PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 14 — President Rene Preval pleaded with Haitians to bring peace to the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country as he was inaugurated Sunday during a ceremony that drew thousands to the whitewashed National Palace and marked the return of democratic rule in Haiti.

Crowds sang “Preval, Preval, we’ve been waiting for you” at each stop in the four-hour event, which his supporters hope will set Haiti on a new course two years after the violent ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Signs of the chaos inherited by Preval — a soft-spoken agronomist who once owned a bakery in Port-au-Prince — were everywhere: As he prepared to be inaugurated, inmates at a central Port-au-Prince jail known for holding political prisoners protested, occupying a rooftop and chanting, “We want justice.”
washingtonpost.com

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