Haiti’s most feared gang leader, known as ‘Barbecue’, has threatened to overthrow the country’s prime minister amid a surge in gang violence that has thrown the Caribbean nation into turmoil.
A state of emergency was declared after thousands of “dangerous” prisoners broke out of Haiti’s two biggest jails over the weekend. Gangs carried out a series of coordinated attacks, resulting in at least a dozen deaths.
These heavily armed groups are led by Haiti’s most powerful gang boss, Jimmy Cherizier.
Cherizier, also known as “Barbecue”, is a former officer in the Haitian National Police (HNP). He used to work for the Unit for the Maintenance of Order, who are called upon during times of unrest or protests.
READ MORE: How ruthless mob leader got his barbaric nickname Barbecue
However, he was dismissed from the police force in 2018 after allegedly masterminding the massacre of dozens of people in the La Saline neighbourhood, according to the United Nations. This four-day horror saw 71 people killed, 400 homes destroyed and at least seven women were raped.
The notorious gang leader has been hit with sanctions from both the United Nations Security Council and the US Treasury Department. Cherizier was born in Port-au-Prince’s Delmas next to the slums of La Saline and is one of eight children.
His dad passed away when he was just five years old. The gang leader says his nickname “Barbecue” comes from his mum, who used to sell fried chicken on the street.
But some people say it’s because of the terrible things he’s been accused of doing, which left people burned.
Since 2020, he’s been in charge of a powerful group of gangs in Haiti called the G9. They are thought to have more weapons than the police in Haiti.
The group started with nine gangs from Cite Soleil, La Saline and lower Delmas but has since grown to include more than a dozen.
Cherizier calls them a “revolutionary force”, who want to fight against rich officials and for better rights for poor people. But Cherizier has been accused of leading them in violent attacks.
In 2020, the US Treasury Department said he planned and took part in an attack in La Saline in 2018. They said gang members took “victims, including children, from their homes to be executed and then dragged them into the streets where their bodies were burned, dismembered and fed to animals”.
The department also said Cherizier led “coordinated, brutal attacks” in Port-au-Prince in 2018 and 2019. They said that in 2020 he planned a five-day attack in several neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince where homes were set on fire and many people were killed.
In 2021, the UN accused him of threatening Haiti’s “peace, security and stability,” as well as “planning, directing or committing” serious “human rights abuses.”
Cherizier has an outstanding warrant out for his arrest for his alleged role in the 2017 Grande Ravine massacre, which killed at least nine people.
In 2022, the G9 blocked the entrance to the vital Varreux fuel terminal, which supplies most of Haiti’s oil. The UN has said the group “have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and humanitarian crisis” in the country.
President Jovenal Moise, whose administration was accused of corruption, allegedly turned a blind eye to Cherizier’s rise in power. But following his assassination in July 2021, the country has been in turmoil as gangs cause terror on the streets.
Gang violence has continued to wreak havoc under the rule of Ariel Henry, who took over as prime minister following President Moise’s assassination. Tensions have mounted since he broke his pledge to step down and hold elections by February 7.
Sunday’s prison breaks came as Henry was in Kenya signing a security deal to tackle the escalating gang violence in the country. But in response, Cherizier has called on gangs to work together to overthrow the prime minister.
“We ask the Haitian National Police and the military to take responsibility and arrest Ariel Henry. Once again, the population is not our enemy; the armed groups are not your enemy. You arrest Ariel Henry for the country’s liberation,” he said.
Cherizier has said no to taking part in massacres and says he is a fighter for change. “We are fighting for another society another Haiti that is not only for the 5% of the people who keep all the wealth, but a new Haiti where everyone can have food and clean water, so they can have a decent house to live, another Haiti where we don’t have to leave the country,” he told Al Jazeera in 2021.
He added: “I’m not a gangster. I never will be a gangster. It’s the system I’m fighting against today. The system has a lot of money; they own the media. Now they try to make me look like a gangster.”
