https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/0 ... ome-498510Haitian President Assassinated at Home
Jovenel Moïse's wife, first lady Martine Moïse, has been hospitalized.
In this Sept. 27, 2018, file photo, Haiti's President Jovenel Moise addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters in New York.
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated after a group of unidentified people attacked his private residence.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS 07/07/2021 06:48 AM EDT
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Hatii — Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated after a group of unidentified people attacked his private residence, the country’s interim prime minister said in a statement Wednesday.
First lady Martine Moïse is hospitalized after the attack late Tuesday, interim Premier Claude Joseph said.
Joseph condemned what he called a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,” adding that Haiti’s National Police and other authorities had the situation in the Caribbean country under control.
The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under Moïse's rule. Its economic, political and social woes have deepened, with gang violence spiking heavily in the capital of Port-au-Prince, inflation spiraling and food and fuel becoming scarcer at times in a country where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day. These troubles come as Haiti still tries to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew that struck in 2016.
Moïse, 53, had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections, which led to Parliament being dissolved. Opposition leaders have accused him of seeking to increase his power, including approving a decree that limited the powers of a court that audits government contracts and another that created an intelligence agency that answers only to the president.
In recent months, opposition leaders demanded the he step down, arguing that his term legally ended in February 2021. Moïse and supporters maintained that his term began when he took office in early 2017, following a chaotic election that forced the appointment of a provisional president to serve during a yearlong gap.
Haiti was scheduled to hold general elections later this year.
This may push back Sharon Rondeau and Orly Taitz' plans to fund and hold a Birther Summit in Port-Au-Prince.