Haiti: Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant resigns

AFP | Embattled Haiti Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant resigned on Saturday following deadly protests and violence sparked by a now-abandoned plan to raise fuel prices.

“I submitted my resignation to the president of the republic,” who has “accepted my resignation,” Lafontant said in the lower house of Haiti’s legislature.

Last week, the government on the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced plans for major fuel price hikes – 38 percent for gasoline, 47 percent for diesel and 51 percent for kerosene.

The announcement sparked mass protests, with streets in the capital Port-au-Prince and other cities blocked with barricades of debris and burning tires. The government quickly did an about-face and called off the planned price increases.

Lafontant, who took office in February 2017, had faced widespread criticism even before the spasm of violence.