REIGN OF FIRE
How fired cop became infamous super-gang boss dubbed ‘Barbecue’ who ‘burns victims alive’ in world’s most dangerous city
Barbecue is rumoured to have gained his nickname from burning victims alive
HAITI'S capital is descending into an all-out civil war and at the eye of the storm is a former cop who goes by "Barbecue".
Jimmy Chérizier, the most powerful gang boss in the disaster-struck city of Port-au-Prince, is taking to the streets with a new vengeance and a plan to overthrow the government.
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The fired cop-turned-warlord is head of the city's most fearsome gang coalition, known as the "Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies" - or G9 for short.
It contains a collection of at least a dozen of the 200 merciless gangs that control up to 90 per cent of the city.
Together with his gun-touting loyal fighters, Barbecue has for years helped tear the city apart, inflicting terror, sexual violence, torture and lawlessness.
But since Thursday, he has ordered a new vicious wave of coordinated attacks inside Port-au-Prince that have caused unimaginable scenes of violence.
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Dozens have been killed, two jails have been emptied, over 4,000 dangerous inmates are roaming free and riots against the government have engulfed the city.
A state of emergency has been declared and Haiti's minimal police force is battling to control the worst of the violence sweeping across the capital.
But who is the one man at the centre of all the bloodshed?
Barbecue - who is rumoured to have earned his nickname for setting his victims on fire - envisions himself as a "revolutionary", a self-professed "man of the people".
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His methods, however, involve the killing, maiming and extorting of anyone unlucky enough to fall within his grip, turning every day into a constant battle for survival for residents.
The former elite police officer has been accused of leading numerous large-scale massacres inside Port-au-Prince's poorest neighbourhoods.
He is currently sanctioned by the UK and its allies for "engaging in acts threatening the peace, security and stability of Haiti".
And his influence is fast increasing as the country spirals into further turmoil sparked by the 2021 assassination of the country's Prime Minister Jovenal Moïse.
Ever since, a security vacuum opened up and Barbecue has been greedily exploiting it, taking over territory and expanding his coalition with other gangs to wage further war.
G9 has also been responsible for repeatedly cutting Haiti off from its much-needed fuel supply by taking its main oil terminal hostage.
In a savage display of strength, Barbecue paralysed the country several times by preventing the distribution of food, water and vital medicines, plunging it into a deeper humanitarian crisis.
Past massacres
Born close to one of the city's worst slums, La Saline, Barbecue was one of eight children, whose father died when he was five.
He still insists his nickname was not inspired by his brutal methods but from his mum being a fried chicken street vendor.
He joined up to the Haitian National Police in his late teens and rose through the ranks into an elite unit.
In 2017, he participated in a supposed anti-gang operation that led to the killing of nine innocent civilians.
And while still serving as an active police officer, Barbecue led one of the country's worst massacres in a decade in 2018 in his old neighbourhood.
The four-day killing spree inside La Saline slum led to 71 deaths.
Barbecue was fired from the police force a month later and a warrant was put out for his arrest.
Haiti officials were later implicated in the attack after being found to have financed and helped arm the gangs.
Barbecue evaded capture and in November 2019, took part in another massacre in the Bel-Air neighborhood, setting houses ablaze and killing at least 24 people.
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But the shantytown of Cité Soleil has become the main battleground of Port-au-Prince's urban war.
In 2004, the UN called it “the most dangerous place on earth”. Today, it’s worse.
A shantytown of tin and violence, the neighbourhood is home to a quarter of a million people. The police barely dare to enter and all state services have shut down.
Flanked on either side by the powerful and warring G-9 and G-PEP coalitions, fighting regularly erupts onto its cramped streets and death is a daily reality.
From May to July 2020, Barbecue - with alleged help from government officials - organised simultaneous attacks in the Cité Soleil slum during the election period.
It led to the brutal murders of 145 people who were shot and burned to death, the destruction of 98 homes and the mass raping of women.
And in July 2022, 470 people in Cité Soleil were killed in 10 days of violent clashes as the G9 coalition attempted to expand their control of their slum. Raping, killing and burning houses as they went.
Haiti's National Police has barely 9,000 “overstretched, under-equipped and outnumbered” officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the UN.
They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned by the powerful gangs.
Last year, the UN said more than 8,400 people were victims of gang violence last year, which included killings, kidnappings, sexual violence double the numbers seen in 2022.
New attacks
Barbecue has his eyes and all his balaclava-clad, motorcycle-driving gangsters now set on overthrowing the government of Haiti, the Western hemisphere's poorest nation.
"All of us, the armed groups in the provincial towns and the armed groups in the capital, are united," said the former police officer.
He has been calling for coordinated attacks to remove interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry and also to capture Haiti's police chief.
Henry replaced Moïse in July, 2021 - but no elections have taken place since 2016 and the presidency technically remains vacant.
The politician was due to stand down on February 7, however planned elections were not held and he has remained in post.
In response, Barbecue is calling people to the streets to help his bid to forcefully remove Henry and launch bolder attacks on state institutions.
He has already claimed responsibility for his fighters storming both Haiti's main prison on Saturday and a second on Sunday, releasing another 1,400 inmates.
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Henry has shrugged off calls for him to resign - despite repeatedly postponing elections - and didn't comment when asked if he felt it was safe to come home.
He had travelled to Nairobi on Thursday to discuss the UN sending a Kenya-led multinational security force to help Haiti, kicking off the upsurge in violence.
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