Haitian President Jovenel Moise assassinated at his home

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Associated Press) – Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in an attack on his private residence, according to a statement released Wednesday by the country’s interim prime minister, who called the killing “a hateful, inhuman and brutal act.”

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said First Lady Martin Moyes was injured in last night’s attack and was taken to hospital.

Haiti was already in a precarious political situation prior to the assassination, after instability and discontent had increased under Moise. The president ruled by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections and the opposition called for him to step down in recent months.

“The security situation in the country is under the control of the Haitian National Police and the Haitian Armed Forces,” Joseph said in a statement from his office. “Democracy and the Republic will win.”

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the streets were largely empty in the Caribbean nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, but some people looted businesses in one area.

Joseph said the police have been deployed to the National Palace and the high society of Petionville and will be sent to other areas.

Joseph condemned the assassination, describing it as a “barbaric, inhuman and hateful act”. He said some of the attackers spoke Spanish but gave no other explanation.

Haiti’s economic, political and social problems have worsened recently, with gang violence escalating dramatically in Port-au-Prince, inflation surging and food and fuel sometimes becoming scarcer in a country where 60% of the population earns less than $2 a day. These problems come as Haiti is still trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew that hit it in 2016.

Opposition leaders have accused Moss, 53, of seeking to increase his power, including by agreeing to a decree limiting the powers of a court that scrutinizes government contracts and another creating an intelligence agency that is subject only to the president.

In recent months, opposition leaders have called for him to step down, arguing that his term legally expired in February 2021. Moyes and his supporters asserted that his term began when he took office in early 2017, after chaotic elections forced the appointment of an interim president. For service within a year gap.

Haiti was due to hold a general election later this year.

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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