Jimmy Chérizier says he’s leading Haiti’s poor against corrupt government forces but experts point to a dark and violent past

Murals in the pauperized Haitian slums he rules liken him to the Argentinian guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

In interviews, he poses as a God-fearing Caribbean Robin Hood and celebrates freedom fighters and agitators including Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara and Malcolm X.

Silence from Ariel Henry, who remains abroad, as Jimmy Chérizier, AKA ‘Barbecue’, warns country will ‘become a paradise or a hell’

• What led to the Haiti jailbreak – and can democracy be restored?

The crime lord behind a six-day gang mutiny against Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has claimed the Caribbean country could be plunged into civil war unless its temporarily exiled leader steps down.

Wearing an olive green tactical vest and flanked by armed foot soldiers in balaclavas, the gang boss Jimmy Chérizier told reporters his country was staring into the abyss. “Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us,” declared Chérizier, a police officer turned gang leader whose nom de guerre is Barbecue.

In today’s newsletter: With gangs controlling Port-au-Prince and a UN-backed international force still not on the ground, is there any prospect of democratic control?

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Good morning. It is seven years since Haiti held an election, almost three years since the president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated, and more than a year since the last elected officials left office – and the return of democracy to Port-au-Prince still appears to be a distance away.

On Sunday, after gangs stormed the country’s two biggest jails and freed more than 3,800 criminals, the Haitian government declared a 72-hour state of emergency and a night curfew. But with gangs now exerting de facto authority over about 80% of the capital, and senior figures including acting president Ariel Henry out of the country, the government’s future appears increasingly uncertain. Yesterday, the Miami Herald reported that the gangs made a second attempt to take over the national airport.

Budget | NHS funding faces the biggest cuts in real terms since the 1970s, an influential analysis shows, amid growing pressure on Jeremy Hunt to prioritise public service funding over tax cuts in the budget. Health spending in England is due to fall by 1.2% – worth £2bn – in the new financial year.

US politics | Donald Trump was wrongly removed from Colorado’s primary ballot last year, the US supreme court has ruled, clearing the way for Trump to appear on the ballot in all 50 states. Trump said the unanimous decision was “very well crafted”. Read Ed Pilkington’s analysis.

UK politics | George Galloway has said he will target more seats in the next general election, including deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner’s, after his swearing-in at Westminster following last week’s Rochdale byelection victory. Galloway told reporters that his Workers Party of Britain would put up candidates to “either win or … make sure that Keir Starmer doesn’t.”

France | The French parliament has enshrined abortion as a constitutional right at a historic joint session at the Palace of Versailles. The change, agreed by an overwhelming margin of 780-72, was given impetus by the US supreme court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

Media | Ofcom has determined that GB News broke broadcasting rules when Laurence Fox, the leader of the rightwing Reclaim party, “demeaned” a female journalist on an episode of Dan Wootton Tonight. Fox’s comments, Ofcom says, were “unambiguously misogynistic” and “potentially highly offensive to viewers”.

Armed gangs attack international airport and free over 3,800 prisoners in seemingly coordinated effort to oust Ariel Henry

• Haiti crisis: how did it get so bad, what is the role of gangs, and is there a way out?

The future of Haiti’s government appeared increasingly uncertain on Monday, after armed gangs attacked the country’s international airport and freed more than 3,800 prisoners this weekend in what appears to be a coordinated effort to topple the prime minister, Ariel Henry.

Haitian officials declared a three-day state of emergency and imposed a nightly curfew in an effort to calm the growing unrest but national police are outgunned, and senior officials – including Henry, who is also acting president – are outside the country.

Attack on two prisons comes amid outbreak of violence as PM in Kenya trying to salvage UN-backed security force

Haiti has declared a three-day state of emergency and a night-time curfew after armed gangs stormed the country’s two biggest jails, allowing more than 3,000 dangerous criminals, including murderers and kidnappers, to escape back on to the streets of the poor and violence-racked Caribbean nation.

The finance minister, Patrick Boisvert – who is in charge while the embattled prime minister, Ariel Henry, is abroad trying to salvage support for a UN-backed security force to stabilise Haiti – said police would use “all legal means at their disposal” to recapture the prisoners and enforce the curfew.

Martine Moïse alleged to have conspired with former PM to kill president and replace him herself

A Haitian judge in charge of the investigation into the assassination in 2021 of the country’s last president, Jovenel Moïse, has charged 50 people including his widow and a former prime minister, according to a document leaked to local media.

According to the 122-page document from Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire, made public by AyiboPost, the president’s widow, Martine Moïse, conspired with the former prime minister Claude Joseph to kill the president in order to replace him herself.

Thick smoke rises above strategic neighbourhood of Solino as frantic residents call into radio stations for help

• Haiti crisis: how did it get so bad, and is there a way out?

Gang members have targeted a strategic neighbourhood in Haiti’s capital, in a four-day attack which has left residents trapped in their homes by flaming barricades and automatic gunfire.

Shots echoed throughout Solino on Thursday as thick columns of black smoke rose above the once peaceful neighborhood, as frantic residents called radio stations appealing for help.