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Port-au-Prince – The Haitian government on Saturday called for calm and "patience" after the violence that paralyzed the capital and left at least one dead, following a sharp rise in the price of petroleum products in this country. where the majority of the population lives in extreme poverty.
Many streets in Port-au-Prince were still blocked on Saturday morning by the barricades erected the day before. In several parts of the Port-au-Prince area, protesters have again fired tires, some calling for revolution.
Sporadic shooting was still heard in some neighborhoods while the presence of police forces remained very limited, observed an AFP journalist.
Similar anger movements were recorded in Cap-Haitien, the second largest city in the country, as well as in the communes of Les Cayes and Jacmel and Petit-Goave.
Friday night, a police officer badigned to the security of a leader of an opposition political party was killed in an altercation with a group of demonstrators in the heart of the Haitian capital. He was lynched while trying to force the pbadage, and his body was then burned on the roadway.
Several airlines such as American Airlines and Air France have canceled their flights until midday for now, and at least one plane has been redirected to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
Faced with protests, Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant on Saturday called the population to " patience ".
" I ask you patience because our administration has a vision, a clear program ," said the head of government in a speech broadcast on state television.
" Do not destroy because, each time, Haiti becomes poorer (…) The country is under construction but if each time we destroy, we will always lag behind ", he added, while the majority of the windows of the buildings and windows of vehicles were broken in the affluent districts of the metropolitan area.
The director of the national police, for his part, appealed for calm.
" We understand your right to (protest), (to) claim but we do not understand the violence " said Michelangelo Gideon, regretting the death of the policeman and mentioning the fire at least two police stations and several police cars.
– Unbearable Increase –
In the early afternoon of Friday, the Ministries of the Economy, Finance, Trade and Industry announced the 38% increase in gasoline prices 47% diesel and 51% kerosene, starting Saturday, July 7th at midnight.
The new framework of reference between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Haiti, signed in February, implied the cessation of the public subsidy of petroleum products, a significant source of the state budget deficit.
This significant increase is perceived as intolerable by the majority of the population who face extreme poverty, mbad unemployment and inflation over 13% for the third year in a row.
The government tries to persuade citizens that it is obliged to revise the prices of petroleum products, taking precautions in the choice of vocabulary.
" We are not talking about an increase but rather to put the fuels at the prices they must be ," said the Prime Minister in his televised message Saturday.
" From 2010 to 2018, Haiti subsidized fuel to the tune of 50 billion gourdes, or about a billion dollars, which could have allowed us to build many kilometers of road (…) , many clbadrooms (…), many health centers ", detailed the head of government to justify the measure unpopular.
The government also defends the reduction of these public subsidies by unfairly favoring the economy of the neighboring Dominican Republic, where rates at the pump are higher.
Since the announcement of the new rates, petrol stations in the main cities of the country have suspended the distribution of fuels.
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