In Haiti, as the number of murders and kidnappings soar, even the police are on the run.
With no elected president in power and a prime minister widely seen as illegitimate, calls to topple the government are now coming from an unlikely source: a brigade of armed officers ostensibly responsible for protecting environmentally sensitive areas.
Armed uniformed members of the brigade clashed with government forces in northern Haiti this week, heightening tensions in an already volatile nation where gangs have taken over large swathes of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are wreaking havoc in rural areas.
The environmental group, the Protected Areas Security Brigade (known as B-SAP), was outraged after its leader was sacked by the prime minister. On Wednesday, the group’s officers attempted to storm the local customs office and were pushed back by units of the Haitian National Police using tear gas.
Equally troubling to analysts is the allegiance 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 six years in a US federal prison.
In less than 60 days since Mr. Philippe returned home, he has been touring the country, supporting his so-called revolution.
“We are talking about a revolution, but not a revolution in blood,” Mr. Philippe said in an interview. “We haven’t killed anyone. It’s all about peaceful protests.”
Mr. Philippe was a leader of the 2004 coup that ousted 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 by a US federal court to nine years for money laundering and deported to Haiti in November, in what many experts saw as a stunning move set to ignite a troubled political landscape.
“This is a guy who has been maneuvering and planning for 20 years to seize power in Haiti,” said James B. Foley, who was the U.S. ambassador there during the 2004 coup. we extradited and sidelined him and now we’ve 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 base, Pestel, Haiti, since his return, said he planned to go to Port-au-Prince in the coming days to hold protests and expected the vast majority of the population to support him. support calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry.
Because many Haitians are frustrated by the National Police’s inability to deal with gangs, Mr. Phillippe may be right, analysts said.
“If it was a coup, it would be a legitimate coup, but we are not doing any coup,” Mr. Philippe said. “We are not here to take power by force.”
In a statement on Thursday, Mr Henry said he was concerned about the inappropriate actions of many B-SAP members, which he noted had no legal or administrative framework. News coverage of the rogue officers risked creating confusion about the environmental watchdog’s legitimate work, he said. On Tuesday, he added, the government had set up a committee to review the agency’s work.
As for Mr. Philippe, the prime minister’s office said, “Ariel Henry is responsible for implementing the law.”
The United States has pushed hard for a planned security mission to Haiti led by Kenya, which some analysts see as tacit support for Mr. Henry’s leadership.
Mr Philippe said he “has friends” in the environmental group in the north, an alliance that could prove dangerous. Haiti, once home to a secret police force known as the tonton macoutes, 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 of getting the prime minister to resign.
According to a local newspaper, Mr. Phillippe and the brigade are coordinating efforts aimed at opposing the current government.
“B-SAP is not the armed wing of the opposition,” said Zadel Joseph, who was fired this week as head of the agency and led the group’s protests this week.
Mr. Joseph said he and Mr. Philippe are part of a larger coalition of political parties, unions and grassroots organizations committed to ending Mr. Henry’s time in power — peacefully, he added. With their two moves – Mr Joseph in the north and Mr Philippe in the south – the prime minister will have to back down, he said.
The environmental brigade he led, he said, was not a threat and merely provided security for the protests.
“There was never a question of taking power by force of arms,” said Mr. Joseph.
The situation in Haiti could not be worse. Out of a force of about 15,000 officers, nearly 3,000 officers have left their posts in the past two years, according to police figures.
The United Nations reported this week that more than 4,700 people were killed in Haiti last year – more than double the number from 2022 – and nearly 2,500 were kidnapped. A group of local monks were held for almost a week before being released on Wednesday.
More than 150,000 people took refuge in the United States last year.
Security worsened after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. It was not secure enough to hold elections and the prime minister-designate, Mr Henry, called for international intervention.
Last fall, the United Nations approved a multinational security mission to be led by Kenya, but it has been delayed by domestic court rulings. Kenya has committed to at least 1,000 security personnel and several other nations are expected to contribute resources.
The deployment has been delayed by objections over whether the Kenyan government followed the proper protocols to authorize the mission. A court ruling is expected on Friday.
Mr Philippe publicly denounced the Kenya mission, saying it would support Mr Henry’s administration and support “imperialism”. Mr Philippe posted a video calling Kenyans “African brothers” but warning that if they accepted the development, they would be seen as “enemies”.
The B-SAP team is supposed to work to protect environmentally sensitive areas, but often operates independently and far from such areas, a recent United Nations report said, calling into question the scope of the team’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 a sense of how many members it has.
On Tuesday, Mr. Henry fired the head of the agency that runs B-SAP, angering team members. Videos shared on social media showed hundreds of them shouting in the streets of Ouanaminthe, in northeastern Haiti, demanding the return of their boss and the removal of Mr. Henry.
In the northeast, near the border with the Dominican Republic, B-SAP agents fired into the air and ordered civilians to return to their homes.
B-SAP has been accused of involvement 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 danger is even more serious if the group allies itself with local gangs, he said.
“What you have is a very disruptive figure in this region,” said Robert Muggah, who led a study of Haitian crime syndicates for the United Nations, referring to Mr. Philippe.
It is unclear whether Mr Philippe plans to run for office – or try to lead an insurgency, seizing control by mobilizing ex-military personnel and current and former police officers who support him, Mr Muggah said.
“I think everyone expects that he has presidential ambitions, but the path to the presidency for him is not yet clear,” he said.
Mr. Philippe is operating in a power vacuum where no one has stood up to the prime minister because he is powerless or profiting from the dysfunction, said Nicole Phillips, a California lawyer who is a close follower of Haitian politics and human rights.
“Philip,” he said, “is all about power.”
Mr. Philippe insisted that he would “let the people decide” who would take over Haiti’s presidency. He blamed the United States for supporting Mr Henry and said the aim was to end gangs, hunger and poverty.
“We are fighting for a better Haiti,” he said. “They were tired. Everyone is tired.”
Andre Poltre contributed to the report.
