Haitian protestors call for the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse

Brut America

Haiti is being plagued by a kidnapping epidemic, police brutality, and a president who refuses to vacate office.  Activist Monique Clesca tries to simplify the complex situation on the island.

Transcript

00:00I'm going to do it again, I'm going to do it again, I'm going to do it again, I'm going

00:27I don't think anybody in their right mind

00:56believes that there was a coup d'etat in Haiti. The whole operation, the arrest,

01:02etc., have been carried totally illegally. According to the Constitution, all of

01:10these people, there are about 23 people who were arrested illegally, are in jail,

01:15and all eyes of the world are on him for illegally arresting a judge of the

01:23Supreme Court of Haiti, and the police actually beat him up.

01:53Riots that happened in July 2018, three days where youths, thousands of youths,

02:11just took to the streets asking for jobs, for health care, for education

02:17opportunities.

02:48It is a festering crisis that has been going on for decades, because Haiti is a

02:58very unequal society. So until you actually resolve that problem, or at

03:05least make inroads towards getting everybody access to health care,

03:11education, jobs, etc., you will continue, it's kind of like you will put a Band-Aid

03:17but it will fester again.

03:20Since early 2020, we have been without a parliament. There are 10 members of the

03:34parliament who were totally silent for the last year, and so there are no

03:40elected officials except Jovenel Moïse, who was elected by less than 18% of the

03:46population. There are no mayors throughout the country because he

03:53removed all of them once their term expired.

04:16The kidnapping epidemic terrorizes people. I am terrorized. I stay home most

04:33of the time, and even if I have something to do, you try to figure

04:38out strategies on how to get to where you have to get to, and how to get

04:46back home, and knowing that this may be your last day on earth.

04:51We need to have elections, and the program that needs to be put in place

05:17needs to be very strong in terms of health, in terms of education, in terms of

05:25job, decent jobs, because we have 54% of the population that's under 24%, and you

05:34actually need to invest in the human capital if you need to make any inroads

05:40into the future, into Haiti becoming, yes I'm dreaming, a middle-income country and

05:47then moving forward. So that is the aim of the pro-democracy movement.

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