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Dandelion Salad
April 14, 2023
with Chris Hedges
TheRealNews on Apr 14, 2023
Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier has been placed in the international spotlight as an emblem of Haiti’s purported “gang problem.” But who is Chérizier really? A new documentary series, “Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising,” offers a different view of Chérizier—not as the leader of a criminal enterprise, but as a political figure leading an armed revolutionary movement. Directors Dan Cohen and Kim Ives join The Chris Hedges Report to discuss their new project.
In Eric Hobsbawm’s book Bandits he examined how outlaws such as Salvatore Giuliano, Robin Hood, and Pancho Villa, transform themselves into social revolutionaries. The filmmakers Dan Cohen and Kim Ives have done the same in their three-part film “Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising.”
They tell the story of Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier, who has united half of Port au Prince’s slums, and the Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies. The armed neighborhood federation is in the crosshairs of the U.S. empire which seeks to discredit it and blame it for the chaos and violence that plagues the country.
The filmmakers chronicle Cherizier’s transformation from a member of the city’s corrupt and brutal police force into a revolutionary leader, the disinformation campaign waged against him by the US government and Haitian oligarchy, and how his neighborhood is punished for its effective resistance.
The story they tell is one more chapter in the over two centuries of Haitian resistance to outside domination following the only successful slave revolt in human history, which overthrew the French slave-holding class in 1804. Haiti has been paying for this revolt ever since. Literally. France only recognized Haiti’s independence on the condition that it repay the slaveholders for their lost “property,” payments that were still being made to France in the 20th century.
The country has been economically crippled since its independence. The western powers have installed a series of pliant and corrupt governments. The U.S. repeatedly carried out military interventions, including its invasion and occupation of the country from 1915 through 1934.
The U.S. formed and trained the Haitian Army and police, used to crush liberation movements. It propped up the father-son dictatorship of François “Papa Doc” and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier as a counter-weight to Fidel Castro’s Cuba. It armed the country’s notorious death squads known as the “Tontons Macoutes,” which killed as many as 60,000 Haitians It turned Haiti into a planation and sweatshop for U.S. corporations, leaving the country the poorest in the western hemisphere.
When a left-wing former Catholic priest Jean Bertrand Aristide was elected president 1990. He was overthrown in a 1991 military coup. He regained the presidency from 1994 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2004, ousted in another coup by right-wing ex-army paramilitary units that invaded the country from across the Dominican border.
UN troops, which occupied the country from 2004 until 2019, oversaw the suppression of popular movements, exploited impoverished women in the sex trade, sanctioned the privatization of state industries and social services and introduced cholera—a disease previously unknown in the country—killing an estimated 10,000 people.
Haiti has been left without a functioning government or infrastructure, including a health care system ever since. Nearly 60 percent of the population live in poverty, 30 percent are food insecure, and 50 percent lack access to clean water. Waves of Haitians have fled the country. Gang violence has turned whole parts of the island into lawless enclaves.
The western powers, which should pay Haiti at least $21 billion in reparations, is determined to once again thwart the aspirations of the Haitian people, who, despite it all keep resisting.
Joining me to discuss “Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising,” which you can watch on YouTube, [see videos below] and popular resistance in Haiti is Dan Cohen and Kim Ives.
Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising | Episode 1: The Demonization Campaign
Haiti Liberté on Nov 3, 2022
‘Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising’ tells the story of Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier and the Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies, the armed neighborhood federation in the crosshairs of the U.S. empire.
Episode 1 investigates Cherizier’s transformation to revolutionary leader, the multi-faceted disinformation campaign waged against him by the US government and Haitian oligarchy, and how his neighborhood is punished for its resistance.
Produced by Haiti Liberté and Uncaptured Media. Directed by Dan Cohen and Kim Ives.
Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising | Episode 2: The Emergence of the G9
Haiti Liberté on Nov 8, 2022
‘Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising’ tells the story of Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier and the Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies, the armed neighborhood federation in the crosshairs of the U.S. empire.
Episode 2 reveals how state and criminal gang violence compelled Cherizier to unite Port-au-Prince’s armed groups into the FRG9. The episode investigates the June, 2021 Lower Delmas Massacre, carried out against Cherizier’s community, dissects western media’s disinformation offensive, and shows how the masses respond to his revolutionary message.
Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising | Episode 3: A Burgeoning Revolution
Haiti Liberté on Nov 18, 2022
‘Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising’ tells the story of Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier and the Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies, the anti-crime armed neighborhood federation in the crosshairs of the U.S. empire.
In this series’ spectacular conclusion, Episode 3 shows Cherizier trekking through the planet’s most miserable slums as he seeks to advance a “mental revolution” among Haiti’s poorest masses. We learn about President Jovenel Moïse’s July 7, 2021 assassination, the stymied investigation of which is having a profound effect on Haiti’s national liberation struggle. We see how the de facto government, set in place by Washington, is wobbling in the face of the G9’s growing strength.
See also:
Four Straight Years of Nonstop Street Protest in Haiti, by Vijay Prashad
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