'There Is No Hope': Crisis Pushes Haiti to Brink of Collapse

Source: New York Times

‘There Is No Hope’: Crisis Pushes Haiti to Brink of Collapse

Haitians say the violence and economic stagnation stemming from a clash between the president and the opposition are worse than anything they have ever experienced.

By Kirk SemplePhotographs by Meridith Kohut

LÉOGÂNE, Haiti — The small hospital was down to a single day’s supply of oxygen and had to decide who would get it: the adults recovering from strokes and other ailments, or the newborns clinging to life in the neonatal ward.

Haiti’s political crisis had forced this awful dilemma — one drama of countless in a nation driven to the brink of collapse.

A struggle between President Jovenel Moïse and a surging opposition movement demanding his ouster has led to violent demonstrations and barricaded streets across the country, rendering roads impassable and creating a sprawling emergency.

-snip-

Though the country has been trapped for years in cycles of political and economic dysfunction, many Haitians say the current crisis is worse than anything they have ever experienced. Lives that were already extremely difficult, here in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, have become even more so.

Weeks of unrest around Haiti, coupled with rampant corruption and economic malaise, have led to soaring prices, a disintegration of public services and a galloping sense of insecurity and lawlessness. At least 30 people have been killed in the demonstrations in the past few weeks, including 15 by police officers, according to the United Nations.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/world/americas/Haiti-crisis-violence.html