First lady Michelle Obama arrives in Haiti

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama, on her first solo international trip as first lady, made an unannounced stop in Haiti on Tuesday.

Obama and Jill Biden, on their way to Mexico City, arrived Tuesday morning in Port au Prince. More than a million people in the city remain homeless after the Jan. 12 earthquake, many living underneath tents and tarps.

The visit follows the three-month anniversary of the
7.0-magnitude temblor that tore through the capital and four smaller
southern cities.

The first lady was expected to spend part of the day in Haiti and speak to the press before her departure, an aide said.

Obama then travels to Mexico City for a long-planned three-day visit. Her aides for weeks had been billing the visit to Mexico as her first official international trip without the president — but Haiti got the nod instead. Aides said the devastated Caribbean island was added to the itinerary but kept tightly under wraps because of concerns about security and crowd control.

Obama chose to visit Haiti,
where the January quake was believed to have killed more than 200,000
people, to see firsthand the progress of relief efforts and support to
the continuing humanitarian mission, an aide said.

The Obama administration released this statement about the visit by the spouses of the president and Vice President Joe Biden, which was kept secret until the landing: “First lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are visiting Haiti to underscore to the Haitian people and the Haitian government the enduring U.S. commitment to help Haiti
recover and rebuild, especially as we enter the rainy and hurricane
seasons, and to thank the women and men across the whole of the U.S.
government for their extraordinary efforts in Haiti during the past three months.

“They will also reach out to the U.N. and
international relief communities in recognition of the truly global
effort under way to help Haiti.”

On Wednesday, Obama has a full slate of events in
the Mexican capital, including meeting with students of all ages,
touring an anthropology museum and dining at Los Pinos with President Felipe Calderon and his wife, Margarita Zavala.

On Thursday, Obama will meet with U.S. Embassy employees and young Mexican leaders before departing for San Diego.

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