Haiti President Assassinated.

[Crazedwraith]

Haiti President Jovenel Moïse killed in attack at home

Haiti's President Jovenel Moïse has been killed and his wife injured in an attack on their home in the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince.

Unidentified gunmen stormed the property at 01:00 local time (05:00 GMT), interim PM Claude Joseph said.

He has called for calm and declared a state of emergency nationwide.

Mr Moïse had led Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world, since 2017 but had faced widespread protests demanding his resignation.

The nation's recent history has been plagued by coups, political instability and widespread gang violence.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was "saddened at the death of Mr Moïse", calling it "an abhorrent act" and appealing for calm. US President Joe Biden offered condolences to the people of Haiti for the "horrific assassination".

Who will take control?
Mr Joseph called the shooting of the president a "heinous, inhuman and barbaric act", saying the attackers were "foreigners who spoke English and Spanish". Haiti's official languages are Creole and French.

Some reports spoke of men dressed in black carrying high-powered weapons who may have pretended to be part of a US drug enforcement operation, but no official details have been given.

ddressing the nation, Mr Joseph vowed the killers would be brought to justice and said the security situation was "under control".

The state of emergency, or "state of siege", allows for the banning of gatherings and use of the military for police roles, along with other extensions of executive powers.

Mr Joseph said that "all measures have been taken to ensure continuity" and that "democracy and the republic will win".

But questions remain about how much control Mr Joseph can assert.

Haiti's constitution says ministers, under the leadership of the prime minister, take control in the event of presidential vacancy, until elections can be called.

But that also remains unclear, as a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, had been named by Mr Moïse just this week but has yet to be sworn in.

The streets of the capital appeared to be largely empty on Wednesday morning.

The neighbouring Dominican Republic ordered the "immediate closure" of its border with Haiti.

First Lady Martine Moïse is being treated in hospital.

According to Reuters, Haiti's ambassador to the US, Bocchit Edmond, said that the first lady was in a critical condition and attempts were being made to transfer her to Miami.

Ruling by decree
Jovenel Moïse, 53, had been in power since February 2017.

His time in office was rocky as he faced accusations of corruption and there were widespread demonstrations in the capital and other cities earlier this year.

Haiti's opposition said that Mr Moïse's five-year term should have ended on 7 February 2021, five years to the day since his predecessor, Michel Martelly, stepped down.

But there had been a year's delay to elections after Mr Martelly's departure, and Mr Moïse insisted he had one more year to serve as he did not take office until 7 February 2017.

Parliamentary elections should have been held in October 2019 but disputes have delayed them, meaning Mr Moïse had been ruling by decree.

In February this year, on the day the opposition wanted him to leave office, Mr Moïse said an attempt to kill him and overthrow the government had been foiled.

Haiti has also faced a wave of recent gang violence and kidnappings, particularly in the capital, with a number of its districts becoming no-go areas.

The worsening living standards in the nation of 11 million people have pushed nearly 60% below the poverty line.

An earthquake in 2010 killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the infrastructure and the economy.

A UN peacekeeping force was put in place in 2004 to help stabilise the country, and only withdrew in 2017, but the turmoil has shown no sign of ending.

[Tribble]

Well quite possible the Americans were just being honest when they went to shoot him. Not the first coup they’ve instigated.


Or perhaps the CIA has some beef with the DEA which is why they tried to pin it on them.

Or maybe they were referring to the “Dakota Enforcement Agency,” they’ve been hiring out national guards as mercenaries lately, time to branch out!

[Solauren]

I'm having trouble figuring out what the US would gain from this assassination. Especially since they also left his wife alive as a potential witness.

I can imagine there are numerous groups within Haiti that wanted him removed, however. And I can easily see someone wanting a dictator removed reaching out to the US, or just hiring mercenaries to do that job.

[Ralin]

Especially since they also left his wife alive as a potential witness.

No particular reason to think that was deliberate.

[Zaune]

Well quite possible the Americans were just being honest when they went to shoot him. Not the first coup they’ve instigated.

What's in it for them? Haiti doesn't have any natural resources worth annexing the place for and they're already heavily dependent on the US for foreign exchange, so they've already got all the leverage they want. Even in the pre-Church Committee days the CIA didn't destabilise countries purely for sport.

[LadyTevar]

Radio news at 9pm quoted the Haiti police saying that 4 of the "alleged killers" have been found and killed, with 2 in custody.

I'm wondering if they found the right men.

[wautd]

I'm wondering if they found the right men.

In such a short time? Unless the Haiti police is world renown for their detective and investigation skills that seems doubtful. My guess is that they've found some scapegoats but who knows

[Ralin]

In such a short time? Unless the Haiti police is world renown for their detective and investigation skills that seems doubtful.

I feel you maybe haven't thought this through enough. We're talking about armed assassins who stormed the home of a head of state and murdered him. Evidently he didn't have White House level security, but safe to say there would be witnesses, cameras, etc to get investigators off to a good start. Wouldn't be at all surprising if they were pursued as they fled the scene in the first place.

[Crazedwraith]

Apparently there's an ongoing gun battle with even more alleged attackers.

[Broomstick]

Well quite possible the Americans were just being honest when they went to shoot him. Not the first coup they’ve instigated.

Or perhaps the CIA has some beef with the DEA which is why they tried to pin it on them.

Or maybe they were referring to the “Dakota Enforcement Agency,” they’ve been hiring out national guards as mercenaries lately, time to branch out!

Or maybe it's someone else wanting everyone else to think it was agents of the US government.

What nation(s) has Haiti pissed off recently?

[Tribble]

Well quite possible the Americans were just being honest when they went to shoot him. Not the first coup they’ve instigated.

Or perhaps the CIA has some beef with the DEA which is why they tried to pin it on them.

Or maybe they were referring to the “Dakota Enforcement Agency,” they’ve been hiring out national guards as mercenaries lately, time to branch out!

Or maybe it's someone else wanting everyone else to think it was agents of the US government.

What nation(s) has Haiti pissed off recently?

Nah, way too obvious if that was the intent.

Best way to remain hidden after all is in plain sight. Would anyone really think the Americans would have the audacity to say “we’re Americans and we’re here to assassinate you” loud enough for everyone to hear? Gotta be someone else, right?

Perfect cover if it actually was them

[Broomstick]

Tonight on the TV news it was reported that two Americans were among the conspirators. One of them apparently was employed as security for the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince.

[Tribble]

Tonight on the TV news it was reported that two Americans were among the conspirators. One of them apparently was employed as security for the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince.

Guess we need to be more careful who we hire then.

Or maybe it was a joint op.

[Solauren]

Especially since they also left his wife alive as a potential witness.

No particular reason to think that was deliberate.

It takes less then 5 seconds to empty 2 - 3 bullets into someone's head. If you don't want your involvement known, you make sure the witnesses are dead.

[Ralin]

It takes less then 5 seconds to empty 2 - 3 bullets into someone's head. If you don't want your involvement known, you make sure the witnesses are dead.

If they're standing or laying still and you have a clear line of shot and you're not focused on killing someone else and you're sure security isn't about to rush in and you're not already pretty sure she's dead already and so on. Lotta reasons she could have survived that don't involve the assassins choosing to leave witnesses.

[Broomstick]

The wife might have also played dead after being shot, leading the assailants, who might have had a lot of things on their mind, to assume she was dead.

Apparently the two Americans involved are naturalized American citizens originally from Haiti.

Also, it looks like the majority of the rest are from Columbia.

I'm not an expert in Haitian politics, but apparently Moise was not popular, there were power struggles, they now have two people both claiming to be Prime Minister, and due to a lack of elections in recent years there is apparently a power vacuum in lower levels of the governmental structure so it's cluster on its way to fucking and arguably no one is really in charge.

Add in a lot of the aid given post-Big Quake never making it to the ground-level Haitians and a growing covid problem with not a single dose of the vaccine in the entire country and, as usual, Haiti is a fucking mess.

I say that with a lot of sadness. I've liked every Haitian I've met and that's one hard-luck country that deserves better.

[Solauren]

If they're standing or laying still and you have a clear line of shot and you're not focused on killing someone else and you're sure security isn't about to rush in and you're not already pretty sure she's dead already and so on. Lotta reasons she could have survived that don't involve the assassins choosing to leave witnesses.

Guess I'm either vicious, paranoid, or too brutal (or played to many RPGs....).