The wife of the Haitian president assassinated Jovenel Moise she has spoken for the first time since gunmen stormed the couple’s home in Port-au-Prince, saying the attack that killed her husband happened “in a jiffy.”
In an audio message posted Saturday on her official Twitter account, Martine Moise urged Haiti not to “lose her way” after the attack that left her critically injured.
“I’m alive, thank God,” Martine Moise said in Creole in the audio message, which Haitian Culture and Communications Minister Pradel Henriquez confirmed to AFP news agency as authentic.
“I am alive, but I have lost my husband Jovenel,” she added.
Jovenel Moise, 53, had it murdered by armed gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday, what Haitian authorities said was “a highly coordinated attack by a highly trained and heavily armed group.”
Haiti declared a 15-day “state of siege” immediately after his assassination and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Haitian authorities say an armed commando of 28 men – 26 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans – burst in and opened fire on the couple at their home. So far seventeen people have been arrested and at least three suspects were dead, but no reason has been made public.
Martine Moise was taken to a Haitian hospital after the attack and later evacuated to Miami, Florida, for further treatment.
“In the blink of an eye, the mercenaries came into my house and wrapped bullets in my husband … without even giving him a chance to say a word,” he said in the message. audio.
She also said the mercenaries were sent to kill her husband “because of roads, water, electricity and electricity referendum and also elections at the end of the year so that there is no transition in the country ”.
“I’m crying, it’s true, but we can’t let the country get lost,” Martine Moise said. “We can’t let his blood … be shed in vain.”
Power struggle
Jovenel Moise was president since 2017 in the midst of the rise gang violence which has displaced thousands of people in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, in recent weeks, and which has also seen a journalist and prominent political activist shot dead.
In recent months, the country had been shaken by great protests in which Haitians urged Moise to step down, saying he had exceeded his five-year term, a view shared by top jurists, civil society groups and the country’s political opposition. But Moise insisted his presidency expired next year.
His death has turned Haiti, which suffers from widespread poverty, into greater political instability, especially since before his death, Moses had been sentence by decree and was accused of stripping several key institutions of their ability to function.
A power struggle seems to be taking place, as neurosurgeon Ariel Henry, who was appointed prime minister by Jovenel Moise a few days before he was assassinated, said he should lead the country, not the incumbent prime minister.
“After the assassination of the president, I became the highest legal and regular authority because there was a decree appointing me,” Henry told Reuters news agency in a telephone interview on Friday.
Henry had not sworn to replace Joseph at the time of the assassination, but this has created confusion about who is the legitimate leader of Haiti.
Claude Joseph, who was appointed interim prime minister in April following the resignation of Joseph Jouthe, has taken the reins of power so far, leading the government’s response to the assassination, attractive to the United States to support and declare a 15-day “state of siege.”.
Election Minister Mathias Pierre said Joseph would hold that role until presidential and legislative elections are held on September 26th.
According to the 1987 Haitian constitution, the head of the Supreme Court should take over as interim president.
But amendments that are not unanimously recognized state that he will be the prime minister or, in the last year of a president’s term, as was the case with Moise, that parliament elect a president.
People react outside a police station where prisoners suspected of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise were held in Port-al-Príncipe on July 8 [File: Estailove St-Val/Reuters]
To further complicate the situation, the head of the Supreme Court died last month after hiring COVID-19 in the middle an increase in infections. There is also no parliamentary parliament, as the legislative elections scheduled for the end of 2019 were postponed amid political unrest.
Andre Michel, a Haitian lawyer and leader of the political opposition, said Friday night that “the solution to the political crisis must be Haitian and largely concerted between the political class, civil society, the diaspora and groups. basic “.
“Any other process is unhealthy and is dead on arrival,” he said he tweeted.
