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Aristide Back in Caribbean Heat

"Aristide Back in Caribbean Heat:

Before Arriving in Jamaica, Haitian Details 'Coup' by U.S."

Peter Eisner, Washington Post


Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page A01

KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 15 -- Jean-Bertrand Aristide stepped back into the white glare of a Caribbean afternoon Monday, wearing a broad smile and the same dark suit he had on two weeks ago when he was banished from the presidency of Haiti and deposited into exile half a world away.(clip)


Aristide said he was obliged to board the plane, and was followed by a number of U.S. troops in full combat gear, who changed into civilian clothes and baseball caps once they were aboard the plane. Also on board with him and his wife were 19 members of a private security company contracted by the United States to protect Aristide.


Aristide's account was supported by two witnesses present on the evening of Feb. 28 and the morning of Feb. 29. One was Franz Gabriel, a pilot and aide to Aristide; the other was an American security guard.


"I was at the house at 5 a.m. when Moreno came in to tell the president they were going to organize a press conference and be ready to accompany them," said Gabriel, who accompanied Aristide and his wife to Africa and to Jamaica. "We boarded to go to the embassy and we ended up at the airport. That's what Mr. Moreno wanted him to do."


The American security guard, speaking on condition he not be identified, described the U.S. security warning as a subterfuge to lure Aristide away. "That was just bogus. It's a story they fabricated," he said.