Government crisis in Haiti: Senator fires shots in front of parliament

In the midst of the government crisis, another outbreak of violence broke out in Haiti. A Senator from the Caribbean State, Jean Marie Ralph Féthière, shot in front of the Parliament building in the capital Port-au-Prince on Monday with a handgun and injured two people.

According to media reports, the prisoners were a security guard and a photojournalist of the AP agency. The latter was hit in the face, according to a report by the "Miami Herald", but was therefore not in mortal danger. It concerns Dieu Nalio Chery, whose photos would be printed regularly in the newspaper (also the one shown above comes from him).

According to the US newspaper, Féthière claimed to have been attacked by a group of unknown persons - he wanted to defend himself. A video of the incident shows the politician, as he goes through a group of demonstrators to his car and get in first. Only a short time later he gets out again, fires the shots and drives away.

Haiti's Senate, wounding an Associated Press photographer, Monday, September 23.

Shots Fired in Haitian Senate, at least 2 Woundedhttps: //t.co/OWgEDDpInx pic.twitter.com/oGqLgFOkUQ

Féthière belongs to the governing party PHTK. The opposition blocked on Monday together with demonstrators for a second time a vote in the Senate in confirmation of acting Prime Minister Fritz William Michel.

President Jovenel Moïse had nominated Michel as prime minister, after his predecessor Jean Michel Lapin had also not been confirmed by Parliament. Michel is already the fourth prime minister under Moïse, who has only been head of state since February 2017. Demonstrations with barricades of burning car tires took place in Haiti again on Monday against his government.

In February, dozens of people died in anti-government protests. Also in June there were heavy riots. The protesters demand Moïse's resignation. They accuse the government of having misappropriated money from the Petrocaribe program, through which Haiti had received supplies of oil from Venezuela for years on favorable terms. Due to lack of fuel, demonstrators had temporarily paralyzed Port-au-Prince last week.