Joseph-Michel François was a colonel in the

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

an army. As Haiti Chief of National Police he participated in the

1991 Haitian coup d'état The 1991 Haitian coup d'état took place on 29 September 1991, when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, elected eight months earlier in the 1990–91 Haitian general election, was deposed by the Armed Forces of Haiti. Haitian military officers, p ...

, which overthrew Haiti's elected president,

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in ...

. Former Haitian President candidate Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly is known to have associated with François.

Background

François attended US command school at

Fort Bragg Fort Bragg is a military installation of the United States Army in North Carolina, and is one of the largest military installations in the world by population, with around 54,000 military personnel. The military reservation is located within Cum ...

Chief of National Police (1991-94)

He helped topple Haiti's elected president,

. He then terrorized his country as chief of the police and secret police under dictator General

Raoul Cédras Joseph Raoul Cédras (born July 9, 1949) is a Haitian former military officer who was the ''de facto'' ruler of Haiti from 1991 to 1994. Background A mulatto, Cédras was educated in the United States and was a member of the U.S.-trained ''Le ...

; some 4,000 Haitians were killed. François fled the country in 1994 to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. Though convicted in Haiti of assassinating an Aristide supporter, he was never extradited. When the Dominican Republic deported him for plotting another coup d'etat in Haiti, François landed in

San Pedro Sula San Pedro Sula () is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 671,460 ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. He was convicted in absentia for his part in the 1993 murder of

Antoine Izméry Antoine Izméry (died 11 September 1993) was a Haitian businessman and pro-democracy activist. Career Izméry, who was of Palestinian descent, was among the wealthiest people in Haiti. He was one of the most prominent backers of former President J ...

.Irwin P. Stotzky. ''Silencing the Guns in Haiti: The Promise of Deliberative Democracy.'', Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1997. p. 175

Drug charges

A convicted drug dealer told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he met François in Colombia, and that François told him he was arranging a cocaine deal.Whitney, Kathleen Marie (1996), "Sin, Fraph, and the CIA: U.S. Covert Action in Haiti", ''Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas'', Vol. 3, Issue 2 (1996), pp. 303-332. p321

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

prosecutors indicted François in March, 1997 and charged him with smuggling 33 tons of

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

and

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

into the U.S. from his private airstrip in Haiti, while taking millions in bribes from

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

n drug lords. François denied the charges and stayed in a Honduran prison until July, 1997, when the Honduran Supreme Court turned down U.S. extradition efforts for lack of evidence and subsequently released François.

Death

Michel François died suddenly in February 2017.

Background

Chief of National Police (1991-94)

Drug charges

Death

References

External links