Beleaguered Haiti capital brought to brink by fuel shortages

By MATÍAS DELACROIX
Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s capital has been brought to the brink of exhaustion by fuel shortages, after staggering along despite an earthquake, the assassination of the president, gang violence and mass kidnappings. More than two weeks of fuel deliveries interrupted by gang blockades and abductions of fuel truck drivers have driven residents of Port-au-Prince to a desperate search for gasoline and diesel. The fuels are widely used to run generators needed to compensate for the country’s unreliable electrical system. Protests have broken out and the capital’s foremost pediatrics hospital says it has only three days of fuel left to run ventilators and medical equipment. A spokesman for Saint Damien hospital warns that the situation there “is very critical.”