Martine Moïse, widow of the assassinated President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, returned to the capital of the country on Saturday (17) to attend her husband’s funeral. Wounded in the attack that killed the president at his home in the early morning hours of July 7, she was taken to a hospital in Miami, United States.
With her right arm supported by a scarf, Martine arrived in Port-au-Prince wearing a bulletproof vest. She was received by Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and did not speak to the press.
The day before Martine’s return to Haiti, around 40 people gathered in Miami, in front of the hospital where she was being treated, to show their support. Most were women, dressed in blue, one of the colors of the Haitian flag, and carried banners with phrases like “Healing for Haiti”.
Juvenel Moïse’s funeral will take place next Friday (23) in Cap-Haitien, a historic city in the north of the country. The officer was shot dead inside the house. However, many details of the attack remain a mystery.
The day before Moise’s widow returned, Claude Joseph again promised that justice would be served for the murder. However, according to the Colombian press, Joseph himself is suspected of having a connection to the crime.
So far, it is not known who ordered the murder or the reason for the crime. According to the Haitian government, the president was killed by a group of mercenaries, which included retired Colombian soldiers. More than 20 people have been arrested in connection with the case.
Haitian police accused Dr Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, of being the mastermind of the crime and arrested him. He lives in Florida, but is said to have traveled to Haiti with the intention of taking control of the country.
Colombian police chief Jorge Vargas said a former Haitian justice ministry official Joseph Felix Badio ordered two Colombian mercenaries to kill the president. But it’s unclear whether Badio, in turn, was following someone else’s orders.
Some of the suspected mercenaries testified that they were tasked with arresting Moses and taking him to the presidential palace, but upon arrival they found him dead.
A former employee of an anti-corruption unit at the Ministry of Justice, Badio is one of many wanted by the Haitian police, along with former opposition senator Joel John Joseph, accused of supplying weapons for the crime. Both are described as “armed and dangerous”.
Léon Charles, head of the Haitian National Police, said the president’s assassination was planned in the neighboring Dominican Republic, during a meeting attended by Sanon’s doctor, James Solages, another Haitian-American who was arrested , and Senator Joseph. “They met in a hotel in Santo Domingo. At the table were the architects of the plot, a technical recruiting team and a financial group,” said the delegate.
Haitian investigators believe the crime was carried out in coordination with CTU, a Miami security service company run by Venezuelan Antonio Emmanuel Intriago, who is on the run.
There are also questions about the legitimacy of Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph as the country’s provisional leader. With the president’s death, Joseph took command and declared a state of siege for two weeks, a move that expanded the powers of the executive. However, according to the Constitution, the successor of Moses, according to the Constitution, would be the President of the Supreme Court. However, the post has been vacant since its incumbent, René Sylvestre, died of the Covid-19.
But Joseph was also on the verge of leaving his post as prime minister. Ariel Henry should have taken the job on the day of the crime, but the situation precluded the nomination. Thus, the interim remained in control, with the initial support of the United States and the United Nations. However, on Saturday (17), the Core Group, which brings together foreign ambassadors, defended the formation of a consensual and inclusive government, but without Joseph at the front.
“We strongly encourage Prime Minister-designate Ariel Henry to continue his mission of forming a government,” the group said in a statement on Saturday. The Core Group brings together ambassadors and other representatives from Brazil, Germany, Canada, Spain, United States, European Union, UN and OAS (Organization of American States ).
There is also a third name. On the 9th, the country’s Senate passed a resolution appointing House Leader Joseph Lambert as President of the country. But the Senate currently has only 10 of the 30 filled seats, and only eight lawmakers have accepted the measure.
The death exacerbated the country’s political crisis, which had at the center of the dispute a discussion about the end of Moise’s tenure. He was elected in 2015 and was due to take office on February 7, 2016 for a five-year term. Amid accusations of fraud, however, the election was called off and had to be redone the following year. During this period, the country was ruled by an interim government.
Moïse won the new vote and took command of Haiti on February 7, 2017. As the country’s presidential term is five years, he said he should stay in office until February 2022, so – a claim supported by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United States. The opposition, however, argued that his term should have ended in February of this year.
In the midst of this discussion, the then president decided to suspend two-thirds of the Senate, the entire Chamber of Deputies and all mayors and began to rule the country by decree – which led to a wave of government protests and accusations. authoritarianism.