On Tuesday, November 5, 2019, listeners to the evening broadcast of Boukante La Pawol with Jean Ismael Valestin on 103.7 FM Radio Mega, were astonished to hear the voice of the Djimy Cherizier, alias 'Barbecue', speaking on the airwaves in the name of the Haitian National Police (PNH) regarding an operation undertaken earlier that day.
The Haiti Sentinel must note here that the speaker was not identified as 'Barbecue'. The Haiti Sentinel also did not sense a resemblance to the voice on Tuesday with other interviews where 'Barbecue' had self-identified himself. According to Valestin, a day later on Wednesday night, the man heard was an officer of the specialized force, CIMO, who asked to remain anonymous.
Listeners to the program are used to Mr. Valestin presenting live interviews with the most dubious of criminals and characters of Haitian society. Terrorist gang leaders and individuals on the run from the law - supposedly - are staples of the program. Listeners were quite certian that the voice heard was that of 'Barbecue'. The were not stunned that he was interviewed but were shocked that he was still speaking in the name of the Haitian police. The comments posted during the live YouTube simulcast and on social media groups in threads around the subject reflected the public's dismay at the level of impunity in the police force.
Moreover shocking, the Jovenel Moïse adminsitration would use the statements made by Cherizier in the interview to attack journalists at Radio Tele Zenith. In the interview, the man suspected of being Barbecue complained about a failed police operation which had taken place earlier that afternoon in the public square of Carrefour Marassa in Croix-des-Bouquets. Police, accompanying workers from the Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communication (MPTPC) and the Metropolitan Solid Waste Collection Service (SMCRS), were driven away by the local population who were defending barricades they had erected in protest for the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse.
Mr. Cherizier claimed that residents of Carrefour Marassa fought back against the police operation to remove barricades, and that the radio station, Radio Tele Zenith's, coverage of the events aided the residents in driving the police away. Barbecue blamed 102.5 FM Radio Tele Zenith, for having journalists in the area who were giving police coordinates live on air. He alleges the citizens were armed. The Ministry of Communicataions would release a press note to that effect that same evening.
The Haitian government's doubling down on the claims made by the officer suspected of being Barbecue appears as colussion between the government and the terrorist gangs and possible rogue police. The Ministry of Communications' press note lambasting Radio Tele Zenith for the way the events at Carrefour Marassa had transpired confirmed this. The radio had not released an official statement in response but hosts that evening held to their convictions of accompanying by covering the population in their protests.
Citizens in the area say they fought back with stones and bottles. The police that came for their barricades were accompanied by ambulances and showed intent to harm according to members of the community interviewed that night.
Episodes in recent weeks foretold of police pulling up on citizens guarding barricades and opening fire. The death toll among protesters in the past two months topped 50, with nearly 200 over the past year, not including the deaths registered at 3 massacres, including La Saline. Furthermore, reports of the presence of Barbecue at a police operation a week prior in Petion-Ville, where several vehicles were burned, has risen tensions.
Djimy 'Barbecue' Cherizier was reported a former officer of the specialized police unit, Intervention and Maintenance of Order Corps (CIMO). While on the force in November 2018, he, along with two government officials and other police officers, were specifically and explicitly named as among the orchestrators of the massacre of residents of the underpriviledged community of La Saline. The massacre was a response against that community for leading in demands for accountability for the squandering of billions in Petrocaribe funds by the regime in power.
According to several reports, including from the United Nations, government officials, police and street gangs, held the neighborhood underseige for 2 and a half days, where dozens were killed, injured, tortured and raped. Other police were stopped from intervening although the gunfire and screams from the massacre were heard for more than 48 hours.
