It's Haiti v13 – Politics are Local, Again; and They Screw Up Traffic

     One morning when Meer, Madsen and myself were driving into Port-au-Prince, traffic on Route 2 slowed down to a crawl and then stopped. Nothing was moving. Makendy, ever the model of calm and patience, asked someone what was going on. “Manifestation” was the response, a demonstration. This demonstration was in front of a school. I was immediately reminded of the manifestation that occurred at Christianville back in December (see December 12, 2012 post, All Politics are Local). I wondered what the people were protesting this time (I never found out). This manifestation was serious. Blocking the major highway was not to be dealt with lightly. Here we were stuck in the long line of cars, trucks, and tap taps waiting to move east towards PauP. What should we do, I asked Makendy. “We wait”, he replied. I asked Makendy how long we might be waiting. “Until the police come”, Makendy replied. That sounded pretty ominous. It wasn’t long before the police did arrive. Soon we saw three police in riot helmets and bulletproof vests. The line of traffic began to slowly move. Makendy was right. We rolled slowly past several police cars and now I saw10-15 police, all in riot gear, gathered around, directing traffic and keeping the road clear. Makendy gestured with his left hand toward a red Nissan parked on the side of the road. I looked over and saw a gentleman in a grey suit walking next to a guy with an Uzi. “The mayor”, Makendy said. The mayor was the guy without the Uzi. We drove on into PauP.

     We were not finished with traffic jams, not yet. As we approached the first traffic circle in Carrefour, we saw several UN armored personnel carriers (APCs) parked on the circle with blue-helmeted troops carrying automatic weapons in formation on the circle observing the four directions of traffic.  That was odd. I had never seen the UN deployed like this before. At the next traffic circle, there was another APC with troops fanned out in the same pattern as the previous circle. This was no longer odd. This was the UN guarding the major entry points into PauP. What is going on? Madsen had the answer. President Martelly and Prime Minister Lamothe were both scheduled to address the National Assembly today. We drove as far as Bicentenaire where we met a police roadblock. The neighborhood of the National Assembly was closed to traffic. Makendy did a U-turn with one hand and pulled out his cell phone with his other hand. Soon he was asking someone for advice about the best route to take through Bicentenaire to get us to the airport. Makendy got us to where we needed to go (the customs office, again). Later that day, we needed to get to the FedEx office which is in Bicentenaire, the neighborhood that was cordoned off. Somehow, Makendy found a way to get to the FedEx office from the backside of the roadblock so that when we left, we were actually coming from the police side of the roadblock back out into traffic. It was late. Another exhausting day in PauP. It’s Haiti.