The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Jimmy Chérizier — the gang leader known as Barbecue who commanded the G9 Family and Allies coalition — in October 2022, designating him for his role in destabilizing Haiti and for actions including multiple massacres of civilians, the fuel terminal blockade, and the systematic use of violence to undermine the Haitian state. The sanctions froze any UN-member-state-held assets and imposed travel bans, representing the most significant international accountability measure yet taken against Haiti’s gang leadership.
The Security Council’s decision to sanction Chérizier came after months of debate and reflected growing international consensus that the gang crisis was not merely a domestic security problem but a threat to regional stability requiring international response. The resolution authorizing the sanctions also called on member states to increase their support for the Haitian National Police and opened the door to consideration of an international security assistance mission.
Chérizier responded defiantly, dismissing the sanctions as politically motivated and continuing to hold press conferences in which he positioned himself as a champion of the Haitian poor against an elite that included both the Henry government and its international backers. His defiance underscored the limitations of sanctions as a tool against an actor who operated entirely within Haiti’s informal economy and had no significant assets outside the country.
Haitian civil society organizations welcomed the sanctions but called for them to be extended to the political and business figures whose connections to gang networks enabled the criminal system that Chérizier embodied. They argued that sanctioning the most visible gang leader while leaving untouched the politicians and businessmen who funded and protected gang networks addressed symptoms rather than causes.