'Time for Revolution Has Come': Haitian Opposition Leader Says

During a demonstration in Port-au-Prince on Monday, Jean Charles Moise, the leader of the Pitit Dessalines party, called for continued social protests to prevent a foreign military intervention and achieve the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

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“I am not asking you to carry firearms. Buy machetes to lead the revolution,” the 55-year-old former senator told Haitians during a massive march, which began on Champ de Mars and headed toward the U.S. embassy.

"The time for revolution has come," the Pitit Dessalines politician said, radically rejecting the interference of the United States and other countries in the internal affairs of Haiti.

The police fired an overwhelming amount of tear gas at the protesters and Moise, who suffocated and had to be treated urgently by his family and friends.

“Your grace period is over. Haiti is a great people. We are not your backyard," the leftist leader said in front of the U.S. embassy, where he warned that Prime Minister Henry "will never sleep soundly if he doesn't resign."

The tweet reads, "Demonstrations against the high cost of living and the Prime Minister have been going on for weeks in Haiti. Recently, the government requested the deployment of a foreign armed force to manage the crisis."

At 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday in New York, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will analyze the Haitian crisis in an extraordinary meeting, which was called unexpectedly and will replace the discussion on the Somalian war.

Earlier on Monday, the UNSC discussed two resolutions on Haiti. In one of them, the Council would support a foreign armed intervention in the Caribbean country. In the other one, the Council would rule only in favor of imposing sanctions on the responsible for the violence.

So far, it is unknown whether the UNSC will vote today in favor of either of the two resolutions since Russia and China expressed their doubts about their desirability and effectiveness.

On Oct. 7, PM Henry asked the international community to send an armed force to support him. Two days later, UN Secretary Antonio Guterres proposed sending a "rapid action force" made up of military personnel from one or more countries. So far, however, no country has officially agreed to lead or organize such a force.