PORT-AU-PRINCE — Protesters clashed with police Monday in the Haitian capital, while a general strike kept most people at home across the country in a fourth day of unrest sparked by a now-rescinded government plan to raise fuel prices in the impoverished nation.
Demonstrators linked to various opposition factions marched on the Parliament building but were turned back by police. Protesters also set fire to a tax office in the Tabarre area of the capital and set up barricades of flaming tires and debris around Port-au-Prince.
But much of the city and the country shut down as most businesses remained closed because of protests and looting and a general strike on Monday that halted the minibuses and taxis that most Haitians depend on to get to work and school.
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Public Security Secretary Ronsard Saint Cyr and leaders of the House of Deputies and Senate called for an end to the protests and to the general strike.
Protests erupted Friday hours before the price of fuel, set by the government, was to rise by up to 50 percent, part of a plan endorsed by the International Monetary Fund to modernize the economy.
The Haitian government canceled the increase amid protests that left several people dead and prompted airlines to cancel flights.
ASSOCIATED PRESS