Photos show political turmoil in Haiti
Violent demonstrations. Anger over corruption and inflation. Dwindling supplies of food, water and gas.
Haiti has been mired in political turmoil for a month as protests organized by opposition leaders and their supporters grow more violent amid demands that President Jovenel Moïse resign.
An anti-government protester shouts that Haitian President Jovenel Moise must step down in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
The protests began in mid-September in the capital of Port-au-Prince and other cities and towns across Haiti, leading to the deaths of nearly 20 people and causing some 200 injuries, according a human rights group.
The ongoing demonstrations and dozens of barricades of rocks and burning tires set up across the country have paralyzed the economy in Haiti, a country of nearly 11 million people where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day and 25% less than $1 a day.
The deepening turmoil has forced businesses to close and organizations to suspend aid and prevented 2 million children from going to school.
A girl writes in French and Creole on a chalkboard: "A sentence always begins with a capital letter and ends with a period," outside a one-room home in the Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A police officer aims his weapon after demonstrators calling for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise broke through their lines, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Oct. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Protesters led by the art community demand the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise as they march through Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A relatives of Rigueur Pierre Richard, who was killed in a drive-by shooting two blocks from the national palace, is overcome with grief, during a protest against fuel shortages and demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
Opposition leaders have rejected Moïse’s call for unity and dialogue and recently created a nine-person commission they say would be responsible for overseeing an orderly transition of power.
Moïse, meanwhile, has stated he will not step down and instead created his own commission he said is tasked with finding a solution to the crisis.
Many Haitians are most angry over corruption allegations and demand a more in-depth investigation following a report by Haiti's Senate that accuses former top government officials from the administration of former president Michel Martelly of misusing at least $2 billion in funds tied to a Venezuelan subsidized oil program that were meant for social programs.
The report also names a company that Moïse once owned. Moïse, who was Martelly's hand-picked successor, has denied the allegations.
A man carries a protester wounded by projectiles fired by police, as he searches for a motorcycle to carry him to a hospital, in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Protesters trying to break through a barricade leading toward the residence of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse flee as police fire a water cannon, in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Ruling party Senator Ralph Fethiere fires his gun outside Parliament as he arrives for a vote on the ratification of Fritz William Michel's nomination as prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Sept. 23, 2019. Opposition members confronted ruling-party senators, and Fethiere pulled a pistol when protesters rushed at him and members of his entourage. The vote was cancelled. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
A protestor holds rocks while walking in front of burning tires at a barricade, as protesters seek to paralyze transport and commerce in order to pressure President Jovenel Moise to resign, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A protester in camouflage carries a toy weapon during a protest against fuel shortages, as two police officers walk past him in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
Paseus Juvensky St. Fleur, who trained as a lawyer and is now an activist working for social justice, drops to his knees as protestors trying to set up a barricade across a major road argue with police trying to stop them, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Protesters use paving stones and rocks to barricade a road that runs along the periphery of a park next to the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Two men are detained by a police officer during a protest against fuel shortages in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
A man drives his motorcycle through a burning barricade during anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
People fight as they line up at a closed gas station, hoping it will open eventually, during a fuel shortage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019 (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
People pass the time on rooftops as afternoon turns to evening, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Barber Stanley Gustin, 29, finishes cutting the hair of a client in his shop across from the town square in Leogane, Haiti, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A young man waves a sea bird he caught, known locally as a "fou," to make it squawk as boys use the first bird as bait to lure in its worried mate in the Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. The birds were caught to eat. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A young man holds a pair of sea birds, known locally as "fou," that he and other boys caught for food in the Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Plastic clothes pins are clipped to the skin of a dominos player, the punishment for losing team, as men compete in the game in Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Charles Lewis, 25, repairs clothes on his sewing machine in front of the one-room home he shares with his wife and daughter in the Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A fisherman sails past a dock where boys were fishing in the Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Miland Pierre, 22, tends to her 11-day-old twins Milanda and Milo who were born in the one-room shack she, her husband, and their two older children share on the edge of a waterway heavily polluted with trash and human waste in the Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A woman with painted nails leans against a truck as people wait for distribution to restart, after a federal government hand-out of food and school supplies was temporarily suspended when the lines turned into jostling crowds, at the mayor's office in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A woman fries up small fish coated in flour by the light of a cell phone in the Cite Soleil neighborhood where access to electricity is limited and sporadic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Photos by Rebecca Blackwell and Dieu Nalio Chery and text by Danica Coto.