Street protest turns violent in northeast Haiti town; police confirm some wounded by gunfire
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti _ Haitian authorities on Thursday were investigating a street protest that turned violent in a northeastern town close to the country’s border with the Dominican Republic.
Police spokesman Frantz Lerebours confirmed people were wounded by gunfire during a Thursday protest in Fort Liberte, but he could not immediately say how many. He also provided no details on how they were shot.
Sen. Jean-Baptiste Bien-Aime, an opposition politician from Haiti‘s northeast area, asserted that 13 people were wounded by Haitian police officers who fired their weapons while trying to clear demonstrators from the main road to allow trucks to pass.
For the last few days, protesters in Fort Liberte have taken to the streets demanding the town be supplied with electricity from a power plant at an industrial park in nearby Caracol, the senator said.
Lerebours said the head of the Haitian National Police had sent a team to the area to investigate.
Last week, an anti-government march in Haiti‘s capital, Port-au-Prince, turned violent as three demonstrators were shot by counter-demonstrators in a volatile neighbourhood.
Alwin Marshall-Squire is the Editor-in-Chief of S-Q Publications Inc., overseeing editorial strategy for GTA Weekly, GTA Today, and Vision Newspaper. He leads the publications’ mission to deliver bold, original journalism focused on the people and communities of the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, and the global Caribbean diaspora.
Also writes for GTA Weekly and GTA Today.
