AP Photos: Haiti's leader hopes to return to violence-plagued country amid calls to resign

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti remained largely paralyzed on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Ariel Henry struggled to stay in power and return to the violence-plagued capital, Port-au-Prince, from Puerto Rico.

Following the shuttering of Haiti's main airport and the freeing of more than 4,000 inmates, schools and businesses stayed closed amid heavy gunfire blamed on the gangs that control an estimated 80% of the capital, where people walked by dead bodies in the streets.

The latest attacks began last week as Henry flew to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force to help fight the gangs. Unable to return home after announcing another postponement of Haiti's elections, Henry has faced growing pressure to resign, which would likely trigger a U.S.-backed transition to a new government.

Armed groups have seized on the power void, exchanging gunfire with police at Haiti’s main airport on Monday and instigating a mass escape from the country’s two biggest prisons.

Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who goes by the name Barbecue and leads the federation of gangs that has claimed responsibility for the attacks, said he aimed to block Henry’s return and force him from office.