A man bleeds after being hit in the head, near the home of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise, during a march called by opposition parties and civil society to protest against the government in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. June 9, 2019.
Several thousand demonstrators marched through Port-au-Prince on Sunday to demand the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise over allegations of embezzlement. The police reported two people killed and five injured.
Demonstrators burned tires and threw stones during the march in Port-au-Prince, where the scent of burning rubber filled the air.
Many stores and gas stations were closed and travel between some cities was impeded as protesters blocked roads with cars, stones and other large objects.
"We demand that all those squandering (public) funds be tried and punished, their assets seized and turned over to the state for serious development projects, and that the president resign and turn himself in," said Velina Charlier, a protest leader.
Police erected barricades near the presidential palace and fired tear gas to drive away demonstrators who tried to breach them.
Police spokesman Michael-Ange Louis-Jeunes said gunshots caused the two deaths and wounded four people. He said a police officer was injured by a thrown rock.
There was no information on who fired the shots.
Louis-Jeunes said protesters set fire to two police cars and two buildings. He said 12 people had been arrested.
Similar protests were held in the Haitian cities of Jacmel, Cap-Haitien, Saint-Marc and Gonaives. Demonstrators came from a wide cross-section of society, including political parties, religious groups and community organizations.
'Centre of embezzlement scheme'
The judges of the High Court of Auditors said in a voluminous report last week that Moise was at the centre of an "embezzlement scheme" that had siphoned off Venezuelan aid money intended for road repairs.
Venezuela's Petrocaribe aid programme has been plagued by allegations of corruption since its establishment in 2008.
The judges' report laid out a litany of examples of corruption and mismanagement.
The magistrates discovered, for example, that in 2014 Haitian authorities signed contracts with two different companies –– Agritrans and Betexs –– for the same road-repair project. The two turned out to have the same tax registration number and the same personnel.
Moise, before he came to power in 2017, headed Agritrans, which received more than $700,000 at the time (33 million gourdes) to do the road work, though the company in principle did nothing but grow bananas.
The Petrocaribe scandal gave rise to parliamentary enquiries in 2016 and 2017, and public protests goaded the High Court of Auditors to examine how the $1.6 billion in Venezuelan funds were spent by succeeding Haitian administrations.
A Senate investigation recently determined at least 14 former government officials allegedly misused $3.8 billion under the administration of former President Michel Martelly.
Venezuela's collapsing economy has forced the South American nation to halt or drastically curtail Petrocaribe shipments, leading to problems for power generation. Many Haitians now receive electricity for only a few hours a day.
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