Haiti: national carnival threatened by police anger

Text by: RFI Follow

The climate is tense in Haiti with a growing distrust of citizens, including the police, towards the authorities.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Amélie Baron

Police officers on Monday evening set fire to the carnival booths supposed to start on Sunday. They demand better working conditions and the right to form a union. In this context and faced with growing insecurity, the holding of the national carnival is not guaranteed.

" They appoint bandits but dismiss police ": the agents' distrust and anger against the authorities are extreme. Parade the masked faces and regularly shoot in the air with their service weapons.

“ A beginner agent earns 19,000 gourdes, or 175 euros. It can't do anything. When I lived with my parents, with these 19,000 gourdes, I bought beers, sneakers, clothes. Now that I have a wife and children, I am still in debt: I have not paid my daughter's school fees for five months, ”explains one of them.

Prime Minister Jean-Michel Lapin who resigned described the burning of the carnival stands as " barbaric acts " which recall " the indiscriminate violence of the terrorists ". Words that do not pass to the protesting police.

" This Prime Minister must personally consider himself the first terrorist in the country because he is stationed outside the legal framework. The Constitution specifies the time limit for settling current business.
Prime Minister says carnival is on and starts on Sunday ? In which country ? In their dreams only ! We will not be responsible for what will happen at the Champ-de-Mars Sunday. "

After the stands on Monday, at the end of the event on Wednesday, vehicles and equipment intended for the carnival musical floats were set on fire.

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