An armored bulldozer known as “Satan” destroying houses in Lower Delmas on Nov. 24. Photo: Haïti Liberté.
By Kim Ives -Nov 27, 2024
The Haitian National Police (PNH) this past week stepped up their attacks on Delmas 6, the stronghold of Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, who is the leader and spokesman for the Viv Ansanm (Live Together) coalition of neighborhood armed groups.
In an hours-long battle on Thu., Nov. 21, PNH armored cars managed to kill two of Cherizier’s soldiers and capture a Kalashnikov rifle. Breathless, hyperbolic press reports and social media posts reported that Cherizier had been killed and the neighborhoods he controls – Delmas 2, 4, and 6 – overrun.
However, a few hours later, Cherizier, in both a TikTok live broadcast and a WhatsApp video statement (his two favorite modes of public communication these days), explained that the PNH tanks had “bothered” the perimeter of his neighborhoods, aggravating him to the point that he had taken up a weapon himself to start firing at the giant armored vehicles.
This impetuous act, he reported, had so alarmed some of the other Viv Ansanm leaders that they had called him by phone to ask him to please be prudent, fall back, and not risk his life.
Despite his own losses, Cherizier managed to capture three PNH rifles, which he proudly displayed in a video the next day.
However, the PNH offensive was not over. On Nov. 24, fourteen PNH armored cars and two armored bulldozers – which Viv Ansanm soldiers have nicknamed “Satan 1″ and “Satan 2″ – indeed penetrated into lower Delmas, destroying a car, an electrical pole, and damaging some buildings in Delmas 6.
The often-fact-creative Haiti Info Project of Kevin Pina, a California-based activist and supporter of the PNH and U.S.-sponsored Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission of 430 mostly Kenyan mercenaries now in Haiti, falsely reported that the PNH “forced Jimmy ‘BBQ’ Cherizier to flee Baz [sic] Delmas, Kenyan troops followed with armored demolition vehicle and leveled entire block including the gang leader’s home.”
Such rumors, including another report that Cherizier had been killed, were echoed across social media.
In a TikTok live broadcast that same evening, Cherizier gave the true account of what had happened, showing his undamaged Toyota Prado SUV and intact three-story home for the over 5,000 viewers.
During the same live broadcast, he paused to receive a delivery of ammunition from some cops. They sold it to him, he said, with half paid down, and the other half would be paid the next day, he said. He demurred from showing either the cops or the ammo to his audience. The sale shows how divided the police are in their loyalties.
The PNH returned in their tanks the next day, Nov. 25, but did not penetrate the neighborhood. At one point, over the objections of his security detail, Cherizier stood in the middle of an empty street to film a Whatsapp video message with the sound of heavy gunfire echoing around him. He said to his men and the Whatsapp audience “I am not afraid because they’re just firing from their armored cars. They never set their feet on the ground. If you [PNH and Kenyans] want to fight, let’s fight. If you want to lie, keep lying.”
These attacks came just days after Cherizier held a press conference on Nov. 18, the 221st anniversary of the battle of Vertières in which Haitians won their independence from France.
He read a statement in which the Viv Ansanm called for the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) to be replaced by a judge or judges from Haiti’s Supreme Court, as Haiti’s Constitution prescribes.
“The criminal, corrupt politicians” connived with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken set up and populate the TPC and thereby “continue to trample on the 1987 Constitution and hold in contempt the judicial power… Viv Ansanm says clearly, this blow will not pass. The 1987 Constitution will stop being trampled on, the judicial power (Supreme Court) will stop being scorned. For the last 40 years, the thieves in the Palace, the thieves in the Prime Minister’s house, and the former thieves in Parliament have destroyed Dessalines’ country, and they want to blame it on Viv Ansanm… The judicial power does not suffer from legality or legitimacy problems. Therefore, in the name of ‘the principle of legality and legitimacy,’ Viv Ansanm declares, today Mon., Nov. 18, 2024, that the executive and legislative branches do not exist in Haiti. If they existed, they would listen to the people’s voice… [and] would take the path of dialogue for peace… Viv Ansanm declares that it only recognizes the judicial power, only the Judiciary does not suffer from illegality and illegitimacy.”
One week later, on Nov. 25, the Viv Ansanm issued another statement, this one announcing that all of the coalition’s leaders promised to allow all Haitians, from across Haiti and its diaspora, to move freely throughout the country without being stopped, asked to pay a toll, or bothered in any way.
“Good evening, my name is Krisla, I represent Viv Ansanm,” the message begins. Krisla is the leader of the armed group in the Ti Bois neighborhood of Carrefour, also known as Fontamara. “We ask all Haitians and the diaspora to enter the country as you wish. Walk in any ghetto, as you wish. National Police, you can go anywhere, as you wish. The country is for the Haitian people. We tell all Haitians that they are free in their nation. All the areas of Fontamara, pass through them whenever you want.”
The same message was repeated, in different variations with a jaunty mobilization music underneath, by 14 other Viv Ansanm leaders: Ti Lapli (Grand Ravine), Chen Mechan (Croix des Missions), Lanmò Sanjou (Croix des Bouquets), Perse (Lower Belair), Luckson Elan (Savien, Artibonite), Micanord (Wharf Jérémie), Jeff Gwo Lwa (Canaan), Mathias (Boston/Cité Soleil), “Keni Boiy” (Anba Lavil), an unidentified leader, Iska (Belekou/Cité Soleil), Manno (Bisantnè), Jimmy Cherizier (Lower Delmas), and Izo (Village de Dieu).
Historically, over the turbulent past four decades since Jean-Claude Duvalier’s fall in 1986, December is a month when there is a de facto political truce in Haiti. Demonstrations and even armed struggle tends to abate. Haitians from the diaspora come home for the holidays. Although the U.S. FAA has stopped flights from flying to Port-au-Prince, it is now possible to fly into Cap Haïtien on several airlines. There are also land routes to Port-au-Prince from the Dominican Republic.
At press time, neither the TPC, the new Prime Minister Alix Fils-aimé, the PNH, the MSS, nor the U.S. Embassy have made any response to either of the Viv Ansanm declarations.
Kim Ives
Journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio and television commentator.
