Haiti president assassinated at home by unknown killers

Haiti has been thrust into turmoil after the assassination of its president Jovenel Moise, who was shot dead during the night in his private home on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince.

“At around 1am . . . a group of unidentified individuals, some of whom were speaking Spanish, have attacked the president of the republic’s private residence and mortally wounded the head of state,” interim prime minister Claude Joseph said in a statement.

Joseph appealed to the Caribbean nation’s 11m population for calm and condemned what he described as an “odious, inhuman and barbaric act”, in which Moise’s wife Martine was also seriously wounded. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki described the attack as a “horrific crime” in an interview with CNN and said it was assessing the situation. The Organization of American States condemned an “affront” to the “community of democratic nations represented by the OAS”.

Various videos were circulating online purporting to show a group of heavily armed commandos attacking Moise’s residence. Their authenticity could not be verified.

Joseph claimed that Haiti’s security forces had the situation under control, although there was an immediate question about who was in charge. Moise had named a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, only two days before he was killed, but Henry had not yet taken office.

“The streets are very quiet, everyone is staying at home and waiting,” said one foreign businessman in Port-au-Prince. “But there’s a big concern over what happens next. Most of the opposition is as bad or worse than this guy was.”

The neighbouring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, closed the land border between the two nations. President Luis Abinader called an emergency meeting on the crisis.

Moise, a former banana exporter turned politician, had been ruling by decree since October 2019 when parliamentary elections were scrapped. His legitimacy was repeatedly questioned, with the opposition and many legal experts arguing that his presidential term had expired.

Mass protests over allegations of government corruption and involvement in gang violence punctuated his time in office, although he consistently denied involvement.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has suffered repeated political and economic crises in recent years, as well as several natural disasters. It has struggled to rebuild since a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Food and fuel shortages have plagued the country, and increasing lawlessness has scared away investors and much of the middle class. Transparency International rated the country 170th out of 180 in its global corruption perceptions index last year, and the World Bank says that nearly 60 per cent of the population live in poverty.

Moise had planned to hold fresh elections and a constitutional referendum in September, but the opposition had questioned whether these could be free and fair, given the dire situation.

A group of US lawmakers wrote to Antony Blinken, secretary of state, in April expressing “serious and urgent” concern over the deteriorating situation in Haiti and saying the Moise government was “failing to meet even the most basic needs of its citizens”. It called on the US government to work with Haitian civil society to ensure that elections met international standards.