Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home Wednesday by a group of unidentified gunmen who also left his wife wounded, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph announced — calling it a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act.”
“An unidentified group of individuals, some of whom were speaking in Spanish, attacked the private residence of the President of the Republic and mortally wounded him,” Joseph said in a statement.
The primary languages in the impoverished Caribbean nation of more than 11 million people some 675 miles southeast of Miami are French and Haitian Creole
Joseph said he was now in charge of the country.
The gunmen claimed to be agents with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Miami Herald reported.
But sources told the paper that the assailants, one of whom spoke English with an American accent, were not with the American agency.
“These were mercenaries,” a high-ranking Haitian government official told the Herald.
In his statement, Joseph said first lady Martine Moïse “was wounded by a bullet and the necessary measures are being taken.”
He added: “The security situation of the country is under the control of the Haitian National Police and the Haitian Armed Forces. All measures are being taken to guarantee the continuity of the State and to protect the nation. Democracy and the Republic will triumph.”
Moïse, 53, and his wife were attacked about 1 a.m. local time at their Port-au-Prince residence, said Joseph, who condemned what he called the assailants’ “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act.”
Videos taken by people in the area of the president’s home in the neighborhood of Pelerin 5, above the hills in the capital, suggested that the assailants claimed to be DEA agents, the Miami Herald reported.
“DEA operation! Everybody stand down! DEA operation! Everybody back up, stand down!” someone with an American accent is heard saying in English over a speaker, the news outlet reported.
Residents reported hearing high-powered rounds being fired and seeing black-clad men running through the neighborhoods, according to the Herald, which also cited reports of an exploding grenade and drones buzzing overhead.
The US is assessing the “horrific attack, this tragic attack” and President Biden will be briefed on the assassination, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on MSNBC.
“We will be helpful in any way to the people of Haiti, to the government of Haiti, if there’s an investigation, but we’re still assessing right now, we’re still gathering information. The president, of course, will be briefed by his national security team this morning,” she said.
In an interview on CNN, Psaki said: “We stand ready and stand by them to provide any assistance that is needed … it’s important that people of Haiti know that.”
The US Embassy in Port-au-Prince posted a security alert citing “an ongoing security situation” and said the embassy would close for all services, CBS News reported.
The alert also warned people to “avoid unnecessary travel” in Haiti for the time being.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacted to the attack on Twitter and sent his condolences to Haiti.
“I am shocked and saddened at the death of President Moise,” Johnson wrote. “This is an abhorrent act and I call for calm at this time.”
Colombia President Ivan Duque called on the Organization of American States to send an urgent mission to Haiti to “protect the democratic order” in the country, Reuters reported.
“We reject the vile assassination of the Haitian President Jovenel Moise,” Duque wrote on Twitter. “It is a cowardly act full of barbarity against the entire Haitian people.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a tweet that his country “strongly condemns the assassination.”
“Our condolences to his family and our solidarity with the Haitian people. We call for the unity of the political forces to find a way out of the serious crisis that the country experiences,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the government of the Dominican Republic ordered the “immediate closure” of its border with Haiti. The border closure was effective immediately, the communications officer of the Defense Ministry, Ceinett Sanchez, told AFP.
The streets of Port-au-Prince were largely empty early Wednesday morning, though some people ransacked businesses in one area, The Associated Press reported.
The brazen attack happened a day after Moïse named a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, to prepare the nation for elections in the next two months for president, a new parliament and local government officials.
The killing comes amid deepening political and economic stability and a spike in gang violence in the poorest country in the Americas.
Moïse, who entered office in 2017, had been ruling by decree since January 2020 after legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed in the wake of disputes, including over when his own term ends, according to Agence France-Presse.
Opposition leaders have accused Moïse of seeking to increase his power, including approving a decree that limited the powers of a court that audits government contracts and another that created an intelligence agency controlled by the president.
Opposition leaders have demanded that he step down, arguing that his term legally ended in February.
Moïse and supporters maintained that his term began when he took office in early 2017, following a chaotic election that forced the appointment of a provisional leader to serve during a year-long gap.
He faced steep opposition from large segments of the population that deemed his mandate illegitimate — and he churned through seven prime ministers in four years.
Joseph was supposed to be replaced this week after only three months in the post.
In addition to presidential, legislative and local elections, Haiti was due to have a constitutional referendum in September after it was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supported by Moïse, the text of the constitutional reform has been overwhelmingly rejected by the opposition and many civil society groups.
The current constitution, which was written in 1987 after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, declares that “any popular consultation aimed at modifying the Constitution by referendum is formally prohibited.”
The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under the late president’s rule.
Its economic, political and social woes have deepened, with gang violence spiking heavily in Port-au-Prince, inflation spiraling and food and fuel becoming scarcer at times in a country where 60 percent of the population makes less than $2 a day.
These troubles come as Haiti still tries to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew that swept through in 2016.
In addition to the political crisis, kidnappings for ransom have spiked in recent months, further reflecting the growing influence of armed gangs in the country, which also faces chronic poverty and recurrent natural disasters.
It isn’t immediately clear who will replace the assassinated president.
Judge Jean Wilner Morin, president of the National Association of Haitian Judges, told CNN that the line of succession in the country is now murky. The president of the country’s Supreme Court would normally be next in line, but he recently died of COVID-19, the network reported.
For Joseph to formally replace Moïse, he would have to be approved by parliament, Morin told CNN — but without recent elections, the parliament is effectively defunct.
“There is no constitutional answer to this situation,” Bernard Gousse, a former justice minister and legal expert, told the Miami Herald.
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse assassinated in his home (nypost.com)
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