Protesters in Haiti demand new government and more security as anger over gangs spreads

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Dozens of protesters marched up the hills of Haiti's capital on Sunday demanding an end to persistent gang violence as they called on the country's prime minister and transitional presidential council to resign.

It's the latest protest to reflect growing anger and frustration over a surge in violence as gangs try to seize full control of Port-au-Prince.

"The only thing the Haitian people are asking for is security," said Eric Jean, a 42-year-old bus driver with a large Haitian flag tied around his neck. "We're losing more neighborhoods, more people are dying, more people are fleeing their homes."

Also joining the protest was Marc Étienne, who blamed gangs for raiding his small business and leaving him homeless. The 39-year-old now lives in a squalid, makeshift camp like tens of thousands of others forced to flee their homes after gangs razed their communities.

Étienne called for a new government as he blamed the current leaders for the ongoing violence and an increase in the number of children joining gangs.

"Haiti cannot be run among friends," he said. "The city is dying because the (council) is not doing anything to make it better."

Sunday’s demonstration comes a day after hundreds of people gathered in Port-au-Prince to honor several community leaders killed in recent clashes with gangs.

"Freedom or death!" the mourners shouted on Saturday as the leaders of the Canapé-Vert neighborhood entered a small stadium where the memorial was held.

Videos posted on social media showed the leaders carrying automatic weapons and wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of those killed. Many wore balaclavas to cover their faces and protect themselves from possible retaliation by gangs.

Clad in white, the mourners raised their fists and clutched hands in the air as a man on stage roared in Haitian Creole, "The blood is not going to be shed in vain! The fight is what?"

"Just beginning!" the crowd answered in unison.

The unidentified man on stage said the community would never forget the slain leaders as he condemned gang violence. "People are dying, and they don't even know why they're dying," he said.

Canapé-Vert is one of the few neighborhoods that has yet to fall to gangs that control at least 85% of the capital. It also is known for having one of Port-au-Prince's most powerful neighborhood organizations, led in part by frustrated police officers.

In early April, Canapé-Vert leaders organized a large protest that became violent as they, too, demanded that Haiti's prime minister and its transitional presidential council resign.

Sunday's demonstration and other recent protests have decried the country's spiraling crisis, with more than 1,600 people killed and another 580 injured from January to March.

In mid-March, hundreds of people armed with sticks and machetes, accompanied by members of an armed environmental brigade, successfully ousted more than 100 suspected gang members that had seized control of a Catholic school, according to a new report issued by the U.N. political mission in Haiti.

But the ouster is only one of a handful of successful fights against powerful gangs backed by certain politicians and some of Haiti's elite.

Last year, more than 5,600 people across Haiti were killed, according to the U.N.

Gang violence also has left more than one million people homeless in recent years.

Gunmen in recent months have targeted once peaceful neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince that would give them easy access to Pétion-Ville, a residential area where banks, embassies and other institutions are located.

In a February attack on Delmas 30, gunmen "indiscriminately fired on the population in the neighborhood, killing 21 men and injuring eight others," according to the U.N. report.

In a separate attack on a nearby neighborhood where the French embassy is located, at least 30 people were killed, many of whom were traveling in small colorful buses known as tap taps, according to the report.

Other victims include at least 15 people who were family members of police officers.

Gangs also have attacked multiple communities in Haiti's central Artibonite region, killing adults and small children as they fled.

"The indiscriminate and brutal nature of some of these attacks shows the gang's strategy to spread panic and reduce the resistance of the local population," according to the BINUH report.

Meanwhile, Haiti's National Police, bolstered by a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police, has struggled in its fight against gangs as the mission remains underfunded and understaffed, with only 1,000 personnel of the 2,500 envisioned.

In a push to crack down on gangs, the U.S. government on Friday officially designated Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang coalition, and Gran Grif, the largest gang to operate in Haiti's central region, as foreign terror organizations.

Critics warn the move could affect aid organizations working in Haiti at a critical time, since many are forced to negotiate with gangs to supply people with basic goods including food and water.