Protestors in Haiti have escalated calls for the president of the impoverished country to resign as the fifth week of protests begin. Twenty people have died in the protests and 200 were injured, according to the Washington Post.
Thousands of Haitians demanded Haiti President Jovenel Moïse’s resignation during weeks of violent clashes with authorities.
Nehemie Joseph, a journalist who reported threats and intimidation from politicians regarding his work, was found dead in his car with several gunshot wounds to the head on Thursday, Oct. 10.
The city’s art community took to the streets of Port-au-Prince on Sunday, Oct. 13 in a peaceful protest — one of the largest anti-government protests to take place in the last month.
In September, a photojournalist with the Associated Press was one of the two people hurt when a Haitian senator opened fire outside parliament amid a crowd of protestors in Port-au-Prince.
Anti-government protests have rocked Haiti for the past five weeks over fuel shortages, spiraling inflation that reached 22.6 percent this month and allegations of corruption by public officials.
President Moïse, who has been implicated in allegations of corruption and embezzlement of public funds, has denied any wrongdoing.
Protesters tried to force their way through a cordon leading to Moïse’s residence on Friday but police fired into the air and used tear gas to drive the crowd away from the president’s home.
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“We’re going to break and destroy everything if Moïse doesn’t resign,” Associated Press quoted Reynald Brutus, a 28-year-old unemployed protester, saying.
Violence in the country has been increasing after months of protests that intensified with a highly critical report in May on the so-called Petrocaribe affair which involved the disappearance of about $2.3 billion in an arrangement to buy cheap Venezuelan oil, The Guardian reported.
