Hti: How we got here

What may have brought down Aristide may have been a combination of social problems, great economic disparity, and a careless mulattocracy. The author of this piece, Michael Christie, looks past Washington's failures to the internal complications roiling Haiti. Eminently worth reading.

Here's an excerpt from another article:

Some critics, most of whom had once backed Aristide, say his weaknesses were clear from the start, thathe was greedy for power, despite insisting he didn't want it, and surrounded himself with yes-men rather than smart politicians.

Nevertheless, he was the best man for the job given his immense popularity during Haiti's transition to democracy.

"A lot of us who were in the inner circle had our doubts, but we felt that the people were speaking so strongly in his favor," said Clotilde Charlot, Aristide's chief of staff during his years in exile in the United States. "We were convinced he would make a difference."

Charlot, now an active Aristide critic and a founder of the Haiti Democracy Project, a Washington think tank, believes Aristide's years in exile sealed his failure as leader of the Western Hemisphere's most impoverished nation. He became caught up in his celebrity, she says.

Charlot said if Aristide had wanted to, he could have returned to Haiti earlier than October 1994. "He totally lost focus," she said.

Even so, detractors supported his return to the presidency in 1994 to show that coups would no longer be accepted.

The constitution barred Aristide from running for a second straight term in 1995, but to many, the government that ruled until the next election in 2000 was little more than a puppet of Aristide. It was led by his close friend Rene Preval, who had served as his prime minister, and the election that put Preval in power with an overwhelming majority was boycotted by most opposition parties.

Finally, there is also this excerpt. Read the rest yourself.

Three weeks into a rebellion that had unleashed looters and anarchy on the streets, rumors began to circulate among Haiti's democratic opposition at about 7:30 on Saturday night that the American and French ambassadors had asked to meet with Aristide and were trying to negotiate his exit. Word spread that a plane or two had landed and that the lights were on at the airport, which had been closed two days earlier.

Around that time, Ira Kurzban, Aristide's Miami-based lawyer, called his home but was told that Aristide was too busy to speak to him. White House spokesman Scott McClellan had just issued a blistering statement against Aristide, blaming him for the violence that was enveloping the country.

At one point in the evening, the American security company hired to protect Aristide told him they could not be responsible for his safety, according to a close Aristide associate.

Between the early evening -- when Aristide first indicated his willingness to step down -- and sunrise, US Secretary of State Colin Powell made 38 phone calls to negotiate Aristide's departure, a US official said.

Just a week ago, US officials, along with an international delegation, obtained an agreement with Aristide that would have kept him in the presidency until his term ends in 2006 but forced him to appoint a prime minister from the opposition. But the opposition refused to accept the deal.

"What tipped the balance was we saw Aristide was using people loyal to him to incite violence and stay in power," said the US official.

Aristide's departure to a secret location -- so soon after vowing on state television to serve out his term -- prompted rumors that he was forced to leave.