International
Haiti’s most powerful gang leader proposes to lay down his arms in pursuit of a national dialogue
Former police officer Jimmy Cherisier, alias ‘Barbecue’, the most powerful armed gang leader in Haiti, proposed this Friday to Prime Minister, Garry Conille, to lay down his arms in an attempt to engage in a national dialogue with a view to recovering peace.
“We have decided to publicly announce that our strategy of laying down arms to facilitate national dialogue and promote peace is already written in black and white on our agenda,” Cherisier, who leads the coalition of armed gangs Vivre Ensemble (Living Together), told the media.
With a red garnet jacket and glasses, it was another Barbacue who appeared before the press today, with a written speech.
A man who usually allows himself to be seen armed and prepared for combat, this time showed a different tone and gestures, repeating again and again his call to national dialogue.
“We are willing to choose a credible and coherent Haitian citizen in the diaspora to facilitate dialogue in order to end this mafia war and facilitate the path to peace in the country,” Barbecue insisted.
Too many divisions, discord and conflicts between local actors have led the international community to look for Garry Conille and put him as prime minister, he recalled, denouncing the “political and economic mafia that keeps the country kidnapped.”
“We want peace because we want to destroy the war. We want dialogue because we want peace. All those who do not want dialogue sat in the war,” said the leader of the most powerful gangs in the country.
According to Barbecue, the weapons used by his men have been put in their hands by “personalities,” who have also sold them weapons.
The former policeman admitted to having made “several mistakes” in his activities as a gang leader.
“Why won’t this man, Dr. Garry Conille, take advantage of the national dialogue to end the war and bring peace back to the whole country?” he wondered.
According to Cherisier, the prime minister must clearly understand that national dialogue is the only way to ensure that the country does not follow the same course that it has tridled so far.
“Only through national dialogue will the Haitian State be able to regain control of the country’s territories, as required by the current Constitution,” said Barbecue, who did not cease to praise Conille’s merits.
He also affirmed that armed gangs should be considered rebel forces, not gangs.
“Let’s focus on the real solution, which is the national dialogue, where every Haitian, without discrimination, has the right to speak. And that’s what the mafias don’t want. They don’t want dialogue because they want to continue with the war,” he said, without identifying those “mafias.”
Barbacue, a powerful gang leader, has received accusations of committing several massacres, murders and homicides in the country. His name Barbecue comes from the fact that he burned his adversaries in an oven once they were captured.
The last crime committed by the leader of the gang – which he himself has claimed – was the murder of three police officers from the Elite Anti-Pang Unit (UTAG, in French) of the National Police in his bastion of Delmas 18, Sans Fil, on Sunday, June 9.
The ex-police is at the head of the two most powerful coalitions of armed gangs in Haiti, the G9 and the GPEP.
Last February, the armed coalition Vivre Ensemble created a situation of terror in Haiti, facing the police, destroying and burning police stations and expelling thousands of residents from their homes. The center of Port-au-Prince is totally destroyed due to the terror of the armed gangs, which dominate much of the capital.
A first contingent of police officers from Kenya have been in Port-au-Prince for more than a week, as part of an advance of 1,000 agents from that country who, together with members of security forces from other nations, will form a multinational mission to help the Haitian authorities regain control of the country.
International
Five laboratories investigated in Spain over possible African Swine Fever leak
Catalan authorities announced this Saturday that a total of five laboratories are under investigation over a possible leak of the African swine fever virus, which is currently affecting Spain and has put Europe’s largest pork producer on alert.
“We have commissioned an audit of all facilities, of all centers within the 20-kilometer risk zone that are working with the African swine fever virus,” said Salvador Illa, president of the Catalonia regional government, during a press conference. Catalonia is the only Spanish region affected so far. “There are only a few centers, no more than five,” Illa added, one day after the first laboratory was announced as a potential source of the outbreak.
Illa also reported that the 80,000 pigs located on the 55 farms within the risk zone are healthy and “can be made available for human consumption following the established protocols.” Therefore, he said, “they may be safely marketed on the Spanish market.”
International
María Corina Machado says Venezuela’s political transition “must take place”
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said this Thursday, during a virtual appearance at an event hosted by the Venezuelan-American Association of the U.S. (VAAUS) in New York, that Venezuela’s political transition “must take place” and that the opposition is now “more organized than ever.”
Machado, who is set to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 in Oslo, Norway — although it is not yet known whether she will attend — stressed that the opposition is currently focused on defining “what comes next” to ensure that the transition is “orderly and effective.”
“We have legitimate leadership and a clear mandate from the people,” she said, adding that the international community supports this position.
Her remarks come amid a hardening of U.S. policy toward the government of Nicolás Maduro, with new economic sanctions and what has been described as the “full closure” of airspace over and around Venezuela — a measure aimed at airlines, pilots, and alleged traffickers — increasing pressure on Caracas and further complicating both air mobility and international commercial operations.
During her speech, Machado highlighted the resilience of the Venezuelan people, who “have suffered, but refuse to surrender,” and said the opposition is facing repression with “dignity and moral strength,” including “exiles and political prisoners who have been separated from their families and have given everything for the democratic cause.”
She also thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for recognizing that Venezuela’s transition is “a priority” and for his role as a “key figure in international pressure against the Maduro regime.”
“Is change coming? Absolutely yes,” Machado said, before concluding that “Venezuela will be free.”
International
Catalonia’s president calls for greater ambition in defending democracy
The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, on Thursday called for being “more ambitious” in defending democracy, which he warned is being threatened “from within” by inequality, extremism, and hate speech driven by what he described as a “politics of intimidation,” on the final day of his visit to Mexico.
“The greatest threat to democracies is born within themselves. It is inequality and the winds of extremism. Both need each other and feed off one another,” Illa said during a speech at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City.
In his address, Illa stated that in the face of extremism, society can adopt “two attitudes: hope or fear,” and warned that hate-driven rhetoric seeks to weaken citizens’ resolve. “We must be aware that hate speech, the politics of intimidation, and threats in the form of tariffs, the persecution of migrants, drones flying over Europe, or even war like the invasion of Ukraine, or walls at the border, all pursue the same goal: to make citizens give up and renounce who they want to be,” he added.
Despite these challenges, he urged people “not to lose hope,” emphasizing that there is a “better alternative,” which he summarized as “dialogue, institutional cooperation, peace, and human values.”
“I sincerely believe that we must be more ambitious in our defense of democracy, and that we must remember, demonstrate, and put into practice everything we are capable of doing. Never before has humanity accumulated so much knowledge, so much capacity, and so much power to shape the future,” Illa stressed.
For that reason, he called for a daily defense of the democratic system “at all levels and by each person according to their responsibility,” warning that democracy is currently facing an “existential threat.”
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