Overview:
A video that includes Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier surfaced Saturday evening, refuting unverified reviews of his dying and disputing authorities claims of a safety operation in Delmas 6. The footage was launched hours after Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé introduced a government-led operation focusing on gangs in Bas-Delmas. Whereas the federal government reported neutralizing a number of gang members, officers didn’t affirm any motion towards Chérizier.
NEW YORK – A video circulated Saturday evening that includes Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, the chief of the G9 and Allies gang federation, disputing unconfirmed reviews of his dying and difficult authorities claims of a significant safety operation in his stronghold within the Delams 6 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
The video was posted hours after Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé introduced on X, previously generally known as Twitter {that a} process power created by the federal government and the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT), had carried out a large-scale operation in Bas-Delmas ensuing within the neutralization of a number of gang members.
Wearing all black, Chérizier recorded the video at 7:16 p.m., stating the date and time to counter hypothesis about his situation. Within the footage, he dismissed authorities claims of an assault on his stronghold and requested people off-camera –—whom he known as his “troopers”—whether or not an operation had taken place. Voices within the background responded that no such occasion had occurred.
Earlier within the night, Fils-Aimé declared the operation a hit, stating that the federal government process power was already yielding outcomes inside 48 hours of its formation. Following his announcement, unverified reviews circulated suggesting that Chérizier had been shot, severely injured or probably killed. Nonetheless, the Haitian Nationwide Police (PNH) didn’t affirm these claims, and the federal government didn’t state that Chérizier was amonf these neutralized within the operation.
In one other a part of the video, Chérizier mocked the federal government’s offensive and claimed he has entry to the identical drones and new ammunition authorities used within the alleged assault. He additionally issued a warning stating was ready to reply with power.
Ongoing instability in Port-au-Prince
The operation comes amid escalating gang violence in Port-au-Prince, the place armed teams have tightened their management over varied elements of the capital. Chérizier, a former police officer turned highly effective gang chief, has been a central determine in clashes invoving gangs and safety forces. Authorities have linked him to a sequence of violent incidents, together with kidnappings and assaults on rival teams and regulation enforcement. Chérizier has lengthy evaded regulation enforcement regardless of being one in every of Haiti’s most needed males. He was below investigation by the PNH for orchestrating massacres, kidnappings, and widespread extortion in Port-au-Prince.
His gang coalition controls massive sections of the capital, tightening its grip over key neighborhoods by means of brutal violence and strategic alliances. Beneath his management, armed teams carried out lethal assaults, together with the 2018 La Saline bloodbath, the place dozens of civilians had been slaughtered. Chérizier can also be accused of main coordinated offensives towards rival gangs and safety forces, additional destabilizing the town.
Since February of final yr, Port-au-Prince has been in a state of near-total paralysis as a result of escalating violence from gangs. Their alleged prison actions have instilled a local weather of terror that impacts all sectors of exercise within the nation. The human toll has been devastating, with each civilians and cops falling sufferer to gang violence. These gangs have focused hospitals, colleges, and business banks, and have set hearth to no less than a dozen police stations and substations.