Bus, taxi drivers call one-day strike to protest gas prices

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Bus and taxi drivers called a one-day strike in Haiti's major cities Tuesday to protest gas prices, forcing schools and most businesses to close.

Price increases since New Year's Day followed a decision by the government to halt subsidies of gasoline and other petroleum products.

Low-octane gas was selling at $2.16 per gallon, a 74 percent increase from a week ago. Many of Haiti's 8.3 million people subsist on as little as $1 a day.

A 96 percent rise in kerosene prices was making it difficult for the poor to light their lamps in shantytowns far from power lines.

"I have to go to work, but I support the strike 100 percent," said Leonard Pierre, 42, a factory worker waiting in a crowd for a rare bus in Port-au-Prince. "Prices are out of control, and kerosene is so expensive my family spends its nights in the dark."

Few buses or taxis were out in the capital, where schools and most businesses were shuttered in the metropolitan area of 2.5 million people. The strike also paralyzed the second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, and businesses and schools were reported closed in other, smaller cities.

Government officials defended the decision to halt fuel subsidies as sound fiscal policy for the impoverished Caribbean country, and refused to cede to pressure.

"The aim of the government is to ensure the protection of all consumers," government spokesman Mario Dupuy said.

Subsidies ended

The government blamed the end of subsides in part on the $80 million national deficit -- and on the suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid after disputed 2000 legislative elections.

Another factor was higher world market prices stemming partly from an opposition strike in oil-producing Venezuela.

Diesel prices were sharply up, and economists expected a corresponding increase in prices at supermarkets and other businesses that use diesel generators.

Some gas station owners feared higher prices could put them out of business. Many gas stations were closed Tuesday, as were some commercial banks. An unusually small number of street vendors were out working.

There were no major reports of violence, though youths threw stones at passing cars, smashing windows. Some people built a barricade of flaming tires on a seaside boulevard, but police removed it.

The strikers have political motivations and are acting in "bad faith," said Jonas Petit, acting head of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party. "They know the government had no choice, but they seize on any opportunity to destabilize the country."

The government buys oil shipments and, until this year, passed them along to wholesalers below cost. The subsidies cost the government about $13.5 million for the months of October and November alone, Dupuy said.

The government now will raise or lower gas prices depending on the market, but only if fluctuations exceed five percent, Commerce Minister Leslie Gauthier said.

Since mid-November, thousands of Haitians have protested to call for Aristide's resignation, accusing his government of corruption and failing to stave off poverty.

Aristide claims he has brought relative peace, and that blocked aid has hindered progress in easing poverty. He refuses to step down before his term ends in 2006.