US forces land in Haiti. 20,000 US troops landed without resistance in Haiti to oversee the country’s democratic transition. In 1991, during a bloody military coup, Roman Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first freely elected president, was deposed and fled into exile. A triumvirate assumed power. In 1994, in response to proven atrocities committed by the military dictatorship, the UN authorized the use of force to reinstate Aristide. But on September 18, the eve of the invasion, a diplomatic delegation led by former President Jimmy Carter brokered a last-minute agreement by which the Haitian military government relinquished power. This prevented any bloodshed, and on October 15, Aristide returned to Haiti. Aristide remained in office until the end of his term in 1996. In 2000, he was re-elected in elections marred by violence and corruption.
