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Days after Duvalier's return, he "issued a statement on Wednesday that fueled rumors that he, too, was angling to return."
"Angling?" He explained clearly, why, and as a Haitian citizen, he's entitled under international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, giving everyone the right to leave and return to their countries.
Unwittingly in part, Thompson exposed the malicious Times 2004 editorial claiming he resigned and yielded power, saying he "was ousted in 2004 in the midst of growing unrest and under intense pressure from the United States."
In fact, Washington instigated unrest and "pressure(d)" Aristide at gunpoint by trained marine killers.
Aristide's statement, said Thompson, "threatened to fuel tensions already stirred by" Duvalier's return. Of course, one event has nothing to do with another, except to explain that if a former despot comes freely, letting a beloved democrat is imperative.
She also said as President, Aristide "became notorious for his violent crackdowns of political dissent" when, if fact, he did nothing of the kind. Flippantly, she claimed he's "been hopscotching across Central America and the Caribbean in anticipation of making his own surprise re-entry."
In fact, in March 2004, he returned briefly to Jamaica. Activist lawyer and TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson accompanied him, telling Democracy Now on March 25:
"I have learned from a White House source that Condoleezza Rice has pointedly threatened the Jamaican government, telling it to expel President Aristide or face the consequences. The (Bush) administration wants (him) out of the region. (It) views his mere presence in Jamaica as a threat to their (hegemonic) control along with the thugs and the installed (Haitian) government."
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