Aristide won the 1990 election with 67 percent of the vote. Before he was even sworn in, the former head of the Duvalier regime's feared Tontons Macoute attempted to seize power in a coup that was suppressed by the army.
In response, Aristide supporters rioted in the streets, killing 100 and destroying the businesses of people who had not supported Aristide. The president-elect himself described the mob violence as "just."
The leader of the coup attempt was tried before the Supreme Court of Haiti in July 1991. Although the maximum sentence under law was 15 years in prison, Aristide demanded a life sentence.
To accomplish this, Aristide appealed to his supporters to surround the court building, which they did, not-so-subtly threatening to lynch the justices if they did not comply. Fearing for their lives, they did.
In Haiti, lynching is accomplished by placing a car tire around the lynchee's neck, filing it with gasoline, and setting it aflame. This is known colloquially as "Pere Lebrun" named after a Haitian tire manufacturer.
After his notable success in intimidating the Supreme Court, Aristide gave a speech to his supporters near the capital. Part of it is quoted in The American Spectator, and it is grisly reading:
"ARISTIDE: Does the Constitution tell people to forget their Pere Lebrun?
"CROWD: NO!
"ARISTIDE: The masses have their own little tool their own little secret, their own wisdom. When they were talking about 15 years inside the court, according to the law...outside the people began hitting their Pere Lebrun on the pavement, because the people's ire was swelling up. That's how the law became a sentence for life...Did the people give Pere Lebrun that day?
"CROWD: No!
"ARISTIDE: But if things didn't go as they should, would the people have given Pere Lebrun?
"CROWD: Yes!
"ARISTIDE: That is what you are learning...You will earn to write Pere Lebrun, you will learn to think about Pere Lebrun You will learn to use it when you must."
This is nothing short of incitement to violence. Aristide also employed the same tactics against the democratically elected Parliament when it tried to question Aristide's prime minister about allegations of corruption.
And numerous other abuses of power, ranging from intimidation to outright murder, were committed by Aristide's regime.
So, if the U.S. were to replace General Cedras with Aristide, it would only exchange on dictator for another. There is no point in asking any American soldier or sailor to risk his life for that.
Instead, the U.S. should seek some diplomatic settlement which will ameliorate the harshness of the military regime and keep Aristide far from the reigns of power.
Clinton should immediately lift the cruel embargo, which hurts the poor people that he claims to care about, and causes them to risk life and limb in desperate attempts to reach Florida.
And from now on, we should think of military action only when our national interest is threatened, as it currently is in North Korea.