Security & Strategic Review - March 2004

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he did not resign of his own free will, but under duress. The US denies this, but the claim has been taken seriously by Caricom, the African Union and Venezuela -- not to mention much of the hemispheric left. A theory that has been gaining adepts is that the `neocons' in the US administration had been plotting Aristide's ouster for some time, and that the Dominican Republican helped in this venture.