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As of Monday, February 5, big things are going on in Haiti protests to call for the resignation of President and Prime Minister Ariel Henry. There were violent clashes with the police and five officers of the Protected Areas Surveillance Brigade (BSAP), which depends on the government but is now participating in the anti-government demonstrations, They were killed after they refused to drop their weapons and fired in the direction of police, a local police union reported.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, where a very serious political, social and economic crisis has been ongoing for some time which has led criminal gangs to have ever more power and to control a large part of the capital Port-au-Prince.
Anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, February 5, 2024 (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
The crisis began on July 7, 2021 when the then Haitian president Jovenel Moïse was killed by a group of people who broke into his residence, under suspicious circumstances. Ariel Henry became president and prime minister a few weeks later, and remains in office today although some links to the person suspected of organizing Moïse’s killing have emerged.
Henry has always rejected every type of accusation, using his power to defend himself and causing the resignation of some officials who had summoned him to clarify their position in the matter. In fact, contacts with Joseph Felix Badio, a former Justice Ministry official suspected of having organized the assassination and who was arrested in October 2023, had been discovered from telephone records.
According to an agreement concluded in December 2022 with representatives of the political parties Henry should have temporarily held his position and organized new elections by 7 February 2024. This did not happen and according to what declared from a government official Henry’s goal is to form a government of national unity.
At that point, the opposition organized huge protests, which soon led to serious clashes with the police.
Anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, February 6, 2024 (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
On Thursday February 8th Henry made a speech to the nation by saying that the time has come “to join forces to save Haiti, to do things another way in our country.” He asked the population not to consider the government or the police as adversaries and added that “those who choose violence” to take power “are not working in the interest of the Haitian people”.
Henry also congratulated the police for their work in fighting criminal gangs and promised that he will continue to push for an international police mission led by Kenya and approved by the United Nations Security Council to arrive in the country. The mission was supposed to help counter the growing gang violence and to do so Kenya had offered its intervention a few months ago. At the end of January, however, the High Court of Kenya decided to block the dispatch of Kenyan police, following an appeal presented by the opposition political parties and two citizens.
Anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, February 7, 2024 (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
The protests, in which thousands of people are taking part, were organized by various opposition parties and were also joined by the Protected Areas Surveillance Brigade, an armed body of park rangers made up of ex-military men whose leader appears to be the former Senator Guy Philippe, who returned to Haiti after serving a sentence for money laundering in the United States. During a radio interview on Thursday 8 February, Philippe criticized the international community for supporting Henry and urged the Brigade’s agents to take control of the regions in which they work. He then called on the police and army to “neutralize” anyone who supports Henry’s government: “This is the only way we will show that we are not playing games. We must prepare to attack them.”
A woman runs through smoke during anti-government protests, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, February 5, 2024 (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
A police station in the northeastern province of Ouanaminthe was attacked on Tuesday evening, local media reported, as were some government buildings and businesses. Since Monday, the country’s main roads have been blocked and at least a thousand schools across the country have been closed. According to a United Nations report, due to the ongoing blockades, humanitarian aid of essential goods sent to Haiti has decreased and food prices, in some areas, have increased by more than 20 percent.