Haiti gang blockade: UN to sanction perpetrators

The U.N. Security Council has prepared a draft resolution to sanction anyone who threatens the peace, security or stability of Haiti.

According to the draft resolution, the sanctions regime will include asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

“One of the challenges in effectively dealing with insecurity is the nexus between the gangs and some of the elites in Haiti and outside of Haiti who are supporting them and directing them for their own purposes,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington on Thursday.

“So we’ve been working together at the United Nations … to impose sanctions on those who are actually taking actions that support violence and support gangs,” he said at a joint news conference with visiting Mexican officials.

The first person to be sanctioned would be Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the nickname “Barbecue” and is described in the U.S. and Mexico-drafted resolution as one of Haiti’s most influential gang leaders.

“Cherizier and his G9 gang confederation are actively blocking the free movement of fuel from the Varreux fuel terminal,” the text says.

“His actions have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and humanitarian crisis in Haiti.”

The 15-member Security Council could vote as early as Monday on the draft sanctions resolution, diplomats said.

To be adopted a resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain.

Also Read: Haiti gang blockade: UN calls for humanitarian corridor 

In July the council threatened targeted sanctions against criminal gangs and human rights abusers in Haiti and called on countries to stop a flow of guns to the Caribbean country.

China has been pushing for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on criminal gangs in Haiti.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed that one or several countries send a rapid action force to help Haiti’s police remove a threat posed by armed gangs.

The U.S. State Department this week announced visa sanctions against those who support Haitian gangs, responding to the humanitarian crisis created by the gang blockade.

A U.N. mission in Haiti works with the government to strengthen political stability and good governance, rights protection and justice reform and to help with organizing free and fair elections.

U.N. peacekeepers were deployed to Haiti in 2004 after a rebellion led to the ouster and exile of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Peacekeeping troops left in 2017 and were replaced by U.N. police, who left in 2019.

Gangs last month blocked the entrance to Varreux to protest a government announcement of a cut in fuel subsidies.

Fuel supplies dried up and Haitians also face a shortage of drinking water amid a deadly outbreak of cholera.

Zainab Sa’id