PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – Guy Philippe, a notorious coup leader, was repatriated by the United States on Thursday.
Philippe returns as Haiti, which is under siege by gangs that grew extremely powerful in the political vacuum created by the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
According to Robert Fatton, a professor at the University of Virginia who also specializes in Haitian politics, 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.
Philippe’s attorney, Jean Joseph Louicher, confirmed that Philippe arrived here on Thursday morning.
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.
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.
Philippe was arrested in Haiti in January 2017 while participating in a live radio talk show.
The former rebel leader who then, was recently elected to Haiti’s Senate, was nabbed after years of successfully eluding arrest and failed raids on his remote home in Haiti’s western coastal region that involved U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and helicopters.
Shortly after his 2017 arrest, Philippe appeared before a federal judge in Miami to face decade-old U.S. drug charges including cocaine trafficking conspiracy and money laundering.
In June 2017, he was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge.
According to court documents. Philippe was released from prison on September 7.
