In the turbulent weeks surrounding late January 1991, Haiti's fragile transition to democracy nearly collapsed when supporters of the old Duvalierist establishment attempted to derail Jean-Bertrand Aristide's presidency. Aristide, a slum priest who preached liberation theology, had won Haiti's first free election in December 1990 with over two-thirds of the vote, promising to dismantle the machinery of dictatorship and military repression.
Aristide's rise stunned Haiti's elite. A diminutive priest from the parish of St. Jean Bosco in Port-au-Prince's poorest slum, he had survived at least one massacre attempt against his congregation and built a devoted following among the rural and urban poor who called him 'Titid.' His landslide victory in December 1990, in an election monitored by international observers after decades of Duvalier family dictatorship and military strongmen, represented the first genuinely democratic transfer of power in Haiti's history.
In the last days of January 1991, before his February 7 inauguration, forces loyal to the old order attempted to seize power and prevent him from taking office, a coup bid that Haitian crowds poured into the streets to resist, overwhelming the plotters within hours. The episode was an early preview of the instability that would mark Aristide's presidency; he would be ousted by military coup later that same year, restored by U.S. intervention in 1994, and ousted again in 2004.
His turbulent career captures Haiti's broader struggle since its 1804 founding as the world's first Black republic: a nation whose democratic aspirations have repeatedly collided with entrenched military and economic power.