Political Violence and Public Health in Haiti

In 1991, a violent military coup unseated Haiti's first democratically elected government. An estimated 5000 people died, and hundreds of thousands more were displaced during the three years when military and paramilitary groups ruled the country. It was my privilege and responsibility to help provide basic medical services in central Haiti (see map and Figure) during those years. After constitutional rule was restored in 1994, it was possible to assess the effects of those events on our medical and public health efforts in the central plateau. We termed these years the “lost years,” since many of our efforts required a modicum . . .