On May 2, the U.S. State Department formally classified the Viv Ansanm (Let’s Live Together) Political Party, formed from a coalition of armed neighborhood groups in the greater Port-au-Prince region, as well as the Artibonite Valley-based armed group Gran Grif (Big Claws), as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”
Under the new designation, individuals, including U.S. permanent residents and citizens, as well as entities “providing material support or resources to Viv Ansanm or Gran Grif could face criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the official statement.
“Terrorist designations play a critical role in our fight against these vicious groups and are an effective way to curtail support for their terrorist activities,” he said.
The Trump administration’s sharpened stance raised questions about whether it was closer to considering U.S. military intervention in Haiti, a path proposed by former U.S. Ambassador to Haiti James B. Foley in a Miami Herald op-ed in December.
“Trump is opposed to endless wars and pointless expenditures of U.S. lives and resources overseas,” Foley wrote. “But he also revels in demonstrations of strength… A Trump-ordered intervention to rescue the population will be brief, successful, and applauded. A small U.S. contingent, after freeing key infrastructure in Port-au-Prince from gang control, could rapidly give way to private military contractors who would support the Kenyan mission until the arrival of a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation. Biden could never sell such an intervention. Trump can — and should.”
The Kenyan mission Foley refers to is the Multinational Security Support mission (MSS), a mostly-U.S.-funded international police force of about 1,077, of which about 800 officers are Kenyan. Although approved by the UN Security Council, it is not an official UN “peace-keeping operation.” The force is underfunded, undermanned (target size was 2,500), demoralized, and ineffective. The Kenyans have had three casualties to date.
In response to Washington’s designation, Haiti’s hugely-unpopular nine-member Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) applauded the move, saying “the United States’ recognition of domestic bandits and their international accomplices as terrorists constitutes a major step forward in the fight against terrorism in the country. This paves the way for more concrete action, not only against local bandits, but also against their international allies.” The CPT did not specify whom it believes the Viv Ansanm’s “international accomplices” and “international allies” are.
Ironically, on May 5, the principal leader and spokesman of Viv Ansanm, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, issued a three-part 29-minute extemporaneous statement explaining that a coup d’état was in the works against the CPT.
Cherizier began by saying to that he was addressing Samuel Joasil, a policeman with the General Security Unit of the National Palace (USGPN), who rocketed to fame this spring as the leader organizing the barricades in his Canapé Vert neighborhood (near Pétionville) to ward off the Viv Ansanm. He was the key speaker at several giant rallies held there, but it was his call to take over the Primature (Prime Minister’s Office) and chase out the CPT that really grabbed people’s attention.
“I, Barbecue, saw myself in Samuel,” Cherizier began. “When I saw Samuel stand up as a big brigadier [leader of a vigilance brigade] defending his neighborhood [Canapé Vert], even though I was in Viv Ansanm, I saw myself in him, because there was a time when I too was a brigadier, defending Lower Delmas, protecting the businesses there, and protecting Lower Delmas so guys didn’t overrun it and do whatever they want there…
“So I said ‘Wow,’ even though he was against me. You’ll notice I never mentioned Samuel’s name… because I saw that he was defending his neighborhood. As I said, I too was a brigadier, in my area, watching out for bad guys, except that I didn’t do like Samuel did. If you came into the area, we would question you, ask you who you were coming to see in the neighborhood, we would call them, and if they said you were a good person, we’d let you go, and if you weren’t a good person, we’d hold you. And I didn’t judge somebody by their face. If they had dreadlocks, some guys would say he’s a bandit, but I would say to them, we can’t kill someone who might be innocent. He might be covered with tattoos and have dreadlocks, he might be from Cité Soleil or from Canaan, but he might not be in a gang. We would kill someone for no reason. And I would take the guy and send him on his way.
“When I saw Samuel speaking, I said, very well, he’s defending his neighborhood, I’m not going to comment or criticize him…
“When Samuel launched a movement to attack the government, I said ‘Wow,’ now I really see myself in him. I said I have to contact a guy like that Samuel to talk to him. And I did this without even talking to the other guys in Viv Ansanm… Today I’m speaking from my heart…
“I spoke to Samuel on Apr. 1 at 11:32 pm,… and we spoke for more than an hour and a half…
“I offered him advice, as someone older: don’t let them kill you, expect this, if you don’t do this you might die, one spoke to the other… There wasn’t a single general in Viv Ansanm who knew about this talk.”
Then on Apr. 16, 2025, a giant rally that planned to march on the Primature and CPT gathered in Canapé Vert, but something had changed. Samuel called off the march, saying there was an ambush on the route and he didn’t want people to be killed. People in the crowd, on radios, and on social media afterwards were very angry and disappointed.
Furthermore, for the first time, Samuel uncovered his face and gave a radio interview, and it was with Rudy Sanon, a journalist who works very closely with Pierre Espérance, the head of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH).
Espérance has a reputation as a political strongman, whose accusations can destroy the career of a policeman or politician. He is very close to the U.S. Embassy and financed in large part by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA cutout. Espérance has been one of Cherizier’s foremost antagonists since 2018.
“On Apr. 16, when Samuel got on top of that truck and I heard him say: ‘Who am I for Pierre Espérance to praise me, who am I for Rudy Sanon to speak well of me?’… That was like a huge slap across my entire face, because I was counting on Samuel. From that point, on I started to do research… I have to find out what happened, and what I discovered was this.
“There is no movement in Canapé Vert anymore. People, you can forget about thinking that Samuel is going to lead you up to the Primature and struggle against the CPT. That’s not going to happen. And who recuperated Samuel? It was first of all Pierre Espérance, who then spoke to Rudy, and then Rudy spoke to Samuel. It was above all Rudy who mostly spoke to Samuel, but Pierre Espérance told Rudy what to do.”
“There was money involved,” Cherizier continued. “The money has been split up. There is a policeman who got $1 million gourdes, which is $200,000 Haitian [US$7,652].”
“But Pierre Espérance also gave Samuel a lot of pressure,” Cherizier said. “Pierre Espérance clearly told Samuel: ‘Do you want to end up like Barbecue? You will end up like Barbecue, where you can’t travel, I can have them put international sanctions against you.’ And let’s note that even before they put Viv Ansanm on the terrorist list, Pierre Espérance was always talking about us as terrorists, so those sanctions are primarily the work of Pierre Espérance.
“So Samuel was greatly pressured by Pierre Espérance and largely through Rudy Sanon… Pierre Espérance said they could put out a warrant for him,… they could make him out to be a gang, or even a terrorist as they are doing today against Viv Ansanm.”
But, in addition to the stick, there was a carrot. Espérance, according to Cherizier, told Samuel that “you have the possibility to take power.”
“Pierre Espérance put the idea of power into Samuel’s head,” Cherizier said. “He said to Samuel ‘The Primature [Prime Minister’s office] has no problem with you. They will give you the means to give to Canapé Vert’s people.’ What kind of means? They sent a bunch of new guns, which were supposed to be for the Haitian National Police, which were purchased in the name of the Haitian National Police, and the Primature took them.
“Pierre Espérance put the idea of power into Samuel’s head”
“Next they took the Secretary of State for Public Security, Mario Andrésol, who now has the mission of recruiting all the guys manning the brigades. They are volunteers, and they don’t know how much their salary will be, so Andrésol will use those brigade members, whom Samuel will command. So the brigades will be under the Primature.
“They will use these [brigade members] to fight against Viv Ansanm. Pacha Vorbe [a leader of the Lavalas Family Party] sent a number of armored cars, and as soon as they are prepared, Samuel will get a police armored car, and with that Samuel will begin to attack Viv Ansanm. There is no more any question of assaulting the Primature.”
But fighting the Viv Ansanm is only the first step in the plan, Cherizier explained. “Pierre Espérance told Samuel that when you have the materials in hand, we’ll go after the nine thieves [i.e. the presidential councilors formed as the CPT], and we’ll use other policemen who are assigned to guard the nine thieves. Then we’ll tie them up, some we’ll arrest, others we’ll execute. And when that plan is carried out, Pierre Espérance said to Samuel that ‘you will take power with Rudy Sanon.’”
“Now Samuel had enough courage to say to those guys that ‘I’m not at the level where I could be President,’” Cherizier continued. “But Pierre Espérance told Rudy Sanon to tell Samuel ‘you don’t have to be afraid, because we will be standing behind you,… and we guarantee you that nothing can happen to you, because we will be advising you.’”
“The only small discussion that there was between Pierre Espérance, Rudy Sanon, and Samuel: they didn’t know whether they would keep [Prime Minister Alix Didier] Filsaimé or make a tabula rasa with Filsaimé and put him completely out. But since Filsaimé is close to Pierre Espérance and [former Democratic Popular Sector (SDP) leader and Primature kingpin] Nènèl Cassy is close to Pierre Espérance, Filsaimé and Cassy are the same as Rudy Sanon. So it is a classic coup d’état that those guys are carrying out. That is the plan of Nènèl Cassy, Didier Filsaimé, Pierre Espérance, and Rudy Sanon to take power, but they are using Samuel.”
Cherizier made a number of predictions after his exposition. He said that “they will cut the head of Rameau Normil from the start,” that is remove him as the chief of the Haitian National Police (PNH). He also wondered “now that I’ve denounced their plan, whether they will come up with another plan, another strategy.” He also warned two other prominent anti-government leaders: “[Former Senator elect and coup leader] Guy Philippe’s people, Samuel is not with you. [Former USGPN chief] Dimitri Hérard’s people, Samuel is not with you.” Pierre Espérance has also, ironically, accused both Philippe and Hérard of planning coups, Cherizier noted.
Above all, Cherizier predicted that “there will be a big fight” when Samuel attacks the Viv Ansanm. “The Viv Ansanm will put its foot down completely… It isn’t even fighting with 30% of its force now.”
He then reviewed some of the battles Viv Ansanm has had with brigades in recent months.
“Every area that you see that Viv Ansanm has attacked is an area that had a brigade that took money from the Primature to block our way” to march on the seat of power, Cherizier said. “I’ve already explained Solino. I wasn’t lying. Lionel Dumé, alias ‘Fòs,’ took money from the Primature to fight me. He took money from the bourgeois who have businesses on Delmas to not let me go up Delmas… They wanted to block me – when I say block me I mean Viv Ansanm, because by myself I’m nothing – they said stop Viv Ansanm so that it won’t get to Delmas.
“In Delmas 30, there is a policeman called Angelo, who if you are from Lower Delmas, he kills you. He took money from the markets, from the businesses.
“There’s a police in Delmas 19 named Scott… It’s the brigades which cause those areas to be attacked. Don’t fool yourself. The brigades keep a number of young men and women hostage so they can’t speak…
“We know how it works. A guy sets himself up as a zone’s leader, and they set up a brigade, and they kill young people from other areas. Then they take money from the government and the bourgeoisie and then the brigade doesn’t let people pass, the area gets targeted, and then the area is victim. I know it’s not everyone in the area, but remember when there’s fighting, guns are fired, and there is always collateral damage.”
It was almost wistfully that Cherizier closed his presentation. “For people who are thinking that Samuel will fight for you, no, Samuel is going to fight with Viv Ansanm so as to build up his popularity, so that then he will go after the nine thieves. Samuel bowed to Pierre Espérance’s and Rudy Sanon’s pressure. Samuel has gone under the wing of Pierre Espérance.”
