Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis, the head of a coalition Cabinet supposed to bring stability, was just ousted from power by a unanimous vote in the Senate. Alexis was pushed out because of a week of riots and demonstrations over rising food and fuel prices. The Senators who unanimously voted for his censure took no chances with each other, and ate and sleep together in the days before the vote to make sure no one wavered in their commitment to see him from power.

This is the first peaceful, democratic ousting of a political ruler in Haiti in 80 years—but don’t get excited. In the context of the nation’s history it is to be expected. Why? Through two centuries of independence, the only peaceful change of powers took place during the American military occupation began at the behest of President Wilson between 1915 and 1934. Today, a UN Stabilization Mission is in Haiti and has been on the ground and is now in its fourth year. So foreign military occupations appear, so far, to be the only thing making sure politics is peaceful, and there is nothing as of yet to suggest that this signals a concrete shift in the politics of Haiti.

The president has since lowered rice prices, but some Haitians are calling for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the slum Catholic priest elected as president who needed a U.S. intervention to restore him to power in 1994, and who accuses Washington of kidnapping him into exile a decade later as the country descended into political chaos.

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