Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: National Security
nomic elite and right-wing elements, overthrew Aristide in September
1991, less than eight months into his five-year term.
A puppet civilian government installed by the armed forces
effectively dominated the weak and divided civilian politicians
and managed the country. The main military figure was Lieutenant
General Raoul Cedras, who had been appointed chief
of staff of the armed forces by President Aristide, but who was
generally believed to have engineered the coup against Aristide.
Cedras installed his friend, Brigadier General Philippe
Biamby, as chief of staff of the army. Both Cedras and Biamby
came from prominent families that had supported the Duvalier
regime. Another leading coup figure was Lieutenant Colonel
Joseph Michel Francois, in charge of the Port-au-Prince military
zone, with control over the capital's police. Francois also
was thought to have been responsible for building up a force of
1,500 plainclothes auxiliaries, known as "attaches," who committed
most of the abuses and intimidation of opponents of
the military regime. The attaches were abetted by the provincial
section chiefs and a new group that emerged in 1993, the
Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of
Haiti (Front Revolutionnaire pour l'Avancement et le Progres
d'Haiti—FRAPH).
As international pressures mounted against the de facto government,
the armed forces became less and less a professional
military organization and more a violent business enterprise
with numerous criminal features. According to an exiled
former Haitian officer, Kern Delince, "The hierarchy and most
of the principles upon which armies are organized have vanished.
What you have left is a force of mercenaries and predators,
a military institution that is in its terminal phase. ..."
The army developed close links with wealthy families and
controlled most state-owned businesses, such as the telephone
and electricity companies, the port, and imports of basic goods
like cement and flour. It was widely believed that the army was
permeated with officers profiting from the narcotics trade.
Because the officers were making so much money and because
of their dislike of Aristide, they had little incentive to end the
stalemate. In response to the situation, the international community
instituted an international embargo, which had severe
effects on the country. The embargo hit the poor the hardest,
and, ironically, enabled the military to profit from the sale of
scarce fuel supplies smuggled into the country. Eventually,
however, the presence of armed civilian gangs, the lack of
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