Demonstrators loot stores, fight with police officers in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Thousands of protesters clashed with police as they looted stores and tried to break through a barricade leading toward the residence of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse Friday in one of the biggest demonstrations in weeks to demand his resignation.

The violence came a day after a journalist covering the demonstrations was fatally shot in his car.

A group of motorcycle drivers gunned their engines in front of the police barricade blocking the sole street leading to the upscale Port-auprince neighborhood, with one person holding up a dead dog that had been dragged through the streets by a rope. A small group yelled: “Here’s Jovenel!”

Police fired tear gas and bullets into the air. Protesters burned tires and spilled oil on streets in parts of Haiti’s capital, warning the demonstrations could get even more violent as anger over corruption, rising inflation and a lack of basic goods continued to roil the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

“We’re going to break and destroy everything” if Moïse doesn’t resign, said Reynald Brutus, a 28-year-old unemployed protester.

Friday’s protest came after reporter Néhémie Joseph of Radio Méga, who had been covering the protests, was found dead in his car late Thursday in the town of Mirebalais, northeast of Port-au-prince, according to Radio Vision 2000.

In a Facebook post in late September, Joseph said that a couple of politicians had threatened him after one of his shows and accused him of inciting protests. It was unclear, however, if this was the motive for his killing.

“The press should not have to claim victims and bodies as their own,” the Association of Professional Journalists of Artibonite said, calling on justice officials to investigate the killing.

Joseph is the third Haitian journalist killed in less than two years. Radio Sans Fin reporter Pétion Rospide was fatally shot in June as he drove home, and freelance journalist Vladjimir Legagneur disappeared in March 2018 while working on a story.

The most recent killing comes amid a spike in violence in Haiti’s capital and the surrounding communities.

“It’s a very, very serious situation,” said Michèle Pierre-louis, a former prime minister with the non-governmental organization FOKAL. “No one is really talking about the suffering of the people. The consequences are terrible.”