Ignited by fuel costs, Haiti looting, violence escalate, targeting charities, politicians

Popular discontent continued across Haiti Thursday as more foreign embassies closed their doors and protesters targeted businesses and charity warehouses, the government-owned television station and the home of a former senator in the hills above Port-au-Prince.

In Washington, the president of the Dominican Republic, addressing hemispheric leaders at the Organization of American States, warned that what is happening in the territory of his crisis-wrecked neighbor was akin to “a low-intensity civil war” that can no longer be ignored.

“Haiti cannot wait any longer,” Dominican President Luis Abinader said in a 14-minute speech after leaving a meeting with four other Caribbean leaders and Vice President Kamala Harris where the subject of Haiti was also broached. “We need to act responsibility and we need to act now. Thousands of people are dying.”

For months, aid workers had been warning that the country faced an explosive situation as gang violence and kidnappings ripped apart communities and left a trail of deaths; inflation hovered at 30% and the cost of imported rice rose by 40%, cooking oil by 88% and wheat flour by 68%, leaving nearly half of the population facing severe hunger.

This week it hit a crescendo with Haitians taking to the streets in widespread protests in cities around the country after the interim government announced a hike in fuel prices. But while the hike has ignited outrage, some have sought to capitalize politically on the discontent, calling on protesters to attack banking institutions while also demanding the immediate departure of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was tapped by Haitian President Jovenel Moïse prior to his July 7, 2021, assassination.

On Thursday, as demonstrations entered a third day, the damage toll continued to mount as the political paralysis deepened.

In the city of Gonaives, just north of the capital, a food warehouse for the Catholic charity Caritas was ransacked, a Haitian police source and aid official both confirmed to the Miami Herald. Looters were filmed running through the streets with bags of rice and other food stocks. Also looted was a World Food Program warehouse in the city and its offices set ablaze, a spokesperson confirmed. While police didn’t manage to stop the looting in time, they did succeed in preventing a crowd of protesters from breaking into the local Catholic archdiocese building, said the police source, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.

In Port-au-Prince, tensions were high as young men carried off freezers, tables and other furniture from looted businesses in the Delmas neighborhood. The police confirmed an attack on the headquarters of the National Television Station of Haiti (TNH) in Delmas, but said officers responded in time before it could be totally ransacked. Still, a burning car was observed in the parking lot.

Also targeted was the home of Edmonde Supplice Beauzile, a former senator and current head of Fusion Social Democrats political party. Reached by the Herald, Beauzile, a supporter of the current government, was frantically trying to confirm rumors that her home in Thomassin had been torched. She was unable to get in touch with anyone inside, she said.

Later on Twitter, Beauzile lashed out. She accused three well-known opposition politicians of sending people to attack her home. “I do everything I can to work, I have never been involved in dirty things, no crimes, neither economic,” she said.

Parts of metropolitan Port-au-Prince remained impassable Thursday because of burning tires, fiery barricades and protesters angry about the increase in fuel prices. Government subsidies, which have previously kept gas prices below $3 a gallon, and diesel and propane under $4 a gallon, are costing the government around $400 million annually, Henry has said.

Maintaining that amount of subsidy, on top of the estimated $600 million Haiti loses through uncollected customs duties at its ports, is unsustainable, Henry noted Sunday in an address to the nation. The poverty-stricken nation’s operating budget is about $2 billion a year.

Henry’s address, which was clumsily delivered, did not go over well and by Monday morning Haitians had woken up to blocked roads and general chaos. With protests ongoing, the country’s banking association Thursday announced the closure of all banks nationwide, stating that some branches had come under attack.

The embassy of the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, became the latest to announce its temporary closure, joining France, Spain, Canada and Taiwan, which had all taken similar actions in the days prior. The Dominican government also confirmed the evacuation of embassy personnel to Santo Domingo.

SIN news in the Dominican Republic quoted a source at the Ministry of Defense confirming that embassy security had been reinforced with “six additional soldiers” with the caveat that “it is normal when there are conflict situations.” The situation at the border, the source said, “is normal.”

The closure of the Dominican Embassy in Port-au-Prince and possible evacuation of its diplomats came as Abinader was preparing to deliver his speech at the OAS. He called on the hemispheric body to “play a relevant role” in helping Haitian authorities get the cooperation needed to overcome the violence.”

“As soon as the security conditions are allowed, we need to collaborate with the Haitian authorities in order to organize an electoral process, which will lead to elected authorities with leadership, legitimacy and popular support,” Abinader added. “The OAS needs to continue carrying out fundamental steps on behalf of democratic elections. And one of those means providing an appropriate civil registry of the entire population in Haiti. This was being carried out until a few months ago, and then unfortunately, security did not allow it to continue.”

Abinader said while his request for a U.N. multinational peacekeeping force in Haiti has been ignored, the country’s prolonged, multidimensional crisis can no longer be ignored by the region. The Dominican Republic, in particular, he said, already faces the real possibility of criminal gangs operating in Haiti crossing over.

“The crisis that is spilling over the Haitian border presents a threat to Dominican national security,” he said.