Le Groupe Fantôme 509 proche du SDP
By Marie Laurette Numa, Haiti Liberté, August 19, 2026
This is an individual who should be in prison awaiting sentencing for crimes against the nation, but instead has declared himself a candidate.
André Michel, one of the spokespeople or leaders of the Popular Democratic Sector (SDP)—a renowned advocate for lost causes—stated the following following a visit by an OAS and CARICOM delegation to Port-au-Prince:
“ We are taking advantage of the presence of the OAS and CARICOM delegation in Port-au-Prince to reiterate the need to restore a minimum level of security before holding elections in Haiti. Unblocking the national highways remains the fundamental condition for holding elections. Without a minimum level of security, armed gangs will win the elections. We cannot hold elections only to hand power back to armed gangs and their political allies. The international community and the government must assume their responsibilities. I will register to vote in Port-au-Prince this week. I urge my supporters, sympathizers, and SDP members to do the same. Security is essential for the success of the electoral process. The transition has gone on for too long. It must end.” »
Such a statement might seem positive to the uninitiated, but it illustrates what is known as impunity in the country. It is a thief calling for the arrest of a thief. It is a leader of the country's rampant criminal network who, shamelessly, addresses the press as an honest politician, even preparing to run in the next elections.
During the American trial held in Miami concerning the assassination of sitting President Jovenel Moïse, one of the two sentenced to life imprisonment, John Joël Joseph (member of the SDP), affirmed and confirmed before the federal court that he and the Colombian Palacios Palacios had found refuge with the gang of Vitelhomme Innocent, just after the brutal assassination of July 7, 2021. They spent two weeks there before leaving for Jamaica, where they were finally arrested.
However, Caleb Joseph, a key figure in the current transitional government, had also told the Haitian press, well before John Joël Joseph's statements, that Nenel Cassy of the SDP had asked him to defend a political activist who was none other than Vitelhomme Innocent. Furthermore, the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police mentioned former Senator Nenel Cassy—an accomplice in the assassination—of former Consul Jacques Pierre Matilus.
André Michel is one of the two influential members of this party; he will undoubtedly be the candidate under the banner of his movement, which today demands the dismantling of what it itself engendered in the country.
It is also worth recalling that it was the SDP that orchestrated the creation of the "Fantôme 509" group, according to statements by their ally Vitelhomme. The Haitian Minister of Justice at the time, Lucmane Delille, had urged the leaders of the police union to publicly denounce the violence of the Fantôme 509 group, because, according to Delille and the American embassy, "Fantôme 509 is a terrorist group."
In Port-au-Prince, the coalition of armed groups known as "Viv Ansanm" (Living Together)—one component of which emerged from the Popular Democratic Sector (SDP) and the Gpèp gang, a staunch enemy of the G9 at the time—included figures such as Izo, Lanmò Sanjou, Vitelhomme Innocent, Tilapli, and Gabriel from Cité Soleil, to name just a few. It is hardly surprising that a human rights organization close to this opposition, the RNDDH, headed by Pierre Espérance, not only supported Fantôme 509 but never published a single report condemning these gangs—specifically, Fantôme 509 and the Gpèp. After all, they were *their* gangs.
If today the transitional state—in concert with American imperialism—demands the destruction of armed groups, even going so far as to have the United Nations establish a force to repress gangs, sometimes referred to as the Gang Suppression Force (under the acronym FRG or GSF), it is simply because these allies of the political class have lost control. André Michel, Nènel Cassis, and other figures of the Popular Democratic Sector can no longer rely on their former collaborators to carry out subversive actions on their behalf. This cohabitation between the G9 and the GPEP has become, for them, a truly deadly poison.
Posted Sept. 3, 2026