The UN Security Council has approved a resolution that imposes sanctions on Jimmy Chérizier, leader of a powerful gang federation in Haiti, who is accused of threatening the country’s peace, security or stability.
It also places a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo on Chérizier and would establish a committee to designate others to be put on a sanctions list.
The resolution comes nearly two weeks after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and his Cabinet requested deployment of foreign troops to help end Haiti’s deepening crisis, a request that the UN is still mulling.
Chérizier and the federation he leads, known as “G9 Family and Allies,” have blocked the entrance of a main fuel terminal in the capital of Port-au-Prince for more than a month as fuel, water and other basic supplies grow scarce amid a cholera outbreak.
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UN Security Council unanimously approves Haiti sanctions, measures on gang leader
The gang has said it would not budge until Henry resigns, but in a video recently posted on social media, Chérizier, who is nicknamed “Barbecue,” called on the government to grant him and G9 members amnesty and to void all arrest warrants against them.
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Thousands protest in Haiti against Canada, U.S. sending police and military supplies
The government has not responded as police struggle to contain gangs that have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
Here’s a look at Chérizier’s life and rise to power:
Chérizier is a former officer with Haiti’s National Police who worked with the Departmental Crowd Control Unit, which is deployed when there are riots or protests and has been accused of excessive force. He has since become what many consider Haiti’s most powerful gang leader.
Chérizier told The Associated Press in a 2019 interview that he was born in the Port-au-Prince community of Delmas, next to La Saline slum, one of eight children whose father died when he was five.
Leader of the “G9 and Family” gang, Jimmy Cherizier, better known as Barbecue, shouts slogans with his gang members after giving a speech, as he leads a march against kidnappings, through the La Saline neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 22, 2021.
Matias Delacroix/AP file photo
In mid-2020, the gang alliance was accused of killing at least 145 people in Cite Soleil and raping multiple women “in efforts to claim areas held by rivals with ties to Moïse’s political opponents,” according to the Harvard report.
“Residents believe they were targeted for their political affiliations, in an effort to secure electoral support for (Moïse) and his party,” the report stated, adding that “G9 reportedly enjoys ties to both the Moïse administration and (Haiti’s National Police).”
Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network has echoed those allegations, stating that local police have helped protect Chérizier even while he supposedly committed crimes.
In December 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department issued civil sanctions against Chérizier and others believed to be involved in the massacres, accusing gangs of removing “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.”
Chérizier has repeatedly denied any involvement in the massacres, saying he is a community leader who helps residents and is leading an “armed revolution,” adding that he would “put guns in the hands of every child if we have to.”
“I would never massacre people in the same social class as me,” he told the AP. “I live in the ghetto. I know what ghetto life is.”
Since mid-September, Chérizier and his allies have surrounded a key fuel terminal in Port-au-Prince, refusing to move until the prime minister steps down.
But after Haiti’s government requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops, Chérizier announced that he was seeking amnesty and the removal of all arrest warrants against him and his allies.
