2004 Haitian coup d'état

A coup d'état in Haiti on 29 February 2004, following several weeks of conflict, resulted in the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office. On 5 February, a rebel group, called the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti, took control of Haiti's fourth-largest city, Gonaïves. By 22 February, the rebels had captured Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haïtien and were besieging the capital, Port-au-Prince by the end of February. On the morning of 29 February, Aristide resigned under controversial circumstances and was flown from Haiti by U.S. military and security personnel. He went into exile, being flown directly to the Central African Republic, before eventually settling in South Africa. Following Aristide's departure, an interim government led by President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gérard Latortue was installed, and 2,700 foreign troops were deployed to Haiti under the U.S.-led Operation Secure Tomorrow to stop the breakdown of public order. The operation was later replaced by the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.

Aristide, while still being the most popular politician in Haiti, faced growing opposition after the 1990s. His political party Fanmi Lavalas won the May 2000 parliamentary election, though the results of some Senate races were disputed by opposition parties because of how the votes were tabulated by the Provisional Electoral Council. They also claimed that the council was not independent. The government still certified the results, and the opposition boycotted the November 2000 presidential election, in which Aristide was re-elected for a second term.

Although the Senate vote tabulation was not believed to have changed the outcome of those races, the government was criticized for its lack of a response by the Organization of American States (OAS), the United States, Canada, and the European Union, which suspended foreign aid to Haiti. The Aristide administration agreed to a plan negotiated with the U.S. to address election-related concerns, but the opposition refused to cooperate for years, and foreign aid was withheld because of the delay. There were also anti-government demonstrations in 2002, 2003, and 2004, which became increasingly violent. A rebellion broke out, which included a core of ex-army paramilitary groups that had been disbanded during Aristide's presidency due to their history of committing atrocities and involvement in the 1991 military coup. The Haitian National Police became outgunned and outnumbered by the rebels and gangs.

Aristide afterwards claimed that he had been kidnapped by U.S. forces, accusing them of having orchestrated a coup d'état against him, a claim denied by U.S. officials. In 2022, a dozen Haitian and French officials told The New York Times that Aristide's earlier calls for reparations had caused France to side with Aristide's opponents and collaborate with the United States to remove him from power. This claim was, however, denied by the United States Ambassador to Haiti at the time, James Brendan Foley. After the coup, Haiti experienced worsening political, economic, and humanitarian crises, and increased foreign involvement in its politics. Before 2004, there had been two peaceful transitions of power from one elected Haitian president to another, in 1996 and 2001. Since 2004 there has only been one, in 2011.