U.S. Intervention

Port au Prince, Haiti, 1994 President Aristide arrives at the presidential palace in the capital Port-au- for after returning from exile in the United States. Elected as president years before and then ousted by a military coup he was forced to live in exile. Only a US military operation enabled his return to power as president of Haiti. Thousands of US Marines and special forces invaded Haiti in September 1994, toppling the military regime in an effort to reinstate democracy. The invasion was motivated by the fear of tens of thousands of Haitian boat people seeking refugee in the United States. Haiti is the most populated and impoverished Caribbean nation only few hundred miles from the Unites States South coast. After the US military invasion Tontons Macoutes militias were disbanded and political prisoners freed. A huge operation to improve the police, reduce corruption and murder was put into place under the banner of the UN. But the country soon returned to its violent roots, and US troops left the Caribbean island. Today the feared Tonton Macoutes are back in power especially in the countryside, and political instability and police corruption is at a high.