Major provincial cities in the Caribbean nation of Haiti are experiencing violent protests and anti-government demonstrations.

Protesters are rebelling against “decades of corruption,” and opposition to President Moise are “uncompromising” in their stance and demand his resignation and continuation of the civil unrest until his place is vacated to the next in line.

Since taking office, Haitian President Moise has seen his fair share of civil unrest.

The disparaged island-nation has recently experienced a swell of violent protests, with locals calling for the resignation of the president amongst growing allegations of corruption and soaring inflation.

Thousands of Haitian are protesting the misuse of oil funds by the group PetroCaribe which is an oil assistance program sponsored by Venezuela.

The PetroCaribe Loan to Haiti

Over a decade ago, Venezuela established a fund in Haiti in conjunction with the government for projects that were meant to fund the Haitian people. In November 2017, a government report found that approximately 1.7 billion of the fund was lost, squandered or embezzled between the years of 2008 to 2016.

Today’s estimates state that approximately 4 billion dollars of the PetroCaribe money is misspent or completely missing.

After the Haitian earthquake in 2010, much of the PetroCaribe loan was spent to rebuild the battered country, although most of the funds were not able to be traced back to actual projects.

The election of President Moise was surrounded by accusations of corruption, as funds from his personal banana-exporting ventures were suspected to have originated from the public PetroCaribe fund.

Today’s calls for transparency, restitution and the rooting out of corruption in the government sector in Haiti are fueling the violent protests all over the island-nation.

The current situation in Venezuela is still tense, as a slow coup of former President Maduro is taking place amidst international pressure to install Juan Guaido as the country’s new President.

Danger for Tourists

The popular travel destination has had to evacuate many tourists because of the ongoing protests and violence. Just last week, Canada evacuated 100 tourists and funds and services for aid workers have been cut off as the country braces for another bout of violence.