‘We cannot take it anymore’: Haiti’s informal vendors protest over gang warfare

Informal vendors in Port-au-Prince, organized as the Collectif des Citoyens du Secteur Informel Haïtien et des Petites Entreprises, have spent August and September marching on government buildings to demand security, tax relief, and financial support.

Gangs from the Viv Ansanm coalition control over 70 percent of the capital and have cut off the two main roads supplying food from the Artibonite and Centre departments, running toll checkpoints that have driven up food prices and driven out farmers. Markets like Marché Salomon, Portail Léogâne, and Champ de Mars, once thriving trading spots, are now regularly caught in gunfire between gangs and police.

Vendors carrying banners marched to the offices of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, then to the Prime Minister's residence, chanting that hunger is killing them. Meanwhile the government and Provisional Electoral Council have opened registration for a December 13 general election in a country where large parts of the capital remain outside state control.

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