Jean-Bertrand Aristide - First Presidency (1991–1996) - 1994 Return

1994 Return

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, the Clinton administration permitted Aristide to return to Haiti to complete his term in office on the condition that he adopt the economic program of the defeated US backed candidate in the 1990 elections, a former World Bank official who had received 14% of the vote. As "democracy" was thereby restored, the World Bank announced that: "The renovated state must focus on an economic strategy centered on the energy and initiative of Civil Society, especially the private sector, both national and foreign."

A 1995 USAID report explained that: "An export-driven trade and investment policy has the potential to relentlessly squeeze the domestic rice farmer. This farmer will be forced to adapt, or (s)he will disappear." In "Free Market Left Haiti's Rice Growers Behind", the Washington Post reports: "From a grass-roots perspective in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, it seems undeniable that millions of people have been left behind in the rush to globalization. That much is evident from the distended stomachs of children in villages like Pont-Sonde, the throngs of women seeking jobs at 30 cents an hour in sweatshops owned by U.S. clothing manufacturers and the daily street demonstrations through the slums of Port-au-Prince by laid-off government employees."

Moreover, immediately after the Clinton administration allowed Aristide to return to office, in a series of private meetings, Administration officials admonished Aristide to put aside the rhetoric of class warfare and seek instead to reconcile Haiti’s tiny elite sector and poor majority. The Administration also urged Aristide to stick closely to neoliberal economics and to abide by the Caribbean nation’s constitution — which gives substantial political power to the Parliament while imposing tight limits on the Executive. Administration officials demanded that Aristide reach out to some of his political opponents in setting up his new government to set up a broad-based coalition regime. The Administration made it clear to Aristide that if he failed to reach a consensus with Parliament, the United States would withdraw support for his government.

Aristide disbanded the Haitian army, and established a civilian police force. 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.

Knight-Ridder reports that "The United States failed to take many steps that it had promised to choke the flow of money and goods to the Haitian dictators and their wealthy supporters. According to documents and interviews with federal officials, investigators and targets of the sanctions, the U.S. government:

-- Never seized U.S. homes owned by coup supporters, despite a vow to the contrary. -- Eroded its own embargo by buying baseballs and black-market gasoline from alleged backers of the regime and training military men who worked for it. -- Subverted its own goals by granting embargo exemptions to U.S. companies and wealthy Haitians. -- Delayed freezing Haitian leaders' assets for almost 15 months after the coup. By that time, the Bank of Boston found only 50.71 Haitian gourdes, worth about $5.07, in the accounts of Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby, the Haitian army's chief of staff.

But more serious complaints - such as charges that Texaco distributed tankers of fuel - were allegedly left on the back burner. Now the U.S. attorney's office and the General Accounting Office are examining the Texaco case and the handling of the embargo by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the little-known agency that enforces sanctions. Investigators want to know if OFAC - or some other agency - bowed to political or business pressures and deliberately avoided taking action against sanction violators. OFAC says it administered the Haiti embargo "consistent" with instructions from the White House, the State Department and the National Security Council. It didn't run an airtight embargo, because it wasn't told to run an airtight embargo."