Haiti gripped by violent protests, rage against president

Protestors rejected a "truce" proposed by Moise in an address broadcast to the nation on Wednesday

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Angry protests rumbled through Haiti and its capital of Port-au-Prince Friday as thousands of people took to the streets against President Jovenel Moise, drawing tear gas from police as demonstrators looted and threw stones.

Protesters took over a police station in the impoverished Cite Soleil neighbourhood, making off with sheet metal roofing, furniture and police protection equipment, only slightly slowed by the air wafting with tear gas.

"Now we are taking whatever we need to better our homes because we are tired of getting soaked when it rains," said Steven Edgard, a protester.

In the early hours of the day, groups of young people prevented traffic from circulating on some of Port-au-Prince's main arteries.

Lamp posts, burning tires, tree trunks and piles of trash were used to create barricades under the helpless gaze of police patrols.

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Violent clashes later broke out as protestors threw stones in response to tear gas. Shots were also heard ringing out from the melee.

After the demonstrators were dispersed, several shops were looted in the wealthiest areas of the capital.

The day's demonstrations were part of a larger wave of protests that have rocked Haiti throughout the week as the country's inhabitants voiced anger over Moise, who is implicated in several corruption scandals.

Protestors rejected a "truce" proposed by Moise in a rare address broadcast to the nation on Wednesday, in which he appealed for national reconciliation and a unity government.

In June, judges of Haiti's High Court of Auditors said in a report that Moise was at the centre of an "embezzlement scheme" that had siphoned off Venezuelan aid money intended for road repairs, laying out a litany of examples of corruption and mismanagement.

The aid money came through Venezuela's PetroCaribe program, which had allowed Haiti to buy petroleum products at discount and on credit but which was plagued by allegations of corruption.

However, the program has now been suspended for more than a year because of deteriorating relations between Venezuela and the United States.

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The suspension has meant that Haiti's long-suffering population has been faced with an extra burden: an ever-worsening fuel shortage that has resulted in closed service stations, rising prices and long lines to buy petrol.

Gary Desrosiers, a spokesman for the police, told AFP that all measures were taken to "avoid clashes with the population" and that elite SWAT agents had evacuated officers at the looted police station after the protests began.

The police had taken all of their weapons so that protestors could not abscond with them, he said.

"We did not want the police to come out of their base because this is a unit that fired real bullets at the people, that uses tear gas grenades when all people want is to be respected," said Edgard, the protestor.

One of the poorest countries in the Americas, three-fifths of Haiti's population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day.