Haiti protests carry on despite fuel hike U-turn; flights canceled

[Swordsmyth]

Haitian leaders pleaded for calm on Saturday as violent protests over fuel price increases entered a second day and U.S. airlines canceled flights to the Caribbean nation.

Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant announced the temporary suspension of double-digit government hikes to prices for gasoline, diesel and kerosene on Saturday afternoon - just a day after they were announced.
But as local television footage showed, the government’s decision to back down did not keep angry residents from taking to the streets. Some demonstrators erected flaming roadblocks, while others attacked hotels and businesses.
“The poor people want to be able to eat,” one masked protester told Reuters TV as a car blazed behind him. “I want to tell (President) Jovenel (Moïse) that Haiti is not for him and his family. Haiti is for every Haitian. He needs to leave the country and leave the country to us so we can live.”
In a statement, Lafontant said the government strongly condemns the acts of violence and vandalism.
U.S. carriers American Airlines (AAL.O), JetBlue (JBLU.O) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE.N) announced flight cancellations Saturday to the capital Port-au-Prince citing civil unrest.
“Due to concerns over safety from unrest in the area, Spirit Airlines felt it necessary to temporarily suspend service to Port-au-Prince, Haiti Saturday,” the airline said in a statement. “We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused, but the safety of our guests and crew is paramount.”
A spokesman for the airline said it was not yet clear when flights would resume.


On Friday, Haiti’s Commerce and Economic ministries announced that fuel price increases, including a 38 percent jump for gasoline and 47 percent for diesel, would take effect at midnight.
The now-suspended decision by Moïse’s government to raise prices was part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which requires the country to enact a range of austerity measures.

More at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...+World+News%29

[Swordsmyth]

Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant has resigned amid widespread unrest following his failed attempt to increase fuel prices.

More at: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/worl...ns-fuel-prices

[Swordsmyth]

Evidently, the Haitian people’s long-brewing discontent with their country’s many socio-economic and political problems might have finally boiled over, with some of them intending to seize the moment in sending the message that they will no longer tolerate their nation being treated as a neo-colonial outpost by transnational corporations and NGOs, though unconstructively not offering any apparent solution to improve their situation.

The crisis is made all the more acute by the state’s inability to forcibly respond to the unrest because it simply lacks the means to do so when considering that the UN withdrew late last year after a decade-long mission and the National Police are utterly incapable of keeping the peace in their place.
Furthermore, the country’s military was dismantled in 1995 and the sitting government has yet to replace it despite controversially pledging to do so.

It’s difficult to predict what comes next, but a few lessons can still be drawn from the latest events. The first is that fragile states such as Haiti are extremely vulnerable to destabilization whenever they’re pressed into so-called “structural reforms” by the IMF, just like Jordan recently was under similar circumstances.

If the chaos isn’t contained, then it could also possibly trigger a limited military intervention by regional states in order to protect their citizens and/or respond to any perceived threats from so-called “Weapons of Mass Migration”, which is a scenario that the US could possibly undertake if the situation doesn’t soon stabilize.
The cycle of underdevelopment, debt bondage, destabilization by dint of so-called “structural reforms”, and military intervention is therefore very difficult for countries to break free from, and Haiti unfortunately has next to no realistic hope to ever do so in the near future.


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...anarchic-riots

[Swordsmyth]

A new Haitian government was unveiled Wednesday night, two months after the prime minister resigned over deadly riots triggered by planned fuel price hikes.

The new prime minister appointed by President Jovenel Moise is Jean-Henry Ceant, a notary who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2010 and 2016.

More at: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lates...&utm_content=1

[fedupinmo]

Do they have any flammables left over from last time?