Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest, became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1990. He was overthrown by a coup, restored to power, and elected again in 2000. By early 2004, after months of protests, armed rebels had taken several cities and were advancing on the capital. International efforts to broker a power-sharing deal failed. On 29 February 2004 Aristide resigned and flew out of the country. Supreme Court chief justice Boniface Alexandre became interim president, and foreign troops were sent to Haiti.
Aristide left Port-au-Prince in the early hours on an aircraft arranged by the United States. By then rebel forces controlled much of the north of the country. As news of his departure spread, looters broke into police stations and businesses in the capital and its suburbs, including Pétionville.
How he left became a controversy of its own. Washington said Aristide had resigned voluntarily to avoid a bloodbath. Once he reached the Central African Republic, Aristide said he had been forced out in what amounted to a kidnapping, a claim US officials denied. Caribbean governments demanded an inquiry.
That same day the UN Security Council authorised a multinational interim force, and US Marines were soon patrolling the capital. It was the second time Aristide had been driven from power; the first was a military coup in 1991. He spent the next seven years in exile, mostly in South Africa, and returned to Haiti only in 2011.
Key people: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Boniface Alexandre