Haiti's notorious gang leader, Barbecue, says his forces are ready for a long fight

Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now runs a gang federation, Odelyn Joseph/AP hide caption

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Odelyn Joseph/AP

Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now runs a gang federation,

Odelyn Joseph/AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The gangs in Haiti can't be ignored. This weekend they took the streets in their neighborhoods in a show of force. I saw dozens of heavily armed men, some wearing balaclavas in the blazing Caribbean heat, with handguns, with assault rifles with machetes.

And Jimmy Chérizier, Babekyou in Haitian Creole - or Barbecue - is one of the most powerful and notorious gang leaders. He's the leader of the G9 gang - a federation of gangs.

He is the man who convinced many of Haiti's gangs to stop fighting each other and start fighting the government. The alliance of rival gangs is known as Viv Ansanm, or "Living Together."

Over the past two months, they've attacked government installations, brought down a prime minister and nearly paralyzed the capital city. Haitian's have largely been left to fend for themselves.

In 2020 he was put on sanctions list by the U.S. Treasury and another sanctions list by the United Nations in 2022. He stands accused of human rights abuses, including taking part in massacres, against many other charges.

Who is Barbecue?

We met Barbecue in Delmas, the neighborhood he controls in Port-au-Prince, and talked for over an hour. He arrived in a brand-new Land Cruiser and had a boy on his knees cleaning his flip-flops.

47-year-old Barbecue used to be a police officer. He worked for a squad called the Unité départementale de maintien d'ordre. He led operations against the gangs and were responsible for quelling any unrest. Members of the unit were accused of shooting protestors dead. But he told me that eventually he had what he called "an awakening."

He claims the system made him who he is. As a policeman, he told me, he learned that politicians created the gangs, that they used them and the police to do their dirty work, to target their business rivals and their enemies. And so he started fighting against the political elite to try to change the system.

Girls holding hands are led past a burnt car blocking the street as they evacuate the Delmas 22 neighborhood to escape gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 2, 2024. Ramon Espinosa/AP hide caption

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Ramon Espinosa/AP

Girls holding hands are led past a burnt car blocking the street as they evacuate the Delmas 22 neighborhood to escape gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 2, 2024.

Ramon Espinosa/AP

What did Barbecue say about his role in the violence?

We spent much of the interview talking about his part in the violence and mayhem. According to a recent U.N. report, in the first few months of 2024 approximately 2,500 Haitians were killed or injured in gang violence.

Barbecue argues that the gangs are fighting against the rich, who have exploited this country. I told him that's not what I've seen. In Haiti I told him, the gangs are extorting poor people, women are getting raped, houses have been burnt. Words he didn't refute.

"Everything you say right now is true." He said." But all of the extorsion and all of the mistreatment is because the government allowed those things to happen"

Essentially, he told me, the government, the elite in Haiti, have allowed this situation to happen. To create chaos and to remain in power.

Police patrol the Champ de Mars area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Ramon Espinosa/AP hide caption

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Ramon Espinosa/AP

Police patrol the Champ de Mars area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

Ramon Espinosa/AP

He also had a message for Washington. He said that Washington carried some "responsibility" for the situation in Haiti. For not letting Haitians to decide their own future for themselves.

The US, CARICOM, the association of Caribbean nations and other regional powers helped establish a nine- member transitional council to pave the way for elections. The U.S. called the installation of the Council a "critical step toward free and fair elections."

But in Barbecue's view, "the transitional council is not the will of the Haitian people. This is what Washington wants," he told me, "and this is what they have imposed."

Barbecue on the imminent arrival of the Kenyan led multinational force

Barbecue said they are preparing for a long fight. He says he expects a lot of bloodshed and eventually, he told me, the international forces will get tired and they will leave. I asked him if he expected to survive.

"My life depends on God and my ancestors", he said. "If the Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines worried about his life, Haiti wouldn't be free today. "