Crowd throws bottles, rocks at Haiti prez

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- President Michel Martelly, a showy former pop star, has styled himself as a man of the people who waded easily into adoring crowds. So the reception he received on a trip to his country's north was a surprise: Protesters pelted his entourage with soda bottles and rocks.

Martelly wasn't injured during the unexpected protest Sunday in Cap Haitien, the country's second-largest city, and police haven't determined a precise motive for the ruckus.

But it is becoming increasingly apparent in a country overwhelmed by poverty, natural disasters, disease and decades of unfulfilled governmental promises that Haitians have little patience for politicians who don't produce -- even if it is a president who has been in office for less than three months.

"Martelly made a lot of promises -- but so far nothing," said Frantz Nelson, 34. He said he had hoped Martelly would help get him and his family out of an encampment across from the National Palace where they have lived since a massive earthquake struck in January 2010. "We are impatient and our children are impatient."

One of the keys to Martelly's success in November's election was his outsider status, which attracted voters apparently tired of the traditional, educated elite who tend toward higher office in Haiti.

Though he had been known to espouse political views, he came from a radically different mold from that of the country's usual politicians. He ultimately won a race that at one point included a hand-picked successor to President René Préval and a former senator who was also a former first lady.

Witnesses said rocks and soda bottles were thrown as Martelly walked through a shantytown near the airport at Cap Haitien. Police fired several shots in the air and Chilean troops from the UN military responded. Nobody was injured, but there were 29 arrests.