In Haiti, as the number of murders and kidnappings increase, even the police are fleeing.
Without an elected president in office and a prime minister widely seen as illegitimate, calls for the government’s ouster are now coming from an unlikely source: a brigade of armed officers ostensibly responsible for protecting environmentally sensitive areas.
Uniformed armed members of the brigade clashed with government forces in northern Haiti this week, raising tensions in an already unstable nation where gangs have seized control over large swaths of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are spreading chaos in rural areas.
The environmental group, the Protected Areas Security Brigade (known as B-SAP), was angry after the prime minister sacked its leader. On Wednesday, the group’s agents attempted to overrun the local customs office, and Haitian National Police units repelled them using tear gas.
Equally troubling to analysts is the allegiance that some of the group’s leaders have publicly declared 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 less than 60 days since returning home, Philippe has been traveling the country, supporting his so-called revolution.
“We are talking about a revolution, but not a revolution in blood,” Philippe said in an interview. “We didn’t kill anyone. “It’s all about peaceful demonstrations.”
Philippe was one of the leaders of the 2004 coup that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Wanted for years by the United States for drug trafficking, Mr. Philippe lived freely in southern Haiti as a fugitive.
He was arrested in 2017, shortly before taking office as a senator-elect, sentenced in a US federal court to nine years for money laundering and was deported to Haiti in November, a move that many experts saw as a surprising move intended to ignite a troubled political landscape.
“This is a guy who has been maneuvering and plotting for 20 years to take power in Haiti,” said James B. Foley, who was the U.S. ambassador there during the 2004 coup. “We have indicted him, extradited and cast aside, and now we have sent him back to a Haiti that is in total anarchy, and the result is obvious and predictable and horrible.”
Mr. Philippe, who has been living in his home base of Pestel, Haiti since his return, said he plans to go to Port-au-Prince in the next few days to organize protests and expects the vast majority of the population to support him in calling for the resignation of the prime minister, Ariel Henry.
Given that many Haitians are disillusioned with the National Police’s failure to tackle criminal gangs, Phillippe may be right, analysts say.
“If it were a coup, it would be a legitimate coup, but we are not doing any coup,” Philippe said. “We are not here to take power by force.”
In a statement released on Thursday, Mr. Henry said he was alarmed by the inappropriate actions of many members of B-SAP, which he said has no legal or administrative framework. News coverage of the rogue agents risks creating confusion about the environmental watchdog group’s legitimate work, he said. On Tuesday, he added, the government created a commission to review the agency’s work.
As for Philippe, the prime minister’s office said: “Ariel Henry is responsible for enforcing the law.”
The United States has pushed hard for a planned security mission in Haiti led by Kenya, which some analysts see as a tacit endorsement of Henry’s leadership.
Philippe said he “has friends” in the Northern environmental group, an alliance that could prove dangerous. Haiti, once home to a secret police force known as the Toton Macoutes, has a long history of paramilitary forces committing atrocities.
Philippe said he considered the head of the environmental brigade “an ally” with the same goal of convincing the prime minister to resign.
According to local newspaper, Mr. Phillippe and the brigade are coordinating efforts to oppose the current government.
“B-SAP is not the armed wing of the opposition,” said Jeantel Joseph, who was fired this week as head of the agency, and led the group’s protests this week.
Joseph said he and Philippe belong to a broader consortium of political parties, unions and grassroots organizations committed to ending Henry’s mandate peacefully, he added. With their two movements – Joseph in the north and Philippe in the south – the prime minister will have to back down, he said.
The environmental brigade he led, he said, posed no threat and simply provided security at the demonstrations.
“It was never about taking power by force of arms,” Joseph said.
The condition of Haiti could not be better described. According to police data, out of a force of around 15,000 officers, nearly 3,000 police officers have abandoned their posts in the last two years.
The United Nations reported this week that more than 4,700 people were killed 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.
More than 150,000 people fled to the United States last year.
Security worsened after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. It was not safe enough to hold elections, and the appointed prime minister, Henry, 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 nations are expected to offer resources.
The deployment was delayed by objections over whether the Kenyan government followed proper protocols to authorize the mission. The court’s decision is expected on Friday.
Mr Philippe has publicly denounced the mission to Kenya, saying it would support Mr Henry’s administration and support “imperialism”. Philippe released a video in which he defines Kenyans as “African brothers”, warning however that if they accepted the deployment, they would be seen as “enemies”.
The B-SAP group is supposed to work to protect environmentally sensitive areas, but often operates independently and far from such regions, a recent United Nations report says, calling into question the scope of the group’s mission.
It was started in 2018 under Moïse with 100 people, although 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 head of the agency that runs B-SAP, which angered members of the group. Videos shared on social media showed hundreds of them chanting in the streets of Ouanaminthe, in northeastern Haiti, calling for the return of their leader and the ouster of Mr Henry.
In the Northeast, near the border with the Dominican Republic, B-SAP officers fired into the air and ordered citizens to return home.
B-SAP has been accused of participating in crimes, said Gédéon Jean, head of the Center for Analysis and Research on Human Rights, a Haitian organization that suspended operations in November due to rising levels of violence.
The risk is even more serious if the group allies itself with local gangs, he said.
“What we have is very disruptive data in this region,” said Robert Muggah, who conducted a study of Haiti’s crime syndicates for the United Nations, referring to Philippe.
It is unclear whether Philippe plans to run for office or try to lead an insurgency, taking control by mobilizing former military personnel and current and former police officers who support him, Muggah said.
“I think everyone expects him to have presidential ambitions, but the path to the presidency is still unclear for him,” he said.
Philippe operates in a power vacuum where no one has stood up to the prime minister because he is powerless or profits from the dysfunction, said Nicole Phillips, a California lawyer who closely follows Haitian politics and human rights.
“Philippe,” he said, “it’s all about power.”
Philippe insisted that he will “let the people decide” who should assume the presidency of Haiti. He blamed the United States for supporting Henry and said the goal was to end gangs, hunger and poverty.
“We are fighting for a better Haiti,” he said. “They were tired. “Everyone is tired.”
André Paultre contributed to the reporting.