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Port-au-Prince (AFP) – Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant announced Saturday the suspension "until further notice" of an increase in fuel prices that sparked violent protests and left a death in the Caribbean nation
The flip-flop came a few hours after Lafontant launched a televised televised call to patience and tried to convince people of the need to raise prices.
The capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas remained paralyzed since Friday afternoon. blocked by barricades, some made of inflamed tires, and some protesters even calling for a revolution in the impoverished country.
Just before the announcement of the suspension, the head of the lower house of parliament had threatened a takeover of the government if the price of fuel
They had only been announced on Friday, then that many Haitians were absorbed in a World Cup football match.
"If there is no response within two hours, the government Gary Bodeau, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, told AFP
that Lafontant has announced the suspension of price increases on Twitter, stating that "violence and democracy are fundamentally incompatible.
Even before the controversy over the price of fuel, MPs had already begun a debate about its future, and Saturday's flip-flop could lead to the collapse of the government.
At least one person died Friday in violence. An AFP reporter heard the sound of a sporadic shooting in the capital
A supermarket and other businesses were looted and vehicles burned, mainly in the affluent neighborhoods of Pétionville.
Similar demonstrations erupted in Cap-Haïtien. the largest city, as well as in the communes of Les Cayes, Jacmel and Petit-Goave.
The Internet service ran into difficulties, although it was unclear whether there was a link with the troubles.
– "Do not destroy" –
The unrest was sparked by a government announcement that gasoline prices would rise by 38 percent, diesel by 47 percent and kerosene by 51 percent from this weekend.
Several major US airlines, Air France, Delta, Blue Jet and Copa, to cancel flights to Port-au-Prince, at least until noon Saturday.
"I ask for your patience because our administration has a vision, a clear agenda," said Lafontant, a physician by profession and a political novice who came to power last year
"Do not destroy, because Haiti is becoming poorer and poorer. "
Haiti is still recovering from Hurricane Matthew who struck in 2016. Nearly 40,000 people remain in makeshift camps after an earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people eight years ago, and thousands of others died of a cholera epidemic that lasted for years.
On Friday night, the bodyguard of an opposition politician died in an altercation of strators in the center of Port-au-Prince while he was trying to force a move to through a roadblock. His body was then burned on the road
– Controversial Grants –
The director of the National Police urgently pleaded for calm.
"We understand your right to protest," said Michelangelo Gedeon. "But we do not understand violence."
At least two police stations and several police vehicles were burned.
A framework signed in February between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Haiti implied the end of subsidies for But subsidies also help make fuel affordable in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where the most people live in extreme poverty, where unemployment is very widespread and where the inflation rate exceeds 13% for petroleum products. Arguing in favor of higher fuel prices earlier in the day, Lafontant said that between 2010 and 2018, government fuel subsidies had cost $ 1 billion – an amount, he said. , "which could have allowed us to build many kilometers of road … a lot of clbadrooms … a lot of health clinics."
Government officials also complain that the country has been subsidizing people for years in neighboring countries. Dominican Republic that crosses the border to take advantage of the lower prices of Haiti.
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