Jimmy Chérizier, alias Barbecue, a former police officer turned into leader of a coalition of criminal gangs in Haiti, has denied in a brief video the rumors about his death that circulated on social media after a police operation in his stronghold in the lower part of Port-au-Prince.

RELATED:

Haitian Police Union Leader Calls for Increased Support Amid Gang Violence

“We’re still alive (…). The office of the Prime Minister (Haitian Alix Didier Fils-Aimé) has issued a statement saying that this was an operation. Gentlemen, was there an operation in Bas de Delmas?” Barbecue asked his lieutenants, who answered in unison: “No, boss.”

In a short video, Barbecue questioned the operation that the government said it carried out the previous day, but he did not mention several of his men who, according to Fils-Aimé, were taken down during the attack by the Haitian National Police (PNH).

“There would be much joy,” Barbecue said smiling when referring to whether the rumors of his death were true.

The criminal leader stated that “if you teach the animal to throw stones, do not feel pity for him after these actions,” while threatening retaliatory measures against the institutional offensive. According to Barbecue, after the assassination of the Haitian president, Jovenel Moise, “anyone can suffer the same fate in the country.”

“In fact, they launch drones. I didn’t know they had explosive drones. And now I know they have explosive drones, get ready. Those same explosive drones will make you cry. They are sold everywhere. You just need to have money,” declared the main leader of Haitian criminal gangs.

“I have brothers all over the world and I would have money to buy them (the drones). Get ready, don’t forget that I say force must be proportional. You have used drones with explosives to kill me, I can use explosive drones to kill anyone in the country,” threatened the gang leader.

So far, there are no figures related to the operation carried out yesterday in Bas de Delmas, the stronghold of the Vivre Ensemble (Live Together) gang coalition.

Prime Minister Fils-Aimé stated yesterday that “several bandits” from the armed gangs operating in Port-au-Prince were taken down and specified that large-scale operations are being carried out in the Bas de Delmas area.

“The task force created by the Prime Minister’s office and the (Transitional Presidential Council) CPT is fully operational in the lower part of Delmas, in the stronghold of gang leader ‘Barbecue’, as he is known,” Fils-Aimé wrote on his X account.

IN THIS ARTICLE