by VIJAY PRASHAD
Haitians have once again taken to the streets in recent weeks, targeting the banks and NGOs that have taken over the island since the 2010 earthquake.
A cycle of protests began in Haiti in July 2018, and – despite the pandemic – has carried on since then. The core reason for the protest in 2018 was that in March of that year the government of Venezuela – due to the illegal sanctions imposed by the United States – could no longer ship discounted oil to Haiti through the PetroCaribe scheme. Fuel prices soared by up to 50 per cent. On 14 August 2018, filmmaker Gilbert Mirambeau Jr. tweeted a photograph of himself blindfolded and holding a sign that read, ‘Kot Kòb Petwo Karibe a???’ (Where did the PetroCaribe money go?). He reflected the popular sentiment in the country that the money from the scheme had been looted by the Haitian elite, whose grip on the country had been secured by two coups d’état against the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (once in 1991 and again in 2004). Rising oil prices made life unliveable for the vast majority of the people, whose protests created a crisis of political legitimacy for the Haitian elite.
In recent weeks, the streets of Haiti have once again been occupied by large marches and roadblocks, with the mood on edge. Banks and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) – including Catholic charities – faced the wrath of the protesters, who painted ’Down with [the] USA’ on buildings that they ransacked and burned. The Creole word dechoukaj or uprooting – that was first used in the democracy movements in 1986 – has come to define these protests. The government has blamed the violence on gangs such as G9 led by the former Haitian police officer Jimmy ‘Babekyou’ (Barbecue) Chérizier. These gangs are indeed part of the protest movement, but they do not define it.
The government of Haiti – led by acting President Ariel Henry – decided to raise fuel prices during this crisis, which provoked a protest from the transport unions. Jacques Anderson Desroches, president of the Fós Sendikal pou Sove Ayiti, told the Haitian Times, ‘If the state does not resolve to put an end to the liberalization of the oil market in favor of the oil companies and take control of it,’ nothing good will come of it. ‘[O]therwise,’ he said, ‘all the measures taken by Ariel Henry will be cosmetic measures.’ On Sept. 26, trade union associations called for a strike, which paralysed the country, including the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.
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