US Intervention In Haiti The internationally monitored elections held in 1991 were to have ushered in a new era of democracy and the rule of law for Haiti and for seven months it appeared like it might actually have a chance despite the island's violent history of coups, rebellions and revolutions. In the past 190 years the tiny island nation has had twenty-one constitutions, forty- one heads of state, seven of whom served longer than ten years and nine who declared themselves Presidents/Emperors for life and twenty-nine of these leaders had been assassinated or overthrown. The new era was short lived however, for on September 30th, 1991, history repeated its cycle on