PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators set fires Monday and chanted calls for Haiti’s president to resign as the opposition to Jovenel Moise tried to increase pressure for him to leave office. Protesters said several people were hit by gunfire, including a local journalist.
Schools, businesses and government offices were closed as protesters gathered chanting, “Down with Jovenel!”
“We can’t continue to live like this,” said 34-year-old Lestin Abelo as he poured gasoline on a pile of debris that quickly caught fire. “We have a government that’s not doing anything for the people.”
Opposition leaders and supporters say they are angry about public corruption, spiraling inflation and a dwindling supply of gasoline that has forced many gas stations in the capital to close. Suppliers have demanded that the cash-strapped government pay them more than $100 million owed.
Protesters also are demanding a more in-depth investigation into allegations that top officials in the previous government misused billions of dollars in proceeds from a Venezuela-subsidized oil plan meant to fund urgent social programs. Critics accuse Moise of trying to protect his ally, former President Michel Martelly, and of participating in the corruption himself before becoming president.
Blood spattered the concrete floor near the Bernard Mevs Hospital as the protest grew violent.
Under heavy rain, a group of men rushed into the emergency room carrying a friend they said was shot in the left leg by police. Jean-Pierre Finfin, 34, said he was standing next to his friend when the bullet hit. He was still shaken as he recounted being part of a crowd marching toward Petionville when he said police fired.
Local radio journalist Joseph Edmond was shot in his right hand while covering the protest. He was taken to a hospital for treatment, said his colleague, Eddy Baptiste, who was next to him when it happened.
He said 22-year-old Edmond was injured when police in an unmarked car began firing at a distance so they could get away from the crowd.
Police threw tear gas and scattered thousands of protesters at mid-afternoon, with one canister landing on a family’s roof as several people fled the house in panic.
Other protesters fled with handkerchiefs over their faces as they flushed themselves with water. One man held a crushed lemon to his nose.
Among those running was 38-year-old mason Petit Homme Edner, who held a brown cloth to his face.
“Is this democracy?!” he cried out. “We have the right to protest.”
Moise, who began his five-year term in 2017, has said he will not step down despite the unrest and instead called for calm, unity and dialogue during an address televised at 2 am. Wednesday. It was a rare appearance for the president since the new wave of protests began about three weeks ago.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the agency is “concerned by reports of violence and arson that have been taking place over the past few days throughout the country.”
“We praise the work of the Haitian National Police, which has done its utmost to provide security to the Haitian people, state institutions and private property,” he added, and said the U.N. is “in discussions with local stakeholders to find a peaceful way out of the crisis and alleviate the suffering of the population who has been bearing the brunt of this crisis.”
Laurent Dubois, a Haiti expert and professor at Duke University, said he believes the country will face an increasing impasse unless the parties find a way to reach some kind of resolution.
“There’s a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety … that things are going in a direction in Haiti that we haven’t seen in a while,” he said. “It seems like we’re going into some kind of new phase in Haitian history, but what it holds will be difficult to predict.”
Opposition leaders demanding Moise’s resignation say they envision a transitional government after the chief justice of Haiti’s Supreme Court takes over as dictated by law if a president resigns.
Andre Michel, an attorney and professor of human rights, said Haiti’s current political system has generated misery, underdevelopment and corruption that have led to poverty, and noted that the country’s middle class has shrunk.
Michel said Haiti needs to rebuild a new society and state and he called on the international community to back the ouster of Moise.
“The will of the people is clear,” Michel said. “If he insists on remaining as president, he will lead the country into chaos.”
At a news conference Sunday, opposition leaders urged the dozens of supporters gathered around them to start blocking streets and to help them find Moise, who they contend has gone into hiding.
Among those leading the call to find Moise was opposition Sen. Youri Latortue, who has denied corruption allegations that U.S. officials made against him more than a decade ago and who once led a party allied with Moise’s Tet Kale faction.
“We’re going to search for him everywhere,” Latortue said.
