Aristide Says He Is Ready to Return to Haiti, Too

[struggle4progress]

By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: January 19, 2011

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Days after Haitians watched an exiled dictator come home, a former president issued a statement on Wednesday that fueled rumors that he, too, was angling to return.

The former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a onetime priest of the slums who became Haiti’s first democratically elected president, said he was prepared to return home “today, tomorrow and at any time.” Mr. Aristide was ousted in 2004 in the midst of growing unrest and under intense pressure from the United States.

In a statement posted on the Internet, Mr. Aristide said he was eager to return “to contribute to serving my Haitian sisters and brothers as a simple citizen in the field of education.” Later, he added that because he had a serious eye condition, his doctors had recommended that he not spend another winter in South Africa, where he has lived in exile since leaving Haiti ...

Mr. Aristide’s travels, however, have been limited because he does not have a valid Haitian passport. The nation’s president, René Préval, once a political protégé of Mr. Aristide’s, has refused to issue him a new one. More importantly, political analysts here said, his return would not be supported by either the United States or France, Haiti’s most important allies ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/world/americas/20haiti.html?_r=1

[dipsydoodle]

1. So much for democracy

if his return would not be supported by either the United States or France.

WTF has it got to do with either country. Democracy is supposed to be about the choice of the people.

[Downwinder]

2. WEISBROT: Blocking Aristide's return to Haiti shows woeful lack of respect

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/01/20/1825636/blocking-aristides-return-to-haiti.html

[EFerrari]

4. Thanks for this. n/t

[Billy Burnett]

3. Banning the most popular political party was the end of Haitian democracy.

Famni Lavas (the party formerly led by Aristide) has been banned since he was abducted and spirited away.
The uprising by the people over that was cause for the Blue Helmets to open fire on crowds several times in the last couple of "elections".


BTW, our pal Dr. Mika is there now with Smile Train, mending smiles and his heart, doing the work of angels. :applause: