The Haitian people revolt, demonstrators control almost all the country Wednesday 18 July 2018

The Haitian people revolt, demonstrators control almost all the country

Wednesday 18 July 2018

Three people were killed on Friday 13 July 2018 during demonstrations against the Haitian government’s decision to increase fuel prices. Journalists saw the bodies of two protesters who were shot in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince during clashes with the police. It was not clear who shot them.

The third death was of a security guard of a former political candidate who was stopped at a barricade. The guard left his vehicle and shot in the air apparently to try to disperse the crowd. A reporter for Associated Press saw the crowd capture the man and attack him while the vehicle was leaving. Protesters had set fire to tires and mounted barricades to block the main streets of Port-au-Prince and the northern city of Cap-Haïtien.

Our correspondent Henry Boisrolin says:

I tell you in summary that the situation in Haiti is still boiling and that the crisis has deepened very seriously. For some days now, an insurrectional state has existed in almost all the regions of the country. The roads are cut, there are fires, barricades and violent clashes in different places. This situation is the result of an accumulation of conflicts, discontents and clashes of all kinds that have been developing for years, in the face of the anti-popular policies and plundering carried out by the puppet government of the current illegitimate president Jovenel Moïse.



The latest trigger has been the government’s announcement of a brutal increase in the price of fuel (it should be said that the main fuels used by the people to cook are coal and kerosene, because there is no gas supply, except for the well-to-do classes and the dominant elite). This increase had been announced previously, and the popular organizations had warned that if it was carried out, a popular insurrection would be unleashed. This is what is happening now.

The current insurrectional state has surpassed the possibilities of containment on the part of the repressive forces. The magnitude of the explosion is monumental, not even during the fall of Duvalier’s dictatorship was there an uprising of this type.

The National Police has not moved against the protestors and has made this known through a press release. This “rare” decision indicates that President Jovenel does not have control over his main force of repression. There is also no presence of the MINUJUSTH (UN) police in the streets. So far, the government has not issued any official statement.

The fundamental element to understand is that the state of uprising of the masses completely transcends the fuel price increase. This has been the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. The popular outcry expressed in the barricades and in the streets demands the resignation of the president and the fall of the government.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters are in the streets, building barricades, setting fire to service stations, car dealerships, premises, homes and so on and there are calls to occupy the centre of the capital, where the palace of government is located.

There are no means of transport, all markets are closed, the media (radios, channels and so on) are not broadcasting information because journalists cannot get to their production centres, although in some cases the omission of information is intentional. However, popular media communicators are trying to recompose the information chain in some way.



It is important to note that for the moment, no political force is commanding the actions, but rather that they are developing in an uncoordinated way. The organizations are trying to articulate to give this uprising a clearer political direction and avoid the situation ending in generalized uncontrolled violence.

8 July 2018

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano republished by AndNoticias. https://www.andnoticias.cl/mundo/788-sublevado-el-pueblo-haitiano-manifestantes-controlan-casi-todo-el-pais