Operation Uphold Democracy

8/12/2019 Operation Uphold Democracy

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1990 Presidential elections in Haitiended with the victory of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a leftistcharismatic Roman Catholicpriest who won 67% of the vote

He took office on February 7,1991

He appointed as commander inchief of the Haitian armed forcesLt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, who onSeptember 30,1991 started amilitary coup

An unconstitutional regime wascreated Cedras acted as a mainleader

By the beginning of 1992,American Coast Guard pickedup around 14,000 Haitians at seaand the flow of refugees startedto cause a problem

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In 1993 Raoul Cedras, head of the Haitianarmed forces, signed the UN GovernorsIsland Agreementwhich promised

restoration of constitutional governmentand the return of President Aristide byOctober 1993

This agreement also said that Cedras and

other people involved in the coup will beretired

Cedras ignored the agreement and theflood of refugees started to increase

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The promise was not made and the UN decided to puteconomic sanctions on Haiti

The consequences were deterioration of human rights andpolitical situation in the country

American president, Bill Clinton, saw that the agreementwill not be followed so he sent a group of forces neededto help Haiti to accomplish the promise

The ship with those forces came to Haiti in October 1993and upon arrival was attacked by an armed crowd

Haiti leaders refused to assure security to American forces,

which made Clinton to order the ship not to do anythinguntil further notice

This was seen as a humiliating political decision forAmerican president Clinton

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Clinton was pushed to start theintervention because of the pressurecoming from his own voters (not onlybecause of the international community)

flow of illegal immigrants into the UnitedStates was seen as a threat that needs to

be stopped and also a big number ofAfrican-American voting populationwanted the US to intervene and bringthe dictatorship in Haiti to an end

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the U.S.-led Multinational Interventionfor Haiti began on September 19,1994

From the start, the plan went asscheduled and most of the operationwas staged fom Guantanamo Bay,

Cuba The Operation included a

peacekeeping force of more than20,000 military personnel of the U. S.armed forces

Their mission was to restore the

legitimate government and create asecure environment for the people ofHaiti

Over 5,000 non-U.S. forces from 24nations assisted in this peacekeepingmission

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Clinton provoked American Congressbecause he did not ask for a permissionto sent the troops to Haiti

His justification was that he has executivepowers to command the army

American Congress passed resolution

saying that the President should havesought congressional approval beforedeploying such forces1

1 http://www.loc.gov/search/?q=haiti+resolution (Accessed May9th2014)7


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UPHOLD DEMOCRACY was successful inrestoring democracy, bringing Aristide

back and in stopping the big number ofpeople emigrating from Haiti

General Cedras was forced to leave

Operation officially finished On March31, 1995 when the United States gavethe peacekeeping responsibilities toUnited Nations functions

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For the members of the Congress, action inHaiti represented a violation of the presidentsposition

This made the relations between legislativeand executive power more strained

This intervention can be seen both as asuccess and a failure

To some the US army was successful becausethe junta left and democracy was restored

Still, social and political situation didnt

significally change This can be seen on the contemporary Haiti

example where human rights are often beenneglected and corruption in politics isflourishing

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Allen, J. William, Crisis in Haiti: Operation Uphold Democracyhttp://www.afhra.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-100125-093.pdf

Global Security, Operation Uphold Democracyhttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/uphold_democracy.htm

Kaufman, Joyce P. A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy, Banja Luka:

Centar za Meunarodneodnose, 2010

Kretchik, E. Walter, Baumann, F. Robert, Fishel, T. John Invasion, Intervention,Intervasion: A Concise History of the U.S. Army in the Operation UpholdDemocracy, Kansas: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Press, 2008

Library of Congress, H.J.Res.416 - 103rd Congress (1993-1994) - LimitedAuthorization for the United States-led Force in Haiti Resolutionhttp://www.loc.gov/search/?q=haiti+resolution

Wikipedia, Operation Uphold Democracy,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Uphold_Democracy10

Documents

Operation Uphold Democracy