Several thousand people take to streets of Haiti capital in anti-government protest By Associated Press, Published: September 30
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Several thousand people poured into the streets of Haitis capital on Sunday to protest the government of President Michel Martelly. It was among the biggest demonstrations this year in Port-au-Prince against the first-time leader as he tries to rebuild the impoverished nation following a powerful 2010 earthquake that displaced more than a million people and destroyed thousands of homes. Demonstrators complaints included the high cost of living, rising food prices and allegations of corruption as they snaked through the poorer neighborhoods Port-au-Prince. Some protesters carried small red cards to suggest that Martelly has committed too many fouls since he was sworn in as president in May 2011. The Martelly government had no immediate public reaction to the protest. Martelly, a pop music star before he turned to politics, presented himself as an outsider when he ran for the presidency. He promised free schooling and houses for people displaced by the earthquake. But some Haitians complain that Martelly has fallen short of improving their lives in one of the poorest countries in the world. The president has made so many promises but nothing has become a reality, protester Max Dorlien said. Its only a clique of his friends who are making money. The Sunday protest followed several weeks of mostly peaceful demonstrations in the countryside, and more are planned for October. It also marked the 21st anniversary of the first ouster of two-time President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest who returned to Haiti last year after seven years in exile. Since his return, Aristide has remained in his compound in the capital and out of the public spotlight, fueling widespread speculation on his political relevance. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. http://haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume6-11/The%20Mobilization.asp *The Mobilization Against Martelly Grows* *by Isabelle Papillon *[image: ...]For the second consecutive week, thousands of people of all ages and walks of life took to the streets of Cap Haïtien, Haitis second largest city, on Sep. 21 to protest against President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe. They denounced high-level corruption, the high cost of living, Martellys hijacking of the electoral council, and government attempts to evict peasants from plots of land on which they have lived and farmed for almost two centuries. After rallying at the Samarie roundabout in the morning, thousands of people from Cité Lescot, La Fossette and other Cap-Haïtien neighborhoods marched through the city, rallying in front of the central governments offices, known as the Delegation of the North, and at the Courthouse. In front of the Delegations offices, pro-Martelly partisans hiding inside the government building threw rocks at the protesters. The demonstrators threw rocks back at them. The Haitian National Police (PNH) and UN occupying troops (MINUSTAH) fired tear-gas canisters to disperse the protesters, with only partial success. When they met the marchers, some people were seen to theatrically take off their pink bracelets, meant to signify allegiance with the government, and throw them on the ground. "*Martelly, Martelly, pèp Nò a pap jwe,*" the demonstrators shouted. (The people of the North do not play around.) "We do not want imported rice, we want to work," they chanted. "We want to live in peace in our country." To ease spiking food prices, last week Lamothe announced that the government would import 300,000 bags of rice. Despite some brutality from the PNH and MINUSTAH, the demonstration ended without major incident. However, during the afternoon after the march had ended, helmeted-policemen of the Security Unit to Guard the National Palace (USGPN) arrived in Cap Haïtien from Port-au-Prince and began shooting with leveled weapons in different parts of the city. In retaliation, the people threw stones and bottles. The evening before the march, the city was also tense. Burning-tire barricades, a traditional form of protest, went up in several roads, especially near the neighborhoods of La Fossette, Cité Lescot, and Samarie. Police gunfire wounded at least three people. Thrown rocks and bottles injured one policeman. On Sep. 17, four days before the demonstration, the government sent a delegation headed by Interior Minister Ronsard Saint-Cyr and the State Secretary for Communication, Guyler C. Delva to try to buy off those responsible for the mobilization in the North. The mission was a failure, like a similar on to the southern city of Les Cayes the week before as confirmed by the former Southern delegate Pierre Etienne France on a radio in the capital this week (see *Haïti Liberté*, Sep. 19, 2012). Also on Sep. 21, in the southern city of Miragoâne, hundreds took to the streets to protest corruption in the Martelly/Lamothe administration and the high cost of living. Protesters said Martelly had lied to the Haitian people when he promised change and a break from the past. Instead, demonstrators said, he has resurrected the repressive policies of the Duvalier dictatorship, which was overthrown 25 years ago. Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, dozens of people picketed in front of the Prime Ministers office to demand that food prices be lowered. Some chanted: "Down with Lamothe." On Sep. 19, President Martelly accompanied UNESCOs Special Envoy to Haiti, Michaëlle Jean, on a brief visit to Port-au-Prince. The unemployed who often gather to discuss their woes in public places quickly organized an impromptu protest to voice their anger about Haitis deteriorating economy as schools are about to open on Oct. 1. These fathers, mothers, and youth said they were discouraged and disappointed that the hope for change promised by Martelly is shrinking as time goes by. "We are hungry and need jobs, not words to put us to sleep while the gangrene of corruption spreads at the highest levels of power," said one demonstrator. Protests nationwide are sharpening around these key issues: corruption, exclusion, the high cost of living, the rise of arbitrary power, the drift towards dictatorship, and the manipulation of Haitis judiciary, legislature, and other independent institutions. Martelly continues to maneuver in an effort to form a Permanent Electoral Council as opposed to a compromise Provisional Electoral Council proposed by most parliamentarians. A major demonstration around these issues is being planned in Port-au-Prince for the 21st anniversary of the Sep. 30, 1991 coup détat against then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a coup which many officials in the current government, including the President, either participated in or supported. 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