Vol. 72/No. 17      April 28, 2008

On April 8 Haitians stormed the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince and overwhelmed the guards until UN troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd. Protesters also demanded that the 9,000-strong UN “peacekeeping” force there leave the country. In Le Cayes, where five protestors were killed, demonstrators attempted to burn down the UN compound, the Miami Herald said.

The cost of staples such as rice, beans, fruit, and condensed milk have gone up 50 percent in the past year; the cost of pasta has doubled. There were over 400 demonstrations against the rising cost of living in Haiti between February 2007 and January 2008, according to the United Nations.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Nearly 80 percent of the country’s 8.4 million people live on less than $2 a day.

The World Food Program has collected less than 15 percent of the US $96 million it says Haiti needs in donations this year. At the same time, the United Nations spends more than $500 million a year to maintain its military presence.

In the north of the country, tons of imported food has been held up in customs and left to rot in Haitian ports, the Miami Herald reported. Much of Haiti’s food must be imported today due to its underdevelopment as a result of centuries of foreign domination.

Haitian President René Préval told the protesters, “I order you to stop. To the people of Haiti who are demonstrating, who are suffering, I ask you to go home.” Préval has announced the government will cut some food taxes and lower of the price of rice in an attempt to lessen the crisis.

Heightened tensions surfaced within Haiti’s ruling class amid the crisis when prime minister Jacques Alexis was booted out of office April 12 on a no-confidence vote by 16 of Haiti’s 27 senators.
 
 
Related articles:
Strikes, demonstrations demand relief from inflation, food prices
Profit system is behind food crisis  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home