Above: former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (UN Photo/Michelle Poiré)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide made his first public appearance in Haiti Wednesday since returning to the country from exile in 2011.
Arisitde appeared in court Wednesday to testify at a heraing concerning the 2000 murder of journalist Jean Dominique.
Police had banned public protests during Aristide’s appearance, although that did not stop demonstrations by a number of supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas party.
The onetime priest was first elected president in 1991 (before being removed in a coup), serving twice more from 1994 to 1996 and 2001 to 2004. In 2004, he was removed in another coup, driven into exile in Africa before returning in 2011.