Port-au-Prince, Mar 3 (EFE).- Jimmy Cherisier, alias Barbecue, the head of the most powerful armed gang coalition in Haiti, assured that dialogue is the only way to eradicate violence in the country.
“The only thing that can get this country out of the situation it is in, is dialogue. Let us sit down together to discuss what we want,” Cherisier said on Monday.
However, in the same video posted on social media, he also threatened with a “bloody response” to the police operations against him.
“Today is Mar. 3, 2025. Be prepared for the response when it comes. Reaction must be stronger than action. Expect my violent responses,” he warned.
The leader of the gang coalition Vivre Ensemble, also addressed civilians: “To those who have nothing to do in the streets, I ask you not to go out on the streets in the coming days. I have nothing to lose, I have everything to gain.”
According to Cherisier, he was nearly killed during a police and military operation on Saturday against his fiefdom in Bas de Belmas, Port-au-Prince.
“They dropped two bombs. The first one hit me, and the second one aimed to finish me off,” said the former policeman turned gang leader.
“One of my lieutenants pushed me to the ground and fired at the drone, which fell and exploded,” he added.
Alluding to the circumstances of the attack, unveiled by Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, Barbecue assured: “I came out of your attack alive. I was saved by my and Mikanor’s (Cité-Soleil gang chief) lieutenants.”
Barbecue said there were “some” dead and injured, including adults and children, in the Haitian National Police drone operation, whom he promised to bury.
He insisted that killing gang leaders in Haiti would not get the country anywhere.
Cherisier repeatedly insulted the general director of the Haitian Police, Rameau Normil, who, according to him, “lost his dignity to keep a job.”
In 2024, according to data verified by the United Nations, at least 5,626 people died in Haiti as a result of the actions of criminal gangs (a thousand more than the previous year); 2,213 were injured, and 1,494 were kidnapped. EFE
mm/ags/mcd
