Several hundred police officers and sympathizers, hooded and armed, demonstrated on Wednesday, for the third time in a week, in Port-au-Prince, to demand the release of one of their colleagues, creating panic in the capital Haitian.
Organized without notice, the procession quickly crossed the major axes of the city in the afternoon, setting fire to a few vehicles and, partially, a public office.
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The police, some wearing their uniform, regularly fired in the air with their service weapons to accompany their only demand, namely the release of their colleague.
This agent of the narcotics trafficking brigade has been imprisoned in Port-au-Prince prison since early May for murder, arson, destruction of public property and endangering state security, according to the order. of the examining magistrate A similar mobilization had already been organized on Saturday, leading to the release of five police officers who had been arrested following the violation of a crime scene which they were to ensure surveillance.
Contacted Wednesday by AFP, the spokespersons of the national police did not respond.
"The situation is taking on increasingly alarming dimensions,"
Renan Hedouville, head of the Office for Citizen Protection in Haiti, told AFP.
"We risk losing the Haitian national police as we lost the armed forces,
" he warned.
With some 16,000 members to ensure the safety of more than 11 million inhabitants, the Haitian national police force was created in 1994 following the dismantling of the army, then involved in several coups d'état.