The UN 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 the Reuters news agency.
The first person to be sanctioned would be Jimmy Cherizier, who goes by the nickname "Barbecue" and is described in the US and Mexico-drafted resolution as one of Haiti's most influential gang leaders.
"Cherizier and his G9 gang confederation are actively blocking the free movement of fuel from the Varreux fuel terminal," the draft said on Thursday. "His actions have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and humanitarian crisis in Haiti."
Separately, the US imposed visa restrictions for 11 people that are related to unrest and violence in the country.
"Haiti gangs and gang leader Barbecue are directly contributing to the death of Haitians," a senior US State Department official said.
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.
"One of the challenges in effectively dealing with insecurity is the nexus between the gangs and some of the elites in Haiti and outside of Haiti who are supporting them and directing them for their own purposes," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington on Thursday.
"So we've been working together at the United Nations ... to impose sanctions on those who are actually taking actions that support violence and support gangs," he said at a joint news conference with visiting Mexican officials.
READ MORE: US to help Haiti police counter gangs but won't deploy troops
Foreign military deployment
UN 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 the flow of guns to the Caribbean country.
The 15-member Security Council could vote as early as Monday on the draft sanctions resolution, diplomats said. To be adopted a resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain.
China has been pushing for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on criminal gangs in Haiti.
READ MORE: Guterres calls UN to consider force deployment to Haiti