Haiti's ex-coup leader demands PM's resignation, eyes presidency

Guy Philippe, who helped lead a coup in Haiti in 2004 and returned to the Caribbean island last year after serving a prison sentence in the US, has demanded the resignation of the country's prime minister.

He wants to be the country's president.

"He [Prime Minister Ariel Henry] should resign," Philippe, a 56-year-old former police chief, said in an interview with Reuters over Zoom from Haiti on Friday. "I think he should stay where he is now....and let Haitians decide their fate."

Asked if he wanted to be president, Philippe said: "Yes! I'm going into politics. I was a senator, I've been elected by my people, I will go again in elections."

The former coup leader stressed that he would seek to put his country's relationship with powers like the US, France and Canada on a more equal footing and criticised the international backing that he said had kept Henry in power.

"If Haiti is where it is now, it's partly because of them," he said. "We are not enemies, we don't hate United States, we don't hate France or Canada... We know we need their help, we know Haiti is a poor country, but at least we would like to receive this help with dignity."

Asked if he thought there would be a civil war in Haiti, as one gang leader warned this week, Philippe said: "No... I know the Americans who are deciding everything here will be wise enough to understand that Haitians want some kind of change."

Brink of collapse

Months of violence have pushed the government in Haiti to the brink of collapse, with increasingly powerful gangs demanding the resignation of PM Henry who remains outside the country, seemingly unable or unwilling to return.

Henry's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The PM left Haiti last week to secure Kenya's leadership for a long-delayed UN-backed security mission he first requested in 2022 to help fight the gangs. He is believed to still be in Puerto Rico, where he arrived on Tuesday.

Philippe said his conviction would not get in the way of his political future, citing the experiences of former South African leader Nelson Mandela, former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Since his return to Haiti, Philippe has traveled the country rallying support and calling for the government to step down.

In a February report, the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime named Philippe as an important figure among Haiti's "strongmen who straddle the line between vigilante leaders and political bosses, accumulating considerable power."

Philippe said his recent return to the country meant he did not have deep connections to the gangs and he was not behind the gang violence.

But he said there were some gang members that supported him because they liked what he had to say.

"They like my speech, and some want to follow me," he said.

He did not denounce the gangs and said he would seek to im plement an amnesty for their leaders were he to take power.

"Who is worse? The one in the streets with the weapons or the ones in the office that call themselves prime ministers, president, ministers ... that are stealing everything this country has?" he said.

In recent months, Philippe has been seen at public events defended by members of BSAP - an environmental police unit that security analysts say has effectively become a paramilitary group.

Philippe said the protection came from individual agents who believed in his message and wanted to protect him.

In 2004, Philippe was one of the main leaders in the successful overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He had a failed run for president in 2006, before winning a senate seat in 2016, though he was arrested and extradited to the United States before he could be sworn in.