After Boulos, Is Michel Martelly Next? The Former Haitian President and the U.S. Crackdown on Gang-Linked Residents –
The arrest of influential businessman Réginald Boulos by U.S. authorities, on charges related to destabilizing activities in Haiti and alleged ties with armed groups, appears to signal a marked shift in the United States’ migration and security policy toward certain Haitian nationals holding permanent resident status. The Boulos precedent—himself a member of a presidential commission appointed in 2015 by then-President Michel Martelly to recommend an interim Prime Minister—demonstrates an emerging dynamic in which longstanding tolerance for the complicity of Haitian elites in the architecture of insecurity is rapidly diminishing. This development raises a pressing and consequential question: will Michel Martelly, former Head of State from 2011 to 2016 and a U.S. resident, be the next figure targeted in Washington’s escalating deportation campaign against political patrons of gang violence?
Suspicions surrounding Martelly’s ties to armed groups are far from new. Numerous reports by the United Nations Panel of Experts on Haiti have documented the strategic use of gangs for political purposes during his administration. This systematic deployment of criminal groups allegedly allowed Martelly and his inner circle to consolidate control over key zones of the capital, manipulate electoral outcomes in heavily populated districts, and sideline political opponents. Far from ceasing with the conclusion of his mandate, these practices reportedly continued under the subsequent PHTK administrations through informal networks and entities masquerading as social foundations.
A 2023 UN report is unambiguous: “Certain political and economic actors have provided financial resources, weapons, and logistical support to criminal groups in order to maintain territorial influence.” Among these actors, Michel Martelly is specifically identified by converging sources as having financed multiple gangs, supplying them with both money and firearms. He is further alleged to have been the founder of the gang known as “Base 257,” which has been implicated in armed violence, kidnappings, and political intimidation. According to intelligence sources in the region, this gang functioned as a de facto paramilitary wing of Martelly’s political apparatus, particularly during electoral cycles.
Moreover, Martelly is believed to have established an indirect management system for maintaining relations with other gangs, operating through close associates and political emissaries. This arrangement reportedly solidified an informal alliance between the political elite and criminal actors, contributing significantly to the erosion of state authority, the fragmentation of urban space, and the entrenchment of a political economy of violence.
As the United States intensifies its legal and policing mechanisms to sanction individuals deemed complicit in Haiti’s security crisis, Martelly’s position appears increasingly precarious. His dual status—as a former head of state and a U.S. permanent resident—renders him particularly exposed: should federal agencies substantiate the allegations contained in UN documentation, he could face criminal proceedings, loss of migratory privileges, and potentially deportation. Such an outcome would constitute a diplomatic earthquake, given Martelly’s longstanding status as a U.S. ally in the region. More broadly, it would mark a symbolic rupture: the collapse of the PHTK’s founding figure and a definitive challenge to the impunity historically granted to political actors entangled with organized crime.
La portée de cette hypothèse dépasse le seul cas Martelly. Elle interroge les fondements de l’alliance tacite qui, depuis une décennie, a permis à certaines élites haïtiennes d’orchestrer l’insécurité au bénéfice d’intérêts électoralistes ou économiques. Si Washington choisit d’aller au bout de sa logique, le réseau des bénéficiaires de cette impunité pourrait bientôt s’effondrer, emportant dans sa chute d’autres figures politiques de premier plan.
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