[dubious – discuss] The most prominent of the gangs was the one based in Gonaïves, formerly known as the "Cannibal Army",[1] who had once supported Lavalasian-party President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide but later turned against him.
On February 14, the rebels were reinforced by opponents of the government who had returned from exile in the Dominican Republic: 20 former soldiers, led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former militia leader who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti (FRAPH), which killed and maimed at least 4,000 people, and raped and tortured thousands more in the early 1990s.
It has been alleged that, from 2001 to 2004, the United States Government funded and implemented training operations for a group of 600 anti-Aristide paramilitary soldiers, with the approval of the Dominican Republic's president, Hipolito Mejia.
[6] On February 4, 2004, the paramilitary groups led by Buteur Metayer, Guy Philippe, and Louis-Jodel Chamblain began marching on the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.
On February 29, Aristide resigned under intense pressure from the United States Government and an impending attack from rebel groups, including the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti.