Haiti
A September 1991 military coup, led by Lieutenant General Raoul Cédras, had ousted the country's elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide escaped to the United States. In 1993 thousands of Haitians tried to flee to the United States as well, but more than half were sent back to Haiti by the United States Coast Guard. Although Clinton had criticized former President George H. W. Bush for returning Haitian refugees to their country, he continued part of Bush's policy because he feared that accepting refugees might encourage many more to flee to the United States and slow the formation of a democratic government in the country.
In 1994, Clinton publicly demanded that the Haitian government step aside and restore democratic rule, despite the fact that before the coup, Washington had repeatedly been undermining it. Congress was united in opposition to American intervention. However, Clinton deployed a large U.S. military force to the country in September 1994. Just before U.S. troops reached Haiti, Clinton sent a delegation led by former President Jimmy Carter to urge Cédras to step down and leave the country. Cédras agreed and surrendered the government to Aristide. Cédras and his top lieutenants left the country in October, and just days later, U.S. troops escorted Aristide into the capital as part of Operation Uphold Democracy. The democratic government of Aristride was restored, but only on the condition that it adopt the economic programme of the defeated U.S.-backed candidate in the 1990 elections.
Read more about this topic: Foreign Policy Of The Bill Clinton Administration
Famous quotes containing the word haiti:
“For four hundred years the blacks of Haiti had yearned for peace. for three hundred years the island was spoken of as a paradise of riches and pleasures, but that was in reference to the whites to whom the spirit of the land gave welcome. Haiti has meant split blood and tears for blacks.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)