuban assistance. Since the devastation unleashed by Hurriance George in 1998, Cuba entered a humanitarian agreement with Haiti whereby Haitian doctors would be trained in Cuba, and Cuban doctors would work in rural areas. At the time of the January 12th earthquake, 573 doctors had been trained in Cuba.^[90]

Prior to the election of Aristide, health care services had been primarily concentrated in the capital of Port-au-Prince. The Aristide government renovated and built new health care clinics, hospitals and dispensaries throughout the country, spending more on health care than any previous government.^[91] Despite operating under an aid embargo, the Lavalas administration succeeded in reducing the infant mortality rate as well as reducing the percentage of underweight newborns.^[92] A successful AIDS prevention and treatment program was also established, leading the Catholic Institute for International Relations to state, the "incredible feat of slowing the rate of new infections in Haiti has been achieved despite the lack of international aid to the Haitian government, and despite the notable lack of resources faced by those working in the health field."^[93]

Wikileaks and Aristide[link]

The release of many documents through Wikileaks has provided a great deal of insight into how the international community (United States, Canada, France and Brazil) has regarded Aristide, his lasting influence, the coup, and his exile.

November 2004 Dominican President Leonel Fernandez gave a speech in front of other regional leaders in which he said Aristide commanded "great popular support" within Haiti and called for his inclusion in the country’s democratic future.^[94]

January 2005 USA pressuring South Africa to hold Aristide, or face the loss of potential UN Security Council seat

"Bienvenu later offered to express our shared concerns in Pretoria, perhaps under the pretext that as a country desiring to secure a seat on the UN Security Council, South Africa could not afford to be involved in any way with the destabilization of another country....2 (S) Bienvenu speculated on exactly how Aristide might return, seeing a possible opportunity to hinder him in the logistics of reaching Haiti. If Aristide traveled commercially, Bienvenu reasoned, he would likely need to transit certain countries in order to reach Haiti. Bienvenu suggested a demarche to CARICOM countries by the U.S. and EU to warn them against facilitating any travel or other plans Aristide might have.... Both Bienvenu and Barbier confided that South African mercenaries could be heading towards Haiti, with Bienvenu revealing the GOF had documented evidence that 10 South African citizens had come to Paris and requested Dominican visas between February and the present."^[95]

A June 2005 cable states: "the GOB (Government of Brazil) officials made clear continued Brazilian resolve to keep Aristide from returning to the country or exerting political influence"^[96] "the GOB had been encouraged by recent South African Government commitments to Brazil that the GSA (Government of South Africa) would not allow Aristide to use his exile there to undertake political efforts"^[96]

Fall of 2008: On Preval's fear Aristide would return to Haiti via Venezuela

President Rene Preval made reference to these rumors, telling the Ambassador that he did not want Aristide "anywhere in the hemisphere." Subsequent to that, he remarked that he is concerned that Aristide will accept the Chavez offer but deflected any discussion of whether Preval himself was prepared to raise the matter with Chavez.^[97]

Criticism[link]

Accusations of human rights abuses[link]

Human Rights Watch accused the Haitian police force under President Aristide and his political supporters of attacks on opposition rallies. They also said that the emergence of armed rebel groups seeking to overthrow Aristide reflected "the failure of the country's democratic institutions and procedures".^[98]

Videos surfaced showing a portion of a speech by Aristide on 27 August 1991 where he says "Don't hesitate to give him what he deserves. What a beautiful tool! What a beautiful instrument! What a beautiful piece of equipment! It's beautiful, yes it's beautiful, it's cute, it's pretty, it has a good smell, wherever you go you want to inhale it."^[99] Critics allege that he was endorsing the practice of "necklacing" opposition activists – placing a gasoline-soaked tire around a person's neck and setting the tire ablaze^[100] – However, just earlier in the speech, and edited from the videos, he is quoted as saying "Your tool in hand, your instrument in hand, your constitution in hand! Don't hesitate to give him what he deserves. Your equipment in hand, your trowel in hand, your pencil in hand, your Constitution in hand, don't hesitate to give him what he deserves."^[99] There is some suspicion that Aristide's speech was edited to make it sound as if he were advocating "necklacing" when he was actually urging his supporters not to use violence but to use the constitution and voting instead.^[101]

Although there were accusations of human rights abuses, the OAS/UN International Civilian Mission in Haiti, known by the French acronym MICIVIH, found that the human rights situation in Haiti improved dramatically following Aristide's return to power in 1994.^[102] Amnesty International reported that, after Aristide's departure in 2004, Haiti was "descending into a severe humanitarian and human rights crisis."^[103]

=Accusations of corruption[link]

Some officials have been indicted by a US court.^[104] Companies that allegedly made deals with Aristide included IDT, Fusion Telecommunications, and Skytel; critics claim the two first companies had political links. AT&T reportedly declined to wire money to "Mont Salem".^{[105][106][107][108]}

Views[link]

Aristide has published a number of books including an autobiography in 1993 and Nevrose vetero-testamentaire (1994) with excerpts of his masters and doctoral theses.

In 2000 Aristide published the book Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization that accused the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund of working on behalf of the world's wealthiest nations rather than in the interest of genuine international development. Aristide called for "a culture of global solidarity" to eliminate poverty as an alternative to the globalization represented by neocolonialism and neoliberalism.^[109]

In 2005 the documentary Aristide and the Endless Revolution appeared. In the film Nicolas Rossier investigates the events leading up to the 2004 coup against Aristide.^[110]

Publications[link]

• (with Flynn, Laura) Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization, Common Courage Press, 2000.
• Dignity, University of Virginia Press, 1996; trans from Dignité, Éditions du Seuil, 1994.
• Nevrose vetero-testamentaire, Editions du CIDIHCA, 1994.
• Aristide: An Autobiography, Orbis Books, 1993.
• Tout homme est un homme, Éditions du Seuil, 1992.
• Théologie et politique, Editions du CIDIHCA, 1992.
• (with Amy Wilentz) In the Parish of the Poor: Writings from Haiti, Orbis Books, 1990.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jean-Bertrand Aristide at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean-Bertrand Aristide collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Jean-Bertrand Aristide in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• On my return to Haiti..., Jean-Bertrand Aristide, The Guardian, 4 February 2011
• Official investigation of transfers to Aristide's personal accounts by l'Unité Centrale de Renseignements Financiers (UCREF). The 88-page report is in French.
• Who Is Aristide? by Paul Farmer in The Uses of Haiti
• Aristide and the endless revolution, film by filmmaker Nicolas Rossier which investigates the events leading up to the 2004 coup against Aristide
• We Will Not Forget: the Achievements of Lavalas in Haiti by Robert Roth and Laura Flynn.

Articles

• Why they had to Crush Aristide Peter Hallward, The Guardian, 4 March 2004
• Paul Farmer, Who Removed Aristide? London Review of Books, 15 April 2004
• Peter Hallward, Option Zero in Haiti New Left Review, May 2004
• The Other Regime Change by Max Blumenthal, Salon magazine, July 2004
• "6/7: the massacre of the poor that the world ignored: The US cannot accept that the Haitian president it ousted still has support", Naomi Klein, The Guardian, 18 July 2005
• 'The Return': Aristide, Law and Democracy in Haiti, Brian Concannon Jr., JURIST, 26 June 2006
• Invisible Violence: Murder in Post-Coup Haiti, Jeb Sprague, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, July/August 2006
• The Haiti File, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, The Wall Street Journal, 12 February 2007
• An Interview with Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Peter Hallward, London Review of Books, 22 February 2007

Government offices
Preceded by Ertha Pascal-Trouillot	President of Haiti 1991	Succeeded by Raoul Cédras
Preceded by Marc Bazin	President of Haiti 1993–1994	Succeeded by Émile Jonassaint
Preceded by Émile Jonassaint	President of Haiti 1994–1996	Succeeded by René Préval
Preceded by René Préval	President of Haiti 2001–2004	Succeeded by Boniface Alexandre

v t e Heads of State of Haiti Post-Revolutionary (1804-1859) Dessalines/Jacques I · Christophe/Henri I · Blanchet (acting) · Pétion · Boyer · Rivière-Hérard · Guerrier · Pierrot · Riché · Soulouque/Faustin I Post-Imperial (1859-1930) Geffrard · Saget (provisional) · Salnave · Saget · Council of Secretaries of State · Domingue · Boisrond-Canal · Lamothe (provisional) · Salomon · Boisrond-Canal (provisional) · Légitime · Jeune (provisional) · Hyppolite · Simon Sam · Boisrond-Canal (provisional) · Alexis · Simon · Leconte · Auguste · Oreste · Zamor · Théodore · Guillaume Sam · Dartiguenave · Borno · Roy Post-Occupation (1930-1986) Vincent · Lescot · Lavaud · Estimé · Lavaud · Magloire · Pierre-Louis (provisional) · Sylvain (provisional) · Executive Government Council · Fignolé (provisional) · Kebreau · François Duvalier · Jean-Claude Duvalier Post-Duvalier (1986-2011) Namphy · Manigat · Namphy · Avril · Abraham · Pascal-Trouillot · Aristide · Cédras · Nérette · Bazin (provisional) · Aristide · Jonassaint (provisional) · Aristide · Préval (provisional) · Aristide · Alexandre · Préval Post-Quake (2011-present) Martelly

Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier with his wife Michèle Bennett, 1980
41st President of Haiti
In office April 22, 1971 – February 7, 1986
Preceded by	François Duvalier
Succeeded by	Henri Namphy
Personal details
Born	(1951-07-03) July 3, 1951 (age 60) Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Nationality	Haitian
Spouse(s)	Michèle Bennett (1980–1990)
Domestic partner	Veronique Roy (?–present)
Relations	François Duvalier (father) Simone Duvalier (mother)
Children	Nicolas Duvalier Anya Duvalier
Religion	Voodoo, nominally Roman Catholic

Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" (born July 3, 1951), was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's regime and delegated much authority to his advisors, though thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country.^[1] He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle (including a state-sponsored US$3 million wedding in 1980), and made millions from involvement in the drug trade and from selling body parts from dead Haitians while poverty among his people remained the most widespread for any country in the Americas.^[2]

Relations with the United States improved after Duvalier's ascension to the presidency, and later deteriorated under the Carter administration, only to again improve under Ronald Reagan due to the strong anti-communist stance of the Duvaliers.^[3]

Duvalier unexpectedly returned to Haiti on 16 January 2011 after two decades in self-imposed exile in France. The following day, he was arrested by Haitian police, facing possible charges for embezzlement.^[2] On 18 January, Duvalier was charged with corruption, and is expected to be held before a judge in Port-au-Prince for trial.^[4]

Early life[link]

Duvalier was born in Port-au-Prince and was raised in an isolated environment. He attended Nouveau College Bird and Saint-Louis de Gonzague. Later, he studied law at the University of Haiti, under the direction of several professors, including Maître Gérard Gourgue. In April 1971, he assumed the presidency of Haiti at the age of 19 upon the death of his father, François Duvalier (nicknamed "Papa Doc"), becoming the world's youngest president.^[5] Initially, Jean-Claude Duvalier resisted the dynastic arrangement that had made him Haiti's leader, having preferred that the presidency go to his older sister Marie-Denise Duvalier, and was content to leave substantive and administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, and a committee led by Luckner Cambronne, his father's Interior Minister, while he attended ceremonial functions and lived as a playboy.^[3]

Political and economic factors[link]

Duvalier was invested with near-absolute power by the constitution. He took some steps to reform the regime, by releasing some political prisoners and easing press censorship. However, there were no substantive changes to the regime's basic character. Opposition was not tolerated, and the legislature remained a rubber stamp.

Much of the Duvaliers' wealth came from the Régie du Tabac (Tobacco Administration). Duvalier used this "non-fiscal account", established decades earlier, as a tobacco monopoly, but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from other government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept.^[6]

By neglecting his role in government, Duvalier squandered considerable domestic and foreign goodwill and facilitated the dominance of Haitian affairs by a clique of hardline Duvalierist cronies, the so-called "dinosaurs". Foreign officials and observers also seemed tolerant toward "Baby Doc" in areas such as human rights monitoring, and foreign countries were more generous to him with economic assistance. The Nixon administration restored the US aid program for Haiti in 1971.^[6]

Marriage[link]

Jean-Claude miscalculated the ramifications of his May 27, 1980 wedding to Michèle Bennett Pasquet.^[3] Her first husband, Alix Pasquet, was the son of a well-known officer who had led an attempt to overthrow Papa Doc Duvalier. Although Jean-Claude is light-skinned, his father's legacy of support for the black middle class and antipathy toward the lighter-skinned elite had enhanced the appeal of Duvalierism among the black majority of the population. With his marriage, Jean-Claude appeared to be abandoning the informal bond that his father had labored to establish.

The extravagance of the couple's wedding, which cost an estimated US$3 million, further alienated the population. Discontent among the business community and elite intensified in response to increased corruption among the Duvaliers and the Bennetts, as well as the repulsive nature of the Bennetts' dealings, which included selling Haitian cadavers to foreign medical schools and trafficking in narcotics. Increased political repression added to the volatility of the situation.^[3]

The marriage also estranged the old-line Duvalierists in the government from the younger technocrats whom Jean-Claude had appointed, including Jean-Marie Chanoine, Frantz Merceron, Frantz-Robert Monde, and Theo Achille. The Duvalierists' spiritual leader, Jean-Claude's mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, was eventually expelled from Haiti, reportedly at the request of Michèle Duvalier. With his wife Duvalier had two children, François Nicolas and Anya.^[7]

Destabilization[link]

In response to an outbreak of African swine fever virus on the island in 1978, U.S. agricultural authorities insisted upon total eradication of Haiti's pig population. The Program for the Eradication of Porcine Swine Fever and for the Development of Pig Raising (PEPPADEP) caused widespread hardship among the peasant population, who bred pigs as an investment.^[8]

In addition, reports that AIDS was becoming a major problem in Haiti caused tourism to decline dramatically in the early 1980s. By the mid-1980s, most Haitians expressed hopelessness and helplessness, as economic conditions worsened and hunger and malnutrition spread.^[9]

Widespread discontent began in March 1983, when Pope John Paul II visited Haiti. The pontiff declared that "Something must change here." He went on to call for a more equitable distribution of income, a more egalitarian social structure, more concern among the elite for the well-being of the masses, and increased popular participation in public life. This message revitalized both laymen and clergy, and it contributed to increased popular mobilization and to expanded political and social activism.^[6]

In 1984 Ernest Preeg, U.S. ambassador to Haiti (1981–1983), wrote a monograph^[10] on Haiti's part in the Reagan Caribbean Basin Initiative. One paragraph stated ..."It can honestly be said that the Jean-Claude Duvalier presidency is the longest period of violence-free stability in the nation's history."

A revolt began in the provinces in 1985. The city of Gonaïves was the first to have street demonstrations and raids on food-distribution warehouses. From October 1985 to January 1986, the protests spread to six other cities, including Cap Haïtien. By the end of that month, Haitians in the south had revolted. The most significant rioting there broke out in Les Cayes.^[6]

Jean-Claude responded with a 10 percent cut in staple food prices, the closing of independent radio stations, a cabinet reshuffle, and a crackdown by police and army units, but these moves failed to dampen the momentum of the popular uprising against the dynastic dictatorship. Jean-Claude's wife and advisers, intent on maintaining their grip on power, urged him to put down the rebellion and remain in office.^[6]

In January 1986, the Reagan administration began to pressure Duvalier to renounce his rule and to leave Haiti. Representatives appointed by Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga served as intermediaries who carried out the negotiations. At this point a number of Duvalierists, and business leaders, met with the Duvaliers and pressed for their departure. The United States rejected a request to provide asylum for Duvalier, but offered to assist with the Duvaliers' departure. Duvalier had initially accepted on January 30, 1986, and President Reagan actually announced his departure, based on a report from the Haitian CIA Station Chief who saw Duvalier's car head for the airport. En route, there was gunfire and Duvalier's party returned to the palace unnoticed by the U.S. intelligence team.^[11] Duvalier declared "we are as firm as a monkey tail." He departed on February 7, 1986, flying to France in a U.S. Air Force aircraft.^[7]

Exile[link]

The Duvaliers settled in France. For a time they lived a luxurious life. Although he formally applied for political asylum, his request was denied by French authorities. Jean-Claude lost most of his wealth with his 1993 divorce from his wife.^[12] While apparently living modestly in exile, Duvalier does have supporters, who founded the François Duvalier Foundation in 2006 to promote positive aspects of the Duvalier presidency, including the creation of most of Haiti's state institutions and improved access to education for the country's black majority.^[13]

A private citizen, Jacques Samyn, unsuccessfully sued to expel Duvalier as an illegal immigrant (the Duvaliers were never officially granted asylum in France). Then, in 1998, a Haitian-born photographer, Gérard Bloncourt, formed a committee in Paris to bring Duvalier to trial. At the time, the French Ministry of the Interior said that it could not verify whether Duvalier still remained in the country due to the recently enacted Schengen Agreement which had abolished systematic border controls between the participating countries.^[14] However, Duvalier's lawyer Sauveur Vaisse said that his client was still in France and denied that the exiled leader had fallen on hard times.^[15]

Following the ousting of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, Duvalier announced his intention to return to Haiti to run for president in the 2006 elections for the Party of National Unity; however, he did not become a candidate.^[16]

On September 22–September 23, 2007, an address by Duvalier to Haitians was broadcast by radio. Although he said exile had "broken" him, he also said that what he described as the improving fortunes of the National Unity Party had "reinvigorated" him, and he urged readiness among his supporters, without saying whether he intended to return to Haiti.^[17] President René Préval rejected Duvalier's apology and, on September 28, he said that while Duvalier was constitutionally free to return to Haiti, he would face trial if he did so.^[18] Duvalier's radio broadcast address was given in French and not Haitian Creole, the language spoken by the majority of Haitians.^[19]

In February 2010, a Swiss court agreed to release more than US$4 million to Jean-Claude Duvalier,^[20] although the Swiss Foreign Ministry said it would continue to block the release of the money.^[21]

Duvalier lived in Paris with Veronique Roy, his longtime companion and chief public-relations representative, until his return to Haiti in late January 2011.^[12] Roy is the granddaughter of Paul Magloire, President of Haïti from 1950 to 1956.^[22][23]

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On 16 January 2011, Duvalier returned to Haiti after 25 years^[24] during the presidential election campaign. Duvalier, accompanied by Veronique Roy, flew in from Paris, indicating that he wanted to help: "I'm not here for politics. I'm here for the reconstruction of Haiti", he said.^[4] Many argued that Duvalier returned to Haiti to gain access to the $4 million frozen in the Swiss bank account, however. Haiti also claimed this money, arguing that the assets were of "criminal origin" and should not be returned to Duvalier. By virtue of Swiss law, however, states claiming money in Switzerland have to demonstrate that they’ve started criminal investigations against offenders holding money in the country. According to an article by Ginger Thompson in the New York Times, "if Mr. Duvalier had been able to slip into the country and then quietly leave without incident… he may have been able to argue that Haiti was no longer interested in prosecuting him — and that the money should be his."^[25] According to Mac McClelland of Mother Jones magazine:

The former dictator was greeted at the Port-au-Prince airport with cheering and celebratory chanting. . . . The word from Duvalier is that he's come to help his country. According to everyone on the street and on the radio, the Americans and the French conspired to bring him here to upset current president René Préval, who's been accused of fixing his country's recent elections.^[26]

On January 18, 2011, he was taken into custody at his hotel by Haitian authorities.^[27] He was charged with corruption, theft, and misappropriation of funds committed during his 15-year presidency. He was released but will be subject to recall by the court.^[4] One of his advisers is former U.S. congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr.^[28]

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