Cherizier, a former elite police officer who now leads the Haitian "G9 and Family" gang, has been in control of the thousands of gunmen wreaking havoc on the country, many of whom were broken out of prison last week in an organized attack in Port-Au-Prince.
The G9 Family already controlled many of the slums and streets of the capital.
“Unfortunately, Barbecue is now the most powerful man in Haiti,” Judes Jonathas, an independent consultant based in Port-au-Prince told the Guardian on Sunday.
Chezier has vowed to continue the violence until Henry resigns.“I am ready to make an alliance with the devil, ready to sleep in the same bed as the devil,” Cherizier stated last week, according to New York Post.
A state of emergency was declared on March 4 and a curfew was implemented in Haiti in response to a series of coordinated attacks across the capital, targeting the country's international airport, Central Bank, national soccer stadium, and two of its largest prisons where gang members were held.
The attack on the National Penitentiary was the most devastating, resulting in almost all of the 4,000 incarcerated inmates being set free.
Barbecue has insisted that his violent efforts are noble and that his goal is to overthrow Henry and get help for Haiti's famished poor population.
“I’m not a thief. I’m not involved in kidnapping. I’m not a rapist. I’m just carrying out a social fight,” he told the Associated Press last year.
In a 2022 interview with Vice, Cherizier said his gang was “a sociopolitical structure and force that is fighting on behalf of the vulnerable."
However many local Haitians do not see him as any type of hero.
“He is a criminal businessman,” said Louis-Henri Mars, director of the Haitian non-profit Lakou Lape.
“In 2020 me and other peace-builders went to see him to ask him to stop his assaults on the Bel Air neighbourhood [in Port-au-Prince] and he made some promises,” Mars added. “But he still continued burning down people’s houses. He listens, but in the end he does what is in his best interest.”
US troops have evacuated American citizens from the US Embassy in Haiti as of Sunday and additional forces were brought in to secure the building in Port-Au-Prince.While Henry remains sheltered in Puerto Rico for the time being, Luis Abinader, the president of Haiti's neighboring country the Dominican Republic, warned the prime minister was not welcome there.
“Given the current situation, the presence of the Haitian prime minister in the Dominican Republic is not considered appropriate,” Abinader said in a statement Saturday. “This decision reflects the firm position of the Dominican government to safeguard its national security and stability.”
Henry retracted his pledge to step down as prime minister in early February, saying that the security of Haiti needed to be re-established to ensure fair elections by 2025.
