Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

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Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
chised moun andeyo (outsiders)—the rural and urban poor and
working classes. Two popular political slogans that sprang up in
1986 illustrate the differences between these two groups and
their aspirations. The slogan Chaque quatre ans (Every four
years) ,
calling for regular elections and implying participatory
democratic governance, was embraced by those seeking
reform. Vive Varmee (Long live the army) was adopted by those
opposing change.
The 1986-94 post-Duvalier transitional period witnessed an
incessant tug-of-war between these two tendencies. Political
recidivists, significantly outnumbered by their opponents,
resorted to the raw power of weapons and violence when necessary,
to maintain their position. An early example of this tactic
was the massacre of voters that led to the abandonment of the
1987 presidential election. This incident and the instances of
intimidation and murder that followed were eclipsed by the
slaughter of some 3,000 Haitians that accompanied the late
September 1991 military coup d'etat and the subsequent threeyear
reign of terror led by the Armed Forces of Haiti (Forces
Armees d'Haiti—FAd'H)
Confronting the grim reality of brute force, Haiti's incipient
reformers relied upon determination, resilience, and sheer
strength of numbers throughout the transitional period. They
early achieved such key victories as the 1986 election of a constituent
assembly and the 1987 ratification of a new, democratic
constitution. Ultimately, they resisted the "Duvalierism without
Duvalier" of the late 1980s to build a national reformist political
movement—Lavalas (a Creole phrase meaning "cleansing
flood")—that coalesced around an outspoken Roman Catholic
priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. With complementary support
from international players, Haiti's reformers achieved a transcendent
milestone in Haiti's political history: the free, fair,
and internationally recognized parliamentary and presidential
elections of December 1990.
Although that accomplishment was reversed with the 1991
military coup, it was not erased. The coup leader, General
Raoul Cedras, and his co-conspirators succeeded in grasping
power during three years of despotic rule, but they were unable
to consolidate their hold on power and to gain the national
and international legitimacy they desperately sought. The
strength and depth of Haitian support for the government of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the legitimacy granted to
it as a result of the 1990 elections, ultimately enabled Haiti's
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