Who is Jimmy “Barbacoa” Chérizier, the powerful leader of the Haiti bands that the United States accuses of criminal charges

But who “barbecue” and why the United States wants to capture it?

“There is a good reason why there is a reward of US $ 5 million for information that leads to the arrest of Chérizier,” said US prosecutor Jeanine Pirro at a press conference on Tuesday.

“He is a criminal leader responsible for atrocious human rights abuse, including violence against US citizens in Haiti,” Pirro added.

Prosecutors suspect that Chérizier played a key role in the massacre of La Saline, a neighborhood of Puerto Príncipe, in which dozens of people died in a coordinated police attack and criminal groups against the local population to, according to the United States Treasury Department, “repress political dissent.”

There were at least 71 dead and 7 raped.

Chérizier has always denied all accusations.

“I am not a gangster, I will never be,” Al Jazeera told an interview in 2021. “It is the system that I am fighting. That system has a lot of money and has control of the media. Now they make me look like it was a gangster,” he added.

Since then, according to the accusation, he has not ceased in his illegal activities, with the help of his alleged accomplice Richardson, a nationalized American Haitian who resided in North Carolina until he was captured by the authorities.

He is accused of financing the criminal company of Cherizier and raising funds for this purpose among the Haitians of the United States.

Chérizier, a plundering now becoming a criminal chief, has established himself as one of the main figures in the wave of gang violence that has shaken Haiti in recent years.

According to the United States and the United Nations Security Council, it is responsible for serious human rights violations in Haiti. For that reason, Washington and the UN imposed sanctions.

Since the murder in 2021 of the then president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, who plunged the country into an still open institutional crisis, the power and influence of Cherizier have not stopped growing.

Chérizier went on to have a more leading role in promoting a revolution against the “corrupt” political elite of the country.

And one of his favorite tools has been social networks, which he has used to spread his message and capture followers for his armed organization.

A usual question about chérizier is the origin of his nickname.

He has said in interviews that is because his mother sold chicken through the streets.

But, according to some witnesses of Haitian violence, it is because it usually burns the houses and bodies of its victims.

Although it began as a police officer, Chérizier became the leader of the so-called G-9 and family, an alliance of some of the most dangerous bands in one of the most violent countries in the world.

The extension of the pact with rival bands led to the formation of the widest Viv Ansanm, whose front has remained chérizier.

Together with other powerful criminal organizations -among them the 400 Mawozo, the band to which the kidnapping of a group of 17 American and Canadian missionaries were attributed in 2021 -, the G9 and family contributed to the Haitian chaos with chérizier to the helm.

Born in Port Príncipe 48 years ago, nor the sanctions that the United States has imposed against him or any authority in his country have managed to control it.

But Chérizier's criminal career began when he was a policeman and was involved in the death of nine civilians, who fell within the framework of what was presented as an official operation against the mafias in Grand Ravine, a neighborhood of Puerto Príncipe, in November 2017.

From that moment on, its relationship with the gangs operating in the country also began. First with Delmas 6, where it became one of its main spokesmen.

According to local and international reports, Chérizier managed to obtain the power of that gang thanks to favors of the Police and the Moïse government.

And as a police officer allegedly committed some of the atrocities for which he was later sanctioned in international instances.

During 2018 and 2019, Chérizier was allegedly involved in other brutal attacks in other places in Port -au -Prince.

“The criminal gangs are better equipped than the police and have the protection of the authorities,” Pierre Esperance, director of the Haitian NGO National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, told BBC, in an interview conducted in 2021, explaining the context of impunity in which Chérizier operates.

With that power, Chérizier began a bloody battle for the territorial control of Puerto Príncipe, where a series of massacres were committed that sowed terror not only in the capital but throughout the country.

According to the network for the protection of human rights in Haiti, the actions of Chérizier and his armed group not only included the executions of people, but the burning of the residences of those who were the object of the attacks.

By June 2020, and taking advantage of the reigning chaos, Chérizier promoted the union of nine gangs in the group that finally baptized as G-9 and family. The announcement did it through its YouTube channel.

But the president's murder in 2021 was a break point for his organization, according to international analysts, because he led him to lose the protection of the government.

According to the Insight Crime portal, before Moïse's murder, 50% of the G-9 financing came from the government's money, with 30% from kidnappings and the remaining 20% collected through extortion.

However, after murder, government financing fell 30%.

That supposedly motivated Barbecoa to boost his battle against people who had inherited the political control of the country.

In October 2021, the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who remained in charge after the murder of Moïse, was prevented from depositing a crown of flowers in a monument because he strongly armed members of the Chérizier band appeared suddenly and shot into the air.

Dressed in an impeccable white suit and flanked by his men, the gang leader proceeded to deposit a crown of flowers in the monument, in an extraordinary demonstration of strength.

Chérizier is also accused of leading sabotage actions against fuel supply in the country, and his men blocked several gasoline shipments as a pressure measure against Henry's government.

Gasoline scarcity aggravated the humanitarian situation in Haiti.

His G-9 band has also been fighting a bloody war with G-Pèp, a rival band that, it is reported, is linked to the parties that opposed the murdered president Moïse.

The shootings and battles for the territory between the two groups are common and have spread from the poorest neighborhoods to the center of Port -au -Prince.

All this under the extension of their strategies in networks to not only communicate their objectives, but also to attract more followers to their ranks.

What has been seen in the streets of Puerto Príncipe has also moved to the field of social networks, where Chérizier has consolidated a strong influence.

“The bandits would never be as powerful as they are in Haiti without social networks. We have always had criminals, but without those platforms they would not be so famous,” said Yvens Rubold, from the Policité Thought Center, to the newspaper The Washington Post.

This premise has been used by Chérizier to implement its plan. Not only did he use his account on the YouTube video platform to communicate the creation of the G-9 but also to ask the police to arrest the then Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry.

But that is not his only network. In X (Antigua Twitter) he has also made energetic calls to take the country and dismiss the current ruling class.

The networks have even served to spread images of bodies after executions through WhatsApp or to request support for the cause through viral messages on Instagram or Tiktok.

In fact, it was Chérizier who talked about the importance of social networks in an interview on his YouTube channel.

“I thank those who create these technologies. Technology today gives us the opportunity to approach and introduce ourselves to the public. I am not selling lies,” he said to the question of a follower.

“I am the one I say. I do not do 99 percent of what they said I did … the technologies gave me the opportunity to defend myself,” he added.

* This note made with reporting by Vanessa Buschschlüter was originally posted in March 2024 and updated after the US criminal imputation against Chérizier.

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