MINIMUM WAGE DEMONSTRATIONS BECOME VIOLENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 000592 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR S/CRS INL FOR KEVIN BROWN, DIANNE GRAHAM AND MEAGAN MCBRIDE SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR INR/IAA WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2019 TAGS: PGOV HA PREL SUBJECT: MINIMUM WAGE DEMONSTRATIONS BECOME VIOLENT REF: A. PORT AU PRINCE 00530 ¶B. PORT AU PRINCE 00583 PORT AU PR 00000592 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Thomas C. Tighe for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Demonstrators confronting Haitian National Police and MINUSTAH units that began June 3 have become violent and taken on an anti-government and anti-MINUSTAH character. Initial demands by university students for changes in the curriculum and improvement of conditions at the State University have expanded to include demands for implementation of a recently-passed law to triple the minimum wage, and the withdrawal of MINUSTAH from Haiti. Non-student elements have joined the students and are contributing to the violence, which has included burning of vehicles and tires and caused injuries but no deaths. In another incident that further elevated tensions, one Haitian attending the funeral of a Fanmi Lavalas activist was killed during a confrontation with MINUSTAH troops June 18, in circumstances that remain unclear. End summary. Day Seven -------------- ¶2. (C) Students who had protested university conditions for several weeks took up the cause of the minimum wage bill beginning June 3 (reftels). After a four-day break from demonstrations due to Corpus Christi holiday June 12 and rain showers June 13, demonstrators resumed activities on June 15 with increased intensity. Roughly 500 protestors marched near the National Palace demanding that the government promulgate the minimum wage law (ref A). (Note: Historically, Haitians do not demonstrate on holidays, in poor weather conditions, on weekends, or during major international soccer games. End note.) They also demanded the freeing of their arrested colleagues who remained jailed since the previous week. Demonstrators paraded placards with slogans such as ''Down with Preval,'' ''Down with the Bourgeoisie,'' and ''Our Country is not for Sale Either Wholesale or Retail.'' Others called for the withdrawal of MINUSTAH from Haiti, or bore the names of President Preval, Prime Minister Michele Pierre Louis, and UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton with an ''X'' drawn through their names. Day Eight -------------- ¶3. (SBU) On June 16, students became violent, attacking passing vehicles with rocks thrown from behind the walls of the Faculty of Ethnology. Demonstrators burned tires and set up barricades at two major intersections downtown. Later in the afternoon, a CIMO (HNP SWAT) unit arrived on the scene as protestors threw stones targeting vehicles with GOH, MINUSTAH, or other international organization plates. One HNP vehicle was attacked, causing the occupants to flee to avoid injury as a crowd smashed the windows with rocks. HNP and UN Police (UNPOL) used tear gas to quell the violence. Day Nine -------------- ¶4. (C) Violence ramped up considerably on Wednesday, June 17 with students shifting much of their focus from the minimum wage issue to MINUSTAH. Embassy sources and press reports say that a crowd stoned a MINUSTAH vehicle and burned it, forcing the UN personnel to flee on foot. Protesters also burned a mini-van owned by the University. HNP and UN troops began using rubber bullets in addition to tear-gas to regain control. ¶5. (C) Crowds marched near the National Palace displaying signs that read: ''Down with Preval,'' and ''Down with MINUSTAH.'' Media reports that many of the protesters called for the departure of MINUSTAH, defining its troops as ''an occupying force.'' Faculty members in the Schools of Law, Economics, and Humanities claimed MINUSTAH and the HNP had violated the Constitution on June 10 by firing tear-gas canisters into the campus to stop the students from hurling rocks and a small quantity of Molotov cocktails. (Note: Article 34 of the 1987 Constitution states, ''Except for cases of being caught in the act (flagrante delicto),the grounds of education establishments are inviolable. No law enforcement units can penetrate them, unless they have the proper authorization from the Direction of such an establishment.'' After this incident, and following reports that citizens in the vicinity became ill from tear gas, Embassy sources report that President Preval asked HNP Director General Andresol to minimize the use of tear-gas. End note.) ¶6. (C) Police reported to the media on June 15 that 24 people had been arrested, 19 of them confirmed as students. The majority have since been released. Privately, however, HNP Director General Mario Andresol told an Embassy official on June 15 that the number of individuals arrested is closer to sixty. Official Responses -------------- ¶7. (C) In a speech commemorating the 14th anniversary of the HNP, on June 13, Andresol promised that the police would continue to act with force against any public demonstration that turned violent, and called on the students to exercise their right to demonstrate with respect for the law. Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis has remained silent on the minimum wage controversy. In a discussion June 15, President Preval told the Ambassador with an air of defiance ''I do not deal with demonstrators.'' He added, as far as he was concerned, the minimum wage issue had been settled privately with (select) members of Parliament and the business sector (ref B). Deadly Outcome of Funeral of Fanmi Lavalas Militant -------------- -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Tensions in Port-au-Prince rose further June 18 during the funeral of Father Jean-Juste, a close associate of former President Aristide who died in Miami in late May and whose body was returned to Haiti June 16. His funeral was a boisterous and emotional event held in a Port-au-Prince cathedral and attended by several members of parliament. When the casket was brought outside for transport to his home town of Cavaillon for burial, a large crowd of Lavalas supporters had gathered. They surged toward a group of Brazilian MINUSTAH troops in the area, who fired warning shots into the air and retreated. A demonstrator fell to the ground with a head would and soon died. Demonstrators carried his body to the National Palace and left in front of the Palace entrance, shouting slogans against MINUSTAH and President Preval. Several members of Parliament and others who all claimed to have been at the scene told the media that MINUSTAH troops had fired without provocation at the crowd outside the cathedral and had definitely killed the victim. ¶9. (C) MINUSTAH Deputy SRSG Luis Da Costa told PolCouns June 19 that Brazilian troops were in the area searching for a suspected gang leader. When they seized a person fitting the description of the suspect, the crowd surged toward the troops in an attempt to free the suspect. The troops retreated and fired live ammunition and rubber bullets into the air. At some point, a demonstrator fell wounded to the ground with a head wound and soon died. MINUSTAH investigator has examined a video which they claim conclusively shows that the Brazilian troops were not involved in the death. Other MINUSTAH sources told DATT later June 19 that the GOH Medical Examiner's office had concluded the victim died of blunt trauma to the head. However, the corpse also exhibited a .22 or .25 caliber gunshot wound just below the eye that they had been inflicted post mortem. (DATT Note: MINUSTAH troops use 7.62 mm ammunition.) Comment -------------- ¶10. (C) Port-au-Prince is quiet June 19, but Embassy fears a resumption of protests by students or others. The third week of protests over the minimum wage issue saw increasingly brazen attacks on MINUSTAH troops and police. President Preval has remained silent and refused to engage the students on the minimum wage issue in public, as Deputy Steven Benoit, who first authored the minimum wage law, has pleaded that he do. RSO has credible information that Lavalas elements have made contact with the students. They and/or other political elements may be urging the students to violence in order to disrupt the second round of Senatorial elections on June 21. In the wake of these protests, it appears very unlikely that many parliamentarians will give serious consideration to President Preval's proposed amendments to the minimum wage bill. TIGHE