Demonstrators blocked streets in the city of Petion Ville, near Port-au-Prince. | Photo: EFE

Port-au-Prince, February 8 (RHC)-- Demonstrators gathered in Haiti on Monday to demand a new government and the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in a context of violence and political crisis even before the assassination in July 2021 of President Jovenel Moïse.

Local media reported that protesters set up barricades of burning tires and blocked streets in the city of Petion Ville, southeast of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.  The same platforms reported that in neighborhoods such as Martissant (south of the capital), bursts of automatic machine-gun fire were heard, while in the region of Camp-Perrin schoolchildren demanded the reconstruction of schools destroyed by the earthquake of August 14 last year.

Meanwhile, political and social organizations also mobilized on Monday to enforce the Montana Accord, agreed on August 30, 2021 by civil society groups and the Haitian diaspora in order to establish a new government in Haiti.    

"The implementation of the agreement of August 30, 2021 has made its way.  The time has come to find a compromise with all the other important actors to bring the country out of the impasse in this construction of the national consensus, indispensable for the lasting resolution of this serious and dangerous crisis facing the nation," specified the document presented by the political group and addressed to Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

"We remain at your entire disposal for a meeting as soon as possible, with a view to finding together a solution to this deep and multidimensional crisis that has lasted too long.  Haiti, our country, expects no less," the text underlined.

Days ago, this political coalition held an interim election where they selected Fritz Alphonse Jean as president of the transition and Steven Benoît as prime minister.

Haiti also recalled on Monday the 36th anniversary of the overthrow of Jean-Claude Duvalier's dictatorship in 1986.  In addition, this day marked the end of the mandate of the assassinated President Jovenel Moïse, and for some sectors of the opposition, the government of the current Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, came to an end.