The U.N. Security Council is considering creating a sanctions regime to impose an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo on anyone who threatens the peace, security or stability of Haiti, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The first person to be sanctioned would be Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the nickname “Barbecue” and is described in the U.S. and Mexico-drafted resolution as one of Haiti’s most influential gang leaders.

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Gangs last month blocked the entrance to Varreux to protest a government announcement of a cut in fuel subsidies. Fuel supplies dried up and Haitians also face a shortage of drinking water amid a deadly outbreak of cholera.

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed that one or several countries send “a rapid action force” to help Haiti’s police remove a threat posed by armed gangs, according to a letter to the Security Council, seen by Reuters on Sunday.

In July the council threatened targeted sanctions against criminal gangs and human rights abusers in Haiti and called on countries to stop a flow of guns to the Caribbean country.

The U.S. State Department this week announced visa sanctions against those who support Haitian gangs {snip}

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols, who is leading a delegation of officials to the Caribbean nations, said in an interview with a local television station that Barbecue and the G9 gangs are directly contributing to the deaths of Haitians.

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He said 1.2 million people in Haiti are at risk for cholera. {snip}

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