PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti has issued a diplomatic passport to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, clearing the way for the return from exile of the ousted ex-leader, officials said yesterday.
Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime told Reuters the diplomatic passport was handed over via an intermediary to Aristide’s Miami-based lawyer Ira Kurzban, who was due to deliver it to Aristide.
But it remained unclear exactly when Aristide, a leftist, charismatic ex-Roman Catholic priest who became Haiti’s first freely elected leader in 1990, might make the trip home from his exile in South Africa.
Aristide, ousted from Haiti by an armed revolt in 2004, said in January he was ready to return “today, tomorrow, at any time” to his poor Caribbean homeland, which is struggling to recover from a crippling 2010 earthquake.
A spokeswoman for Aristide, Maryse Narcisse, said, “We will not have to wait too long” for his return. “The food is cooking,” she said, citing a Haitian Creole proverb.
