"He was in shock," said the 71-year-old political activist and author. "I knew something was wrong even before he spoke." All afternoon, Clesca flicked between Port-au-Prince's plethora of FM stations, trying to fathom the mayhem unfolding outside. Their progressively alarming broadcasts told of gangs with machine guns marauding through town.
One group of fighters was seen advancing on the airport. Another mob stormed a university, shooting a student in the ear. Burning police stations had been sprayed with bullets. By the time Radio Métropole's 6pm news came on air, Clesca had no doubt what had transpired. "The gangs had taken over the city," the writer said.
Over the next seven days, members of Haiti's ruthless, politically connected gangs woul launch an unremitting wave of attacks across the capital, leaving in their wake what the country's top newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, called "a cortege of fire, blood, corpses, incalculable damage and fear". "It has been pure terror," Clesca said.
A full picture of the uprising - not to mention the tangled and obscure political and economic calculations driving it is still emerging.
Yesterday, one week after the violence began, one US official said: "The government could fall at any time." If gang fighters seized the airport or presidential palace, "it's over", the official told the news agency McClatchy.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 08, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 08, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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