The Economist July 10th 2021 31
The Americas
Haiti
A presidential assassination
O
pponents of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s
president since 2017, have long wanted
him to leave office. Now he has—but not in
the way they were expecting. A group of
unknown attackers shot and killed Mr
Moïse in the bedroom of his private resi
dence in a gated community on the out
skirts of PortauPrince, the capital, in the
early hours of July 7th. They also injured
his wife. Claude Joseph, whom the presi
dent appointed as interim prime minister
in April, announced the killing in a state
ment and said he had taken charge of the
Caribbean country. Haiti was already in
turmoil—much of it due to Mr Moïse’s rule.
His murder has added fuel to the flames.
On the morning after the murder Port
auPrince’s streets were unusually quiet,
without the usual roar of motorcycles and
bustle of market stalls, as Haitians tried to
guess what might happen next. The city’s
airport was shut, as was the land border
with the Dominican Republic.
The assassination has shocked a coun
try which, for all its history of misrule and
criminal violence, last witnessed the kill
ing of a president in 1915. Rumours swirl
about who was behind it. By the evening of
July 7th the police chief announced that
four suspects had been killed, and two
more arrested. The assassins were proba
bly mercenaries. The question is: who
hired them? “It was obviously somebody
with a lot of money and a lot of power,” says
Monique Clesca, a former unofficial.
Many pointed the finger at opposition
politicians or Haitian elites. Other Hai
tians, who given the country’s history are
suspicious of foreign interference, suspect
the attack came from outside, possibly
from Venezuelaor the United States. Mr Jo
seph said some of the attackers spoke
Spanish (Haitians speak Creole and
French). Another video suggested they
spoke English and claimed to be agents of
the usDrug Enforcement Administration.
This is certainly not the case, but the whis
pers add to the volatile situation.
It was not the first attempt on Mr Moïs
e’s life—at least, according to him. In Feb
ruary his government arrested at least 23
people, including a top judge and a senior
police officer, who were accused of plot
ting an assassination and coup. Mr Moïse,
a former plantation manager who referred
to himself as “Banana Man”, had no short
age of enemies. Critics accused him of in
volvement in the pilfering of millions of
dollars from PetroCaribe, an aid fund from
Venezuela. Opponents said his term ended
in February, five years after his predecessor
left office. He claimed his term started
when he took power, a year later—a posi
tion backed by the United States, although
Joe Biden’s administration urged new elec
tions this year. Protests regularly broke out
against his rule.
As the political crisis deepened, Mr
Moïse became more authoritarian. Since
January 2020, when he dismissed all but
ten senators in the twochamber legisla
ture, the president had been ruling by de
cree. He used his powers to create an intel
ligence agency and broadened the defini
tion of terrorism to include acts of dissent.
Protesters were attacked by gangsters. Mr
Moïse denied asking them to intimidate
and kill his opponents.
Previous Haitian presidents have fos
tered violence and corruption, too. But un
Jovenel Moïse was unloved. But his death only worsens the country’s crisis
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