5,000 Aristide supporters rally in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 1 (UPI) -- An estimated 5,000 people rallied in Port-au-Prince this week in support of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Protester Jean-Michel Porfil said the intent of the rally in the Haitian capital was to bring attention to the economic and political problems in the Caribbean island nation, along with calling for Aristide's return from exile, The Miami Herald reported Saturday.

"I believe he heard us,'' Porfil said of current Haitian President Rene Preval. "The people … are hungry. They don't have work, but they protested because their president isn't here. We are asking for him to be returned.''

Friday's rally took place exactly 40 years after Aristide was ousted from his position and forced into exile, the newspaper reported.

Trinity College official Robert McGuire, who runs the Washington college's Haiti program, said only Preval's complete failure as president would result in Aristide returning from exile.

'The only way Aristide can succeed in making a comeback is if Preval fails,'' McGuire said. "It's in the interest of everybody in Haiti that Preval succeeds because no one wants to descend into hell again.'