Protesters angered by high food prices flooded the streets of Haiti’s capital on Monday, forcing businesses and schools to close as unrest spread from the countryside.
Witnesses said at least one person was killed by hotel security guards during a protest in the southern city of Les Cayes, where at least four people died last week in food riots and clashes with UN peacekeepers. Police said they were investigating.
Thousands of people marched past the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.
“We’re hungry,” some called out.
Others carried posters reading “Down with the expensive life.”
Some protesters threw chairs against storefronts and shouted for the ouster of Haitian President Rene Preval and UN troops, blaming them for the high price of rice. Some also roughed up journalists, throwing rocks at cars and pushing photographers to the ground.
A university student was seen bleeding on the ground with a bullet wound in his stomach.
A UN spokeswoman appealed for calm as peacekeepers defended government buildings.
“We call on the population to reject the trap of violence. Violence will just make the cost of living worse,” Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said.
Haitians are particularly affected by food prices that are rising worldwide. Eighty percent of the population lives on less than US$2 a day. The cost of staples such as rice, beans, fruit and condensed milk has gone up 50 percent in the past year, while the cost of pasta has doubled.
Many protesters called for the return of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide — who was ousted in a 2004 rebellion — including thousands who packed an amphitheater in the oceanside Cite Soleil slum for a rally led by the Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste.
“Some can’t take the hunger anymore,” Jean-Juste said. “As a priest, I encourage all government officials to do their best to find ways to solve the near-famine situation.”
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, US President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science. Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor in a White House
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was expected to meet Argentine President Javier Milei yesterday on a regional tour to drum up support ahead of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term. Venezuelan authorities have offered a reward of US$100,000 for information leading to the capture of Gonzalez Urrutia, who insists he beat Maduro at the polls in July last year and is recognized by the US as Venezuela’s “president-elect.” The 75-year-old fled to Spain in September after being threatened with arrest by Maduro’s government, but has pledged to return to his country to be sworn in as
RSS