Haiti: Intervention vs Revolution

Dan Cohen

As U.S. proxy forces prepare to invade Haiti, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier attempts to unite Port-au-Prince’s disparate armed groups into a cohesive resistance force.

In the coming days, Kenyan police paramilitary forces will deploy to Port-au-Prince as part of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti (MSS). Their arrival is timed to coincide with Kenyan President William Ruto’s May 23 visit to Washington to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden.

The primary target of this invasion is Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, a former cop turned revolutionary who was falsely accused of committing a series of massacres and was sanctioned by Western powers. While Cherizier has long fought against criminal gangs, he always sought to unite the patchwork of armed neighborhood groups in Haiti’s capital to not only defend their country’s sovereignty but to carry out a social revolution.

In September 2023, as the invasion crept closer, this process entered a new phase, when Cherizier announced the Viv Ansanm (Live Together) coalition.

Filmed over two visits to Haiti in August 2023 and February 2024, Intervention versus Revolution tells the story of Viv Ansanm and the U.S. empire’s race to invade Haiti for the third time in three decades.


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