“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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The US Treasury Department levied financial sanctions against Joseph Lambert and Youri Latortue; who are accused of having “actively contributed” to drug trafficking that passes through that Caribbean country. According to the Treasury Department, Lambert, a Presidential candidate last year after the assassination of the sitting Haitian President, and Latortue, one of his predecessors in office as well as a cousin of former Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, “have abused their official positions to traffic drugs and collaborated with criminal networks. “Criminals and gangs to undermine the rule of law in Haiti.”
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| Secretary of State Antony Blinken. |
In another statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims that Lambert is involved in “significant corruption and a serious violation of human rights.” Blinken said that there is also evidence that Lambert is behind an extrajudicial execution.
The State Department, which also blacklisted Lambert’s wife, Jesula Lambert Domond, bars them from entering the United States. The Canadian government, which has a large Haitian community, announced that it will join the US sanctions by taking similar steps. Through the sanctions, the Treasury Department hopes to seize any assets the two politicians have under US jurisdiction and prevent any individual or entity in the United States, including international banks, from doing business with them.
“To my family, my friends & supporters: I will defend myself with law and truth,” he continued.”
Lambert and Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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| Lambert and Latortue are accused of having gang ties. |
“Like Lambert, Latortue has also had lengthy involvement in drug trafficking activities,” the release said. “Latortue has engaged in the trafficking of cocaine from Colombia to Haiti and has directed others to engage in violence on his behalf.” Latortue served as president of the chamber from 2017 to 2018.
As part of efforts to continue imposing consequences and holding accountable those fomenting violence in Haiti, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is announcing reward offers of up to $1 million each for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of three Haitian nationals — Lanmò Sanjou, a/k/a Joseph Wilson, Jermaine Stephenson, a/k/a Gaspiyay, and Vitel‘Homme Innocent — for conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in transnational organized crime. He is doing so in conjunction with the announcement of charges against the three individuals by the U.S. Department of Justice.
On October 16, 2021, the 400 Mawozo gang engaged in a conspiracy to kidnap 16 U.S. Christian missionaries and one Canadian missionary and hold them for ransom. The missionaries were abducted after visiting an orphanage in the town of Ganthier, east of Port-au-Prince. The kidnapping victims of the missionary group included twelve adults and five children.
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Haiti’s Federation of Gangs
Haiti’s gangs have expanded their power since the shocking 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, and Ariel Henry has faced difficulties in restoring order to the country. With over 150 active gangs in Haiti, the most prominent is the G9 federation of gangs which are bound to have critical allies and dangerous enemies.
The G9 Family or Federation of gangs has brought Haiti to a virtual standstill, leading to fuel and drinking water shortages. In September, Prime Minister Ariel Henry cut fuel subsidies, sending costs flying and people into the streets protesting. Gangs responded by blockading the key Varreux fuel terminal that supplies 70% of Haiti’s fuel. This has forced businesses and hospitals to reduce their hours or shut down and imperil access to food and clean drinking water amid a resurgence of cholera that has killed dozens.
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| The gang federation was founded in June 2020 by former police officer turned gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, alias “Barbecue.” |
Formerly linked to since-assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and his ruling Haitian Tèt Kale Party (Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale – PHTK), for whom the G9 is alleged to have ensured votes and quelled social unrest in gang-controlled neighborhoods, the coalition now threatens to challenge the Haitian state itself, with Chérizier calling for a “revolution” in June 2021.
The G9 had already somewhat distanced itself from Moïse, with Chérizier filming a video in June in which he called for a revolution against the opposition, business sector, and Moïse’s party. In the aftermath of the assassination, Chérizier publicly mourned Moïse, including leading a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators calling for justice against the perpetrators.
At present, the G9 remains a local or at most regional criminal actor, with no links to transnational criminal activities like drug trafficking. This is not only because member gangs are focused on national politics, but also because each group remains financially independent from the coalition, limiting larger-scale criminal investments. The U.N. Security Council has also approved a resolution that imposes sanctions on Jimmy Chérizier, otherwise known as “Barbecue”. He is accused of threatening the country’s peace, security, or stability. The US imposed sanctions on “Barbecue” back in December 2020.
Who is Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier?
He was allegedly able to do all this because of the material, logistical and financial support provided to gangs by the government of President Moïse, which enabled and encouraged these state-sponsored massacres through transfers of money, weapons, police uniforms, and government vehicles, according to one report. After Haiti’s government requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops, Chérizier announced that he was seeking amnesty and the removal of all arrest warrants against him and his allies.
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| Gang violence and protests have increased in the past several years. |
Possible Foreign Troop Intervention
The United Nations in recent weeks adopted a security council resolution, proposed by the US and Mexico, to impose sanctions on criminal leaders in Haiti. The US and Mexico have also backed another resolution that would create “a limited, carefully scoped, non-U.N. mission led by a partner country with the deep, necessary experience required for such an effort to be effective,” in the words of the US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
A Chinese delegate at the United Nations this month questioned whether such a force would be supported by Haitians — or would instead trigger more unrest.
America has a long history of intervening in Haitian politics. The ruthless dictator François Duvalier enjoyed American support in the form of aid and military training. American support continued under the despotic rule of Mr. Duvalier’s son, Jean-Claude. The CIA funded far-right Haitian paramilitaries during a period of military rule in Haiti in the 1990s. The US then invaded the country to overthrow the military government in 1994, and deployed Marines to restore order after another coup in 2004.
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| Former Senator Yvon Buissereth and his nephew were killed by the Ti Makak gang. |
Political Assassinations
The president of the Senate, Joseph Lambert, now under US sanctions for drug trafficking, wrote on the social network: “Senator Yvon Buissereth has died today (Saturday). The head of the Ti Makak gang killed him and burned him. This is one more disgusting act that continues to make us cry (…) this situation must not continue like this.
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| Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise was assassinated by Colombian and American mercenaries in July 2021. |
President’s Assassins Posed as DEA Agents
A squad of gunmen assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and wounded his wife in an overnight raid on their home on July 7, 2021, inflicting growing chaos in a country already enduring gang violence and political protests. Police said they killed four suspects and arrested two others hours later. Three police officers held hostage by the suspected gunmen were freed late Wednesday, said Léon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police.
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| Bocchit Edmond, the Haitian ambassador to the U.S., said the attack on the 53-year-old Moïse was carried out by “well-trained professional commandos” and “foreign mercenaries”. |
Several of the mercenaries were masquerading as agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA has an office in the Haitian capital to assist the government in counter-narcotics programs, according to the U.S. Embassy. Edmond said the gunmen falsely identified themselves as agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), citing video footage the government has in its possession, but added, “No way they were DEA agents.” State Department spokesman Ned Price said reports the attackers were DEA agents were “absolutely false.” The Colombian government has said that 18 former Colombian soldiers suspected in the slaying have been detained in Haiti. Colombian government officials have said that the majority of former soldiers were duped and did not know about the real mission.
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| Former Haitian senator Joseph Joel John was charged in the US for being one of several suspects behind the Presidential assassination. |
While the plot initially focused on conducting a kidnapping of the Haitian President as part of a purported arrest operation. It ultimately resulted in a plot to kill the President. The complaint alleges that on July 7, 2021, various co-conspirators entered President Moïse’s residence in Haiti with the intent and purpose of killing him, and in fact, the President was killed.
As alleged in the complaint, John helped to obtain vehicles and attempted to obtain firearms to support the operation against the president. It is also alleged that John attended a meeting with certain co-conspirators on or about July 6, 2021, after which many of the co-conspirators embarked on the mission to kill President Moïse. More than 40 people, including more than a dozen Colombians and some Americans of Haitian origin, have been arrested in connection with the assassination. US authorities charged a retired Colombian soldier in connection with Moise’s killing. The Justice Department said 43-year-old Mario Palacios, along with others, “participated in a plot to kidnap or kill the Haitian President.” Mario Palacios was arrested in Jamaica and extradited to the US.
James Solages, a Haitian-American arrested in the case, had a WhatsApp conversation with Joseph regarding preparations for the mission. And it said that Solages told authorities that Joseph, Badio, and Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian citizen and former US government informant arrested on Jan. 7 in the Dominican Republic, were among those appointed leaders of the operation. Jaar, who uses the alias Whiskey, was indicted in federal court in South Florida in 2013 on charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela through Haiti to the US. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly four years behind bars, according to court records.
At Jaar’s 2015 sentencing hearing, his attorney told the court that the man had been a confidential source for the US government for several years. He also agreed to cooperate with the feds and asked for a lighter sentence, saying he had a wife, a 1-year-old child and elderly parents.
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| Current Prime Minister Ariel Henry has also been accused of being involved in the President’s assassination as well after being appointed by him. |
Henry, who has been essentially running the country since the President’s assassination is credibly linked to the assassination and has fired two prosecutors probing the crime. Haitian investigators believed that Henry himself was involved in both the planning of the assassination and a subsequent cover-up. A private meeting between Henry and one of the top suspects, Josephy Badio in the case, they believed, would help connect those dots. The plan was to arrest Badio when he left the house and then, at a later date and with proof of the meeting in hand, arrest Henry as well. But Badio never showed up.
Ariel Henry reshuffled his cabinet in November 2021, appointing a lawyer, Berto Dorcé, as justice minister. Prior to that appointment, Dorcé was among several attorneys who filed a letter to the country’s top prosecutor arguing that Henry should not be forced to answer questions about his alleged complicity in the assassination, citing Henry’s executive privilege. Dorcé was arrested for drug trafficking in 1997, according to a Haiti law enforcement source, a charge he said at the time was untrue. He now oversees huge swaths of the justice apparatus in Haiti. That gives him the ability to block any further requests from prosecutors or judges to question or charge Henry.