Protests in Haiti as U.S. calls for action
STORY: A sight now all too familiar in Haiti:
Anti-government protests, descending into the looting of stores…
… rocks thrown at police… who respond by firing tear gas.
Port-au-Prince was engulfed in another day of protests on Monday.
This time against the US and Canada sending military gear – such as armoured vehicles - to Haitian law enforcement last week, to help it combat local gangs.
Some demonstrators waved Russian flags, in an apparent act of rejecting western foreign powers.
“No to the Canadians, no to the Americans. You are monsters, you don't have solutions. You are chaos.
You are behind the gangsterization of crime. You are giving arms to our brothers and those who are in underprivileged neighbourhoods.”
On Monday, the US and Mexico proposed deploying a security mission to restore order in Haiti amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Also put forward was a sanctions regime that would target anyone who threatened the peace in Haiti.
These moves are aimed at breaking the chokehold local gangs have over Haiti’s fuel supply.
Gangs have blockaded Haiti’s main fuel port for nearly a month, halting transport and leaving many Haitians without food or clean water amid an outbreak of cholera.
The UN says more than 4 million Haitians now face acute food insecurity, as looting and gang shootouts becoming increasingly common.
At a UN Security Council meeting, Chinese and Russian representatives rejected the idea of a security mission, saying Haitian leaders have openly opposed foreign intervention.
A UN peacekeeping mission known as MINUSTAH, which operated in Haiti between 2004 and 2017, faced harsh criticism from its role handling a cholera outbreak in 2010, to allegations of sexual abuse.
