Bozanic says that “Mr. Philippe has been a thorn in the eyes [sic] of the United States Government for many years.” She says he “helped the United States oust former Haitian President Aristide in coup d’état [sic]” and that therefore he “simply had too much information and became a danger for the government of the United States.”
The statement is significant because it is the first time that Guy Philippe has publicly admitted to his long-suspected collusion with Washington in Aristide’s 2004 overthrow. Philippe’s force of a few hundred ragtag “rebels” in Cap Haïtien was used by U.S. Deputy Chief of Station Luis Moreno as a threat to browbeat Aristide into agreeing to leave his Tabarre home for an airport press conference on Feb. 29, 2004 (Philippe’s birthday). Instead, at the airport, Aristide, his wife, and his private security contingent were all forced to board an unmarked U.S. aircraft, on which they were flown to the Central African Republic. From exile the next day, Aristide called it a “modern-day kidnapping.”
