Feb 2021. Civil Unrest in Haiti

The poor now target the poor in Haiti. Many fear leaving their homes, buying groceries or paying a bus fare — acts that can draw the attention of gangs out to kidnap anyone with cash, no matter how little.Many schools shut their doors this month — not over COVID-19, but to protect students and teachers against a kidnapping-for-ransom epidemic that began haunting the nation a year ago. No one is spared: not nuns, priests or the children of struggling street vendors. Students now organize fundraisers to collect ransoms to free classmates.Their hardship may only worsen as Haiti hurtles toward a constitutional crisis.The opposition has demanded that President JovenelMoïse step down, saying his five-year term ended Sunday. But the president is refusing to vacate office, arguing that an interim government occupied the first year of his five-year term.In a defiant, hourlong speech Sunday, Moïse heaped scorn on his detractors.