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Jovenel Moïse, shot in front of his family this week, made many enemies and few friends in four years of scandal as president of Haiti.
So many enemies that when a squad of mercenaries posing as agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stormed the president’s private town in the early hours of Wednesday, it was not entirely clear which side his bodyguards were on. . Since then, Haitian authorities have ordered the interrogation of his security detail.
The video shot by witnesses circulating on the Internet appears to show the killers being locked in the house in the dark in a convoy of slow-moving vehicles. Some of the attackers walk between cars brandishing machine guns and shouting in English “DEA operation” and “don’t shoot.”
Once inside, the assassins repeatedly fired at Moses and his wife Martine. The president was beaten 12 times and his left eye was removed, Haitian magistrate instructor Carl Henry Destin told Le Nouvelliste, a Haitian newspaper. Martine survived the attack with serious injuries and was taken to Florida for treatment.
The attack provoked international condemnation and, in Haiti, dismay despite the country’s endemic violence. “People are on the edge right now,” a Port-al-Prince resident said. “Whether you loved Moses or hated him, it’s the same reaction: a deep state of shock.”
Among the many unanswered questions are: who ordered the assassination, why the bodyguards apparently offered no resistance, and what will happen next in Haiti, already in deep crisis even before the assassination.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the U.S. FBI and national security officials would be sent to Port-au-Prince “as soon as possible to assess the situation and how we can help.” Haitian government.
Although assassinations are common in the Caribbean nation and coups punctuate Haiti’s history, no president has been assassinated in office since a mob dismembered Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915.
This assassination led to an occupation of Haiti for 19 years by American troops, but Washington’s reaction this time was different. Psaki said Thursday that the presidential election scheduled for this year should continue.
In Haiti, authorities have been quick to reveal the foreign identities of the president’s assassins. Police Chief Leon Charles said Thursday that 26 of the 28-man squadrons were Colombians and two were Americans of Haitian descent. Seventeen have been arrested and at least three killed. Others flee. It is unclear why the alleged professional squad failed to organize a getaway.
There is speculation about who ordered the murder. Moïse, a former banana exporter, had shown an increasingly authoritarian streak in his final term in office, imprisoning opponents, ruling by decree, allowing the terms of parliamentarians and mayors to expire without new elections and seeking constitutional changes. abolished the senate, gave him immunity from prosecution and paved the way for a second term.
Violent street protests erupted in 2018 over allegations that Moses and his officials had pocketed millions from a Venezuela-subsidized oil program, which he always denied.
“Moses had a large number of enemies,” said Laurent Dubois, an expert on Haiti at the University of Virginia. “It could be speculated in many different directions. I imagine it will go back to an internal source, but it is difficult to say if we will ever really know ”.
Equally murky is what comes next in a country ravaged by political instability, worsening gang violence and acute poverty. Claude Joseph, the sixth prime minister of Moïse, quickly took control of the post-assassination, imposing a state of emergency, holding a press conference and ordering the reopening of the airport and local businesses. after two days the streets had been quiet. However, Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon appointed by Moses two days before his death to take over as prime minister, claimed to be the legitimate leader.
Constitutional experts were foxes: Haiti has two possible legal formulas in the event of a presidential death, there is currently no parliament to endorse a candidate, and the head of the supreme court – a possible successor – died of coronavirus last month.
For now, the United States and the United Nations are dealing with Joseph; Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to him on Wednesday and state spokeswoman Ned Price repeatedly described Joseph as “the incumbent prime minister.”
Whoever takes control faces a strong challenge. In April, the Catholic Church warned that Haiti was “descending into hell” after seven of its clerics were abducted and observers said there had been a marked deterioration in security since early June as it increased. gang violence.
“We need this government that has no legitimacy to accept a process of dialogue with all those who could form a government of national unity,” said Didier Le Bret, who was France’s ambassador to Haiti from 2009-13 and now works for a consultancy, ESL and network. “There is no electoral process in Haiti for months because none of the conditions can be met.”
Even before the assassination, Bruno Maes, a UNICEF country representative, said Haiti was facing its worst humanitarian crisis in years due to violence by armed groups, acute fuel and food shortages and an increase in Covid cases. “The number of people in need of immediate humanitarian aid is 1.1 million,” he said. “We can’t use the main road to the south to reach people because the armed gangs control it, so we have to use helicopters.”
The international powers do not seem willing to intervene. A 13-year United Nations mission in Haiti ended 2017 without providing lasting stability and critics said a Security Council statement this week amounted to little more than a hand effort. With the U.S., the traditional arbiter, aside, some fear that Haiti risks drifting into violent anarchy.
“The poor people of Haiti have suffered enough,” a local businessman said. “People are dying, people are hungry. People can’t stand it anymore. Life is too painful. ”
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