For the bourgeois media’s narratives, they need to keep it simple, like a comic book. Law-abiding vs. criminal. Noble vs. cynical. Generous vs. ruthless. Good guys vs. bad guys.
This is the template that the capitalist-owned media, both Haitian and international, have used effectively in Haiti for the past five years, so effectively that many on the so-called “left,” supposedly opposed to bourgeois misinformation, disinformation, and fairy tales, are incoherent and confused.
Their villains are “the gangs” – lawless, violent, brutal, ignorant bands of young men, who rape, rob, massacre, and terrorize for power and money. Their heroes are the “forces of order” – heroic policemen, whether Haitian or Kenyan, trying to defend the people and uphold the law.
As Haïti Liberté’s director Berthony Dupont explained in an Oct. 30 editorial entitled “Shame on Imperialism’s Accomplices in Haiti,” the reality is far more complex.
“Not long ago, Port-au-Prince’s working-class neighborhood of Bel-Air was in the headlines of Haiti’s news, presented as being the victim and target of attacks of other neighborhoods,” he wrote. “For reasons that have never been elucidated, Bel-Air suddenly lost all the compassion shown to it.” Of course, it was never highlighted that “this neighborhood was under the tight control of the Democratic Popular Sector, [SDP, the party of lawyer André Michel who was the right-hand of and] close to former Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government.”
All the romanticization and spin that Bel-Air once enjoyed is now being lavished on Solino, an adjacent neighborhood to both Bel-Air and Lower Delmas, the base of former cop Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, the longtime bogeyman of both Haiti’s bourgeoisie and U.S. imperialism. Today he is the leader and principal spokesman for the Viv Ansanm (Live Together) coalition of armed neighborhood committees that ousted Henry from power on Feb. 29 and is the target of the Multinational Security Support mission (MSS), a U.S.-funded, UN-blessed mercenary force.
The mainstream media paints Cherizier as aggressing Solino, much as it paints Vladimir Putin’s Russia as the aggressor against Ukraine. Take the Oct. 26 Associated Press’ report for example: “A gang coalition on Saturday reinforced its attacks on one of the few communities in the Haitian capital not under the control of criminal groups, seeking to take it over,” reads the lede. “Gangs control 80% of Port-au-Prince, although communities like Solino have been fighting attempts by gunmen to seize control.”
On Nov. 2, Haïti Liberté interviewed Cherizier to get his side of the story.
“In recent years, I had very good relations with the cops in Solino,” Cherizier began. “There were a lot of policemen in Solino who were in UDMO [Departmental Unit for the Maintenance of Order] with me. Although I had very good relations with some of the cops in Solino, there was a group of policemen who were involved in robbery and gangs. Some of them were doing crimes and kidnapping with Kempès Sanon,” who was the don of Bel-Air, the previously lionized neighborhood which was often at war with Cherizier’s Lower Delmas. Kempès had been jailed for life for kidnapping before he escaped prison in 2021, returning to Bel-Air.
“There arose a dispute between this group of crooked cops with Kempès over kidnapping money…. There was some kidnapping money that [the Solino cops] had collected, but a policeman named ‘Secret l’Enfer’ – I don’t have his real name – took the money and escaped with it, cutting out Kempès.
“Because this deal went bad, fighting started between Kempès and Solino. The most famous kidnapping that these Solino cops did with Kempès was of the owner of a market on Nazon, a mulatto… Kempès kidnapped him… It’s a market whose name changes often. It’s something like Sasha Market. But two Solino policemen were involved in the kidnapping: one named ‘Ti Bobo’ and another named Beethoven. They both went with Kempès on a motorcycle, with Kempès in the middle, to collect the money for the kidnapping.”
In early February 2024, Haïti Liberté filmed in Solino, visiting a barricade which had been erected to defend against attacks from Kempès Sanon’s men from Bel-Air. About a dozen armed men – mostly policemen we were told – were stationed by the barricade with long guns.
“Those were the same guys who were working with Kempès,” Cherizier told Haïti Liberté, “and all those barricades and that fighting was over kidnapping money that they were disputing… At that point, Solino was only fighting with Kempès.”
“I used to fight with Kempès when we had the G9, that was before Viv Ansanm [which was founded in September 2023 but didn’t really take hold until Feb. 29, 2024]. I didn’t want Kempès to take Solino, and all the guys in the G9 used to send help to Solino… We sent 15 guys with long guns, to sleep overnight there. We sent money – about 250,000 gourdes [$1,900] – to buy cement, cinderblocks, and sand to build defenses to keep Kempès’ guys out.
Haïti Liberté asked Cherizier if the Solino cops also helped him when he was fighting Kempès Sanon.
“No, they never helped me,” he replied. “Never. Instead of helping me, they were doing kidnapping with Kempès. Because I put barricades in all of Lower Delmas so that when Kempès kidnapped people, he wouldn’t have a road to pass through [our neighborhood]. But what those cops did with Kempès is that when he kidnapped someone, they would let him pass through Solino.”
Cherizier’s troubles with Solino began in 2023. “I had a young guy [in our armed unit] named Djab. He was from Solino. His mother lived in Solino. When my guys went to help Solino fight, he came with my guys when they were returning to Delmas 6, he followed my guys and returned here with them. When he was going to see his mother one evening, I gave him $2000 Haitian [$76US], and he said ‘I’m going to take $1000 to my mother.’ But when he took the $1000 to his mother, a policeman named Eric along with other guys from Solino captured [Djab], killed him, and burned him. That happened in 2023. All the cops from Solino told me that it was a mistake, think of all I’d done for Solino, they didn’t want to have a fight with me, let’s reconcile, let’s forget about that, let’s resolve this, so I discussed with them, and we resolved that without fighting.”
But then there was a case of jealousy run amok.
“Later in 2023, they took a young woman who was passing through Solino, and they accused that woman of being the wife of one of my guys… They thought she was pregnant, they killed her, and they burned her.
“I cried hell, when I called to ask them what had happened, they said, no, it’s not true, nothing like that happened, that I’m lying, that somebody wants to pit me in a fight against Solino… I resigned myself, I let the matter drop [bay vag], I didn’t start a fight with them.
“All this time, they were fighting with Kempès. But given these incidents, I said I’m not going to send people to protect Solino anymore, because I send arms to Solino and then they kill my people, while trying to hide and deny it. So that’s when I decided I would not send weapons to defend Solino. When their fighting with Kempès flared again, I did not get involved in that fight, because they had killed two of my people.”
Haïti Liberté then asked when the fighting between Lower Delmas and Solino, formerly allies, had erupted.
“On Feb. 29, 2024, when we launched our battle to oust Ariel Henry from power, that’s when we started to have real trouble with the cops from Solino,” Cherizier explained.
“Some time in March or April, my guys went through Solino to get to Delmas 24 to attack a SOGEBANK, some businesses, some government offices, and the Delmas 33 police station on the Delmas Road. I sent a large number of armed guys, but they were accompanied by many people armed with rocks and bottles. They were going to help with the takeover of the Delmas Road.
“But those same police officers from Solino took a lot of money from big businessmen on Delmas along with the commanders of the Delmas 33 police station,” Cherizier continued. “They gave the Solino cops money to buy guns and ammunition to fight against me so I couldn’t get to Delmas.
“The main Solino policeman to whom they gave money was Lionel Dumé, nicknamed “Fòs” (Force), who was in UDMO with me. Both the businessmen and Ariel Henry gave him money to keep me from coming to Delmas. The Solino cops, with their armored cars, and other cops fought my people. Two cops were killed, and two of my guys were killed. So that was when our war with Solino officially began.”
Since that time, there have been constant skirmishes between Solino and Lower Delmas. Cherizier said the Solino cops often use Haitian National Police (PNH) armored cars to attack Lower Delmas (Delmas 2, Delmas 4, and Delmas 6).
“When it’s their work shift, they take the armored car to settle their scores with us,” Cherizier said. “Whether the police send them on an operation or not, they take advantage of using the armored car to come attack me. That’s how on Jun. 9, there were three UTAG [Tactical Anti-Gang Unit] police officers who died in an armored car on Delmas. But that wasn’t a police operation.” Lionel Dumé was also in the armored car that day, but escaped.
On Jun. 10, Cherizier published a video message to “Fòs” on Whatsapp.
“You called me on the side and asked me to talk to the Belair guys to make peace, and then you take a police tank and come kill people in Lower Delmas,” Cherizier said. “Yesterday, two guys from Solino died, and you Fòs, you got out of the armored car and ran away. You know my guys know you well. Delmas 6 is your home. You see they filed behind you as you ran.”
Cherizier then reproached Dumé for his hypocrisy. “You take money from the bourgeois and the government, and pretend that you are fighting against bandits. Didn’t you used to sell me guns and ammunition? … The police are killing people in the popular quarters without stop. If you have Delmas 2, 4 or 6 marked on your ID card and they stop you near the airport, they put you in their armored car and shoot you.”
Among the crooked Solino cops that Cherizier named were Ti Bobo, Beethoven, Eric, Daniel, and Lionel Dumé.
Cherizier’s testimony was reinforced by a man who recently spoke on a Whatsapp chat group.
“I just listened to Barbecue talking in a live [broadcast on TikTok] about Solino,” the man said. “He is a 100% correct about what he is saying”
“I just listened to Barbecue talking in a live [broadcast on TikTok] about Solino,” the man said. “He is a 100% correct about what he is saying,… and 100% of Solino knows what he’s talking about… I am from Solino. I was born and raised in Solino. My mother and father are from Solino. Most of the people now speaking in the name of Solino are recent arrivals. The true children of Solino don’t speak like that…
“There are three policemen involved in kidnapping whose names I’ll give… There is Papouche, alias AnnIry. There is Commander Pedro, who they arrested with Gerald Jean. They released Gerald Jean… There is Commander James in the Mariani gang, the Vye gang in Solino. Those three guys. The guy who has done the most kidnapping is Papouche, and Papouche has other guys who come from Simone Pele… Papouche had the most contacts with the 117 Gang [which Cherizier drove out of Lower Delmas], and he was the best friend of, Kempès [Sanon] of Belair. And there’s a guy called Ti Harold, who used to steal for them, on a motorcycle in the neighborhood… He was a prisoner who escaped from the St. Marc prison…. Didier Beni is a guy from Delmas 19… If there’s a program in the neighborhood, he has to be paid off. If he says a program can’t be done in the neighborhood, another cop can’t come say it can be done. They have a lot of robbers in Drouillard, and they’ve killed policemen outside the neighborhood…
“Papouche is… the guy who has done the most kidnappings in Solino and he gives his hostages to Kempès to hold them. Today those guys cannot speak badly about Barbecue…
All those kidnappings done in Delmas, in upper Delmas,… Delmas 19, those guys did them…
“Those guy’s are so bad, that they shouldn’t even go to prison. They should just be killed, to give Solino justice. Those are the guys who are the cause that peoples’ houses in Solino were burned. .. Even if they find a crazy guy, they kill him… If you go in that area and they don’t know you, they kill you…
“There was a kidnapping which went bad, and they killed the guy… He was a motorcycle taxi guy with a little white and red taxi. They killed the guy.
“Those guys have forgotten how many crimes they committed. If I had money I would see to it that all those guys were killed. I don’t blame the Viv Ansanm guys for what they’re doing.”
In short, the abutting neighborhoods of Solino, Bel-Air, and Lower Delmas have a complicated history which cannot be reduced to the simple paradigm of good versus evil, as some analysts would like.
As Berthony Dupont concluded:
“The directors and producers of horrors for one reason or another could no longer continue to promote the tragedy of Bel-Air, and the writers of lies therefore turned to… Solino. The goal is to fuel division in the population and continue to have control over the state apparatus… It is always the same film that continues with the same backdrop: alarming news, a population under the murderous assault of gangs, houses destroyed, burned to shatter any hope of peace… It is a well-organized manipulation that continues its course. It is carried out by the ruling class and its henchmen, who seek to perfectly control everything that happens in the country.”
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