Port-au-Prince, Jul 7 (EFE).- The president of Haiti Jovenel Moïse has been assassinated by armed assailants at his private residence in the capital Port-au-Prince in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the interim prime minister said.
In a statement, Claude Joseph said that First Lady Martine Moïse also suffered a gunshot wound in the attack and required medical attention.
“At around 01:00 (…) a group of unidentified individuals, some of whom were speaking Spanish, attacked the private residence of the President of the Republic and mortally wounded the Head of State,” the statement, signed by Joseph, the acting PM who had officially been replaced on Tuesday, said.
Joseph condemned the “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act” and called for calm in the restive Caribbean nation.
Police and the armed forces have taken control of the security situation in the country, he added.
The airport in Port-au-Prince has been closed, with flights due to land in the Haitian capital either re-routed to other countries or cancelled, while neighboring Dominican Republic has shut its four border crossings with Haiti.
Political Crisis
The country has been mired in a political crisis since 2018 which came to a head on Feb. 7, when Moïse accused the opposition and judiciary of plotting a coup d’état.
Moïse’s assassination came two months before presidential and legislative elections slated for 26 September.
Moïse, 53, would have been ineligible to run in the ballot but he had aimed to schedule a referendum on a new constitution on the same day, a measure that was unpopular with the country’s opposition and the international community.
He came to power in 2017 after winning the presidential election in the first round.
Two weeks before his inauguration, he testified before a judge on charges of money laundering in relation to an investigation that was opened in 2013, accusations that he denied.
In September 2019, thousands took to the streets to call for his resignation amid widespread corruption, fuel shortages, hunger and insecurity in the country.
Elections scheduled for October of that year were then suspended, and in January 2020 the Congress and Senate were adjourned after their mandates ended.
Despite the leadership vacuum, in March 2020 Moïse appointed Joute Joseph, who had been leading the country on an interim basis for a year, as prime minister.
Insecurity
The security situation has deteriorated dramatically since the start of June amid territorial gang warfare over some of the capital’s poorest neighborhoods.
Last month Moïse called for international support to help resolve the serious security crisis.
Wednesday’s assassination follows a series of deadly clashes that have also displaced thousands of people since early June.
According to a report by the Center for Analysis and Research on Human Rights (CARDH), more than 150 people were killed and another 200 kidnapped in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area last month.EFE
Text courtesy by EFE
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