Official: Aristide To Return To Haiti
SOUTH AFRICA - (CBS4) - With fewer than ten days before Haitian voters go to the polls to elect their next president, the former ex-Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide could return to his homeland, a South African official told The Associated Press Friday.
It could plunge the country into further chaos before the March 20th presidential vote.
Many of Aristide's supporters have vowed to create disruptions if he is not allowed to return home.
The exact date of Aristide's return was not immediately known, however, the South African Foreign Ministry official told the AP that it could be in the coming days.
Aristide became a voice for Haiti's poor when he was first elected in 1991. He was ousted in 2004. The end of his second term was marked by violence and rebellion.
How Aristide left the country remains a point of controversy among his supporters. His supporters insist he was kidnapped, but U.S. officials say Aristide left the country in a U.S. plane at his own request.
Speculation about Aristide's return surfaced after the former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier made a surprising return in January after nearly 25 years of exile in France.
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