Five months after he negotiated an agreement that averted an American invasion and restored President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, Jimmy Carter returned Thursday to the scene of one of his greatest diplomatic triumphs.

But instead of receiving a hero’s welcome, he immediately was plunged into the turmoil of Haitian domestic politics.

Invited by Aristide and scheduled to receive an honorary degree, Carter landed in Haiti only to find the walls of the capital covered with graffiti insulting him and no official representative of the Haitian government at the airport to greet him.

Carter met on Thursday night with Aristide, the man he had helped restore to power, but was given the impression that some of the Haitian president’s staff and supporters were chilly toward him.

Even so, Carter professed to be undeterred and eager to jump back into the fray in a country he has visited nine times over the last decade. “We are very glad to be back in Haiti, a country obviously dedicated to peace, human rights and democracy,” he said upon arriving.

The former president was accompanied by his wife, Rosalynn. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and Gen. Colin Powell, who had helped Carter negotiate the departure of Haiti’s military dictators and the entry of 20,000 American troops, are to arrive today.

Their visit, which is to end Saturday night, comes at a delicate moment and is intended to examine the most contentious issues facing Haiti. The priority, Carter said, is “to assess the progress being made and to see if we can be of any help in an orderly election process.”