Haiti

Haitian rebel is one of the family

In Orlando, the Metayers watch the news for glimpses of a brother whose thirst for revenge sparked a rebellion.

	[AP photo]
	Butteur Metayer, center, holds a machete as he leads a march in Gonaives on Feb. 12, in honor of his brother, Amiot Metayer.
	[Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack]
	Gertrude Metayer, 30, holds her daughter, Abigail, 2, as she and her brother, Belanguer Metayer, 28, talk about the Haitian rebellion.

ORLANDO - Belanguer Metayer sat in his dark living room Wednesday holding photos of his two brothers, Butteur and Amiot.

The television, tuned to CNN, provided the only light: images of palm-tree-lined dirt roads, exuberant crowds, an ousted president speaking in exile.

"That's Haiti," Metayer said with a chuckle.

He looked at his brothers' photos, both taken in Haiti. One was a black-and photo from USA Today of Butteur, clad in sunglasses and white suit. The other was a small color photo of Amiot, dead, his eyes and heart gouged out.

Butteur, seeking to avenge his brother's death last year, sparked the uprising that led to the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Depending on who you ask, the brothers are rebels, thugs, terrorists or all three.

To their family in Orlando, they are heroes.

"I spoke to Butteur yesterday, and told him, "Brother, I'm so proud of you,"' said Metayer, 28.

How the Metayer family wound up in a working class neighborhood not far from Universal Studios mirrors the twists and turns of Haiti's turmoil.

It is a story of shifting allegiances, murder and revenge.

In the early 1990s, the Metayer family was living in Gonaives, a poverty-stricken port city in northern Haiti. They believed strongly in Aristide, a charismatic priest who vowed to help the poor and bring democracy to the country.

Amiot, a lawyer, was the family's biggest Aristide supporter. But when anti-Aristide forces took over in 1991, armed officers went to Amiot's home to arrest him. He was gone, so they took Belanguer instead and threw him in jail. He was 18 years old.

Belanguer was beaten daily for nine months. The Metayer family went into hiding, going without showers and with little or no food for weeks at a time.

Eventually, Belanguer was released. The U.S. gave the Metayers political asylum and they settled in Michigan.

When Aristide was returned to power in 1994, Amiot returned home to a government job and a leader he loved. Aristide even called Amiot "son," the Metayer family said.

The rest of the family stayed in the United States and moved to Orlando in 1999. They didn't like Michigan's long, cold winters, and Florida was a jet ride away from Haiti.

The family set down roots: They married, got jobs, had children, rented apartments. Their mother, Clotilde Claudius, 68, is the family matriarch.

Her apartment in the Pine Hills neighborhood west of downtown is the family's gathering place. It is small and tidy, with silk flowers lining almost every horizontal space.

The family doesn't talk to the neighbors much. The area is nicknamed "Crime Hills" in Orlando, but it's still better than Haiti.

"It's safe here," said Gertrude Metayer. "It's a better place to live, you can feed yourself and your children."

Gertrude, 30, has two children and is a cashier at Universal Studios. Another sister, Raymonde, is 44 and a housekeeper. Belanguer has two kids in school and works at a warehouse.

Butteur, 33, also has two children and bounced around - Orlando, Michigan, Haiti.

Since 1999, the family visited Haiti when they could. Amiot was a loyal Aristide supporter, leading a pro-Aristide street gang called the Cannibal Army. But by 2002, the relationship had soured.

Amiot was arrested and jailed on charges of setting fire to homes of opposition leaders. While Aristide denounced Amiot, his supporters drove a bulldozer into the Gonaives jail, freeing him and 150 other inmates.

Riots broke out, and Amiot appealed for calm. He then went into hiding.

Sept. 22, a Metayer relative in Haiti called to say Amiot's body had been found on a country road. His eyes and heart had been carved out, a sign of voodoo rituals, the Metayers said.

Butteur, who was in Miami at the time, flew immediately to Haiti to avenge his brother's death. "We need justice for my brother," Belanguer recalls Butteur saying before he left.

The family was convinced Aristide ordered the killing. The Cannibal Army allegedly got weapons from Aristide to terrorize his opponents.

Metayer's family and other gang members accused Aristide of ordering Amiot's assassination to stop him from giving damaging information about the president, including ties to drug dealers. Aristide denied those charges.

Butteur immediately assumed command of his brother's army, soon renamed the Artibonite Resistance Front. The situation in Gonaives rapidly disintegrated, and some said Butteur's tactics were just as cruel as paramilitary operations in previous years.

The Times of London reported that Butteur's army "left the rotting bodies of dead policemen to be eaten by wild pigs and have taken several other towns in the interior, where they murdered more policemen."

Butteur sometimes sported a Hyatt Orlando golf shirt and bands of bullets across his chest. He challenged Aristide openly during press conferences at the family home.

Aristide, said Butteur and the other rebels, had become corrupt, relying on armed gangs and siphoning money away from the poor, away from schools, giving it to his supporters.

Eventually, the rebels took over Gonaives. Other cities soon followed. With rebels poised outside the nation's capital, Port-Au-Prince, Aristide resigned Sunday, feeling to exile in Africa.

Back in Orlando, Metayer and his sister also have gratitude for another person: President Bush.

"I don't know how to thank him" for encouraging Aristide to get out, said Gertrude Metayer.

With Aristide gone, they feel justice has been served for Amiot's death.

Butteur has told his family he doesn't want to be a part of the new national government, though he has declared himself in charge of the central Haitian district of Artibonite, which includes Gonaives. They hope he will visit them in Orlando in a few weeks.

They're planning a hero's welcome.

- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

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