Land on the Dominican border. A camp intended to accommodate about fifty guerrillas. Trips to Colombia, Cuba, Haiti with the revolution in the background. Large sums for the purchase of weapons. Police allegedly uncovered a maddening plan to organize a coup in Haiti at a hotelier in Lévis, according to investigative documents obtained by The Press. Accused of terrorism, the man claims his innocence.
On May 20, 2021, the Lévis police conducted a search of Gérald Nicolas, hotelier and former owner of a residence for the elderly on the South Shore in the Quebec region. A sadly commonplace case these days: a former friend of Mr. Nicolas filed a complaint for harassment and the dissemination of intimate images without his consent.
Mr. Nicolas is traveling in Haiti, his native country, during the search. The police still seize his electronic devices and those of his new spouse. They discover much more than evidence of harassment or intimate photos, they say in their report. According to the messages exchanged by the man and his spouse, the suspect seems to be taking advantage of his trip to organize an armed insurrection with the aim of overthrowing the Haitian government, we read in a search warrant filed with the court and consulted by The Press.
The 50-year-old says he found an apartment in the Dominican Republic thanks to the help of his wife’s cousin, a Dominican policeman who also served as his driver for a while. He sends a photo of a volunteer recruited to lead the revolution. He says that he takes part in meetings, that the “guerreros”, as he says, are in the process of setting everything up.
“It’s starting to get serious,” he said in a message that police say they recovered.
He says he signed a one-year lease to rent land on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic and plans to house 50 people in a camp. He exchanges evidence of bank transfers intended for accomplices in charge of buying the weapons, then complains of having been defrauded by them.
He asks for help in contacting a Dominican colonel and later a politician from that country. Above all, he is looking for contacts who will provide him with what to equip his men, which he finds difficult, we read in the summary of his messages filed by the police at the courthouse.
Recruitment and funding
The Lévis police are alarmed. The file is urgently transferred to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). An investigation by the Integrated National Security Team was then opened.
PHOTO CHANDAN KHANNA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Jovenel Moïse, then President of Haiti, in January 2020
“The investigation shows that he traveled to Haiti and other countries to recruit, finance and acquire weapons,” said Corporal Charles Poirier, spokesman for the RCMP, in interview with The Press. The goal, according to the suit, was to overthrow the government of President Jovenel Moïse, who was in office from 2017 until his assassination in 2021.
We are really talking about an armed revolution, I insist on that. There was no purchase of weapons, but he tried.
Corporal Charles Poirier, RCMP spokesperson, about Gérald Nicolas
After returning to Canada in June 2021, Gérald Nicolas was questioned by the Lévis police about the harassment complaint against him. “Nicolas told investigators that he wanted to return to Haiti soon and that revolution is the only way to change things,” summarizes an RCMP investigator in a sworn statement.
The Integrated National Security Team discovers a photo of him in a gun club, gun in hand. Investigators find his publications on social networks, where he calls himself the leader of the “Canadian-Haitian” revolution.
“He adds that the revolution must be armed and with unprecedented violence, that those responsible must all die in order to rebuild Haiti,” summarizes an RCMP investigator.
Many trips
The police trace his last trips: Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Colombia, United States. They trace $120,000 in suspicious bank transfers, again according to documents filed at the courthouse. In a message, he also asks his nephew to mail a box of military uniforms to his wife’s police cousin in Santo Domingo.
National security investigators are also questioning his former girlfriend, who claims to be harassed (her identity is protected by a publication ban, as she is the victim in a criminal case opened for unauthorized dissemination of intimate images). She tells them that Gérald Nicolas wanted to buy a “tank” during his trip to Cuba, we read in the search warrants. She also said he intended to negotiate the surrender of the Haitian government without bloodshed, once his armed team entered the country. She adds that she does not know if he is only a big talker or if he does concrete things.
In the suspect’s computer, the police find documents that denote a certain delusion of grandeur: he is said to have written a document requesting China’s help to “train and equip a small group of men” who could “take power in Haiti in 2022”.
He also writes to the consulate of the Dominican Republic and requests military assistance to intervene in Haiti.
The RCMP takes this very seriously. “Although Nicolas said he wanted peaceful actions, his steps to obtain weapons and men nevertheless suggest a threat of violence and/or a preparation for an armed confrontation with the forces of the political system in place, likely to put in place danger to the life and safety of those involved in the Haitian population,” summarizes investigator Gabriel Lemaire in a sworn statement presented to a judge.
The megalomaniac side of the plan can make you smile: a hotelier from Quebec who tries to set up an armed group alone to take power in a country of nearly 12 million inhabitants. The fact remains that in July 2021, a small commando of Colombian mercenaries did indeed enter Haiti via the Dominican Republic and succeeded in assassinating President Jovenel Moïse. The RCMP said Thursday that the plot to which Gérald Nicolas is linked has nothing to do with this very real attack. These are two separate files.
The safety of the residents of Lévis was not threatened either, according to the police. “The safety of people here was not in danger, it was really directed towards Haiti”, assures Corporal Charles Poirier.
He says he is the victim of a frame-up
Gérald Nicolas was arrested in November 2021, then released for further investigation. It was not until Thursday that he was charged with three counts: leaving Canada to facilitate terrorist activity, facilitating terrorist activity and providing property for terrorist purposes. The indictment filed with the court specifies that the facts took place in Montreal, Quebec, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Nicolas allegedly provided money, a generator and tents for terrorist purposes, according to the prosecution. The prosecution in the terrorism case is represented by Mr.e Philippe C. Legault and Mr.e Henri Bernatchez, of the Federal Crown.
The accused must appear at the Quebec courthouse on 1er december. He will also return to court on November 25 to receive his sentence in the case of the dissemination of intimate photos of his former girlfriend without her consent.
“He is a gentleman of Haitian origin who has legitimate activities here. He is very surprised, very disappointed, and intends to defend himself vigorously. He has always claimed his innocence, he says he is not involved in any illegal activity, “said the defendant’s lawyer, Mr.e Tiago Murias.
The Press asked M.e Múrias whether the grandiose ideas summed up by the police could justify a psychiatric evaluation of his client before the trial, to ensure that he was in his right mind when writing his messages. “Not at all,” he replied.
The accused was not available to speak with The Pressbut in a telephone interview with The Journal of Quebeche spoke of a set up by his ex.
“She made up a whole story that she told the Lévis police, telling them that I was a terrorist. And the Lévis police are racists with a badge, ”he told the daily.
In a brief telephone interview with The Pressthe current spouse of Mr. Nicolas, Lisbeth Valenzuela, also said that the accused would demolish all the claims of the police when he had the chance to explain himself.
“Don’t worry, he has explanations for all of this,” she said.
With the collaboration of Gabriel Béland, The Press