Who assassinated President Jovenel Moïse?
The answer is not yet known but the investigation is progressing (a little).
Four "mercenaries" were killed and two others arrested - according to the police - after this event which shocked Haiti and the international community and threatens to further destabilize an already fragile country, but no information has so far filtered out. identity or motivations of its authors.
President Moïse was killed at his home by an armed commando at around 1 a.m., on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
According to the judge in charge of the case, quoted by the local press, his body was found riddled with 12 bullets, and his office and his room had been ransacked.
His wife was injured and evacuated to Florida for treatment.
Three police officers "recovered"
According to Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph, the attackers were "foreigners who spoke English and Spanish". According to the Haitian ambassador to the United States, Bocchit Edmond, the commando was made up of “professional” mercenaries who pretended to be officials of the American anti-drug agency. Police said Wednesday evening that they chased down suspected members of the commando immediately after the attack and were still "engaged in battle with these attackers". “Since that night we have been fighting against them,” declared the director general of the Haitian national police, Léon Charles, in an address on television. “Four mercenaries were killed, two were intercepted under our control. Three police officers who had been taken hostage were recovered, ”he said.No other information on the perpetrators of the assassination has been disclosed.
Read also Assassination of the President of Haiti: 5 minutes to understand a political and security crisis
Earlier, Prime Minister Claude Joseph had announced in a speech in Creole that he had decided to "declare a state of siege throughout the country", granting enhanced powers to the executive for two weeks.
Calling on the population for calm, he promised that “the assassins would pay for what they did in court”.
The assassination threatens to further destabilize the poorest country in the Americas, already facing a dual political and security crisis.
The US State Department has called for the continuation of legislative and presidential elections in Haiti scheduled for September 26, 2021, with a run-off on November 21.
US President Joe Biden condemned him for a "heinous act", and the European Union worried about a "spiral of violence".
The UN Security Council, which will meet urgently on Thursday, demanded that the perpetrators of the assassination "be promptly brought to justice".
# Haiti |
Assassination of President Jovenel Moïse pic.twitter.com/XlBAqisp0o
- Jean-Yves Le Drian (@JY_LeDrian) July 7, 2021
A president with no political experience
After the announcement of the violent death of the president, all activities were paralyzed in Port-au-Prince and in the provincial towns.
Bernadette, 44, described the news as "another earthquake in Haiti", after the devastating one of 2010. Jacquelyn, a Haitian fifty-something living in Carrefour, in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, wondered about the motivations of authors.
"Who has an interest in assassinating Jovenel Moïse?"
That, we'll never know, ”he said.
Haiti: After the assassination of President Moïse, the country woke up shocked, says Jean Jul Désauguste, journalist at Radio and television Metropolis.
pic.twitter.com/X6gVadDY5N
- TV5MONDE Info (@ TV5MONDEINFO) July 7, 2021
Coming from the business world, Jovenel Moïse, 53, was elected president in 2016 on a promise to develop the country's economy and took office on February 7, 2017. Active in several economic fields, including the operation of banana plantations, he had virtually no experience in politics at the time of his election.
Haiti is plagued by insecurity, particularly kidnappings for ransom carried out by gangs enjoying virtual impunity.
A situation which was worth to Jovenel Moïse, accused of inaction in the face of the crisis, to be confronted with a strong distrust of a good part of the civil society.
