{"id":8349,"date":"2023-11-30T16:04:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T21:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8349"},"modified":"2023-11-30T16:04:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T21:04:48","slug":"coup-leader-guy-philippe-repatriated-to-haiti-as-many-question-his-next-role-in-country-in-upheaval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8349","title":{"rendered":"Coup Leader Guy Philippe Repatriated to Haiti as Many Question His Next Role in Country in Upheaval"},"content":{"rendered":"
Guy Philippe smiles during an interview in Pestel, Haiti, Aug. 24, 2016. Philippe returned to Haiti on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, after the U.S. government deported him. (AP Photo\/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notorious coup leader Guy Philippe returned to Haiti<\/a><\/span> on Thursday after the U.S. government repatriated him, sparking concerns that his presence could unleash further upheaval in a country already reeling from gang violence and political instability.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear what role, if any, Philippe expected to play upon his return to Haiti, which is under siege by gangs that grew extremely powerful in the political vacuum created by the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Mo\u00efse<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Philippe was a charismatic leader who was instrumental in the 2004 rebellion against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and had powerful ties to police, politicians and the business elite, said Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert and professor at the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether those kinds of ties will be revised, it\u2019s not clear. What is very clear is that Guy Philippe has always seen himself as some sort of a messianic figure who should lead Haiti,\u201d Fatton said.<\/p>\n

Philippe\u2019s attorney, Jean Joseph Louicher, confirmed to The Associated Press that Philippe arrived in the capital of Port-au-Prince on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been fighting for four years to reduce the sentence of Guy Philippe to bring him home,\u201d he said, referring to a money laundering charge he pleaded guilty to in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Louicher said he was waiting for Philippe to be processed as required by protocol and released by Haiti\u2019s National Police and migration officials \u201cso he can go home safely to his family today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philippe, who was dressed in a gray jumpsuit, was seen walking into Haiti\u2019s National Police station after getting off a bus. He could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Philippe once served as police chief for the northern coastal city of Cap-Haitien and was later accused of masterminding attacks on police stations and other targets while in exile in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

He returned to Haiti in 2004 and led a band of rebels that captured Cap-Haitien as he joined an uprising that led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.<\/p>\n

Philippe was arrested in Haiti in January 2017<\/a><\/span> while participating in a live radio talk show. He had recently been elected to Haiti\u2019s Senate, and authorities whisked him quickly to the airport to avoid potential riots protesting his extradition to the U.S.<\/p>\n

The former rebel leader was nabbed after years of successfully eluding arrest and failed raids on his remote home in Haiti\u2019s western coastal region that involved U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and helicopters.<\/p>\n

In a 2016 interview with The Associated Press at his stronghold in Pestel<\/a><\/span>, Philippe said he was innocent of any crimes and that he would fight any law enforcement that tried to capture him.<\/p>\n

Shortly after his 2017 arrest, Philippe appeared before a federal judge in Miami<\/a><\/span> to face decade-old U.S. drug charges including cocaine trafficking conspiracy and money laundering.<\/p>\n

In June 2017, he was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge.<\/p>\n

Authorities said that Philippe, a former high-ranking official with Haiti\u2019s National Police, had used his position to provide protection for drug shipments in exchange for cash. Officials said he acknowledged receiving up to $3.5 million in bribes.<\/p>\n

Fatton, the professor, noted that Philippe has given interviews in recent years in which he \u201cvery clearly said he intends to go back to Haiti and be involved in Haiti, and even much more than he used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fatton said that while he expects Philippe to play a role in Haitian politics, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding his future as many Haitians question why the U.S. chose to repatriate him \u201cwhen you have a rather explosive situation in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also unclear whether Philippe might have any connections with former police officials who became powerful gang leaders, including Jimmy Ch\u00e9rizier, best known as \u201cBarbecue.\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Philippe was released from prison on Sept. 7, according to court documents. In the weeks that followed, Haitians in and near his former stronghold organized protests, blocked roads and demanded that the government provide Philippe travel documents so he could return to his native country.<\/p>\n

Philippe\u2019s supporters also include former Haitian President Michel Martelly, who is still considered a powerful, behind-the-scenes political player.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, about a dozen supporters wearing T-shirts that read \u201cGuy Philippe\u201d on the front and \u201cLet\u2019s put our hands together to save Haiti\u201d crowded around the entrance of Haiti\u2019s main international airport to get a glimpse of the former rebel leader. None of them wanted to give their names, but they said Philippe should be allowed to participate in upcoming general elections that have been repeatedly delayed. A date has not been set.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne would have to wait and see what his return means, if anything at all,\u201d Alex Dupuy, a Haiti-born sociologist and former professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, said in an interview. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to be necessarily the principal actor in the drama that\u2019s going on in Haiti and the awful political situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Evens Sanon and D\u00e1nica Coto, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notorious coup leader Guy Philippe returned to Haiti on Thursday after the U.S. government repatriated him, sparking concerns that his presence could unleash further upheaval in a country already reeling from gang violence and political instability. It wasn\u2019t clear what role, if any, Philippe expected to play upon his return to Haiti, which is under siege by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/095d64b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5760x3835+0+2\/resize\/820x546!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F79%2Fbc%2Fd76aee7319f1e83c3870ec14edf0%2F72d731570d4e4c969bd252d0cfbb5052","fifu_image_alt":"Coup Leader Guy Philippe Repatriated to Haiti as Many Question His Next Role in Country in Upheaval","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8351,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8349\/revisions\/8351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}