PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 19 (UPI) -- Thousands of supporters welcomed former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide at the airport in Port-au-Prince as he ended a seven-year exile Friday.
Aristide returned two days before the presidential election Sunday, The Miami Herald reported. He made no endorsement between Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly and Mirlande Manigat, and many of his supporters said they are not planning to vote.
The United States had urged Aristide to stay away until after the election. His Fanmi Laval Party was barred from running a candidate.
"I'm happy to greet you. My brothers, sisters, honor, respect,'' Aristide said. "If you could put your hands on my heart you would feel how it is beating."
Aristide, deposed twice as president, has been living in South Africa for the past seven years. Danny Glover, the U.S. movie actor, accompanied Aristide to Haiti.
Crowds lined a road outside the airport waiting for his arrival and singing "Long live Aristide." Others gathered outside his house.
In Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood, some people listened to the news from Port-au-Prince on a car radio.
"When he was our president, he fought for the poor and the young. He is a fighter of the lower class, the class that is forgotten,'' Nicole Jean-Pierre told the Herald.
