By Carlos Aznárez appeared on the net on October 17, 2018
After the mass demonstrations that took to the streets on October 17 to denounce the corrupt government of Jovenal Moise, it seems that the focus of the demand has taken a step forward and is no longer just the claim for the funds diverted from PetroCaribe, but that the people angered by police repression that today cost another life, are now directly demanding for the resignation of Moise.
PetroCaribe was the last straw since the diversion of funds, which Bolivarian Venezuela offered as a gesture to attend to the serious problems of the country, is seen, logically, by the population as a crime, in a country where suffering is something that happens daily. From this collective state of mind, these new rebels have emerged. Let it be clear that the people are not opposed to PetroCaribe, on the contrary what they want is to get rid of the corrupt governments that betrayed the gesture of Commander Hugo Chávez in the first place.
Now the fundamental struggle is being played in the streets as could be seen by the massive crowd that flooded into the huge Mars Field in Port-au-Prince. The people came with their improvised placards and the national flag while the same scene was repeated in Gonaive, Cite Soleil, Jacmel, where Moise had to flee like a rat in the face of the anger of hundreds of residents.
In Haitian Cape, the second largest city of the country, the great majority of its inhabitants remained occupying the streets way into the night overwhelming the police who did know what to expect. The locals insisted that “Moise has to go” and other demands where shouted about his rampant corruption.
New mobilizations are expected this Thursday in Port-au-Prince and also in Les Cayes, where a demonstrator was assassinated on Wednesday.
Everything indicates that this time, the people are willing to stand to have the last word and move forward so that the succession of bad governments (the last three have been consecutively worse than the other: Preval-Martelly-Moise) is not repeated and that it is the popular forces and social movements who will have the last say when it comes to deciding the direction of the country. It is no coincidence that on October 17, in the streets, with the songs and slogans against the regime, many appealed to the legacy of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the great anti-slavery patriot and fighter for independence, as their historic model. His revolutionary legacy continues to fly over Haitian territory. Many remember that proclamation of November 18, 1803, when Dessalines proclaimed “Freedom or Death”. It is this proclamation that has become engrained in the hundreds of thousands of Haitians, who today are saying that the repressive forces of the government cannot stop their quest for freedom. As one of the demonstrators interviewed by a Mexican news outlet said today, “We have already suffered too much to the point where we were losing our dignity to rebel, but this time we won’t back down until the people rule”.
http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2018/10/17/haiti/
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano, translation North America bureau