Haiti - How America Created A Nightmare (Part 3)
Rise of a charismatic psychopath
It’s 2017, The Haitian government and elites are funding various street gangs to carry out their interests. They’re now committing massacres and burning down entire neighborhoods. For now it’s not that big of an issue, you could still walk the streets of Port-au-Prince and be relatively safe. Unfortunately, that about to change.
“Have we started a fire? Yes, the fire rises”
Rise Of A Charismatic Psychopath
Jimmy Cherizier aka “Barbecue” was a police officer in Port-au-Prince. He was in a special unit called UDMO, a more militarized force of the police that deal with things like protests and bolster regular police presence. In 2017, a force of around 200 Haitian Police and UN officers and raided the Grand Ravine area of Port-au-Prince. This was a United Nations led mission to supposedly go after a gang. During the mission, some of the police officers pushed to the Maranatha Evangelical College campus nearby and executed a number of civilians. The UN would deny their involvement in these killings with this statement:
“The reported civilian death[s] were not part of the planned operation but of a unilateral action conducted by some [Haitian police] officers after the conclusion of the operation.”
Cherizier is alleged to have been one of the officers that participated in the killings.
La Saline Massacre
In 2018, the town of La Saline was leading protests against US backed President Jovenel Moises. On November 13 , 2018, armed gangs led by Cherizier carried out a massacre on the town. At least 71 people were killed, some were burnt alive in their homes. According to a report by Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic: “In the weeks before the attack, two senior officials from Moise’s administration Pierre Richard Duplan and Fednel Monchery met with Cherizier.”
This massacre would earn him the nickname “Barbeque”.
After the La Saline Massacre, Barbeque got kicked out of the police force. The Jovenel Moise administration would keep using Barbeque against any opposition against him. Anytime the Haitian police would try to go after Barbecue someone would tip him off and he would leave the area. Barbecue formed his own gang while he was still an active police officer called Delmas 6 Gang (“Delmas” are a series of neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince).
A quote from the Harvard report:
To date, the Haitian government has failed to hold perpetrators accountable, allowing them to act with near complete impunity. Known perpetrators such as Chérizier, who is implicated as a principal actor in repeated attacks, remain free. Moreover, the government has failed to reckon with the criminal responsibility of officials and police officers within its ranks. Duplan and Monchéry remained in office for almost a year after the 2018 La Saline attack, and prosecutions have failed to progress. Police officers implicated in the attacks have not been brought to justice. Despite indications that Moïse himself has sanctioned the attacks, his role remains unscrutinized by any official investigation. This lack of justice has allowed a culture of impunity to grow, emboldening criminals and leaving civilians vulnerable to politically-motivated violence.
G9 Alliance
Psychopathy aside, Cherizier is actually a very charismatic leader. He would go on to unite 9 gangs including his own to form a super gang called the ‘G9 alliance’ a play off of the G20.
If you want to see visuals of these neighborhoods and figures, Vice actually did a great mini documentary on all of this and interviewed Barbeque 2 years ago:
Cherizier is also a pretty high IQ individual that understands media. In all of his interviews he skillfully portrays himself as a victim and a righteous revolutionary. His interviews actually gets people to support his cause and question the allegations against him.
The Fire
The Haitian government and elites have created a fire by funding and arming these gangs. Unfortunately, that same fire would go on to burn all of their faces. The more weapons and power these gangs commanded the more they started acting on their own and pursued their own interests, sometimes even acting against the government.
To be continued.