The country of Haiti stumbled into an uncertain future Thursday after its President, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated. The killing was followed by a reported gunbattle in which authorities said police killed four suspects in the murder, detained two others, and freed three officers who had been held, hostage.
Officials promised to find all those guilty for the raid on Moïse house early Wednesday, which resulted in the president’s death and his wife, Martine Mose, being severely wounded.
“The pursuit of the mercenaries continues,” Léon Charles, director of Haiti’s National Police, said Wednesday night. “Their fate is fixed: They will fall in the fighting or will be arrested.”
Officials did not give any information about the suspect’s identity, nor did they mention a motive or what led police to them. According to authorities, the attack was carried out by “a highly trained and heavily armed group” whose members spoke Spanish or English, which was criticized by Haiti’s leading opposition parties and the international community.
Following Moïse’s assassination, Prime Minister Claude Joseph took control of Haiti with the help of the police and the military. He declared a two-week state of siege, which stunned a country grappling with some of the highest levels of poverty, violence, and political instability in the Western Hemisphere.
As food and fuel become scarcer, inflation and gang violence are rising, with 60% of Haitian workers earning less than $2 per day. The situation is becoming increasingly severe as Haiti continues to recover from the deadly 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, following a history of dictatorship and political unrest.
Marlene Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement, said, “There is this void now, and they are scared about what will happen to their loved ones.”
She noted that it was important for US President Joe Biden’s administration to be much more active in supporting efforts in Haiti to hold free, fair, and credible elections.
Bastien also said she wanted to see the large Haitian diaspora participate: “No more band-aids. The Haitian people have been crying and suffering for too long.”
Under Moïse, who had been ruled by decree for more than a year and faced violent protests as critics accused him of seeking to accumulate more power and the opposition demanded he step down, Haiti had become increasingly unstable.
According to Haiti’s constitution, Moïse should be replaced by the president of the Supreme Court; however, the chief justice died of COVID-19 recently, leaving the subject of who should succeed open.
Meanwhile, Ariel Henry, who had been named Prime Minister by Moïse the day before the assassination, was set to succeed Joseph.
In a brief interview with The Associated Press, Henry confirmed that he is the prime minister, calling the scenario unusual and perplexing. He maintained there was no fight between him and Joseph in another interview with Radio Zenith: “I only disagree with the fact that people have taken hasty decisions … when the moment demands a little more serenity and maturity.”
In recent months, Moïse has faced enormous, violent protests after opposition leaders and supporters rejected his attempts to call a constitutional referendum with measures to enhance the presidency.
Public transit and street sellers were limited in the hours following the assassination, which was unusual in the generally bustling streets of Port-au-Prince. Gunfire boomed out irregularly over the city, a sobering reminder of gangs’ expanding dominance, which displaced over 14,700 people last month alone as they set fire to and plundered homes in a turf war.
Robert Fatton, the University of Virginia’s Haitian political expert, said that gangs were a fighting force and that certain security forces in Haiti can not impose a state of siege.
“It’s a really explosive situation,” he said, adding that foreign intervention with a U.N.-type military presence is a possibility. “Whether Claude Joseph manages to stay in power is a huge question. It will be very difficult to do so if he doesn’t create a government of national unity.”
The Associated Press has said Joseph supports an international investigation into the murder and that it thinks that elections should be held later this year, promising to work with the allies and opposing opponents of Moïse.
He said, “Everything is under control.”
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