By Peter
Beaumont, NEW YORK USA
Haiti’s security forces have killed four members of a group of “mercenaries” who assassinated President Jovenel Moïse in his home, police chief Leon Charles has said.
“The
police is still in combat with the assailants,” Charles said in a televised
briefing late on Wednesday, “We blocked them en route as they left the scene of
the crime. Since then, we have been battling with them.” Two of the attackers
had been detained. Of the rest he said: “They will be killed or captured”.
Haiti’s
communications secretary, Frantz Exantus, had earlier said police had arrested
the “presumed assassins” without providing any further details. Three police
officers held hostage by the suspected gunmen were freed late Wednesday,
Charles said.
The
killing of Moïse earlier on Wednesday, and the wounding of his wife, was
expected to bring more chaos to the unstable Caribbean country already beset by
gang violence, soaring inflation and protests by opposition supporters who
accused Moïse of increasing authoritarianism.
Interim
prime minister Claude Joseph said the police and military were in control of
security. The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has a
history of dictatorship and political upheaval.
Speaking
on a local radio station, Claude Joseph confirmed that Moïse, 53, had been
killed, saying the attack was carried out by an “armed commando group” that
included foreigners.
In a televised national address, Joseph declared a state of emergency
across the country, and made a call for calm. “The situation is under control,”
he said.
In a later
interview with the Associated Press, Joseph called for an international
investigation into the assassination, said that elections scheduled for later
this year should be held and pledged to work with Moïse’s allies and opponents
alike.Journalists gather next to police officers standing guard near the private residence of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moise after he was shot dead by gunmen in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
“We need
every single one to move the country forward,” Joseph said. He alluded to
enemies of the president, describing him as “a man of courage” who had opposed
“some oligarchs in the country, and we believe those things are not without
consequences.”
According
to the Haitian ambassador to Washington, Bocchit Edmond, Moïse’s killers
claimed to be members of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as they
entered his guarded residence.
“This was
a well-orchestrated commando attack,” Edmond told the Guardian. “They presented
themselves as DEA agents, telling people they had come as part of a DEA
operation.”
In videos
circulating on social media, a man with an American accent is heard saying in
English over a megaphone: “DEA operation. Everybody stand down. DEA operation.
Everybody back up, stand down.”
Residents
reported hearing gunshots and seeing men dressed in black running through the
neighbourhood.
“It could
be foreign mercenaries, because the video footage showed them speaking in
Spanish,” Edmond said. “It was something carried out by professionals, by
killers … But since the investigation has been just been opened, we prefer to
wait on legal authorities to have a better assessment of the situation. We
don’t know for sure, with real certainty, who’s behind this.
“This is
an act of barbarity. It’s an attack on our democracy,” he said.
Edmond
said he had asked the White House on Wednesday morning for US help in
identifying and capturing the killers.
“We need a
lot more information,” Joe Biden said later at the White House, calling the
killing “very worrisome”.
In a
written statement, the US president offered condolences and assistance. “We
condemn this heinous act, and I am sending my sincere wishes for first lady
Moïse’s recovery,” the statement said. “The United States offers condolences to
the people of Haiti, and we stand ready to assist as we continue to work for a
safe and secure Haiti.”
The UN
Security Council condemned the assassination and called on all parties to
“remain calm, exercise restraint and to avoid any act that could contribute to
further instability.”
In a
statement the 15-member council also called for the perpetrators to be brought
to justice. The council is due to be briefed on the killing in a closed-door
meeting on Thursday.
The attack
took place at Moïse’s house in the Pelerin 5 district of Pétionville, a wealthy
area with sometimes substantial and leafy villas in the hills above the
capital, Port-au-Prince, with a reputation for being safe. It is an area
critics of Moïse said he was loth to leave.
“Around
one o’clock in the morning, during the night of Tuesday 6 to Wednesday 7 July
2021, a group of unidentified individuals, including some speaking Spanish,
attacked the private residence of the president and fatally injured the head of
state,” Joseph said in a statement quoted in the media.
Edmond
said that Moïse’s three children were safe but his wife, Martine, was seriously
wounded in the attack and was being taken to a hospital in Miami on Wednesday.
The attack
happened barely 24 hours after Moïse had named a new prime minister, Ariel
Henry, to take charge as head of the government and prepare the country for
presidential elections in the next two months.
Moïse, a
former entrepreneur, was the anointed political successor of the former
president Michel Martelly. The assassination is likely to plunge the impoverished
Caribbean nation into further turmoil after several years marked by political
unrest and violence.
The US
embassy said it would be closed on Wednesday owing to the “ongoing security
situation”. “We’re still gathering information,” the White House press
secretary, Jen Psaki, said on MSNBC. “We’re still assessing right now.”
“It’s a
horrific crime,” Psaki added in an interview with CNN. “We stand ready and
stand by them to provide any assistance that’s needed.”
Boris
Johnson, the UK prime minister, said: “I am shocked and saddened at the death
of President Moïse. Our condolences are with his family and the people of
Haiti. This is an abhorrent act and I call for calm at this time.”
As details
of the assassination emerged, the Colombian president, Iván Duque, called on
the Organisation of American States to send an urgent mission to “protect the
democratic order in Haiti”.
Moïse’s
time in office was marked by an increase in political instability, allegations
of corruption and a long-running dispute about when
his period in office should end. He had been ruling by decree for
more than a year after the country failed to hold legislative elections and he
wanted to push through controversial constitutional changes.
There have
been intermittent periods of protests and street violence and a rise in gang
violence, some of it tied to political parties.
Instability
has been exacerbated by the Petrocaribe scandal,
a controversy that arose from a scheme to buy discounted oil from Venezuela on
cheap credit. The idea was to free up funds for social schemes, but the money
was pocketed by politicians.
Earlier
this year amid allegations by Moïse of a coup attempt that planned to “murder
him” and fresh protests, he moved to protect his position, ordering the arrest
of 23 people including a supreme court judge and a senior police official,
while declaring he was “not a dictator”.
Opponents
had also accused Moïse’s government of fuelling political violence by providing
gangs with guns and money to intimidate his adversaries.
The
Caribbean country – the world’s first black republic after its revolution
against French rule – has a history marked by poverty, authoritarian rule,
political instability and external interference including a long US occupation.
It has struggled to rebuild since a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
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