PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – The United States fears a possible return home to Haiti by exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide before a deciding presidential election next month would be an “unfortunate distraction” and potentially divisive, the State Department said yesterday.
Washington’s concern was expressed by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley after Haiti’s government earlier this week issued a diplomatic passport to Aristide, clearing the way for his return from South Africa to his poor Caribbean homeland.
A Miami-based lawyer representing Aristide, who was ousted from Haiti by an armed revolt in 2004, has picked up the passport