Jimmy Chérizier, alias “Barbecue,” is one of Haiti’s most prominent gang leaders. A former police officer turned gang commander, he burst onto the scene in 2020 after founding G9 and Family (G9 an Fanmi e Alye), a federation of armed groups that quickly seized control of large sections of Port-au-Prince.
Barbecue, who has historically maintained strong ties with powerful political forces, has gradually shifted from being the dominant gang boss in Port-au-Prince to acting as the public face of a broader gang alliance, known as Viv Ansanm (“Living Together”). Although this role has helped him boost his profile internationally, his territorial control and operational hegemony appear to have waned as ambitious gang leaders have risen within the Viv Ansanm coalition.
History
Barbecue served as a Haitian National Police officer until he was dismissed in 2018 over his involvement in multiple extrajudicial killings.
In November 2017, he participated in a supposed anti-gang operation that led to the extrajudicial killing of at least nine civilians in the Grand Ravine neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
A year later, in November 2018, while still a police officer, Barbecue allegedly led a group of seven gangs in a massacre in the La Saline neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Witnesses reported seeing Barbecue speaking with a former government official and other gang leaders during the attack.
Barbecue was fired a month later, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He evaded capture, however, and led further violent attacks in Port-au-Prince’s Bel-Air neighborhood in 2019.
In May 2020, Barbecue was linked to further attacks in the capital, in which Barbecue and his gang members incinerated houses and burned or shot residents to death. Before the massacres, Barbecue and allied gang leaders allegedly held a “preparatory meeting” to “organize simultaneous attacks” across several Port-au-Prince neighborhoods, Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (Réseau National de Défense des Droits de l’Homme) revealed.
The attacks were an immediate precursor to the formation of G9 and Family. Although Barbecue promoted it as a force to restore order across Port-au-Prince, the G9 functioned as a state-aligned enforcer, employing violence to suppress opposition and control extortion, kidnapping, and fuel distribution routes.
His network was allegedly backed by then-president Jovenel Moïse. According to accusations by human rights observers, Moïse’s government provided money, weapons, vehicles, and protection to Barbecue and his allies during prior state-sponsored gang massacres.However, in 2021, Barbecue and the G9 faced a turning point when Moïse was assassinated in his private residence.
A senior government official told InSight Crime that before Moïse’s assassination, 50% of the G9’s funding came from government money, 30% from kidnappings, and 20% from extortion. However, after the president’s murder, government funding dropped by 30%, the same source said.
Barbecue attempted to reassert influence in 2021 and 2022 by staging multiple blockades of Haiti’s largest oil terminal, Terminal Varreux, paralyzing the country and destabilizing the government of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
By late 2023, Barbecue had rebranded himself as a proto-revolutionary, posting videos denouncing Haiti’s elites and foreign interference. That September, he announced the formation of Viv Ansanm, a political-militant alliance bringing together G9 with their former adversaries,G-Pép, to form a united front aimed at ousting Henry. Barbecue cast the group as an insurgency against “the current system… of corrupt oligarchs and corrupt traditional politicians.”
Soon after its formation, Viv Ansanm launched coordinated attacks on government facilities and shut down Haiti’s airports and seaports, trapping Henry abroad and effectively forcing his resignation. Barbecue took credit for the attacks, declaring them to be part of his stated goal of overthrowing the government and derailing international support.
In June 2024, the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission was dispatched to Haiti and tasked with dismantling gang networks and restoring security. Authorized by the United Nations (UN) and largely funded by the United States, the force was led by Kenyan police. Since the MSS deployment, Barbecue has remained a vocal opponent of international efforts to dismantle gang control in Haiti.
In November 2024, MSS forces mounted an assault on Barbecue’s base. Barbecue escaped, but the raids captured some of his key lieutenants and forced retreats from Port-au-Prince strongholds like Lower Delmas, La Saline, and Martissant.
Since the attacks, Barbecue has kept up his vocal and bellicose opposition to the Haitian government. In August 2025, he threatened to attack the prime minister’s office and other government buildings before the swearing-in of the nation’s interim leader, though the gangs only managed to block streets near these sites and ambush armored vehicles carrying MSS forces.
Criminal Activities
As leader of the G9, Barbecue stepped in as a peacemaker to quell internal divisions and mobilized gangs to commit targeted killings. He has long acted as a bridge between the capital’s gangs and state officials, allegedly bringing both parties together to commit state-sponsored massacres.
The gang’s money-making activities are largely focused on extortion. They take “protection payments” from local businesses, street vendor stands, and public transportation drivers. They also carry out kidnappings for ransom. In other cases, the gangs have taken over the provision of public services such as electricity or water.
Barbecue’s allies may also be involved in regional arms trafficking, although this remains unclear. Previously, state officials have provided gangs with weapons to carry out targeted massacres. Barbecue has been a key intermediary in this process.
Since the birth of Viv Ansamn, Barbecue has sought to position himself as the alliance’s de facto spokesperson. He has leveraged international media coverage of the coalition’s coordinated attacks to front political demands and issue fiery communiqués to further destabilize the country’s brittle interim government.
But Barbecue’s involvement in Viv Ansanm has also obliged him to relinquish his role as the G9’s undisputed leader. Instead, he now shares power with other gangs, including 5 Segonn and Kraze Baryè, believed to rival Barbecue in Delmas 6, the Port-au-Prince neighborhood that serves as his main base of operations, in both manpower and reach.
Geography
Barbecue’s influence has long extended across multiple neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. But his stronghold remains Lower Delmas, home to his Delmas 6 gang.
His territorial control has been contested in recent years, with gangs like 5 Segonn and Kraze Baryè reportedly expanding into areas once controlled by Barbecue and the G9, including the Artibonite region and the southern peninsula, where the state has little to no presence.
Allies and Enemies
Barbecue originally united nine gangs under the G9 federation and has since expanded his alliances through Viv Ansanm, which includes formerly rival gangs such as Kraze Baryè and 5 Segonn, Grand Ravine, and the 400 Mawozo – all linked to the G-Pèp gang coalition, set up in 2020 to counter the G9.
Truces among rival gangs under the Vive Ansanm alliance initially reduced inter-gang warfare in Haiti, allowing the gangs to focus their energy on attacking state forces and the MSS. However, infighting has re-emerged in areas as truces fell apart.
Barbecue’s ties to Haiti’s powerful PHTK (Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale) party have been instrumental to his ambitions for securing G9 territory in Port-au-Prince and protecting it from law enforcement.
Rival G-Pèp, meanwhile, expanded its influence through connections with the PHTK’s and Barbecue’s political opponents— notably the Lavalas movement (now known as the Struggling People’s Organization), linked to ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Prospects
Barbecue remains one of Haiti’s most influential gang leaders, though his role appears to be shifting towards the political arena while other gangs within the Viv Ansanm coalition expand their territorial control and power relative to Delmas 6.
This evolution has coincided with intensifying pressure from international actors. The UN Security Council and US Treasury sanctioned him in 2020 for human rights abuses and destabilizing Haiti. In May 2025, his Viv Ansanm coalition was labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In August 2025, he was indicted for funneling money to Haiti to finance his gang and purchase weapons in violation of US sanctions.
As diplomatic pressure mounted, the MSS seized stretches of the coastline and port areas and pushed into Barbecue’s stronghold, establishing a base in an abandoned police building in Delmas. Together with Haitian police, MSS has also secured the airport and National Port, weakening his control of key transport hubs.
Despite these disruptions, Barbecue can still mobilize gang actions on short notice, as shown by the threats and attacks around the swearing-in of Haiti’s interim leader in late July 2025.
