An unlikely new threat to Haiti's stability: an armed environmental group
In Haiti, as the number of murders and kidnappings rises, even the police are fleeing.
With no elected president in power and a prime minister widely regarded as illegitimate, calls for the government's ouster are now being heard from an unlikely source: a brigade of armed officers ostensibly responsible for protecting of ecologically sensitive areas.
Armed uniformed members of the brigade clashed with government forces in northern Haiti this week, raising tensions in an already volatile nation where gangs have taken control of large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and wreak havoc in rural areas.
The environmental group, the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas (known as B-SAP), became angry after the prime minister fired its leader. On Wednesday, the group's operatives attempted to raid the local customs office, but Haitian National Police units repelled them with tear gas.
Equally troubling to analysts is the allegiance some of the group's leaders have publicly expressed to Guy Philippe, a former police commander and coup plotter who recently returned to Haiti after serving six years in a U.S. federal prison.
In the less than 60 days since Mr. Philippe returned home, he has traveled around the country to shore up support for his so-called revolution.
“We are talking about a revolution, but not a revolution in blood,” Mr. Philippe said in an interview. 'We didn't kill anyone. It's all about peaceful demonstrations.”
Mr Philippe was a leader of the 2004 coup that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Mr. Philippe was wanted by the United States for years on drug trafficking charges and lived freely as a fugitive in southern Haiti.
He was arrested in 2017 just before he took office as an elected senator, sentenced to nine years in US federal court for money laundering and deported to Haiti in November, in what many experts said was a stunning move that set the troubled political landscape on fire and would set on fire.
“This is a man who has been maneuvering and plotting to seize power in Haiti for 20 years,” said James B. Foley, who served as U.S. ambassador there during the 2004 coup. “We indicted him, extradited him and sidelined him, and now we have sent him back to a Haiti in total anarchy, and the result is clear, predictable and terrible.”
Mr Philippe, who has been living in his home base of Pestel, Haiti, since returning, said he planned to go to Port-au-Prince in the coming days to organize protests, and expected the vast majority of the population would doing. support him in demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry.
With many Haitians disappointed in the National Police's inability to tackle the gangs, Mr. Phillippe may be right, analysts said.
“If it was a coup, it would be a legitimate coup, but we are not committing a coup,” Mr. Philippe said. “We are not here to seize power by force.”
Mr Henry did not respond to a request for comment. The United States has strongly pushed for a planned security mission to Haiti led by Kenya, seen by some analysts as a tacit endorsement of Mr. Henry's leadership.
Mr Philippe said he “has friends” in the environmental group in the north, an alliance that could prove dangerous. Once home to a secret police force known as the Tonton Macoutes, Haiti has a long history of paramilitary forces committing atrocities.
Mr. Philippe said he considered the head of the environmental brigade “an ally” with the same goal: the prime minister's resignation.
According to a local newspaper, Mr. Phillippe and the Brigade are coordinating efforts to oppose the current government.
Haiti's situation could not be more dire. According to police figures, out of a force of approximately 15,000 officers, almost 3,000 police officers have left their posts in the past two years.
The United Nations reported this week that more than 4,700 people were murdered in Haiti last year – more than double the number in 2022 – and nearly 2,500 were kidnapped. A group of local nuns were held for almost a week before being released on Wednesday.
Last year, more than 150,000 people fled to the United States.
Security has deteriorated following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. It has not been safe enough to hold elections, and the appointed Prime Minister, Mr Henry, has called for international intervention.
Last fall, the United Nations approved a multinational security mission led by Kenya, but it was delayed by domestic court rulings. Kenya has pledged at least 1,000 security personnel, and several other countries are expected to provide resources.
The deployment has been delayed due to concerns over whether the Kenyan government followed the correct protocols to authorize the mission. A court decision is expected on Friday.
Mr Philippe has publicly denounced the mission in Kenya, saying it would support Mr Henry's government and support “imperialism”. Mr Philippe released a video in which he called the Kenyans “African brothers” but warned that if they accepted the deployment they would be considered “enemies”.
The B-SAP group is supposed to work to protect environmentally sensitive areas, but often operates independently and far from such regions, according to a recent United Nations report, which questions the scope of the group's mission.
It started in 2018 under Mr Moïse with 100 people, although Mr Henry's government appears to have little control over its actions or any idea of how many members it has.
On Tuesday, Mr Henry fired the man in charge of the agency that runs B-SAP, angering the group's members. Videos shared on social media showed hundreds of them chanting in the streets of Ouanaminthe, northeastern Haiti, demanding the return of their boss and the ouster of Mr Henry.
In the northeast, near the border with the Dominican Republic, B-SAP officers shot in the air and ordered civilians to return home.
B-SAP, which has no legal or regulatory framework, has been accused of participating in crimes, said Gédéon Jean, head of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, a Haitian organization that suspended its activities in November due to rising levels. of violence.
The risk is even greater if the group joins local gangs, he said.
“What you have is a very disruptive figure in this region,” said Robert Muggah, who led a United Nations investigation into Haiti's criminal syndicates, referring to Mr. Philippe.
It is unclear whether Philippe plans to run for office — or try to lead an uprising, taking control by mobilizing former military personnel and current and former police officers to support him, Muggah said.
“I think everyone expects him to have presidential ambitions, but the path to the presidency is not yet clear for him,” he said.
Mr. Philippe operates in a power vacuum in which no one has stood up to the prime minister because they are powerless or benefit from the dysfunction, said Ms. Phillips, the California lawyer.
“Philippe,” she said, “is all about power.”
Mr. Philippe insisted he would “let the people decide” who would assume Haiti's presidency. He accused the United States of supporting Mr. Henry and said the goal was to end gangs, hunger and poverty.
“We are fighting for a better Haiti,” he said. “We are tired. Everyone is tired.”
André Paultre reporting contributed.