Haitian workers demonstrating for a change in government. Photo: EFE.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Increasing protests in Haiti have laid bare the deep discontent of the population with the unelected government of Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, backed by the US regime.
Demonstrations have intensified since May 1—International Workers’ Day—and have been marked by demands for an increase in salaries to cover the increasing costs of living, for maintenance of crumbling infrastructure, and for improvements in citizens’ quality of life, as well as calls for the de facto government’s resignation, among other grievances.
Demonstrations were sparked by a drastic increase in oil prices announced by the unelected Haitian regime on April 2.
The regime “jacked up fuel costs on Apr. 2, for gasoline from 560 to 725 gourdes ($5.53) per gallon or 29%, for diesel from 620 to 850 gourdes ($6.48) per gallon or 37%, and for kerosene from 615 to 845 gourdes ($6.44) per gallon or 37%,” writes Haiti Liberté.
On the question of salaries, the Haitian government, in an attempt to quell the disturbance, announced on May 4 that the daily minimum wage would increase from 685 to 1,000 gourdes (US $7.63). According to Haitian Finance and Economy Minister Serge Gabriel Collin, the change would be “extended progressively to all sectors involved with the aim of maintaining balance and sustainability” for the Haitian population.
The announcement has been met with conflicting responses from various sectors of the informal economy and labor unions in Haiti who have been demanding much greater increases in salaries to compensate for rising costs of living since the COVID-19 pandemic and the severing of Haiti’s supply of low-cost oil from Venezuela in 2018. All of this, of course, has been exacerbated by the drastic increase in energy prices following the criminal attacks on Iran by the US and its Israeli vassals on February 28 of this year.
“Since 2023, wages have remained unchanged, while the cost of living has continued to rise,” writes Isabelle Papillon for Haiti Liberté. “In the metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, workers at the industrial park (SONAPI) demonstrated, as did workers at the Industrial Development Company (CODEVI) in Ouanaminthe (northeast Haiti), demanding 2,500 gourdes before the government’s increase in gasoline prices and 3,000 gourdes after the rise in petroleum product prices. Increasing a day’s wage from 625 to 1,000 gourdes will do absolutely nothing to improve the living conditions of these workers.”
Three Destroyers and One Order: How the US Imposed Its Rule on Haiti
Historically, Haiti relied on Venezuela’s Petrocaribe program as a source of low-priced oil. However, these shipments were halted in 2018, largely as a result of US coercive measures (euphemistically referred to as “sanctions”) that targeted the Venezuelan oil industry, prevent Venezuela’s ability to refine and export oil.
Thereafter, it was revealed that the administrations of Michel Martelly and Jovenel Moïse in Haiti had embezzled funds from the Petrocaribe program. As Venezuela’s oil production slowly strengthened over the years, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro had floated the idea, in 2024, of reviving the Petrocaribe deal.
Since the end of Petrocaribe, Haiti has relied primarily on US-based suppliers such as Novum Energy Corp. for oil. According to The Observatory of Economic Complexity, for example, Haiti imported about 98% of its domestic oil from the United States in 2024.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
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Cameron Baillie is an award-winning journalist, editor, and researcher. He won and was shortlisted for awards across Britain and Ireland. He is Editor-in-Chief of New Sociological Perspectives graduate journal and Commissioning Editor at The Student Intifada newsletter. He spent the first half of 2025 living, working, and writing in Ecuador. He does news translation and proofreading work with The Orinoco Tribune.
