Jovenel Moïse || Dead And Arrests Following The Presidential Murder In Haiti

After the assassination of the Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, chaos threatens the Caribbean country. The country has been in a deep political crisis for years.

Following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, four suspects were killed and two others were arrested. Police chief Léon Charles announced this on television. Three police officers have been captured in the meantime, but have since been released. Further details about the manhunt were initially not known. 

After the fatal assassination attempt on Haiti's president, the government initially announced the arrest of suspects. The "alleged murderers" were caught by the police on Wednesday evening (local time), wrote Deputy Communications Minister Frantz Exantus on Twitter.

Well-trained and heavily armed group

Strangers had entered the Jovenel Moïses residence on Wednesday night and shot him. His wife Martine Moïse was injured in the attack on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince , said the foreign minister of the Caribbean state, Claude Joseph. In an address to the nation, he declared a state of siege across the country. The situation is under control.

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The attackers spoke Spanish and English, said Joseph, who had also recently served as interim prime minister. He called for calm and called for the state apparatus to function properly. He condemned the act as "hideous, inhuman and barbaric".

The background to the attack is still unclear, as is the state of health of the president's wife. "Although details are yet to be found, it can be confirmed at this point in time that it was a well-coordinated attack by a well-trained and heavily armed group," said Haiti's embassy in the United States.

Videos allegedly taken around the presidential residence in the affluent suburb of Pétion-Ville were distributed on social media. In a video, one of the attackers is said to shout in English that it was an operation by the US anti-drug agency DEA. The USA firmly rejected this. "These reports are completely wrong," said a State Department spokesman. "We condemn this heinous act," said US President Joe Biden. According to media reports, the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with  Haiti , closed its border with the neighboring country.

Deep political crisis

UN Secretary General António Guterres called on all Haitians to uphold the constitutional order and to remain united. "The perpetrators of this crime must be brought to justice," he said through his spokesman. The Federal Foreign Office declared that "everything must now be done to ensure that security and stability in Haiti is no longer endangered".

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Haiti was already in a deep political crisis. Since a parliamentary election scheduled for October 2019 was canceled due to violent protests against Moïse, the country has no parliament since the beginning of the new legislative period in January 2020. Moïse has since ruled by decree. It was only on Monday that he appointed Ariel Henry the seventh Prime Minister of his term - and thus the successor to Joseph. Due to the lack of a quorum parliament, both could not be confirmed as head of government, as provided for in Haiti's constitution. Presidential and parliamentary elections as well as a constitutional referendum are scheduled for September 26th. With the referendum, Moïse wanted to strengthen the role of the head of state.

Canceled presidential election

Many opposition officials believe that Moïse's term of office ended in February. Following the presidential election in 2015, the head of state was scheduled to have a five-year term from February 7, 2016. However, the election was canceled due to fraud and Moïse was only sworn in a year later after a new election. In an address to the nation on February 7th, Moïse declared that there had been an attempted coup d'état and a murder plot against him. More than 20 people were arrested, including a Supreme Court judge. Opponents of Moïse declared another chief judge to be Haiti's interim president.

Protests against Moïse have paralyzed Haiti time and again over the past three years. He was accused of corruption and links to violent gangs. Fights between gangs for control of parts of Port-au-Prince have displaced more than 14,700 people since the beginning of June, according to the UN. According to this, about a third of the area of   Port-au-Prince is currently affected by violence, which emanates from 95 armed gangs. It is an open secret in the former French colony that the gangs have ties to politicians. Again and again, violence comes from the security forces.

Second President assassinated

Moïse was not the first head of state in Haiti to be killed in office. The first ruler of the independent country after the revolution of the self-liberated slaves, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, met the same fate in 1806.

Haiti  is the poorest country on the American continent. According to the United Nations, around 4.4 million of the 11 million Haitians need humanitarian aid. The UN Children's Fund, Unicef, recently warned that without urgent assistance, an estimated 86,000 children under the age of five in Haiti are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year. In addition, the corona numbers have also increased significantly recently.

The 53-year-old former businessman Moïse was elected president in 2016 and took office in February 2017. Before his death, he ruled Haiti by decree after a parliamentary election was postponed due to protests against him among other things.

Joseph himself was to be relieved

Moïse had changed the country's head of government seven times within four years. On Monday he announced the appointment of the new head of government Ariel Henry, who would replace Claude Joseph after only three months in office.