LatinNews Daily - 18 January 2019

* A protest movement in Haiti’s Lascahobas town (Centre department) over electricity rationing and blackouts has turned violent. Two people were killed and five were injured in clashes with the police, as reported by Haitian media in recent days. Demonstrators, who were protesting at electricity blackouts which had reportedly been ongoing for months, had barricaded the main roads in Lascahobas on 14 and 15 January, bringing traffic to a halt. Police officers intervened and were met with projectiles, including shards and stones, to which they retaliated with the use of firearms. The protests are the latest sign of public anger with the government led by President Jovenel Moïse which stems more generally from the corruption scandal which emerged last year involving funds from Petrocaribe, Venezuela’s discounted oil initiative, which had allegedly been misused by local politicians and key public figures from September 2008 to September 2016.

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