Haitians protest against insecurity; some attack a plane

3 yıl önce

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitians on Tuesday took to the streets to protest over increasing insecurity, turning violent in places like the southern city of Les Cayes, where people stormed the local airport and attacked a small plane.

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The protests coincided with the 35th anniversary of Haiti’s 1987 Constitution, and it follows other protests and strikes in recent weeks in the middle of a spike in gang-related kidnappings and growing complains about Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s inability to confront criminal organizations.

Gedeon Chery, a National Police inspector assigned to the airport in Les Cayes, told The Associated Press that a group of people got onto the terminal’s tarmac, attacked the plane and then set it on fire.

Images posted in social media showed some people on the plane fuselage while the red and white aircraft is moving on the tarmac, and others running along it. Chery said he didn’t know why they attacked it.

People also marched along the streets of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where some burned tires.

Violence, in particular kidnappings, has increased over the past year despite the prime minister’s pledges to crack down on insecurity.

Along with violence, Haiti has been also dealing over the past year with the ongoing sluggish investigation of President Jovenel Moïse’s killing last July 7, and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed over 2,200 people in the country’s south last August.