Waging Peace: Haiti

A primary goal of The Carter Center is to promote peace throughout the world. In the early 1990s, Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by the military, and great civil unrest ensued. The Carter Center was there, offering a calm voice amid the disquiet.

Monitoring Elections

In 1987, members of the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas, an informal group of current and former leaders from the Western Hemisphere, met to discuss the electoral process in Haiti. A presidential candidate had been assassinated, which threatened to undermine the entire process. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Prime Minister George Price of Belize, and Dr. Robert Pastor, then director of the Center's Americas Program, flew to the island to try to steer the elections back on track. They succeeded at the time, but in December, the military intervened and prevented the election.

In July 1990, the council was invited by then President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and opposition leaders to monitor the election. In this effort, the council joined the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, visited the country several times in advance of the Dec. 15 ballot, and sent an international delegation to monitor the vote. President Aristide won in Haiti's first free and fair election in its history, but less than a year later, he was overthrown in a military coup. Read full text >

Election Reports

View Carter Center election reports for Haiti >

Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales

Although Latin America spends relatively less on defense than most other regions, expenditures on expensive weapons systems divert scarce foreign exchange from more effective investments, including education. They also compel neighbors to spend more on defense and, by doing so, generate international tensions. Concerned about an arms race in Latin America, the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause before embarking on major arms purchases. Between April 1997 and March 1998, 28 current heads of government and 14 former heads of government signed a written pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons. Among the signatories was Haiti President René Preval.

Learn more about the Carter Center's Americas Program >