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Haiti prime minister resigns after deadly unrest
PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Embattled Haiti Prime Minister
Jack Guy Lafontant resigned on Saturday following deadly violence and looting
sparked by a now-abandoned plan to raise fuel prices.
“I submitted my resignation to the president of the republic,” who has
“accepted my resignation,” Lafontant said in the lower house of Haiti’s
legislature.
Lafontant had faced a potential vote of no confidence had he not resigned
— something he had previously insisted he would not do.
Last week, the government in the impoverished Caribbean country announced
plans for major fuel price hikes — 38 percent for gasoline, 47 percent for
diesel and 51 percent for kerosene.
The announcement sparked mass protests, with streets in the capital Port-
au-Prince and other cities blocked with barricades of debris and burning
tires.
Dozens of shops were looted and burned and cars were set ablaze. At least
four people were killed. The government quickly did an about-face and called
off the planned price increases.
Lafontant, a physician who had little political experience before taking
office in February 2017, had faced widespread criticism even before the spasm
of violence.
Several hundred protesters marched on Saturday in Port-au-Prince demanding
the departure not just of Lafontant, but also of President Jovenel Moise.
“It’s not just a question of changing the prime minister, because day by
day, the people are still suffering from more misery, unemployment,
insecurity, hunger,” said Fleurette Pierre, one of the demonstrators.
Haiti is desperately poor: around 60 percent of its people live on less
than two dollars a day, and they are extremely sensitive to even minor
increases in prices of just about anything.
In February, Haiti signed an agreement with the International Monetary
Fund, the Washington-based global crisis lender, in which the country
committed to carrying out economic and structural reforms to promote growth.
– ‘More gradual approach’ –
One of those conditions was the elimination of petroleum product
subsidies, prompting the doomed price hike proposal.
The accord also called on the government to keep inflation under 10
percent.
Since 2015, inflation has been running at 13 to 14 percent annually. The
budget blueprint submitted to the legislature in late June still foresaw a
rate of 13.6 percent.
On Thursday, the IMF suggested “a more gradual approach” to ending fuel
subsidies, paired with “compensatory and mitigating measures to protect the
most vulnerable people.”
“We will continue to support Haiti… as they develop a revised reform
strategy,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said, noting that ending subsidies would
free up funds for other programs such as education. Crafting a revised
strategy — and divvying up Haiti’s meager budget resources — will be a
delicate task.
The decision to scrap the price hikes means the government will have to
find another way to come up with the $300 million the move would have
generated.
It is not an insignificant amount — the total is more than 11 percent of
the 2018-2019 budget presented to parliament in June for debate.
Now, Moise’s government has to find a way to appease all sides — angry
and impatient consumers, politicians with varying interests and IMF
economists.
Haiti’s deep levels of inequality are often cited by protesters who want
both Lafontant and Moise out of office.
More than 200 years after gaining independence from France, Haiti is still
ranked by the World Bank as having one of earth’s most unjust societies.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0902 hrs