People help a street vendor who took refuge inside a restaurant to escape tear gas being fired by police breaking up a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, September 30, 2013.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people have staged demonstrations in Haiti to protest against President Michel Martelly™s government.\n<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the protesters, including a number of opposition party chiefs and parliamentarians, took to the streets in the capital Port-au-Prince, chanting slogans against the president.\n<\/p>\n
Riot police fired tear gas at the protesters as some of them tried to break through barricades around the presidential palace.\n<\/p>\n
The protesters called on Martelly to resign because of corruption allegations. They also vented their anger over the existing poverty and unemployment.\n<\/p>\n
œPeople are living in misery,” the demonstrators shouted. œCorruption and hunger are rising across the country, Martelly must go!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A similar protest was held in the northern city of Cap-Haitian, where the demonstrators held up plates and spoons as they marched through the streets.<\/p>\n
“The people want jobs and want to live in dignity,” the protesters chanted.\n<\/p>\n
“We will stay mobilized until the end,” said a protester during the rally.\n<\/p>\n
On September 30, a similar demonstration was staged in the capital on the anniversary of the 1991 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.\n<\/p>\n
Aristide, known as a champion of Haiti™s poor and reviled by the elite, was the country™s first democratically elected president. He first came to power in 1990 but served only months before a coup removed him from office.\n<\/p>\n
He took refuge in the United States but returned in 1994, serving his term until 1996.\n<\/p>\n
Aristide was re-elected in 2000. However, he was forced from power in early 2004 after several months of political turmoil. He returned to his homeland in March 2011.\n<\/p>\n
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