Who is Jimmy Charizier aka “Barbecue”, the gang leader in Haiti who is plunging the country into chaos?
He has been terrorizing Haiti for years and is now openly seen as the leader of a revolution that wants to oust the prime minister. Jimmy Charizier, nicknamed “Barbecue”, threatened to start a civil war that would lead to genocide if Ariel Henry did not resign. Who is this gang leader, a 46-year-old former police officer?
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Some call it “ The most powerful man inHaiti ” And at the moment, this qualifier is not far from reality. The violence incited by his men prevents the Prime Minister from returning to the country, creating a power vacuum that Jimmy Charizier intends to take advantage of.
This former police officer is the leader of the most powerful gang known as “G9 and family”. He also dislikes the word gang and prefers to talk about it. armed group ” However, the “G-9 and family” are largely responsible for the violence that has engulfed the country since 2020.
You will get support from the authorities
Ever since the former president was assassinated Jovenal Moise In July 2021, Jimmy Charizier called for a revolution against the country’s political elite, some members of which nevertheless supported him in his criminal activities. According to UN experts, Moise was given money and weapons by a section of the government and the police. With his men, he controlled the majority of the capital’s poor neighborhoods, with anti-government attitudes.
According to the site Insight Crime, until the assassination of Jovenel Moise, half of the financing of “G9 at Family” came from the Haitian authorities. After July 2021 financial aid will be reduced by 30%. Still according to Insight Crime, the “barbecue”, to protest against the interim government of Ariel Henry (appointed after the assassination of Jovenel Moise) and perhaps “ Regain lost political and economic influence “, began operations to block the Varreux terminal, Haiti’s largest oil terminal, causing a nationwide gasoline shortage. Today, it is difficult to know whether “Barbecue” is still supported by political and economic figures like other gang leaders. .
From policemen to gang leaders
Before asserting himself as the leader of a criminal group, Jimmy Charizier served as a police officer. And it is in this role that he begins his rise in the gang world. Still a police officer, he was one of those responsible for the La Saline massacre. More than 70 people were killed in 2018 during a joint operation between police and gangs in this poor neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Another massacre follows in 2020: this time, “Barbecue” officially becomes the gang leader.
A testament to its influence, it is the first to join the new sanctions regime in October 2022.UN Against Haitian gangs – travel bans, asset freezes and targeted arms embargoes. The UN expert committee lists the criminal activities of the “G-9 and family” and its thousand members: murders, thefts, extortion, rape, targeted killings, drug trafficking, kidnapping and arson.
Speaking of fire: The nickname “Barbecue” comes from the fact that Jimmy Charizard likes to burn the houses and corpses of his victims. Targeted by sanctions from Washington and the UN, it presents itself on social networks as a revolutionary, automatic weapon slung over its shoulder. Moreover, Haitian media have often published his videos and statements, often without putting them in context.
What future for barbecue?
Now at the head of an alliance of gangs, the man who killed so many people claimed that he ” Liberation of the Haitian people ” Denying all the criminal charges against him, he does not consider himself a gang leader, a gangster, but a defender of working-class neighbors, a kind of “Haitian Robin de Bois”. An image he portrays on his YouTube channel or on digital platforms such as TikTok. It is also there that he recruits new members and initiates calls to overthrow the government.
What will be the fate of the international force when it arrives in Haiti? No one knows. “Barbecue” warned that she would only be welcomed back if she arrested Ariel Henry and “ If it helps us restore order ” In the meantime, the number of victims of the gangs that control almost all the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince is constantly increasing. In one week, the La Paix University Hospital in Delmas 33 received more than 68 people wounded by bullets.
