Zimbabwe ? Opposition leader and presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai returned to his homeland Saturday, stopping first to visit hospitalized supporters who had been targeted in an onslaught of state-sponsored violence.

He then called on increasingly autocratic President Robert Mugabe to “set his people free from poverty, hunger and fear” by stepping down.

Tsvangirai, who had left Zimbabwe six weeks earlier, tried to return a week ago but called that off after his party said he was the target of a military assassination plot. The former union leader has survived at least three assassination attempts.

He arrived at the capital’s main airport Saturday with little fanfare and then sped off in a three-car convoy to a Harare hospital were victims of political violence were being treated.