Jean-Bertrand Aristide with Bill Clinton in 1994.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born July 15, 1953) is a Haitian politician and former Roman Catholic priest. He was briefly President of Haiti in 1991, prior to a September 1991 military coup, and was President again from 1994 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2004. He was then ousted in a February 2004 rebellion in which former soldiers participated. He alleged that he was kidnapped by the United States military and forced into exile in South Africa.

Aristide was born in 1953 Port-Salut. He was educated at the College Notre Dame in Cap-Haïtien , graduating with honors in 1974. He then took a course of novitiate studies in La Vega, Dominican Republic before returning to Haiti to study philosophy at the Grand Seminaire Notre Dame and psychology at the State University of Haiti. After completing his post-graduate studies in 1979, he traveled in Europe, studying in Italy and Israel. Aristide returned to Haiti in 1983 for his ordination as a Salesian priest.