Several thousand Haitians demonstrated Sunday, February 28 in Port-au-Prince and in some provincial towns to denounce the upsurge in kidnappings committed by gangs and accusing the government in place of seeking to impose a new
"dictatorship"
.
Read also: Haiti: the president accused of endangering journalists
Since the fall, Haiti has seen an upsurge in kidnappings for ransom, which indiscriminately affect the richest inhabitants, and the majority living below the poverty line.
The demonstrators were thus moved by the assassination by strangers on Sunday morning of a 63-year-old pediatrician in front of his clinic in the capital.
According to residents testifying to local media, they tried to remove it.
"In a country that is already sorely lacking in doctors ... Malicious, malicious, killed this man and we do not feel that the authorities are motivated to solve this problem,"
lamented a protester, Élysée Polycarpe.
Others have questioned the legitimacy of President Jovenel Moïse and denounced all inclinations of
“dictatorship”
on the part of the authorities in place.
Jovenel Moïse maintains that his mandate at the head of the Caribbean country runs until February 7, 2022. But this date is denounced by part of the Haitian political class, according to whom his five-year mandate ended on February 7.
This disagreement of date is due to the fact that Moïse had been elected in a poll canceled for fraud, then re-elected a year later.
Deprived of Parliament, the country sank further into the crisis in 2020. Isolated, President Moïse governs by decree, fueling growing mistrust among the population.
He announced the organization of the first round of presidential and legislative elections in September.
Read also: Haiti: several thousand demonstrators against a return of the dictatorship
A constitutional referendum is also scheduled for June.
This unprecedented procedure stirs up criticism even in the camp of Jovenel Moïse, because the chosen procedure does not seem to respect the provisions of the current constitution.
"We do not want to go to the elections with a government which violates our rights and which, from the start, will vitiate the electoral process",
reacted Pascale Solages of the anti-corruption organization Nou pap domi, participating in the demonstration.
Launched at the initiative of Protestant organizations and civil society, the peaceful march took place without incident or confrontation with the police.
In the capital, the thousands of people, who marched Haitian flags in hand, also multiplied slogans hostile to the UN representative in Haiti, accused of downplaying the scale of popular gatherings.