Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean -Bertrand Aristide ( born July 15, 1953 in Port-Salut ) was between 1990 and 2004 several times President of the Republic of Haiti.

Parents, childhood and education

Jean -Bertrand Aristide was born on 15 July 1953 as the second child of a poor smallholder families in Port-Salut in southern Haiti. His father died a few years later. After that, his mother moved him and his older sister in the capital, Port -au -Prince. The livelihood of the family, she contested through the sale of agricultural products on the markets of the capital. A Salesians of Don Bosco became aware of the above average intelligent Jean -Bertrand and offered his mother to finance the education of boys. Jean -Bertrand Aristide joined the Salesian order in, completed an education and then studied theology and psychology in Haiti, Greece, Canada and Israel. He completed his theological studies with a doctorate. Aristide has next to his mother and French languages ​​Kreyòl also have knowledge in Hebrew, Spanish, Greek, English and Zulu. In July 1982, Aristide was ordained a Catholic priest.

Political career

Even as a student Aristide sympathized with the Catholic liberation theology, which gained momentum in the 1970s and 1980s in Latin America in importance. He was a member of the liberationist group Ti Legliz ( Haitian- Creole for " little church "). Aristide stood before the year 1986 against the dictatorship of Duvalier. On September 11, 1988, he escaped an assassination attempt by supporters of the exiled dictator Jean -Claude Duvalier, the Tonton Macoute, in his church, the thirteen church-goers were killed. His political agitation and his open criticism of the Vatican's Haiti policy led to exclusion from the Salesian order in December 1988.

During the election campaign for the presidential elections in 1990, Aristide settled accounts with the followers of the dictator Jean -Claude Duvalier. He succeeded as the first politician since the state was founded in 1804 with support from the impoverished rural population and the impoverished residents of the slums around the capital Port-au -Prince, a mass political movement, Lavalas ( Haitian- Creole, " blazing Flood" ) in the Life call. In the first democratic elections in the history of Haiti on 16 December 1990, he was elected by an overwhelming majority ( 67.48 percent of the valid votes ) president. However, in September 1991 forced him to a military coup by General Raoul Cedras to flee into exile in Venezuela and in the United States. After the intervention of the United States in 1994 was used again as president and won in elections as a candidate of the coalition organization Politique Lavalas (OPL ) a better game. In the same year he resigned and his priesthood. In the next elections in 1996, in which Aristide was not allowed to run because of the constitutional ban on immediate re-election, won his previous Prime Minister René Préval 88 % of the vote. Late 1996, Aristide broke with the OPL and was involved in the Fanmi Lavalas (FL ).

Aristide was re-elected in the election on November 26, 2000, his second term he began on 7 February 2001. His term was already beginning under the allegations of vote-rigging. Due to mismanagement and corruption was formed in the provinces resistance that was partly driven by forces of the former dictator Duvalier and associated with him, death squads.

As of November 2002 there was civil unrest that intensified during the year 2003. Aristide was initially continued support of parts of the poorer sections of society. The victory of the rebels in many regions and cities as well as their advance on the Haitian capital Port-au -Prince led to extensive destabilization and collapse of national order. The international concern about the situation in February 2004 led to intervention by France and the United States, with extensive international approval.

February 29, 2004, Aristide left with a U.S. aircraft Haiti. According to the United States, he thanked voluntarily and went into exile, according to Aristides, he was forced by the United States to leave his country. As such, it speaks of a coup and considered further as the legitimate president of Haiti.

After two weeks in the Central African Republic, Aristide returned on 16 March 2004 in the Caribbean to Jamaica back. The presence of Aristides in the Caribbean felt the Haitian government as provocative and destabilizing.

After the community of Caribbean States ( CARICOM ) South Africa had officially asked on 10 May 2004 about letting enter the deposed head of state, the South African government announced on 13 May 2004 announced that she, after consultation with the Governments of France and the USA Aristide will start temporarily.

On 30 May 2004, he broke out of Kingston, the Jamaican capital, together with his wife and two daughters into exile in South Africa. There he was welcomed on May 31 by President Thabo Mbeki. He says that he only wanted to temporarily reside in South Africa until the situation had calmed down in Haiti. He sees itself as the legitimate President of the country. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Aristide announced in 2010 from his South African exile to return to his home country in order to " help rebuild the country " to. He arrived in Port -au -Prince on March 17, 2011.

It is estimated that Aristide has a personal fortune of 40 million U.S. dollars.

Awards

  • Aachen Peace Prize 1993

Works (selection)

  • Dignité. Seuil, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-02-021322-2 (together with Christophe Wargny ).
  • Haiti. Un an après le coup d' état ​​. Editions du CIDIHCA, Montreal 1992.
  • Haiti. Plea for a tortured land ( " Tout homme est un homme "). Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1994, ISBN 3-87294-608-0.
  • Peace, justice & power: my return to Haiti, the United States, and the new world order. National Press Books, Washington, D.C. 1995, ISBN 1-8826-0518-7.
  • Pour un nouveau départ. Proposition d'un Cadre général pour le program du Gouvernement d' ouverture et de concorde national. Le Natal, Port -au-Prince in 1993.
  • Shalom 2004. Bibliothèque National, Port -au -Prince in 2003.
  • Théologie et politique. Editions du CIDIHCA, Montreal 1992, ISBN 2-920862-69-3 ( Foreword by Leonardo Boff ).
  • The truth! Nothing but the truth! ( " La vérité! En verité " ). Working Group One World, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-928538-05-5.
  • Let me tell my story ( "In the parish of the poor" ). Edition Exodus, Lucerne 1992, ISBN 3-905575-65-5 ( with a foreword by Jean Ziegler ).
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