U.S., UN sanction former head of Haiti presidential guard, Bel Air gang leader
A former top cop in Haiti’s presidential palace, who has been accused in the 2021 slaying of the country’s president, has been sanctioned by the Trump administration and the United Nations for allegedly helping the country’s most powerful gang leaders sow terror.
Dimitri Hérard was designated for sanctions Friday by both the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.N. Security Council. Also sanctioned is a key collaborator in the Viv Ansanm criminal gang network, Kempes Sanon. Both men have been sanctioned for supporting Viv Ansanm’s campaign of widespread violence that has led to thousands of deaths across the Haitian capital and beyond, and this week helped push the number of people who have had to flee their homes to a record to more than 1.4 million.
“Today’s action underscores the critical role of gang leaders and facilitators like Hérard and Sanon, whose support enables Viv Ansanm’s campaign of violence, extortion and terrorism in Haiti,” Bradley T. Smith, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement. “The United States is committed to holding accountable the violent terrorist gangs that endanger the Haitian people.”
Hérard, the former head of the General Security Unit of the National Palace, Hérard is among more than 40 people accused in the July 7, 2021 assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse. Two people — one who pleaded guilty in the U.S. in the assassination plot and another awaiting trial — said Hérard helped with the planning.
Jailed shortly after, Hérard escaped from prison in March 2024 during a gang-orchestrated prison break carried out by Viv Ansanm. Weeks later, he was identified in videos providing gang leaders with training, firearms and markings to have their vehicles resemble those used by the palace guards.
“Hérard’s support directly backs the Viv Ansanm’s coordinated attacks against state institutions,” the Treasury Department said.
Hérard was the subject of a U.S. arms trafficking investigation at the time of the president’s killing, but he has never been charged.
Treasury’s latest designations were announced just ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote to extend the mandate of a Haiti panel of experts and renew a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo measures for another year.
Security Council members voted 15-0 on a draft resolution renewing the sanctions scheme. The resolution was authored by the U.S. and Panama.
After the vote, a representative of the U.S. said the sanctions list was not complete.
“There are more enablers of Haiti’s insecurity invading accountability. We call on council members to provide full and unqualified support to these designations as we move forward,” Ambassador Jennifer Locetta, the U.S. alternative representative to the U.N., said. “Haiti deserves better colleagues.... We are committed to the people of Haiti, and we intend to work closely with the Haitian government, fellow council members and all stakeholders to facilitate peace and prosperity for the country and the region.”
Panama’s deputy U.N. representative, Ricardo Moscoso, said “there is a symbiotic relationship between certain economic and political elite sectors and the gangs, which today have taken over the Republic of Haiti.”
Slovenia, Denmark, Greek and France all remarked that while they welcomed the sanctions resolution, they regret its failure to mention sexual and gender-based violence as “an important metric” to determine sanctions. The violent acts have become widespread and are being used as a weapon of war by gang members.
“The targeting of women and girls in Haiti because of their gender is unacceptable,” Jennifer MacNaughtan, a representative from the United Kingdom. “This includes forced marriage, harassment, assault forced labor,and forms of trafficking, kidnapping and sexual violence. Sanctions remain an essential tool to address insecurity in Haiti, and to alleviate the suffering of the Haitian people.”
A point of contention raised by U.N. members is enforcement. While Haiti’s representative to the U.N., Ericq Pierre, made an urgent appeal “to every state, and particularly to Haiti’s neighboring states, to exercise the utmost vigilance in controlling the transfer of arms,” the Caribbean nation has been criticized for failing to move against those who have been sanctioned. This, along with whether under Haitian law they can still run for office, remains unresolved as Haiti prepares to start planning for elections.
“The Haitian government takes note of the list of names of individuals annexed to this resolution and identified by the sanctions committee,” Pierre said. “The cases of these individuals will be handled in accordance with the provisions of the Haitian legislation currently in force.”
Hérard previously sanctioned
Hérard was sanctioned by Canada earlier this year. Under the U.S. sanctions, both he and Sanon will have any property and interests in property in the U.S. blocked. Other people are banned from engaging in financial transactions with them.
In recent months, Hérard has been quiet and out of sight. But earlier this year, he took to social media to defend himself, appealing to President Donald Trump in a video, while also trying to remake his image through the hiring of a communications director, the creation of a website and the release of a three-part documentary series.
“Mr. Hérard, who was wrongfully accused and detained in connection with the assassination, calls on President Trump to demand the declassification of sealed U.S. case files related to this tragedy,” his communication director said in an email to the Miami Herald earlier this year. “These files have been kept under seal and gag orders by U.S. authorities, limiting Haiti’s ability to investigate and denying the public access to key facts.”
Efforts by the Herald to contact Hérard’s spokesperson were unsuccessful.
Sanon is the leader of the Bel Air gang, a member of the Viv Ansanm alliance. He is considered to be the strategic force behind warlord Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier and was accused of leading a 2023 massacre that led to the deaths of more than 140 individuals in Bel Air a Port-au-Prince neighborhood.
As leader of the Bel Air gang, Sanon has also played a significant role in Viv Ansanm’s consolidation of power. The gang has been nvolved in indiscriminate civilian killings, extortion, illicit taxation and kidnappings, Treasury said. Among the massacres tied to Sanon was a seven-day attack in 2023 in Bel Air between Feb. 27 and March 5.
According to a report by the Human Rights Defense Network, at least 148 people were killed, many burned alive; 62 houses were torched, and another 26 houses were looted.
