The man, known as Barbecue, was placed on a sanctions list by the U.S. Treasury in 2020 and sanctioned by the United Nations in 2022 due to allegations of human rights abuses, including involvement in massacres.
Barbecue, aged 47, formerly served as a police officer with the Unité départementale de maintien d’ordre, a unit accused of using lethal force against protesters.
However, he claims to have had a change of heart, citing disillusionment with a system that he believes enables corruption and violence.
In an interview held in Delmas, a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince that he controls, Barbecue arrived in a new Toyota Land Cruiser and was seen with a boy cleaning his flip-flops.
He explained that he had come to realize how politicians were using gangs and the police to advance their interests, targeting rivals and enemies within the business sector.
Barbecue alleges that the government and Haitian elites are complicit in perpetuating chaos and retaining power through manipulation and exploitation of criminal networks.
He now seeks to challenge the political elite and effect systemic change.
