Preval Seems to Discourage Aristide’s Return to Haiti

Ousted President JeanBertrand Aristide has the constitutional right to return to Haiti whenever he chooses but may want to keep in mind that charges have been filed against him, President-elect Rene Preval said Wednesday.

In his first major public statement since being declared the winner last week of a Feb. 7 election marred by tabulation delays and fraud allegations, Preval was pressed repeatedly by reporters about Aristide’s announcement a day earlier that he was ready to come home after two years in African exile.

“Article 41 of the Haitian Constitution says that no Haitian needs a visa to enter or leave the country,” Preval told journalists on the lawn of his sister’s gated villa. “The response isn’t with me. It’s with the constitution.”

Aristide told international news agencies in Pretoria, South Africa, that he was preparing to return to Haiti “as soon as possible” and that he was working out the details with Preval, United Nations officials, Haiti’s Caribbean Community neighbors and his South African hosts, who have said there must be a safe environment for Aristide’s return.

Leaders of the armed rebellion that drove out Aristide in February 2004 not only remain at large but have acquired considerable financial and political clout over the last two years. Rebel chief Guy Philippe was one of Preval’s 32 challengers in the presidential election.

U.S. and other Western diplomats have cautioned Preval against encouraging or facilitating the return of Aristide, a fiery liberation theologian whose two terms as president -- the first truncated by a military coup, the second by the rebellion -- deepened racial and class divides and left Haiti in chaos.

Preval is said by confidants to have little interest in having Aristide back in the country, fearing that his presence would set off new unrest in the slums ruled by gangs armed and empowered by Aristide. Riots that ensued after rumors that Preval’s vote share was being manipulated were believed to have been instigated by Aristide’s network of allies and slum-based gang leaders.

Haiti’s U.S.-backed interim government filed charges against Aristide in U.S. District Court in southern Florida in November, alleging that he “abused his power and deceived and betrayed the Haitian people by directing and participating in ongoing and fraudulent schemes” involving drug trafficking and misappropriation of public funds.

In an interview with CNN en Espanol after his news conference, Preval appeared to be alluding to those charges when he observed that Aristide and others who fled two years ago “have to ask themselves if they really want to come back and they have to find out if there is any legal complaint against them.”

As a former prime minister under Aristide and loyal substitute in the National Palace during the 1996-2001 presidential term for which Aristide was constitutionally ineligible, Preval was seen by many poor Haitians as the best candidate to pick up the deposed president’s mantle.

The bond between Preval and Aristide weakened during the latter’s second term in office, when Aristide abruptly disposed of agrarian reforms and other projects initiated by Preval and fired his predecessor’s advisors. Still, some Haitians who voted for Preval did so with the expectation that his victory would allow the return of Aristide.

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Times staff writer Williams reported from Miami and special correspondent Regnault from Port-au-Prince.