Aristide, Jean-Bertrand

Gangs Advance on the Seat of Haitian Government Power: ‘Haitians Are Hostages’

Gangs are increasing their chokehold on Haiti’s capital, using bulldozers to raze entire neighborhoods, overwhelming poorly armed police and taking their violence to within blocks of the seat of government. While Haitians have endured relentless bloodshed and tragedy for years, the escalation of lawlessness in recent weeks and the government’s inability to exert control has […]

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Aristide Demanded French Pay Reparations to Haiti. He Ended Up in Exile.

A Painful Reckoning Haiti’s payments to its former slave masters added up for generations, costing its economy billions of dollars over time, The Times analysis found, and a little-known public bank called the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations collected the vast majority of the money. But after Haiti’s disastrous earthquake in 2010, Didier Le Bret, […]

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How Much Haiti’s Freedom Cost: Takeaways From a Times Series

The U.S. Treated Haiti Like a Cash Register When the American military invaded Haiti in the summer of 1915, the official explanation was that Haiti was too poor and too unstable to be left to its own devices. Secretary of State Robert Lansing made little effort to mask his contempt for the “African race,” casting […]

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As U.S. Navigates Crisis in Haiti, a Bloody History Looms Large

In September 1994, the United States was on the verge of invading Haiti. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country’s first democratically elected president, had been deposed in a military coup three years earlier. Haiti had descended into chaos. Gangs and paramilitaries terrorized the population — taking hostages, assassinating dissidents and burning crops. International embargoes had strangled the […]

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