(1953-) President of Haiti Dec 1990–Oct 1991 and from Oct 1994. A left-wing Catholic priest opposed to the right-wing regime of the Duvalier family, he campaigned for the National Front for Change and Democracy, representing a loose coalition of peasants, labor unionists, and clerics, and won 70% of the vote. He was deposed by the military Sept 1991 and took refuge in the United States. In Sept 1994, under an agreement brokered by former US president Jimmy Carter, the military stepped down and allowed Aristide to return.
A United Nations arms and oil embargo was in force 1993–94 in an attempt to force Aristide's return.