Overview:
A look back at Roger Lafontant’s attempt to prevent President-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide from taking office after provisional President Ertha Pascal Trouillot was to step down.
Editor’s note: This story is part of our “Today in History” series, where The Haitian Times revisits pivotal moments that shaped Haiti and its diaspora.
On Jan. 7, 1991, Haiti woke up to the familiar threat of a past it was trying to escape.
Roger Lafontant, a former interior minister under dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, announced on state radio that he had seized power and placed President-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide under arrest. Soldiers loyal to Lafontant moved quickly, occupying key government buildings in Port-au-Prince.
The attempted coup came just one month before Aristide’s inauguration. His December 1990 victory — with nearly 70% of the vote — marked Haiti’s first broadly-recognized democratic election after decades of dictatorship, repression and military rule.
For many Haitians, Lafontant’s move was not just an attack on the president-elect. It was an attempt to drag the country back into Duvalierism.
Hundreds of supporters for presidential candidate Jean-Bertrand Aristide cheer and dance through the streets of Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 1990. Adored by Haiti’s impoverished masses, the charismatic 37-year-old priest has been the target to several assassination attempts and avoids public appearances. (AP Photo/Scott Applewhite)
A familiar face of repression
Lafontant was no political outsider. As a senior figure in the Duvalier regime, he was closely associated with the Tonton Macoutes, the feared paramilitary force that enforced dictatorship through violence and intimidation.
After Duvalier fled Haiti in 1986, Lafontant spent years in exile, largely in the United States. He returned as Haiti’s political transition faltered, positioning himself as a defender of “order” against popular movements demanding accountability and reform.
His coup attempt followed a well-worn script in Haitian history: elite backing, military force and the belief that the masses could be subdued.
This time, that calculation failed.
Within hours of Lafontant’s announcement, tens of thousands of Haitians poured into the streets of Port-au-Prince and other cities. Unarmed civilians confronted soldiers, set up barricades and demanded Aristide’s release.
Radio stations broadcast urgent appeals for resistance. Church bells rang. Neighborhoods mobilized.
Faced with overwhelming popular opposition and a military high command unwilling to fully support him, Lafontant’s control collapsed in less than a day. Lafontant effectively managed to occupy the National Palace after taking provisional President Ertha Pascal Trouillot hostage. He ruled for about half a day before getting arrested.
Justice, briefly served
Lafontant was tried by a civilian court and sentenced to life in prison for treason, a rare moment of accountability for crimes tied to political violence in Haiti. Lafontant was killed on the night of Sept. 29, 1991, by a soldier guarding the National Penitentiary, when the former Macoutes militia chief tried to escape during the buildup of the bloody military coup that effectively overthrew Aristide.
The failed coup did not end Haiti’s political instability. Just eight months later, Aristide was himself overthrown in a far bloodier military coup, ushering in three years of repression before his return in 1994.
Still, Jan. 7, 1991, remains significant.
It was a day when Haitians demonstrated that democracy was not only something won at the ballot box, but something they were willing to defend with their bodies.
In a country where coups have too often succeeded, this one did not — because the people refused to let it.
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