Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant resigned Saturday, avoiding being forcibly ousted in a no-confidence vote by Parliament's lower house.
"Before coming here, I presented my resignation to the president," Lafontant said in a 10-minute speech.
Haiti's Parliament had scheduled a hearing Saturday to fire Lafontant and his 18 Cabinet members after an unpopular fuel-price increase led to riots last weekend, and the U.S. State Department issued a "Do not travel" warning for the country.
A relatively unknown doctor until he was chosen to be prime minister by President Jovenel Moise 16 months ago, Lafontant temporarily suspended the fuel-price increase hours after it was enacted. But that did not stop the violence. All week, had refused calls to step down from business and opposition groups, which accused the government of mishandling the higher fuel prices, which were announced with little notice.
The increase was part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which required Haiti to enact a series of economic reforms in exchange for $96 million from donors.
After the announcement that the price of gas would increase by 38 percent, diesel by 47 percent and kerosene by 51 percent, angry Haitians took to the streets, burning tires and erecting roadblocks. Luxury hotels were attacked and businesses were vandalized and looted as protesters demanded the departure of Lafontant and Moise.
On Saturday, Haiti's Chamber of Deputies took matters into its own hands. But after the leader of a majority bloc of lawmakers called for a 10-minute suspension, Lafontant took the microphone to defend himself and announce that he had already resigned and Moise accepted it.
"I was not in search of a job. I could have succeeded anywhere in the world," he said. "I wanted to serve my country."
The government's fall is the ultimate price for the widespread unrest and violent demonstrations that broke out July 6 after the fuel increase announcement. At least three people died, including a police officer, and U.S. airlines canceled flights. Unable to get around roadblocks, Haitians and tourists became stuck in their workplaces, hotel lobbies and elsewhere _ some for as long as three days.
Calm returned early in the week but tensions remained and a political crisis brewed as Lafontant showed no sign of resigning, preferring instead to have his fate decided by the Chamber of Deputies.
In anticipation of protests and possibly more violence Saturday, foreign embassies in Port-au-Prince braced themselves. France warned citizens in a security alert to exercise caution. Canada told its citizens in Haiti to consider getting essential supplies and limit their movement because the "situation remains fluid and unpredictable," with further demonstrations planned for Saturday and Sunday.
The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, issued a demonstration alert just as the hearing began, three hours late with 61 of 117 deputies present in the chamber.
"We've been in a political crisis since last week," Gary Bodeau, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, said as he headed to Parliament. "The population is watching."
Acknowledging Haiti's volatility going into Saturday vote, Bodeau said it was not the traditional opposition that was making demands in Haiti. It was the people, he said, "taking their destiny in their own hands."
"Today, you have a movement without a leader, and that's what makes these kinds of movements dangerous," he said.
Lafontant's resignation means that Moise has to find a new prime minister. Failure to reach a consensus with both chambers of Parliament could plunge Haiti further into a crisis and delay decisions like revisiting the agreement with the IMF, which said Thursday that Haiti still needs to raise its fuel prices to align them with the global market.
This time, however, the increases should be gradual, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said, and include programs such as transportation vouchers to mitigate the impact on the country's 6 million citizens who live on less than $2.25 a day.
By keeping fuel prices artificially low, Haiti is losing about $160 million a year, the IMF said, money that could be spent on badly needed social programs.
