The United States has unsealed criminal charges against Jimmy Cherizier, the feared Haitian gang leader known as “Barbecue”, accusing him of financing and arming an alliance of gangs that has held Port-au-Prince hostage for years.
The indictment alleges that Cherizier and US citizen Bazile Richardson, 48, raised money from the Haitian diaspora in the US to pay gang members and buy firearms — in open violation of US sanctions. Cherizier, a former police officer, now commands Viv Ansanm (Live Together), a gang coalition accused of murders, kidnappings, and crippling attacks on infrastructure. The US has placed a $5 million bounty on his head.
“This is a man responsible for heinous human rights abuses, including violence against American citizens in Haiti,” said US Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Prosecutors link Cherizier to the 2018 La Saline massacre, where 71 people were killed, over 400 homes burned, and at least seven women raped.
Richardson — also known as Fredo, Fred Lion, Leo Danger, and Lepe Blode — was arrested in Texas last month. Prosecutors say the naturalised American, who grew up in Haiti, funneled funds directly to Cherizier’s operation.
Viv Ansanm, which has controlled most of the capital since around 2020, was designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in May. In a bold move earlier this year, the gang even declared itself a political party.
Despite being sanctioned by the UN, Canada, Britain, and the US, Cherizier remains in power, protected by heavily armed loyalists. His grip on Port-au-Prince has contributed to the collapse of health services, an explosion of gang warfare, and a deepening food crisis affecting more than half of Haiti’s population.
A UN-backed, Kenya-led intervention force has so far failed to wrest control of the city. Meanwhile, over 1 million Haitians are internally displaced, and 5.7 million face acute food insecurity in what the UN calls one of the hemisphere’s worst humanitarian disasters.
