Haitian dictator Prosper Avril, bowing to popular demands that he resign, relinquished power Saturday and turned the government over to the acting head of the army.
Gen. Herard Abraham, the army chief of staff, went on national television in midafternoon to announce that Avril had resigned and turned over the government to him. Abraham pledged to surrender power to a provisional civilian government in 72 hours.Avril left the ornate white presidential palace in the center of Port-au-Prince in a motorcade, but his destination was not known.
"Our mission is clear - to restore peace and order in order to hand over power to a provisional government in 72 hours according to the constitution," Abraham said in his brief television appearance. The provisional government will have the task of organizing elections, he said.
Even before the official announcement that Avril had stepped down, throngs of frenzied Haitians poured into the streets of the capital, waving palm fronds and shouting.
The mobs attacked the office of Daniel Narcisse, a politician known as an Avril supporter. They smashed furniture, office machines, telephones, and computers in the street just blocks from the presidential palace.
Under the plan reportedly negotiated between Avril and U.S. Ambassador Alvin Adams and French Ambassador Jean Raphael Dufour, Avril would turn over the government to Abraham, who in turn would hand over the government on Monday to the Supreme Court until elections can be held.
Avril's ouster was demanded by a 12-party coalition that launched protests throughout the West Indian nation March 4. The coalition, the Association of Political Parties, had demanded that the provisional government be headed by the vice president of the Supreme Court, Volcy Alphonse.
Demonstrators erected barricades of burning tires around the city Friday and staged demonstrations calling for Avril's ouster. Students clashed with police at one college, and authorities opened fire, wounding several people and creating panic at a nearby hospital, a student said.
"We have to get rid of this guy. He can't stay any longer," said one Haitian. "Everyone wants him to go."
An estimated 200,000 people have participated in the weeklong demonstrations that have spread to every part of Haiti, an impoverished nation of 6 million people that occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean.
At least four people, including one soldier, have died in the demonstrations, officials said.