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Police in Haiti said on Thursday they had identified the men who assassinated president Jovenel Moïse and that most of them were Colombian mercenaries.
León Charles, the country’s police chief, told a news conference that 26 of the 28-man unit were Colombian nationals, while the other two were Americans of Haitian descent.
He said 17 of the alleged conspirators – including the two Americans – were in police custody while the rest were either shot dead by the police as they tried to escape or were still on the run.
In Bogotá, Diego Molano, Colombia’s defence minister, said initial information about the suspects “suggests that they are Colombian citizens, retired members of the national army”.
Mr Moïse (53) was killed in his home in an affluent suburb of Port-au-Prince in the early hours of Wednesday. From the outset, the Haitian government blamed “a group of unidentified individuals, some of whom were speaking Spanish” and some English.
Mr Moïse’s wife Martine was seriously wounded in the attack. She was flown to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for treatment where, according to Claude Joseph, Haiti’s interim prime minister, she was in a stable condition.
The president’s murder prompted international condemnation and concern. US president Joe Biden described the situation in Haiti as “very worrisome” and said Washington stood ready to help.
António Guterres, UN secretary-general, called on Haitians to “remain united in the face of this abhorrent act” and preserve the constitutional order.
Amnesty International said it was “concerned at the potential escalation of violence in coming days” and described the killing, Haiti’s first assassination of a head of state since 1915, as “a wake-up call to the international community”.
Mr Joseph declared a state of emergency across the entire country and called on the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Haiti as soon as possible.
Staying indoors
Almost two days after the assassination, the usually teeming streets of Port-au-Prince were quiet, with local media reports suggesting many residents had opted to stay indoors out of fear for their lives and until there was more clarity.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, closed the border between the nations.
The Haitian government has not put forward a motive for the attack or said who might have been behind it.
One video circulating on social media purported to show the moment when Haitian citizens caught two of the assassins hiding in a ravine and marched them to a police station. The men had their hands tied behind their backs and one was shirtless. The veracity of the video could not be ascertained.
Mr Moïse, a former banana exporter turned politician, had been ruling by decree since October 2019, when parliamentary elections were scrapped. His legitimacy was repeatedly challenged, with the opposition and legal experts arguing that his presidential term had expired.
Mass protests over allegations of government corruption and involvement in gang violence punctuated Mr Moïse’s time in office, although he consistently denied involvement.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has suffered repeated political and economic crises as well as several natural disasters in recent years. It has struggled to rebuild since a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
‘Terrifying situation’
Jake Johnston, an expert at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington who recently visited Haiti’s capital, described the country as a “terrifying situation, not just because of [the assassination] but because of the broader situation of insecurity and violence”.
Mr Moïse had planned to hold elections and a constitutional referendum in September, but the opposition had questioned whether these could be free and fair.
A group of US lawmakers wrote to Antony Blinken, secretary of state, in April expressing “serious and urgent” concern over the deteriorating situation, saying the Moïse government was “failing to meet even the most basic needs of its citizens”. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2021