On Tuesday, militants in the city of Gonaives burned and looted buildings owned by Defense Minister Enold Joseph. Properties belonging to high-ranking officials such as Andre Michel, Marjorie Michel, Edmonde a Beauzile, and Rocardin St. Jean were also attacked.
After attacking and looting the First Instance Court and the Appeals Court, demonstrators attacked the Defense Minister’s companies.
One of the burned properties is “Independence 1,” a shopping center housing a radio station, a convenience store, and a hotel.
The “Independencia 2” shopping center was also attacked and burned.
This latest wave of militancy in Haiti comes after the US-supported Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry called for “foreign military intervention,” in other words, an explicit return of colonial occupation in Haiti, whose people have suffered greatly from French and American invasions. Haitian revolutionaries have resisted each attempt to colonize them, providing inspiration for anti-colonial uprisings around the world.
Henry began his political career as the leader of the Democratic Convergence movement, which plotted the overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was removed from power in a US-backed coup in 2004.
As one protesters in Petit-Goâve said: ‘We would rather destroy the country than continue to live under the imperialist colonial system of the United States, France, Canada, BINUH, and the Core Group’.
Demonstrators on Monday shouted against the “foreign occupation” and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who on Friday asked international partners for “the immediate deployment of a specialised armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the “criminal actions” of armed gangs across the country.
Several people were shot and one person was reported to have been killed by police during the rallies.
“It is a crime perpetrated by the police. This young girl posed no threat. She was killed expressing her desire to live in dignity,” a protester said.
Many Haitians have rejected the idea of another international intervention, noting that UN peacekeepers committed sexual assault and sparked a cholera epidemic more than a decade ago that killed nearly 10,000 people.