(Associated Press)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti on Sunday, bowing to pressure from a rebellion at home and governments abroad. The Bush administration said it welcomed Aristide's departure and said it was in the best interests of Haiti.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Aristide left at about 6:45 a.m. EST, accompanied by members of his security detail. The French Foreign Ministry also said Bertrand had left the island nation.
An Associated Press reporter saw an unmarked white jet take off from Port-au-Prince's airport Sunday morning. Cabinet minister and close adviser Leslie Voltaire said Aristide was on board along with his palace security chief Frantz Gabriel.
Voltaire said Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president in 200 years of independence, was flying to the Dominican Republic and would seek asylum in Morocco, Taiwan or Panama.
Aristide left as fighters in a popular rebellion that erupted on Feb. 5 came within 25 miles of Port-au-Prince, the capital, and threatened to attack unless he resigned.
A convoy of cars later pulled up to the tarmac alongside a second jet, but it was not clear who was on the plane.
Aristide was ousted in a 1991 coup, within months of becoming Haiti's first democratically elected leader. He was restored to power three years later by U.S. troops.
France, Haiti's former colonizer, and the United States, which sent 20,000 troops to restore Aristide after a coup in 1994, had suggested he step down for the good of his Caribbean nation of 8 million people.
It was not clear where Aristide's wife, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, was. The couple had sent their two daughters to Trouillot's mother in New York last week.
Canadian military police were at the airport, but they refused to say who was on the planes.
There was no immediate reaction from President Bush, who was spending the weekend at Camp David, his retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains. He was due back at the White House Sunday afternoon.
Late Saturday, the White House had ratcheted up pressure on Aristide, whose rule has been marked by violence, corruption and poverty.
"This long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide's making," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in Saturday's statement. "His failure to adhere to democratic principles has contributed to the deep polarization and violent unrest that we are witnessing in Haiti today."
McClellan said Aristide's actions "have called into question his fitness to continue to govern."
"We urge him to examine his position carefully, to accept responsibility and to act in the best interests of the people of Haiti," he said.
Some 2,200 U.S. Marines have been on alert while Pentagon officials weighed the possibility of sending troops to waters off Haiti to guard against any flood of refugees and to protect the estimated 20,000 Americans in the Caribbean country.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti on Sunday, bowing to pressure from a rebellion at home and governments abroad. The Bush administration said it welcomed Aristide's departure and said it was in the best interests of Haiti.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Aristide left at about 6:45 a.m. EST, accompanied by members of his security detail. The French Foreign Ministry also said Bertrand had left the island nation.
An Associated Press reporter saw an unmarked white jet take off from Port-au-Prince's airport Sunday morning. Cabinet minister and close adviser Leslie Voltaire said Aristide was on board along with his palace security chief Frantz Gabriel.
Voltaire said Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president in 200 years of independence, was flying to the Dominican Republic and would seek asylum in Morocco, Taiwan or Panama.
Aristide left as fighters in a popular rebellion that erupted on Feb. 5 came within 25 miles of Port-au-Prince, the capital, and threatened to attack unless he resigned.
A convoy of cars later pulled up to the tarmac alongside a second jet, but it was not clear who was on the plane.
Aristide was ousted in a 1991 coup, within months of becoming Haiti's first democratically elected leader. He was restored to power three years later by U.S. troops.
France, Haiti's former colonizer, and the United States, which sent 20,000 troops to restore Aristide after a coup in 1994, had suggested he step down for the good of his Caribbean nation of 8 million people.
It was not clear where Aristide's wife, Mildred Trouillot Aristide, was. The couple had sent their two daughters to Trouillot's mother in New York last week.
Canadian military police were at the airport, but they refused to say who was on the planes.
There was no immediate reaction from President Bush, who was spending the weekend at Camp David, his retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains. He was due back at the White House Sunday afternoon.
Late Saturday, the White House had ratcheted up pressure on Aristide, whose rule has been marked by violence, corruption and poverty.
"This long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide's making," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in Saturday's statement. "His failure to adhere to democratic principles has contributed to the deep polarization and violent unrest that we are witnessing in Haiti today."
McClellan said Aristide's actions "have called into question his fitness to continue to govern."
"We urge him to examine his position carefully, to accept responsibility and to act in the best interests of the people of Haiti," he said.
Some 2,200 U.S. Marines have been on alert while Pentagon officials weighed the possibility of sending troops to waters off Haiti to guard against any flood of refugees and to protect the estimated 20,000 Americans in the Caribbean country.
