Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian priest and politician. He became Haiti's first democratically elected President.
Aristide was appointed to a Roman Catholic parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies to become a priest of the Salesian order.
He won the Haitian general election between 1990 and 1991, with 67% of the vote and was briefly president of Haiti, until a September 1991 military coup. The coup regime collapsed in 1994 under U.S. pressure and threat of force (Operation Uphold Democracy).
Aristide was then president again from 1994 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2004. However, Aristide was ousted in the 2004 coup d'état. Aristide was later forced into exile, staying in the Central African Republic, Jamaica, and South Africa.
He finally returned to Haiti in 2011 after seven years in exile.