Health professionals in Haiti strike over kidnappings

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Thousands of doctors, nurses and other health professionals across Haiti went on strike to protest an increase in gang-associated kidnappings. People burned tires and cut roads on Tuesday to support the stoppages.

The three-day strike that began Monday closed public and private medical centers in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and elsewhere. Only emergency room wings admitted patients.

“We are living in a catastrophic situation where no one is protected,” said Dr. Louis Gerald Gilles, who closed his private practice in the Delmas neighborhood on Tuesday to protest the recent abduction of two doctors. “No professional is protected. Today I could be a doctor, tomorrow they could enter the office of a lawyer or an architect.”

Kidnappings in Haiti increased by 180% in the last year, with 655 cases reported to the police, according to a report released in mid-February by the United Nations Security Council. Authorities believe that the number is much higher because many abductions go unreported.

“No social group was spared: among the victims were day laborers, merchants, religious leaders, teachers, doctors, journalists, human rights defenders and foreign citizens,” the report said.

The recent abductions of two doctors frightened staff at the Port-au-Prince General Hospital, where union members met on Tuesday and said the situation was increasingly dysfunctional since the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

They accused Prime Minister Ariel Henry's government of not releasing funds needed by the Ministry of Health for basic services, adding that they were concerned about the lack of security.

“You can enter here, take anyone and leave without worries,” said Guerline Jean-Louis, a 44-year-old hospital warden who joined the strike. “That's why we support the movement.”

It was not immediately possible to contact officials of the Haitian Ministry of Health for comment.

Some patients, such as Mario Fleurimon, a 39-year-old primary school teacher, were not aware of the strike.

On Tuesday, he went to a medical facility that was empty except for a single security guard. Although frustrated that he had not been able to see a doctor for a consultation related to his diabetes, he expressed support for the strike.

“There should be a general uprising to combat insecurity,” he said.

In a recent statement, the Haitian Medical Association demanded that the government push for doctors to be released unconditionally and take action to “stop the wave of insecurity that deprives us of our fundamental freedom to live our lives freely.”

One of the captured doctors was released on Tuesday, although at first the conditions of his release were unknown.

The Prime Minister has promised to pursue the peak of kidnappings and gang violence, while the United States and other countries have offered resources and training to help a police force short of personnel and funding.

The strike of medical professionals was scheduled to end on Wednesday. There was another strike by the Association of Owners and Drivers in Haiti scheduled for Thursday to protest the theft of vehicles in the town of Martissant, badly affected by clashing gangs that have kidnapped or killed several civilians, many of them on public buses.