The Haitian National Police declared a state of emergency from Friday to February 15 amid the wave of protests called by the opposition to demand the departure of the country’s president, Jovenel Moise, next month because he understands he is. about to rule outside of its constitutional mandate.
Moise came to power on February 7, 2017, following elections that were annulled in 2015 on allegations of fraud and repeated in 2016. The opposition has counted the five-year term of office since that year, so he believes the president will have to leave power next month, in a constitutional interpretation disputed by the government, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United States. States.
Moise is now working on drafting a new constitution, which is expected to be presented in a referendum in April, while the presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in September without, in principle, Moise’s presence. According to the opposition, however, the president could rule the country by decree until then.
The latest impetus for the protests was a controversial decree characterizing street vandalism as an act of terrorism, in what the opposition understands as an act to restrict the protesters’ freedom of expression.
The announcement last Friday came after a massive rally in the capital, Port-au-Prince, which was disbanded by police with the launch of tear gas. Other provincial capitals joined the day of the protests, the first of a calendar of marches to demand the president’s departure.
Thus, and “before the calls for a popular uprising for civil disobedience”, the Chief Executive of the National Police, Léon Charles, ordered that all police personnel be removed “from January 15 to February 15, 2021, in a state of maximum vigilance on the whole. territory of the Republic, “said the statement collected by Haiti’s Libre news portal.
The police are thus preparing for another possible new episode of tension that will take place next Sunday, the day for which a demonstration of the National Police union is called on the avenue of Toussaint Louverture, on the way to the international airport; a route “on which no protest is allowed,” warn the security forces, and whose celebration “is in direct violation of the prohibition of the Commander-in-Chief of the National Police.”