bdivided into nine departments which are roughly similar to French provinces in terms of how they are administered. Currently, the ruling party is the Lavalas Party, although this party has recently fractured into several warring factions. Additionally, there exist countless minor opposition parties (Background notes: Haiti, 1997, 1).
II. How Did the Leaders of Haiti's (Modern) Independence Movement Achieve Power?
Decades of human rights abuses, restrictions on freedoms, and corruption under the dictatorship of the Duvalier family, greatly increased the suffering of the Haitian people. The oppressive tactics of this regime sparked a massive grass roots movement, supported by the Haitian Catholic Church, which lead to the overthrow and exile of the Duvaliers in 1986. The following year, the Haitian people adopted their first Constitution of the modern era. It was not until 1990 that presidential elections were held. Jean Bertrand Aristide, a young Catholic priest from the poorest slums of the capital, Port au Prince, rode the
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