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Haiti protests may lead to change of government: Expert

Monday, 09 July 2018 12:55 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 09 July 2018 12:58 PM ]

Violent protests in Haiti over fuel prices may lead to a change in government, says an expert.

“The problem we have in Haiti is that it is a liberal government with [a] very low popular support … In Haiti the government was elected with only 20 percent of turnout … so it does not have too much popular support. So it could happen that the Haiti government could fail down not because it doesn’t have popular support [but because] people are very angry due to the austerity measures, so it is possible that we have [a] change of government. I am not saying it is going to happen but it is a possibility,” Isaac Bigio, a Latin America expert, told Press TV in an interview on Monday.

On Friday, Haiti’s Commerce and Economic ministries announced that fuel price increases, including a 38-percent jump for gasoline and 47 percent for diesel, would take effect at midnight. The announcement drew angry protesters to the streets in major cities across the country, with demonstrators setting up roadblocks and others attacking hotels and businesses.

The decision by the Haitian government to raise fuel prices was part of a framework signed in February with the International Monetary Fund, which requires the poorly-resourced country to end subsidies for petroleum products and enact a range of austerity measures.