Haiti news desk1/25/2024 ![]() While former policeman Cherizier presents himself as a revolutionary and a Robin Hood figure, he has ambitions of becoming president and sometimes appears in the trademark white suit of Haiti's political class. (The Associated Press/The Canadian Press) ![]() Gang leader Jimmy 'Barbecue' Cherizier, seen here with members of his G9 gang alliance, began his career as a police officer before becoming the most feared enforcer of PHTK rule. Many have personal connections to Haiti's political and business elite. The country's biggest gangleaders - people like Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier of G9, Vitel'homme Innocent of Kraze Barye, and "Izo" of the 5 Seconds gang - control hundreds of foot soldiers and large arsenals. It is controlled by a patchwork of dozens of gangs, several of which have grouped together into larger alliances such as G9 and GPep. Port-au-Prince is a mountainous city built around a bay, with about three million inhabitants and some of the world's most crowded shantytowns. "And by the way, they're also much better armed than they have been in the past." Gang leaders with big ambitions There are people there that would not want - economically, socially - to see an international force like this. "It's not like people are going to be receiving the force with open arms. "The chief is probably looking at that and saying, 'Hey, I doubt that we have the ability to actually sign up for this kind of mission,'" Bowes said. He pointed out that Canada's military is about 10,000 personnel short of full strength, due to persistent problems with recruitment and retention. "To be able to sustain a number in Latvia, it's the rule of three - you have one deployed, you have one training and you have one back home and reconstituting," he said. And they know this terrain, they know their shanty towns and they know the city better than we ever will. I'm going to protect him and hide his weapons. ![]() I'm not going to hand over my son to a bunch of Canadian troops who come looking for him. Eyre's assessment that Canada doesn't have the manpower to pull it off. "For all intents and purposes, the gangs act as insurgents," he told CBC News. ![]() He said a fight against Haiti's gangs would be much like the army's long war with the Taliban. Retired lieutenant general Steve Bowes ran Canadian Joint Operations Command, the headquarters charged with planning such interventions. And there's a very real risk that, once in, any outside force would be hard-pressed to extricate itself from Haiti without triggering a new breakdown in civil order. The conflict is marked by shifting factions, alliances and interests that confuse Haitians, never mind outsiders. The fighting almost certainly would take place in densely-populated slums. It involves shadowy enemies who don't wear uniforms and mix freely with a civilian population. The mission is exactly the kind that professional militaries try to avoid. Wayne Eyre said this month he doubted Canada could pull off such a mission right now, given its commitments in Europe. If intervention is off the table for now, that would come as a relief to Canada's Armed Forces. "If there's a need for that, if there's a place for that, that's all going to have to be worked out with the Haitian government and with the UN," he said. Kirby gave the impression that no such intervention will happen in the near future. "As for multinational force or anything like that, I don't want to get ahead of the conversation." "I think they'll continue to talk about ways they can continue to support, from a humanitarian assistance perspective, the people of Haiti and Haitian national security forces," said White House spokesperson John Kirby in a media briefing for journalists covering President Joe Biden's visit to Ottawa this week. Andrew Chang explores how the situation became so dire, and why Canada and the U.S. Duration 13:57 Featured VideoHaiti is on the brink of collapse, ravaged by gang violence, hunger, disease and corruption.
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