Violent protests in Haiti over fuel price hike

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Violent protests in Haiti over a fuel price hike continued for a second day on Saturday, as angry residents looted businesses and set vehicles on fire, prompting international flight cancellations and calls for calm.

The protests, which have left one person dead, ignited on Friday after the government announced double-digit increases to prices for gasoline, diesel and kerosene.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant announced the hike was suspended "until further notice," in an about-face hours after he made an impassioned televised appeal to convince people of the need to raise prices.

Burned cars are seen in a hotel parking lot in Port-au-Prince after protesters set them on fire, July 7, 2018. /VCG Photo

But this did not keep angry residents from taking to the streets, as local television footage showed. Some demonstrators erected flaming roadblocks, while others attacked hotels and businesses.

"The poor people want to be able to eat," one masked protester told Reuters TV as a car blazed behind him.

Several major airlines, including American, Air France, Delta, Jet Blue and Copa, cancelled flights to the capital Port-au-Prince, at least through midday Saturday (midnight Sunday BJT).

The US Embassy in Haiti advised personnel and Americans in the country to shelter in place, while the US State Department said it was aware of vandalism at a hotel where Americans were reportedly staying, and at an American Airlines office.

Haitians flee from police during a protest against the increase in fuel prices in Port-au-Prince, July 7, 2018. /VCG Photo

On Friday, Haiti's Commerce and Economic ministries announced that fuel price increases – including a 38-percent jump for gasoline and 47-percent for diesel – would take effect at midnight, prompting fury.

At least one person died in violence overnight, and an AFP reporter heard sporadic gunfire in the capital. A supermarket and other businesses were looted, mainly in the wealthy areas of Petionville, and at least two police stations and several police vehicles were also burned.

"I ask your patience because our administration has a vision, a clear program," Lafontant said in an appeal for calm. "Do not destroy, because every time it's Haiti that becomes poorer."

Protesters destroy a poster of Haitian President Jovenel Moise as they demonstrate in Port-au-Prince, July 7, 2018. /VCG Photo

The fuel hike decision was part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which requires the country to enact a range of austerity measures.

Subsidies for petroleum products are a major source of the budget deficit but also help make fuel affordable in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Eight years after an earthquake killed more than 200,000 people, almost 40,000 people remain in makeshift camps, and thousands of others have died from a years-long cholera epidemic. Haiti was also hit hard by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters