7 notable US-backed regime changes since WWII
6. Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Haiti) — 2004
A former Roman Catholic priest known for political activism on behalf of the poor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was first elected president of Haiti in 1990, taking office the following year.
Aristide's reforms met considerable backlash, and he was removed via a coup shortly after beginning his term in office in 1991. He returned to the presidency in 1994, however.
Reelected in 2000, Aristide championed policies that included raising the minimum wage for employees of American companies and demanding reparations from France.
In February 2004, political opposition forces within Haiti staged a coup against Aristide, receiving support from the U.S., Canada and France. By the end of the month, Aristide went into exile.
“Haiti has never recovered the level of democracy it had before Aristide’s departure. The past 20 years have seen just a single transfer of power from one elected president to another, in 2011,” explained Responsible Statecraft, a publication of the pacifist group the Quincy Institute.
“For over half that time, Haiti’s Parliament has been unable to hold votes, because the failure to run elections left it with too few members. For a quarter of that time, there has been no elected president in office.”
