GANG LORD STEPS INTO HAITI'S TURMOIL

Street rallies urged after assassination

The power struggle prompted by the assassination of Haitian president Jovenal Moise deepened over the weekend after the country's most powerful gang leader called on his followers to take to the streets.

Jimmy Cherizier — otherwise known as Barbecue — who leads a federation of gangs called G9, said in a televised address that gang members should rally in public to demand “light be shed on the president's assassination.”

Cherizier's intervention came after Claude Joseph, the acting prime minister, called for help from U.S. and UN troops as he tried to fend off at least three other rivals for power and avert a slide into street violence. The United States sent a technical team to Haiti on Sunday to determine what its security and other needs are

President Moise was shot at his Port-au-Prince residence on Wednesday in what Haitian authorities say was a contract killing by Colombian and American mercenaries.

Haitian authorities say 28 people — 26 Colombian and two American — were involved in the assassination. Of these eight are still at large and 17 were paraded in front of the cameras last week.

Citing people who had spoken to some of the suspects detained so far, the Miami Herald reported they said their mission was to arrest Moise and take him to the presidential palace.

A source close to the investigation said the two Haitian Americans, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, told investigators they were translators for the Colombian commando unit that had an arrest warrant.

But when they arrived, they found him dead.

Joseph has been broadly internationally recognized as the legitimate head of the interim government, but several figures inside the country have challenged his authority.

The nation's non-functioning Senate on Friday voted to make its president, Joseph Lambert, the country's acting president. The Senate has no legal authority because of a lapsed election schedule.

Earlier Ariel Henry, a 71-year old neurosurgeon who Moise appointed as prime minister two days before he was killed, claimed he was the legitimate interim ruler and accused Joseph of mounting a “coup” against him.

The acting government headed by Joseph has dismissed both men as illegitimate opportunists.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with nearly a quarter of the 11 million population living below the poverty line.

It has long been divided between the bulk of the population and a small wealthy elite and for decades it was a kleptocracy ruled by the Duvaliers — first Papa Doc and then his son Baby Doc, who was ousted in a military coup in February 1986.

Moise's killing and the ensuing political chaos came amid what the UN has called an “unprecedented” escalation of violence as rival gangs battle one another and the police for control of the capital.

Cherizier, whose G9 is one of about 30 gangs police believe control roughly half of the capital, described Moise's assassination as part of a national and international conspiracy against the country.

Wearing military fatigues and seated in front of a Haitian flag, he said: “We tell all bases to mobilize, to mobilize and take to the streets for light to be shed on the president's assassination.”

Cherizier, known locally as “Barbecue,” is an ex-cop accused by police and witnesses of helping to orchestrate the slaughter of up to 59 men, women and children in the nearby neighbourhood of La Saline last year. He denies any involvement. But he has tried to redefine himself as a political figure in recent weeks.

Last month, he gave a statement to local media outlets saying the G9 had become a revolutionary force to deliver Haiti from the opposition, the government and the Haitian bourgeoisie.

He is widely thought to be allied to Moise, and the words were interpreted as a warning to opposition figures blocking the president's plan for constitutional and political reform.

The reform plans hinged on a referendum on Sept. 26 along with presidential and legislative elections. Supporters of the late president, including his widow, say the assassination was intended to thwart those changes.