#TBT: Clinton Restores Democracy to Haiti

     Raoul Cédras was trained by the Spanish military before joining the U.S. Leopard Corps. A high-ranking intelligence official, he was tasked by the United States with overseeing the security, stability, and integrity of the 1990 Haitian election, the first democratic election in the country, which saw President Jean-Bertrand Aristide take power. Made the Commander-in-Chief of the Haitian military, he led the 1991 coup d'état.

     As leader of the Haitian Military Junta, he was responsible for killing thousands of civilian men, women, and children. The United Nations launched Operation Uphold Democracy on July 31st, 1994, while President Clinton and numerous other American officials convinced the dictator to flee to Panama, where he remains to this day.

     President Aristide would be returned to power that year and hold office until 2004. Haiti's democracy remains a source of contention within the nation and around the world, but it is a democracy nonetheless, and U.S. intervention against Raoul Cédras was a decisive military and strategic victory.