Barbecue, the former police officer turned leader of a powerful gang that plagues Haiti

With his automatic weapon slung over his shoulder, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, a former police officer who likes to present himself as a revolutionary, heads one of the most powerful gangs in Haiti, which does not hesitate to attack key infrastructure and demand the heads of the elites.

The leader of the “G9 Family” gang alliance is one of the public figures behind the escalation of violence in recent days in the Caribbean country, devastated by a security, humanitarian and political crisis.

Haiti’s armed groups, often divided and fighting to expand their respective territories, announced last week that they were joining forces against the government. Since then they have attacked strategic places such as airports, police academies and prisons, from which thousands of detainees have escaped.

“It is not about a small group of rich people who live in big hotels deciding the fate of the inhabitants of popular neighborhoods.”Chérizier declared on Tuesday before the press, surrounded by hooded men.

“We must unite. Either Haiti becomes a paradise for everyone or a hell for everyone,” added this 46-year-old former police officer, who threatened a “civil war” if Prime Minister Ariel Henry does not resign.

It was not the first time he attracted attention.

In 2022, at the head of the G9 alliance, he blocked the country’s main oil terminal for months, paralyzing fuel distribution and plunging Haiti further into chaos.

This episode sparked calls for a multinational force to assist Haiti’s overwhelmed police forces, a mission that has yet to be carried out.

“Burnt, dismembered bodies”

And as a sign of its influence, “Barbecue” was the first to appear in October 2022 on the list of the brand new UN sanctions regime against Haitian gangs (travel ban, asset freeze, selective arms embargo).

But, despite everything,continues to commit acts that threaten the peace, security and stability of Haiti”, commented in September the UN committee of experts in charge of supervising the sanctions.

Their report details the criminal activities of the various gangs that control entire swaths of the country, particularly the capital.

For the “G9 Family” and its more than 1,000 members, mostly former police officers, former security guards and street children, the list is long: murders, robberies, extortions, rapes, targeted killings, drug trafficking, kidnappings, arson, among others.

These experts also point to Barbecue’s involvement in the “Saline massacre”, which occurred in 2018 in Port-au-Prince, which left 71 dead in a few days in the neighborhood of that name.

The gangs, sometimes used by authorities to quell protests in popular neighborhoods, “took victims, including children, from their homes to burn them, dismember them, and feed them to animals,” the US Treasury Department described at the end of 2020. , when he decided to sanction Chérizier.

According to that same source, the gang leader received the support of two senior officials in the government of President Jovenel Moïse, assassinated in July 2021 in Port-au-Prince.

Barbecue, a fan of posting videos on social networks, rejects the accusations against him.

“I’m not a gangster, I’ll never be a gangster“, he declared in 2021 during an interview with the Al Jazeera channel, to which he said that he fights “by another company”.