Illustration Credit: Brady Izquierdo Rodríguez / Cartoon Movement
A New York Times report on Sunday uncovered new details about the July 7 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. According to former senior advisors to the president, Moïse compiled a list of political elites and leading businesspeople with ties to organized crime and intended to share the list with U.S. law enforcement officials, putting many of his former political allies in legal jeopardy. Several suspects in the assassination admitted to searching the president’s bedroom for the list of names, implying that the plot involved many of those implicated in Moïse’s anti-corruption campaign.
Haitian police have arrested 45 people in connection to President Moïse’s assassination, but none have been charged. Former Foreign Minister Claude Joseph recently commented that the current government—led by Prime Minister Ariel Henry—lacks “the political will to arrest those responsible.” Claude also criticized Prime Minister Henry for an apparent lack of urgency in extraditing Haitian businessman and assassination suspect Samir Handal, who is currently detained in Turkey. Prime Minister Henry this week visited a Cap-Haitien hospital after an explosion from an overturned fuel tanker killed at least 75 people Tuesday morning. The high death toll comes largely from the large crowd that had gathered around the overturned tanker to collect fuel, an increasingly scarce commodity in Haiti.
Since President Moïse’s death, criminal gangs have successfully challenged Haitian police for control of urban centers, leading to a sharp rise in violence and at least 460 kidnappings, according to the Haitian National Police. On October 16, the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 American and Canadian missionaries in Port-au-Prince. After releasing two hostages in November, and three in December, the gang released the remaining 12 missionaries this Thursday.
Read the latest Hemisphere Weekly: https://mailchi.mp/3ecf9fc1216c/hemisphere-weekly-new-details-emerge-in-mose-assassination
