Barbecue, Empire, and Haiti’s Child Soldiers

Haiti’s gang coalition Viv Ansanm is powered by thousands of child combatants drawn by hunger, displacement, and a century of foreign intervention.

By Danny Shaw

March 28, 2026Z

Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.

A shaky video shot in the streets of Solino in October 2024 captures the reality unfolding in Haiti. In the clip, a contingent of young men and child soldiers wave guns in the air and chant triumphantly: “Take Solino! If you are not with Viv Ansanm, we will burn you all together.” It is a brief, jolting window into the growing power of the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) paramilitary coalition and the central role of children within its ranks.

As the group expands its control over the country, one glaring reality is that a significant portion of its armed members are under 18. Under the command of Jimmy Chérizier, known as “Barbecue,” and his former lieutenant, escaped kidnapper Kempès Sanon, Viv Ansanm deployed these armed youths to sack the sprawling neighborhoods of Solino. Their assault has displaced over 125,000 people across 24 different communities. “Viv Ansanm burned us out of our homes because we were one of the last bastions of peace and resistance left in Pòtoprens [Port-au-Prince],” said Ezayi Jules, a spokesperson for the community. “They reduced our neighborhoods to ashes. Now our families are homeless as Barbecue runs around everywhere talking about his “revolution.’”

Beginning in 2018, Viv Ansanm and its predecessor, the G-9 gang alliance, have targeted and invaded neighborhoods that had long been bulwarks of popular resistance agains the interests of big capital and foreign domination. The numbers speak for themselves. Armed groups murdered more than 5,600 civilians in 2024, and at least 4,026 in the first five months of 2025. The police are no better. The corrupt and fractured National Haitian Police (Police Nationale d’Haïti, PNH), aided by a contingent of U.S.-financed mercenaries, prey upon the same populations as Viv Ansanm. According to one UN study, the police were responsible for 64 percent of the violence in a three-month period between April and June of this year.

On September 30, the UN Security Council approved the deployment of a Gang Suppression Force to Haiti, replacing the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission that had been in the country since June 2024. There are concerns that the latest mission will replicate the failures of the 2004 to 2018 UN Stabilization Mission, failing to address the root causes of the violence while targeting  more ti solda (low-ranking soldiers) and civilians.

This dance of death is all these young “soldiers” have ever known. Traumatized and desensitized, they have been indoctrinated to believe they are fighting a formidable “enemy,”—one that often consists of peaceful communities like Solino, Kafou Fèy, or Nazon, neighborhoods that have long formed the social fabric of the capital.

UNICEF estimates that over half of the country’s gang members are children. Additionally, children represent half of the more than 1.3 million Haitians displaced by conflict, ensuring a constant reservoir of cannon fodder for a paramilitary army that has now rebranded itself as a political party.

In the most unequal society in the hemisphere, violence robs children of childhood and dehumanizes them to the point that they are capable of the most phantasmic acts. These children are the colonial boomerang of violence hurled back against their own communities and the society that failed to protect them.

From Revolt to Despair

On August 22, 2018, Haiti exploded into open rebellion with millions of Haitians taking to the streets. The impetus was the revelation that the corrupt Tèt Kale Party (PHTK) government had stolen an estimated $3.8 billion dollars from the PetroCaribbean fund set up by the Venezuelan government to provide subsidized oil and gas for the Haitian people. As protests rocked the country, Haiti became peyi lok (a country locked down), demanding the resignation of the corrupt kleptocracy and free elections.

Since this mass uprising, the oligarchs and their U.S. accomplices have armed and unleashed paramilitary gangs to crush the popular movement. In September 2023, the gangs confederated into one criminal alliance called “Viv Ansanm” led by Barbecue, a former police officer. The paramilitaries have since been waging war on local neighborhoods to make sure no one can oppose their reign of kidnapping, sexual violence, and the burning of oppressed communities. Professor Henry Boisrolen breaks down the class dynamics of the gang alliance and project: “The social decomposition caused by so many decades of foreign domination, exploitation, and occupation explain how we arrived at this place.”

Tens of thousands of children make up Viv Ansanm’s rank-and-file of  because they have no other choice. Children do not go to school in the Haitian capital. By January of 2024, the violence had caused 900 schools to shut down in Pòtoprens, denying education to more than 200,000 children. From the cracked screen of his 2020 Motorola Stylus, Lucson Charles, a displaced elementary school teacher, explains just how dire the situation is: “Two hundred and twenty-seven schools in the Ouest department have a 0% success rate [in the latest baccalaureate exam]. Zero admissions. Zero prospects. Zero dreams realized.”

Charles himself, like so many teachers and professionals, is a victim of the orgy of violence. Last year, Viv Ansanm attacked his school. “They stole my HP computer, all of my belongings and burned my house, alleyway, and neighborhood down,” he recalled. “They left us with nothing. This prevents us from fighting back in any effective way.”

Stefan, another displaced teacher, explained that 90 percent of Haitian schools are created by the private sector and churches. The state has completely abandoned investing the national budget in the people, while NGOs throw some disjointed crumbs of charity into the ocean of manufactured want. Who can the population turn to if, as Charles says, “governing seems to boil down to looking the other way while the house collapses?”

Growing up a Solda

Barbecue claims to be leading an armed revolution, despite a grisly track record of massacres against his own people. Understanding the role of his paramilitary coalition helps connect the dots between the massive influx of U.S. guns, drug running, and a social media cover-up campaign, where the warlords present themselves as revolutionaries fighting the oligarchs.

Barbecue is an enforcer, a hustler, and the top spokesperson of the gangs whose economic and political interests are diametrically opposed to any prospect of peace. He is the epitome of the law of the jungle—the capitalist jungle—that has given birth to many Ti Babecue yo (Little Barbecues).

At the top of the gang hierarchy一below the oligarchs and their intermediaries一Barbecue preaches a sense of belonging and describes the ghettos beyond Viv Ansanm’s control as “the enemy.” His bosses, part of a complex web of power and influence, tell him that the neighborhoods they attack, loot, and burn are “police bases.” This is the only Haiti they know. It is a world of hunger, humiliation, and hell. Young solda, seeking to imitate their social media heroes, can access highly-coveted consumer objects previously out of reach, such as kleren (moonshine), weapons, clothes, sneakers, iPhones, and even girls. Higher-up members may earn a motorbike. This system ensures that, in the context of deepening deprivation in Haiti, there will always be fresh recruits.

Makenson, a longtime friend and community leader, told me about his 16-year-old little brother who was a gang soldier killed by the PNH. Joderson, nicknamed Ti Lanmò (Little or Young Death), “joined [a gang] to protect himself. He joined to gain access.” Impacted by the absence of their parents and the constant grangou (hunger), tire (shootouts), and bal mawon (stray bullets), his brother saw no other choice.  “After a lot of Lanmò San Jou’s guys got killed, some local gangsters asked Joderson if he’d help carry packages and be a lookout from the front of the neighborhood,” he recalls. As his brother became more important to the gang, he acquired money and weapons. “I no longer recognized him,” Makenson said. The brothers lost communication and Makenson was eventually forced to leave his home. Joderson was killed during a police raid in 2024.

Displaced and refusing to embrace the paramilitary project, Makenson worries about future conflicts sparked by these gang invasions. In his home commune of Kwadèbouke, neighboring communities once stood united against the corrupt PNH and the kleptocracy that runs Haiti. Now, reflecting on the system that killed his little brother and so many like him, he wonders what future is possible in a country that is thirsty for revenge. “After being burned out of homes, forgiveness is foreign to our people right now,” he remarked. “When they see Lamo San Jou or Barbecue boasting and celebrating on TikTok, they want blood.”

The Wretched of the Earth

A piece of propaganda used by the paramilitaries to justify and glorify their use of child soldiers shows several children holding automatic weapons. Below them the text reads: “You created another spirit in a young man the day you chose to murder his family because of the ghettos they are from. You made him live without love, without his mother, older brother and older sister. His revenge will be even worse.” Its creator, Jeff Kanara Larose, is Viv Ansanm’s “Taliban” gang boss in Kanara, a sprawling neighborhood formed by refugees after the 2010 earthquake in Site Soley. Like Barbecue and Lamò San Jou, he has a million dollar FBI bounty on his head and a massive stock of U.S.-made automatic weapons.

It is not clear who the target of revenge is in Kanara’s propaganda. The paramilitaries have not targeted oligarchs or imperialists. Instead, they target the poorest ghettos, home to those that Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the Earth.” These are the effects of colonial processes of dehumanization on the colonized: internalizing and turning the violence towards their own people.

Even amid the violence, the displaced and clear-eyed Haitian intelligentsia and their skeleton of community organizations refuse to demonize these children. Some, like Patrick, a displaced lawyer from Kafou Fèy who now lives packed in a school classroom with his family and hundreds of others, points to the continuous intervention of western powers in the country. “This is the result and continuation of the 1915 U.S. occupation of Haiti,” he said.

Others like Erika, a Haitian mother of two whose entire extended family was burned out of Delmas 31, highlight the need to build alternatives to militarization. “These children are the orphans of the 2010 earthquake and the harsh neoliberal economy,” she said. ”They have a lot of blood on their hands, they have raped many of us and our daughters. But there are better solutions than a superior force coming into Haiti and murdering them all.”

Unfortunately, Haiti’s elites and western powers continue to send foreign soldiers, who do not speak Kreyòl or understand anything about the country, to face the gangs. Two armies, both armed to the teeth with U.S. guns, are squaring off, with the Haitian people hopelessly trapped in the middle.

Editor’s Note: Some names and details have been changed to protect the safety of the Haitian social leaders and journalists.

No Kings in the Twin Cities

Bernie Sanders

 March 30, 2026

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Photograph by Nathaniel St.Clair

Thank you, Minnesota.

And let me thank Indivisible, MoveOn, 50501 and all of the organizations who have made this event possible.

And thank you to the millions of Americans, from our smallest towns to our largest cities, in every state in our country, who are gathering today at thousands of rallies.

It is absolutely appropriate that we hold a major “No Kings Rally” right here in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.

When historians write about this dangerous moment in American history, when they write about courage and sacrifice, the people of Minnesota will deserve a special chapter for themselves.

In the face of the unprecedented occupation of this city by ICE, Trump’s domestic army, this community stood up and, with extraordinary solidarity, fought back. Minnesota showed the American people and the world what democracy is about, what grassroots activism is about, and what standing up for the American ideals of freedom and justice is about.

And I want to thank my colleagues, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, for their leadership in the Senate on this issue.

And today, we remember and honor the two brave Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti – who lost their lives in the struggle — and we promise their family and friends that these two heroes will not have died in vain. Their sacrifice has inspired, and will continue to inspire, the American people in the never-ending fight for justice.

As all of you know, we are living in an unprecedented and dangerous moment in American history. In many ways the future of our country and the entire world is hanging in the balance – and the actions that we take now will determine what that future looks like.

The choices that we face are clear. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and at a time of massive breakthroughs in technology, we now have the opportunity to create a nation in which ALL people can enjoy a dignified standard of living, where we wipe out bigotry and hatred, and where all of us can live in peace and participate in a vibrant democracy. Where the foundation of our nation is built on love, compassion, human solidarity and an understanding, as former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone said, that we all do better when we all do better. That is one vision for the future — a vision that the vast majority of Americans share.

But there is another vision out there as well – a darker vision. It is a vision which says that we must give up on democracy, that we are too stupid and inept to govern ourselves, and that we must put more and more power into the hands of one man. It is a vision that says we should accept an economy in which a handful of Oligarchs have unbelievable wealth, while the vast majority struggle to put food on the table. It is a vision that says that the only thing that matters in life is the accumulation of money and power – and that it is okay if we lie, cheat and steal to achieve those goals. It is a vision which says that we must hate each other because of where we were born, the language we speak, the color of our skin, our religion or our sexual orientation. It is a vision that foments hatred and hatred. Division, division and division.

It is an Orwellian vision which says that we must live in a constant state of fear, that we must always have an enemy and that we must always be at war. It is a vision which says that we have unlimited amounts of money for bombs and guns and for killing, but never enough money to feed our children, provide affordable housing or enable our parents to retire with dignity.

Today, here in Minnesota, in Vermont and in every state in the country we say loudly and proudly that as Americans we will never forsake our heritage. We will never accept authoritarianism, we will never accept oligarchy, and we will never accept a president who is a pathological liar, a kleptocrat, and a narcissist who is undermining the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law every day.

We will never accept government policy that gives massive tax breaks to the billionaires, throws 15 million Americans off the healthcare they have, breaks unions, denies women the right to control their own bodies, and is pushing the planet closer and closer to a climate crisis.

In the last year, I must confess, I have been thinking a lot about American history: about the men and women in 1776 who, with unbelievable courage, announced to the world that they would no longer be ruled by the king of England, who had absolute power over their lives. These patriots demanded freedom, and they fought a bloody revolutionary war against the most powerful military in the world to achieve that freedom. And they won.

And after their military victory, they established the first democratic form of government in modern history. In 1789, they said loudly and boldly to the entire world: here in America we don’t want kings.

And let’s never forget the extraordinary words they left us: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

And today, in 2026, our message is exactly the same: No more kings. We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy. In America, We the People will rule.

But let’s be clear: This moment is not just about one man’s greed, one man’s corruption or one man’s contempt for our Constitution. This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on Earth, who, in their insatiable greed, have taken over our economy, have taken over our political system, have taken over our media in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the working families of our country.

Never before in American history have so few had so much wealth and power.

Never before in American history has there been such extreme levels of income and wealth inequality, with the top 1% now owning more wealth than the bottom 93%.

Never before in American history have we seen the super-rich expand their wealth so rapidly. Last year alone, after receiving the largest tax break in history, 938 billionaires in America became $1.5 trillion richer. Trump, himself, became over a billion dollars richer.

Never before in American history have we seen a ruling class, within a corrupt campaign finance system, spend so much money to buy politicians. In the coming mid-term elections, the billionaires will spend many, many hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that government continues to work for them, and not working families.

Meanwhile, while the richest people become much richer, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to put food on the table, struggling to pay their rent and mortgage, struggling to pay for child care and education, and struggling to put a few bucks aside for a decent retirement. Tens of thousands of Americans die unnecessarily every year because they can’t afford to go to a doctor.

And, unless we change how our economy works, our younger generation, for the first time in modern history, will have a lower standard of living than their parents.

So today, we not only say NO to Trump’s authoritarianism, we say NO to Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ellison and all the other multibillionaires. You cannot have it all. We WILL create an economy that works for ALL Americans, not just the 1%.

My friends. It’s not just the authoritarianism of the Trump administration that we must combat.

It’s not just the Oligarchs and their insatiable greed that we must combat.

Now, as the news of today reminds us, we have got to stop the out-of-control militarism of the Trump administration – here at home, in cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul – and abroad.

Let’s be honest. The American people were lied to about the war in Vietnam. We were lied to about the war in Iraq. And we are being lied to today about the war in Iran. This war must end immediately.

In the last election Donald Trump pointed out, correctly, the huge amounts of money that had been wasted in wars that should have been spent rebuilding America. He campaigned as a “peace candidate,” and he promised no more “forever wars.” Well, he lied.

One month ago Trump and his partner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, started a war with Iran. This war is unconstitutional. Trump did not seek or receive authorization from Congress. This war is in violation of international law. One sovereign nation cannot simply go about attacking another sovereign nation for any reason it chooses.

Since this war began 13 American soldiers have been killed and hundreds have been wounded — including another 12 yesterday. In Iran, nearly 2,000 civilians have been killed and many more wounded, and 498 schools have been attacked by American and Israeli missiles.

In Lebanon, more than 1,000 people are dead and more than one million Lebanese people — 15% of their population — have been displaced from their homes. In Israel, 20 people have been killed and over 5,000 have been wounded.

In the West Bank, Israeli vigilantes are burning down homes and killing Palestinians.

At a time when gas prices are soaring, when many Americans cannot afford the basic necessities of life, it is estimated that this war has already cost us a trillion dollars.

At a time when the American people are politically divided, there is one issue that is bringing us together. Conservatives, moderates and progressives are speaking out in unison: NO MORE WAR.

And as a U.S. Senator, I want to say a few words to you about what I intend to do about that.

First, we’ve got to make sure that Congress does not send another $200 billion to fight this war. That supplemental appropriation for the war in Iran must be defeated.

Secondly, I will be forcing a vote on legislation to block the sale of nearly a billion dollars in weapons to the Israeli military for bombs and bulldozers.

A nation that has committed genocide in Gaza does not need more military support from American taxpayers.

We must block the bombs and block the bulldozers.

My fellow Americans: We are all proud to live in a country which, throughout our history, has inspired people around the world to struggle for freedom, democracy and justice. And we understand that when we stand together, and don’t let demagogues divide us up, we can continue to inspire the world to believe in a brighter future.

Yes, we can create a vibrant democracy by ending Citizens United and not allowing billionaires to buy elections.

Yes, we can create an economy that works for every man, woman and child in our country and not just a handful of billionaires.

Yes, we can make certain that the revolutionary technologies of artificial intelligence and robotics are used to improve life for all of us, not just the wealthy owners of that technology.

Yes, we join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a human right.

Yes, instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military, we can wipe out homelessness and build millions of units of low-income and affordable housing.

Yes, in the richest country on Earth, we can have the best public educational system in the world, with tuition-free schooling, from child care through higher education.

Yes, we can expand Social Security and radically improve our pension system so that every senior in this country can retire with dignity.

Yes, we can raise the minimum wage to a living wage and guarantee every worker the right to join a union.

Yes, we can guarantee that every woman in this country has the right to control her own body.

Yes, at a time when billionaires are paying an effective tax rate lower than a truck driver or nurse, we can make certain that the top 1% and large profitable corporations start paying their fair share in taxes.

My fellow Americans: The establishment, including the corporate media and many of my colleagues in Congress, want you to believe that you are powerless. They want you to believe that you cannot change the status quo. But that’s a lie.

Throughout the history of our country, when Americans have stood up and fought for justice, they have prevailed.

The founders did it when they stood up to King George.

The abolitionists did it when they ended slavery.

The working class did it when they stood up to their bosses and formed unions.

The suffragettes did it when they demanded that women have the right to vote.

The LGBT community did it when they demanded basic human rights.

Time and time again, in difficult moments in American history, our people stood up, fought back and won.

They did it then. We can do it now.

Today, March 28, 2026, millions of Americans are out on the streets demanding freedom, democracy and justice. But we must make certain: Today is not the end of our struggle. It is just the beginning.

Together, when we stand united, we will create the kind of nation that you and I know we can become.

Bernie Sanders is a US Senator, and the ranking member of the Senate budget committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.

Millions march Against Trump’s war and immigration policies

Monday 30 March 2026, by Dan La Botz

Eight million people in the United States participated in 3,300 No Kings protests against President Donald Trump and his policies, marching in all 50 states on Saturday, 28 March . I marched with my family in Brooklyn, New York.

This was the third such protest, each one larger than the last, demonstrating the enormous popular rejection of Trump’s presidency. St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota and the twin city of Minneapolis, was the featured location of the latest national protest, because Minnesota had provided such a courageous example of popular resistance to Trump’s violent and lawless Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE agents in Minneapolis murdered two citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in January as the city rose up in peaceful protests to defend itself.

Speaking in St. Paul, Bernie Sanders told the crowd, “In the face of unprecedented occupation of this city by ICE, Trump’s domestic army, this community stood up, and with extraordinary solidarity, fought back, and won. Minnesota showed the American people and in fact the world, what democracy is about, what grassroots activism is about, and what standing up for the American ideals of freedom and justice is about.” Sanders railed against economic oligarchy. “We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy. Today, we not only say no to Trump’s authoritarianism, we say no to Mr. Musk, no to Mr. Bezos and Mr. Zuckerberg....You cannot have it all.”

As always protestors everywhere carried their homemade signs. A popular sign was “No Kings, No War, No ICE.” Some signs said, “No Kings, No Fascists.” And also, “Regime Change Here Now.” It seemed to me that there were fewer American flags than in the two previous No Kings protests, perhaps because in such a popular movement people no longer feel a need to prove their patriotism.

This protest was larger, denser, deeper, broader. In many metropolitan cities, people marched to the center from their neighborhoods, a sign of growing local organization. Unions, however, did not have much of a presence and normal life was not disrupted. Perhaps the main function of the protest was largely to put a human face on the poll numbers that show Trump and Republicans support declining. But the protests are also important because they allow people to speak out and give us a sense of their own power.

With the national mid-term elections only seven months away, No Kings was also more overtly electoral, with Democratic Party candidates for office joining the protests to win followers. Most in these protests hope to see the Democrats retake control of both houses of Congress. Then, they believe, we can end the war on Iran and stop the violence against immigrants.

African Americans did not turn out in great numbers, though some Black leaders urged them to. John E. Warren, publisher of the San Diego Voice and Viewpoint Newspaper, wrote, “Blacks, who have not participated in great numbers, come out and be counted among those demonstrating. We are the victims of the ‘No Diversity, Equality and Inclusion’ (DEI) campaign the President has launched against our programs and culture… Only our voting participation can stop Donald Trump and his efforts to make America like Russia and Hungary with authoritarian leadership instead of a democracy. We must let our neighbors and opponents know that we still count. We still vote and we can still make a difference in any election. No more excuses, just participation, starting this weekend with the No Kings Day.”

Democrats may well take back Congress, but Trump will still be president. The war on Iran goes on, ICE continues its attack on immigrants, prices are rising, and so the protests will have to continue.

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• Dan La Botz

  Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.