Damming the Flood: Haiti and the Politics of Containment

In February 2004, the constitutionally elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a US-France invasion with the blessing of the UN Security Council. This coup, under the guise of "humanitarian intervention," sent an unambiguous message to hemispheric opponents such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. In exploring how Haiti became a laboratory for a new "politics of containment," Peter Hallward sets the current crisis in historical context, examining the rise, rule and collapse of Aristide's administration, and events since he was forced into exile.