Haiti president Jovenel Moïse’s body was ‘riddled with 12 bullets and an eye had been gouged out’

62

View
comments

Six ‘assassins’ have been arrested and seven others killed over the murder of Haiti president Jovenel Moïse who was riddled with 12 bullet holes and had his eye gouged out during Wednesday’s brutal attack.  

Haitian authorities said Thursday they had captured four more suspected members of the hit squad, taking the total to six detained and seven killed by police while a nationwide manhunt for all those responsible continues. 

At least two of the men brought in alive were found hiding in bushes by civilians who roughed them up before turning them over to police. 

Security forces were involved in an overnight shootout with some of the suspects who raided Moise’s mansion in the hills above Port-au-Prince with high-powered rifles in the early hours of Wednesday, assassinating him and leaving his wife seriously wounded. 

The identities of the suspects has not been released, with neither their nationalities, genders, ages or ethnicities revealed, and no motive has been given for the attack. 

National Police Director Leon Charles told Radio Metropole Thursday that other members of the hit squad remain at large and vowed that the other people responsible ‘will be killed or arrested.’   

Moise’s terrified adult daughter Jomarlie was forced to hide in a bedroom as the assassins ransacked his office and rooms, firing machine guns and leaving her 53-year-old father to die an horrific death, lying in a pool of blood at the private residence. 

A maid and another servant were tied up by the gunmen who had shouted ‘DEA operation’ as they burst in, pretending they were officers of the US Drugs Enforcement Administration, speaking in English and Spanish.

First Lady Martine, 47, was shot through the legs, arm, torso and hand, and was later airlifted in a ‘critical condition’ to a hospital in Miami. 

Martine was last night described as ‘out of danger’ and in a ‘stable condition’ by Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who on Thursday said he had spoken with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and asked the US for ‘technical support’ to help Haiti hold elections in the coming days.

Questions have been mounting about who will be Moise’s successor continue to mount.  

His assassination came just one day after Moise named Ariel Henry as the new prime minister taking over from Joseph once he builds his government.

However, Joseph assumed sole power of the embattled country, declaring a ‘state of siege’ granting him absolute authority and the two men have given somewhat conflicting accounts over who should rightfully be in power. 

A crowd of local residents took matters into their own hands Thursday, surrounding two male suspects who they claimed were hiding in bushes in Port-au-Prince. 

The crowd was seen grabbing the suspects by their shirts and the back of their pants, pushing and slapping them before police officers arrived. 

Cops placed the two men in the back of a police pickup truck to transport them to the police station of Petion Ville in Port-au-Prince as the crowd chased after the vehicle.  

The crowd gathered outside the police station and demanded authorities hand the men over to them so they could ‘burn them’ in retaliation for killing their president.

‘They killed the president! Give them to us. We’re going to burn them!’ the crowd chanted. 

They later set fire to several abandoned cars riddled with bullet holes that they apparently believed belonged to the suspects. 

The cars didn’t have license plates and inside one of them was an empty box of bullets and some water.

PM Joseph urged citizens not to lynch any of Moise’s suspected assassins but to hand them over to the police. 

It is not clear how the locals identified the men or the vehicles as wanted in connection to the assassination of their president. 

However, the detention of the two men took the number of suspects brought in alive to six while seven have been killed, with more still at large, according to police. 

Police chief Charles said earlier Thursday that four ‘mercenaries’ were shot dead in the exchange between members of the suspected hit squad and police as they tried to flee the scene.

Another two were captured and taken into police custody alive.  

The bodies of two of the people killed were transported away in the back of a police van as locals gathered and peered through the windows.

Charles said cops had been ‘battling’ with commandos throughout Wednesday, with some of his officers taken hostage at one point before being freed. 

An unspecified number of attackers remained at large, he said. Charles did not detail what evidence had led authorities to the suspects.   

The ongoing manhunt and the captures and killings of some suspects comes as: 

• Interim Prime Minister Joseph declared a ‘state of siege’ and locked down the country under military control
• All flights in and out of Port-Au-Prince were halted as police and military launched an all-out manhunt   
• Dominican military mobilized to the border with Haiti to boost security at all crossings
• Haitian ambassador to the US said the assassins are believed to be ‘mercenaries’ and ‘well-trained killers’
• US State Department dismissed any suggestion that assassins were actual DEA agents as ‘absolutely false’
• Haitian ambassador also called the killers ‘fake DEA agents’ and said they were a band of hired ‘mercenaries’
• He pleaded for security assistance from the United States and the United Nations 
• Haiti now thrown into confusion about who is in charge with no legal framework for succession
• There are just 10 elected officials in the country, all of them senators, and the legislature is defunct 

The arrests and deaths of some of the suspected assassins comes as new details emerged about the deadly raid.  

Magistrate Carl Henry Destin told the Nouvelliste newspaper that the president’s body had been ripped apart by 12 bullets from large caliber rifles and smaller 9mm weapons, to the forehead, chest, hips and abdomen.

‘The president’s office and bedroom were ransacked. We found him lying on his back, blue pants, a white shirt smeared with blood, his mouth open, his left eye gouged out,’ he said.

PM Joseph claims he has the situation in hand but the international community fears that the country will fall into utter chaos after months of protests against Moise, who was accused of turning the country into a dictatorship and allowing armed gangsters to roam the streets to prevent new elections. 

The raid took place just after 1am local time. Shell casings could be seen on the street outside as forensics experts combed the scene for evidence. A nearby car was peppered with bullet holes.

Moise’s wife was first treated at a local hospital then rushed by air ambulance to the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. 

Their daughter Jomarlie was in the home during the attack but hid in a bedroom, Destin, the magistrate, said. He said a maid and another domestic staff member had been tied up by the commandos. 

Video taken over the city on Wednesday evening showed smoke rising from several locations and captured the sound of gunfire – though it was unclear whether the shooting was related to the police operation or signaled that the impoverished, violence-wracked nation was plunging deeper into chaos. 

The assassination came amid political turmoil in Haiti with opponents of Mr Moise trying to force him from office, claiming his five-year term has expired. Mr Moise said back in February that he survived another assassination attempt, describing it as ‘a coup’. At least 23 people, including a top judge and police official, were arrested.

Mr Joseph has now declared a two-week ‘state of siege’ imposing martial law, halting all flights out of Port-Au-Prince and sealing the country’s borders, while neighboring Dominican Republic mobilized its military to guard Haiti’s only land border.

Bocchit Edmond, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, described the assassins as ‘foreign mercenaries and professional killers,’ and Joseph said some of the gang are believed to be from Colombia and Venezuela. 

Haiti’s Police Chief Léon Charles said late Wednesday that three police officers had been taken hostage by the suspected assassins, but were safely rescued after a police shootout with the suspects.  

It followed a tense day of uncertainty and chaos for millions of Haitians, with no presidential succession plan in place, and the fraught security situation leaving the streets of Port-Au-Prince deserted as millions sheltered in their homes and waited for any news updates. 

First Lady Martine was pictured arriving at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, where she arrived at 3.30pm on Wednesday.

She was then transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for medical treatment. Officials said her vital signs were stable but her condition was critical.

Mrs Moise sustained gunshot wounds to her arms and thigh, along with unspecified but severe injuries to her abdomen and hand, the ABC affiliate reported.

President Joe Biden said he was ‘shocked’ by the assassination and that ‘a lot’ more information is needed.

‘We are shocked and saddened to hear of the horrific assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the attack on First Lady Martine Moise,’ the US President said in a statement. ‘We condemn this heinous act and I am sending my sincere wishes for First Lady Moise’s recovery.’

Speaking to reporters as he left for a trip to Chicago, Biden called the incident ‘very worrisome’. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Haiti’s interim prime minister on Wednesday and voiced commitment to work with the Haitian government for peace and security, the State Department said.

In the call, Blinken ‘reiterated the United States’ continued commitment to work with the Government of Haiti in support of the Haitian people and democratic governance, peace, and security,’ the State Department said in a statement.

The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss the situation, and issued a statement expressing ‘deep concern regarding deteriorating political, security and humanitarian conditions in Haiti.’

Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister Joseph described the attack on the president and first lady as a ‘hateful, inhumane and barbaric act.’ 

‘My compatriots – remain calm because the situation is under control,’ Joseph said in a televised address to the nation, backed by a row of somber-faced officials. ‘This blow has wounded this country, this nation, but it will not go unpunished.’ 

The prime minister identified the assassins as ‘mercenaries’ believed to include Haitians and natives of Colombia and Venezuela, according to local reporter Alexander Gálvez, who spoke to Colombian radio station Blu Radio. 

Joseph has seized control of the country for the time being with the backing of the police and military, but Haiti has no legal framework for presidential succession, and the future of the country’s leadership remains unclear.

The normally bustling streets of Port-au-Prince were deserted on Wednesday as police and military plunged the capital into lockdown. Public transportation was scarce, and scattered bands of people searched for businesses that were open to buy food and water. 

Gunfire rang out intermittently across the city, a grim reminder of the growing power of gangs that displaced more than 14,700 people last month alone as they torched and ransacked homes in a fight over territory. 

Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said gangs were a force to contend with and it isn’t certain Haiti’s security forces can enforce 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 increasingly dire situation comes as Haiti is still trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 following a history of dictatorship and political upheaval. 

Haiti had grown increasingly unstable under Moïse, who had been ruling by decree for more than a year and faced violent protests as critics accused him of trying to amass more power while the opposition demanded he step down.

According to Haiti’s constitution, Moïse should be replaced by the president of Haiti’s Supreme Court, but the chief justice died in recent days from COVID-19, leaving open the question of who might rightfully succeed to the office.

Joseph, meanwhile, was supposed to be replaced by Ariel Henry, who had been named prime minister by Moïse a day before the assassination.

Henry told The Associated Press in a brief interview that he is the rightful prime minister, calling it an exceptional and confusing situation. 

In another interview with Radio Zenith, he said there was no fight between him and Interim PM Joseph, saying: ‘I only disagree with the fact that people have taken hasty decisions… when the moment demands a little more serenity and maturity.’

The attack on President Moise unfolded at around 1am on Wednesday, when a group of ‘foreigners’, some of whom spoke English and Spanish, broke into his home in the hills above Port-au-Prince, according to a statement by the French-speaking country’s prime minister. 

In footage purportedly recorded by a witness, someone with an American accent shouts into a megaphone: ‘DEA operation. Everybody stand down. DEA operation. Everybody back up, stand down.’ 

Gunfire then erupts in the video which was uploaded to Instagram by someone who says they were in the Pelerin 5 neighborhood, where the president’s house is located. 

The assailants were pretending to be from the US Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) and were ‘mercenaries,’ a government source told The Miami Herald.

Officials in both Haiti and the US have dismissed any notion that the killers were actual DEA agents. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said those claims were ‘absolutely false.’

‘I believe they are fake DEA agents,’ Haitian ambassador Edmond agreed in remarks to reporters, calling the assassins ‘mercenaries’ and ‘well-trained killers.’

Mr Moise had been accused of turning Haiti into a dictatorship, refusing to relinquish the presidency after his term ended earlier this year, using armed thugs to spread fear and trying to change the constitution to consolidate power – including installing an intelligence agency that answered directly to him. 

He was killed a day after he nominated Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, as the new prime minister. Mr Henry, the eighth PM in the last four years, was due to take over later this week from Mr Joseph, who had been named as interim in April.   

Residents last night reported hearing high-powered rounds and saw men dressed in black sprinting through the neighborhood. There were also claims of a grenade going off and drones being deployed. 

Further videos purportedly taken by a neighbor show men with rifles arriving outside the president’s house. It is not clear whether they are from the country’s security forces or if they are the assassins.

PM Joseph, who earlier said he had taken charge of the country, declared a ‘state of siege’ on Wednesday which grants him additional powers.

‘I have just chaired an extraordinary council of ministers meeting and we have decided to declare a state of siege throughout the country,’ the prime minister said.

He said that the police and armed forces were taking ‘all measures to guarantee the continuity of the State and protect the Nation.’

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, a Democrat from South Florida, released a statement that read in part: ‘I was shocked by the news about the assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse and to learn that his wife, Martine, also was shot during the attack. My thoughts are with the people of Haiti and I pray that this will not lead to more havoc in an already extremely troubled nation.’ 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was ‘shocked and saddened at the death of Mr Moise’, calling it ‘an abhorrent act’ and appealing for calm. 

Mr Moise’s death comes after he claimed police had foiled an assassination plot in February amid massive protests in the country over claims the president was acting like a dictator and refusing to hold elections. 

In response, the former auto parts dealer had 23 people arrested who he said were behind the plot including a top judge and a police officer. 

‘There was an attempt on my life,’ Mr Moise said in a national address at the time. ‘I thank my head of security at the palace. The goal of these people was to make an attempt on my life. That plan was aborted.’ 

Haiti, a country of about 11 million people, has struggled to achieve stability since the fall of the Duvalier dynastic dictatorship in 1986. 

Mr Moise’s death risks throwing the country into total disarray after months of violent demonstrations and claims that the president had used armed gangsters to stay in power.  More than 14,700 people have fled their homes due to the spate of killings.

Soaring inflation has also contributed to instability, with consumer prices exploding 23 percent in May from a year ago, rocking the deeply impoverished country where where 60 percent of the population makes less than $2 a day. 

There are just 10 elected officials in the country and there is no legal framework for who should take power in the event of the president’s death. 

Some reports suggested that the next in line of succession should be the head of the country’s Supreme Court, but that judge died recently of Covid-19.

For acting PM Joseph to formally replace Mr Moise he would need the approval of Haiti’s parliament, but due to the lack of recent elections the legislature is effectively defunct.  

‘There is no constitutional answer to this situation,’ Bernard Gousse, a former justice minister and legal expert, told the Herald.  

European Union foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell warned that the shooting risked the start of ‘instability and a spiral of violence.’ 

Borrell added: ‘The perpetrators of this assassination must be found and brought to justice.’ 

The usually busy streets of Port-au-Prince were largely empty on Wednesday morning as Haitians awoke in shock at the news.

The country’s main airport, Toussaint Louverture International Airport, was closed except for diplomatic and humanitarian flights. 

Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic ordered the ‘immediate closure’ of its land border with Haiti. The countries share a 240-mile frontier on the island of Hispaniola. Dominican President Luis Abinader condemned the killing, saying on Twitter the crime ‘undermines the democratic order in Haiti and the region.’

Thousands took the streets of the capital earlier this year to demand that Mr Moise step down and hold elections amid his efforts to make sweeping changes to the constitution so that he could cling to power.  

Opponents argue that the president, who took power in 2017, should have left office on February 7 after failing to hold elections the previous year as his term was ending. 

Mr Moise claimed his five-year term was due to end in 2022 – the United States and the United Nations had called for a free and transparent election to be held by the end of 2021. The U.S. also disagreed with his efforts to change the country’s constitution.

In an interview last year, Mr Moise defended himself against allegations of corruption and denied that he was turning the country in a dictatorship. 

‘We’re trying to find a solution to this crisis. I’m not the first president to rule by decree. And I’m confident that the answer is around the corner; then the legislature will be put in place to play its role,’ he told The Telegraph. 

Mr Moise had also faced accusations of financial impropriety and power-grabbing by limiting powers for auditing government contracts and creating an intelligence agency that only answers to the president. 

He wanted to abolish the Senate, leaving a single legislative body, and replace the post of prime minister with a vice president who answered only to him, in a bid to streamline government. 

Swathes of the population deemed his rule illegitimate, and he churned through a series of seven prime ministers in four years. Most recently, Mr Joseph was supposed to be replaced this week by Mr Henry after only three months in the post. 

Mr Henry, 71, has been part of Haiti’s coronavirus response and previously held posts in the government as interior minister, and social affairs and labour minister.

He is close to the opposition, but his appointment was not welcomed by the majority of opposition parties, who had continued to demand the president step down. 

In addition to presidential, legislative and local elections, Haiti was due to have a constitutional referendum in September after it was twice postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Supported by Mr Moise, the text of the constitutional reform, aimed at strengthening the executive branch, has been overwhelmingly rejected by the opposition and many civil society organisations. 

Under the terms of the current constitution, written after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1987, ‘any popular consultation aimed at modifying the Constitution by referendum is formally prohibited.’ 

Haiti has struggled to maintain a semblance of democratic order despite the overthrow of 28 years of bloody dynastic rule at the hands of the notorious François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier.

In recent years critics of the regime said it was impossible to organise a poll due to the general insecurity in the country and gang violence, which some claimed was deliberately controlled by Mr Moise. 

Kidnappings for ransom have surged in recent months reflecting the growing influence of armed gangs and a general lawlessness. 

The Caribbean island has suffered poverty and political instability for decades and has struggled to rebuild in the wake of a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016. 

Haiti gained independence from colonial France after an uprising by slaves in 1804. 

However, democracy has never truly taken root in the republic which only held its first free and fair elections in 1990.