PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 28, 2019 (AFP) – Two people were killed as several
hundred police and their supporters demonstrated in Haiti’s capital for
better law enforcement salaries on Sunday, police said, while anti-government
marchers also took to the streets.
The first victim was shot during a protest demanding that President Jovenel
Moise step down. The man who opened fire on the crowd of marchers was beaten
to death and then burned by demonstrators.
“An unidentified individual was shot dead,” the Haitian police said in a
statement. “The angry crowd set fire to his attacker.”
With their faces hidden, several plainclothes police fired in the air near
the anti-government protesters.
Several large bursts of gunfire from unidentified individuals were then
heard right next to the area where protesters were marching.
Prior to the protests, police officers had presented their grievances at
the headquarters of the Haitian National Police.
“Our wages are miserable. We don’t have insurance. We have an insurance
card but at every hospital we go to, we have to pay,” a masked police officer
told AFP, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
As they have for two months, presidential detractors demanded that Moise
resign. They were joined by some churchgoers on their way out of services.
Since coming to power in February 2017, Moise has had to face the anger of
an opposition movement that refuses to recognize his victory in an election
widely seen as dubious.
Anger mounted in late August due to a national fuel shortage, and protests
turned violent.
But even before this crisis erupted, Moise was accused of corruption.
An auditors’ court probing two billion dollars in aid from a Venezuelan oil
fund found that companies run by Moise before he became president were “at
the heart of an embezzling scheme.”