Joseph-Michel François (; 1957 – 2017) was a colonel in the

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

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 in 1991 before being deposed in a coup d'état. As a priest, he taught liberation theo ...

. 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 (formerly Fort Liberty from 2023–2025) is a United States Army, U.S. Army Military base, military installation located in North Carolina. It ranks among the largest military bases in the world by population, with more than 52,000 m ...

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. Cedras was the last military ruler of Haiti. Background A mulatto, Cédras was educated in the United St ...

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

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. 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 701, ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

. 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 ...

. 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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

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 primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

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 reportedly in Honduras. His legacy remains intertwined with Haiti’s complex political history and the human rights abuses committed during his time in power.

Background

Chief of National Police (1991-94)

Drug charges

Death

References

External links