Murals in the poor Haitian slums he rules compare him to Argentine guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
In interviews, he poses as a God-fearing Caribbean Robin Hood, praising freedom fighters and agitators such as Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara and Malcolm X.
“I love Martin Luther King, too,” says Haitian gang boss Jimmy Chélisier. Said New Yorker journalist John Lee Anderson met him last year. “But he didn’t like fighting with guns, and I fight with guns.”
The stunning gang-led rebellion against the Haitian government has catapulted Cherisier, a 47-year-old rifle-toting mobster, into international headlines. History suggests that he enjoyed this place.
The Haitian outlaw has emerged as the main spokesperson for the gang revolt against Prime Minister Ariel Henry over the past five years. welcomed a series of foreign journalists He has come to his gangland territory, hoping to legitimize what he calls a bloody but noble crusade to protect the starving urban poor of his homeland.
“I’m not a thief. I’m not involved in kidnapping. I’m not a rapist. I’m just engaged in a social struggle,” Chéridier said last year outside his home, which had bullet holes in it. He told The Associated Press while sitting in the office.
in 2022 interview In Vice magazine, Chéridier called his ragtag favela army “a sociopolitical structure and force that fights for the weak.”
The truth about Chélisier according to experts – a simply known figure Babekyou (Barbecue) – Much more complex and less tasty.
Born in the 1970s during the brutal and corrupt reign of Baby Doc Duvalier, Cherisier has previously said she was one of eight children and lost her father when she was five years old. The children grew up with his mother, who sold fried chicken on the street in Delmas, one of the run-down communities in Port-au-Prince where he now operates.
Chéridier said he was given the nickname Barbecue because of his mother’s profession, but many argue that the real reason was his habit of incinerating his victims.
Before establishing himself as the kingpin of Haiti’s most influential gang, Chéridier was a member of the country’s national police.he is a member accused incident in which a protester was shot dead.
The motto of the Haitian Police is “Protect and Serve” – to protect and serve. But Mr. Chérisier, who has publicly expressed his admiration for Baby Doc’s father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, apparently does not respect those values.
He was removed from the force in 2018 for his alleged involvement in a series of crimes, including a horrific massacre in a slum called La Saline that year in which 71 people were killed, seven women were raped, and 400 houses were torched. Exiled.
Cherizier, who heads a coalition of gangs called G9 Family and Allies, has denied any wrongdoing. However, the former police officer is facing sanctions from both the United States and the United Nations for his alleged crimes. The G9 controls some of Port-au-Prince’s largest slums and most important highways, and Chéridier has paralyzed the country on several occasions, cutting off gasoline supplies and forcing the closure of schools and hospitals.
“He is a criminal businessman,” said Louis-Enri Mars, director of the Haitian nonprofit Rakou Lappé.
“In 2020, I and other peacemakers went to see him and asked him to stop attacking the Bel Air area. [in Port-au-Prince] And he made some promises,” Maas added. “But he still continued to burn down people’s homes. He listens, but ultimately does what is in his best interest.”
Mr Maas spoke to the Financial Times compared The gang went to the volcano, which is always ready to erupt. “He’s charismatic and he’s a thinker, but he’s also a violent person.”
Like many Haitian crime bosses, Cherisier has high-level political connections. He was rumored to be close to former president Jovenel Moïse, whose assassination in 2021 paved the way for the current unrest.
Some suspect that Mr. Chéridier has political ambitions of his own.
“Barbecue is charming and just a natural politician…I knew it right away when I met him.” [he] It was a force to be reckoned with,” said Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay. I have written After the encounter in 2023.
“He considers himself a revolutionary fighting against the dark corruption of the government and the oligarchs, but make no mistake, he is a gangster through and through.”
Diego Da Rin, a Haiti expert at the International Crisis Group, said Chérisier’s attempt to portray himself as a benevolent albeit iron-fisted defender of the ghetto was not completely unfounded. . “He gives presents to women on his Mother’s Day. He gives money to families who cannot afford to send their children to school. But people know that he is [also] He is one of the main people responsible for the nightmare they are living in,” Da Lin said.
That nightmare plunged to new depths this week when Chéridier announced he had led a major gang attack on Henry’s government and ordered armed groups to take to the streets to sow chaos. Since the attacks began on February 29, criminals have torched dozens of businesses and police stations, forced the closure of an international airport, released thousands of hardened criminals from prison, and laid siege to ports. did.
Henry, who was in Africa when the rebellion began, has not said anything and has not been able to return home.
“Unfortunately, Barbecue is currently the most powerful person in Haiti,” said Judes Jonassas, an independent consultant based in Port-au-Prince.
