Jean-Bertrand Aristide was one of the most visible and prominent political lead-ers in the Caribbean during the 1990s. His work as a Catholic priest and as a social reformer in the impoverished Republic of Haiti led him to a political career that culminated in his election to the presidency of Haiti on December 16, 1990.
Background
Jean-Bertrand was born on July 15,1953, in Port-Salut, a rural com¬munity located in the southwestern part of Haiti. His father died soon after his birth. Aristide and his only sister were raised by their mother, who moved to the capital of Port-au-Prince and supported her children by working as a trader and merchant. In his memoirs, he recalls living in many different houses, which were always filled with extended family and relatives. Aristide's family was not wealthy. His maternal family belonged to a class of land-owning peasants who were able to subsist by farming their land to provide for their needs.
As a child, Aristide was positively influenced by the generous deeds of his paternal grandfather, who shared his land with other people so that they could cultivate what they needed to eat. His grandfather was seen as a community leader who often arbitrated the quarrels and disputes of less fortunate neighbors. Whenever young Aristide came to visit from the capital, his grandfather made sure that he interacted with people from the community. From early on, his grandfather cultivated values of equality, sharing, and social justice in his grandson.
Education
Aristide received a traditional Catholic education from the Salecian monks of Port-au-Prince. While they instilled in him solid moral and religious values, they forced him to accept French cultural traditions and to disregard Haitian ones. Like Frantz Fanon from Martinique, Aristide was forced to speak French and to completely avoid his native Creole, which was disdained by both the priests and the members of the upper classes.
During his early school years, Aristide excelled in all of his classes and worked hard to escape the political and social oppression of his country. From an early age, he was attracted to the spiritual alternatives provided by the Salccians and eventually became enchanted with the priesthood. He said: "In my very deepest memories I can find nothing but a natural bent, a need, and a certainty that grew stronger and stronger" (Aristide and Wargny 1993, 36).
Following this spiritual vocation toward the priesthood, Aristide joined the Salecian seminary in Cap Haïtien in 1966, where he cultivated both Iris spiritual and academic life. He immersed himself in theological studies as a means of understanding the political oppression and poverty that surrounded Haiti during the dictator François Duvalier's regime. He focused on language as a way to understand other people and cultures because for him communion meant "communication" (Aristide and Wargny 1993,41). His seminary experience focused on the doctrines of John Bosco, the founder of the Salecian order, whose doctrines centered on helping the poor.
Aristide finished his seminary training at the age of 21 and completed his no-vitiate in the Dominican Republic. He received an undergraduate psychology degree in 1979 in Haiti, and that same year was sent by his order to Israel, where he pursued advanced training in biblical studies. When he returned to Haiti in 1982, he was ordained as a priest and appointed to the parish of Saint Joseph in Port-au-Prince. However, his view that the church should be a catalyst for social and political change represented a risk for the Catholic Church, which, at the time, acted as a silent accomplice of the Duvalier regime. Therefore, that same year he was sent to Canada to a seminary that specialized in changing the views of priests who had controversial attitudes. The leaders of the Canadian seminar saw no need to change his views and sent him instead to the University of Montreal, where he completed a master's degree in biblical theology. He also finished the coursework for a doctorate in psychology in 1985, but never finished his doctoral dissertation.
Career
After completing this sojourn in Canada, Aristide returned to Haiti in 1985 where he was shocked by the social and economic despair of Haitian society. Al-though the Duvalier regime had ended, it had been replaced by the military rule of General Henry Namphy, who still used the repressive power of the Tonton Macoutes, an informal army of private citizens that for decades had protected tyranny and engaged in murder and repression against anyone who disagreed with the regime. Unemployment, social inequities, lack of health services, and AIDS were a few of the maladies affecting Haiti. Aristide was given an assign-ment as priest in the church of St. Jean Bosco and was appointed to be Master of Studies at the National School of Arts and Crafts in Port-au-Prince. However, his pastorate quickly focused on the tenets of liberation theology, a popular religious movement in the Third World that advocates using the church as an instrument to bring social and political equality to oppressed people.
While at St. Jean Bosco, Aristide founded a ministry known as "Family Selavi" to promote the well-being of Haitian children who were victims of poverty and political repression. At the same time, he used his pulpit to preach a message of liberation to the Haitian people. His confrontational views advocating social and political change quickly put him at odds with the Catholic hierarchy and with the military regime. Aristide was the victim of three assassination attempts. Because of his controversial political beliefs he was expelled from the Salecian order in 1988.
Despite his expulsion, Aristide continued his liberation work, hr 1990, after another military coup, a transitional government was appointed, and Aristide decided to run for the presidency on the Lavalas Family Party. After a violent campaign plagued by bombings and assassinations, Aristide won the presidency in December 1990, with more than 60 percent of the vote. At the beginning of his presidency, he tried to implement a progressive agenda of social change to impact on the health, education, and economy of Haiti. One of his key principles was agrarian reform.
In his first months in office, Aristide was perceived as an apt and moral leader, but some Lavalas followers engaged in violent acts against the members and supporters of the old regime and Aristide was blamed for these acts. The Catholic Church quickly denounced Aristide and began a campaign to discredit him. In addition, the members of Haiti's rich and powerful ruling class were enraged by his agenda of social and economic change in particular, the notion of agrarian reform. The negative climate and hostility eventually resulted in a coup d'état orchestrated by Raoul Cedrâs, his chief military officer.
During three years of exile in Venezuela and the United States, he was a vocal advocate for the reinstatement of democracy to Haiti. Eventually international pressure forced Cedrâs to step down, and Aristide was restored to office on Oc-tober 15, 1994. He was allowed to complete the term, although he was banned from running for a consecutive second term. In 1995, Rene G. Preval, one of his closest associates and former Prime Minister under his mandate, was elected to replace Aristide.
Despite Aristide's humanitarian views and stands, his first term as president was marked by a substantial bloodshed and claims of corruption that almost equaled those of his predecessors. The international community has questioned Aristide's means of instituting change during his first term in office. He has been accused of advocating violence against his political opponents and of being mentally ill; some people have labeled his government as corrupt as previous ones.
In November 26, 2000, he was elected to a second term as president of Haiti under the powerful Lavalas Family Party. He won with 92 percent of the popular vote, but other major political parties refused to participate in the election. Aristide began his second term as president on February 7, 2001. There were serious protests among members of the international community and Haiti's business sector who refused to recognize the legitimacy of his mandate. Although the Haitian masses and the lower classes trusted Aristide and his previous platform of economic and social reform, there was a substantial level of mistrust among members of the business sector, who have seen Aristide as having an anti-capitalist bias. Aware of these perceptions, Aristide has taken a guarded approach to making serious changes. Haiti continues to need new policies that will bring economic growth and prosperity. Both the people of Haiti and the members of the international community are waiting to see if Aristide can bring change to Haiti and is able to translate his moral and humanitarian beliefs into positive action.
Achievements
Politics
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". A detailed study on the armed rebel paramilitaries has found that these groups received vital support from a handful of Haitian elites, Dominican governmental sectors, and foreign intelligence. The undermanned Haitian police faced difficulties in fending off cross-border attacks led by the ex-army paramilitary rebels.
Videos surfaced showing a portion of a speech by Aristide on 27 August 1991, which took place just after army and death squad members attempted to assassinate him, 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." 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 – It appears though he was actually speaking about people using the constitution to empower themselves. Earlier in the speech 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."
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. Amnesty International reported that, after Aristide's departure in 2004, Haiti was "descending into a severe humanitarian and human rights crisis". BBC correspondents say Mr Aristide is seen as a champion of the poor, and remains popular with many in Haiti. By 2012, Aristide had the biggest base of any political figure in the country, and is considered the only really popular, democratically elected leader Haiti has ever had.
Some officials have been indicted by a US court. 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". Aristide's supporters say corruption charges against the former president are a deliberate attempt to keep a popular leader from running in elections.
Personality
Jean-Bertrand had a natural gift for language and eventually learned French, Latin, Greek, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish, English, German, and Portuguese. He also became a leader in sports, scouting, and music.