Dozens of protesters marched through the hills of Haiti’s capital on Sunday, voicing their demands for an end to escalating gang violence and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the transitional presidential council.
The protest, which reflects growing frustration over the surge in violence as gangs attempt to take full control of Port-au-Prince, highlighted the deepening crisis facing the nation. “The only thing the Haitian people are asking for is security,” said Eric Jean, a 42-year-old bus driver, marching with a Haitian flag around his neck. “We’re losing more neighborhoods, more people are dying, more people are fleeing their homes.”
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Marc Étienne, a 39-year-old businessman whose livelihood was destroyed by gang raids, also joined the protest. He now lives in a makeshift camp, alongside tens of thousands of others forced to flee their homes after gangs ravaged their communities.
“Haiti cannot be run among friends,” he said. “The city is dying because the (council) is not doing anything to make it better.”
Sunday’s demonstration comes a day after hundreds of people gathered in Port-au-Prince to honor several community leaders killed in recent clashes with gangs.
“Freedom or death!” the mourners shouted on Saturday as the leaders of the Canapé-Vert neighborhood entered a small stadium where the memorial was held.
Videos posted on social media showed the leaders carrying automatic weapons and wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of those killed. Many wore balaclavas to cover their faces and protect themselves from possible retaliation by gangs.
Clad in white, the mourners raised their fists and clutched hands in the air as a man on stage roared in Haitian Creole, “The blood is not going to be shed in vain! The fight is what?”
“Just beginning!” the crowd answered in unison.
The unidentified man on stage said the community would never forget the slain leaders as he condemned gang violence. “People are dying, and they don’t even know why they’re dying,” he said.
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Canapé-Vert is one of the few neighborhoods that has yet to fall to gangs that control at least 85% of the capital. It also is known for having one of Port-au-Prince’s most powerful neighborhood organizations, led in part by frustrated police officers.
In early April, Canapé-Vert leaders organized a large protest that became violent as they, too, demanded that Haiti’s prime minister and its transitional presidential council resign.
Sunday’s demonstration and other recent protests have decried the country’s spiraling crisis, with more than 1,600 people killed and another 580 injured from January to March.
In mid-March, hundreds of people armed wi