Informal vendors from low-income neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince have taken to the streets since early August, continuing their actions in September under the Collective of Citizens of Haiti’s Informal Sector and Small Businesses (CCIHPE). For many traders, mostly women, selling goods is how they support their families in a country where chronic instability and weak infrastructure deter investment and limit job creation. Haiti’s industrial sector is too small to meet employment needs.
Across the capital, vendors sell on roads and sidewalks, outside homes and warehouses, at bus stations, in commercial districts and near government offices. Their goods include groceries, farm produce, fruit and vegetables, street food, cosmetics, medicines and imported products. But the two main regions supplying Port-au-Prince with food have been cut off: armed groups from the Viv Ansanm coalition control the main roads north and south and have set up illegal toll points to extort drivers and vendors.
Clashes frequently erupt on those routes, putting rural farmers at risk as they try to bring produce to market. Extortion fees have pushed food prices higher, while local agricultural production has fallen sharply. In key farming areas of the Artibonite and Centre departments, gangs have driven out farmers, destroyed crops and burned homes.
Vendors say public markets, businesses and their inventories have also been destroyed. Gunfire has made regular trading locations unsafe. Residents have reported looted or burned homes, physical attacks and deaths among loved ones; many small traders who lost everything have been forced into displacement camps.
Protests have included people who used to trade at Marché Salomon, Portail Léogâne and Champ de Mars. Marché Salomon, in the southern part of the capital, is a few kilometres from gang strongholds in Grand Ravine and Village de Dieu. The report identifies gang leaders in those areas as Renel Destina, known as “Kaporal Lapli” or “Ti Lapli,” and Johnson André, known as “Izo 5 Second”; both are described as members of Viv Ansanm.
Champ de Mars is a major public square surrounded by government buildings, including the National Palace. Vendors once had reserved spaces there to sell food and drinks. It is now the site of frequent gun battles between armed groups and the Haitian National Police, making it unusable for vendors. Some people have returned in recent months, but the area remains unsafe, according to the report. Gangs control more than 70 percent of the capital.
On September 20, dozens of vendors marched through downtown Port-au-Prince. Their banners called for tax relief, security, state support, justice and reparations, financial aid and access to education for their children. Protesters chanted that they could take no more, demanded a response and security from the government, and said hunger was killing them. The march stopped outside a complex on Avenue Charles Sumner housing the ministries of justice and public security, social affairs and labour, and economy and finance. Organizers and participants also spoke outside the official residence of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.
Boileau Junior Mondésir, general coordinator of the vendors’ collective, called on Haiti’s anti-corruption unit, the ULCC, to account for 21 billion gourdes allocated through the PRECOP programme to restart the economy. He said the informal sector represents 80 percent of the economy but had received none of that money, and demanded disclosure of how much remained and how funds were spent under the administrations of Ariel Henry and Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. These are the protesters’ claims; the article does not independently verify the programme’s spending.
Vendors also describe the crisis as a barrier to their children’s education and a source of family loss. One woman said she no longer had enough money to send her children to school; another asked the government to speak up after relatives were killed, markets burned and vendors displaced. Haiti has few public schools, and many are being used as temporary shelters. Private schools cannot meet demand and are unaffordable for many families. Both public and private institutions have also been looted, destroyed or used as hideouts by armed groups.
The protests are unfolding as the government and Provisional Electoral Council have launched the electoral process, opened voter and candidate registration and set a general election date of December 13. Large parts of Port-au-Prince and other regions remain under gang control, leaving uncertainty around the vote. In Kenscoff, an important agricultural hub, a surge in violence on August 23 and 24 left dozens dead and more than 60 people kidnapped, according to the article. Vendors say they will keep demonstrating until the government addresses their demands.