Thousands of Haitians demonstrated in the streets of Port-au-Prince this Sunday against the staggering increase in kidnappings, violence in general and the supposed dictatorship President Jovenel Moise wants to establish in the country.
The protesters responded to the call from health personnel after the murders of a doctor and a nurse in recent days.
In addition to the doctors, nurses and medical students, there were political activists, members of civil society and the population.
The march began in front of State University Hospital, the capital’s only public hospital, and stopped where Dr. Ernst Paddy was murdered to send a message to the authorities.
“Life is hope. We fight, we promise that hope will not disappear. This is the best way to honor his memory. It is our dedication and solidarity,” said a doctor reading a document.
“We want to face this machine that brings death. A long life, full of uncertainty and kidnappings,” the doctor continued, confirming that Moise’s mandate ended on February 7, the position that the ruler’s opponents hold. laid the day.
During the rally, foreign gangs accompanied the protesters, who launched hostile slogans against the current government and carried banners denouncing the “heinous crimes” committed in the country.
Pediatrician Ernst Paddy, who opposed an attempted kidnapping, was murdered by the kidnappers on Feb. 28 when he went to his hospital to get supplies for the treatment of an urgently ill patient.
He was considered a father to patients who valued him, as well as to his neighborhood, where he treated sick children for free.
A few days later, on March 2, nurse Edeline Mentor, returning from a commercial bank, was murdered by men traveling on motorcycles on the Route de Frères, a few miles from the US embassy in the Haitian capital.
The measures announced by the authorities still do not stop the insecurity and the kidnappings continue.
For some time now, not a day has gone by without kidnapping cases in all of Haiti, but especially in Port-au-Prince, whose streets look deserted at dusk.