Haiti’s future uncertain after brazen slaying of president

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — An already struggling and chaotic Haiti stumbled into an uncertain future Thursday after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, followed by a gunfight in which authorities said police killed four suspects, detained two others, and freed three cops being held hostage.

Officials pledged to find all those responsible for the pre-dawn raid on Moïse's home early Wednesday in which the president was shot to death and his wife, Martine, critically wounded.

She was flown to Miami for treatment.

“The pursuit of the mercenaries continues,” Léon Charles, director of Haiti's National Police, said Wednesday night in announcing the arrest of suspects.

“Their fate is fixed: They will fall in the fighting or will be arrested.”

Officials did not provide any details about the suspects, including their nationalities, nor did they address a motive or say what led police to them.

They said only that the attack condemned by Haiti's main opposition parties and the international community was carried out by “a highly trained and heavily armed group,” whose members spoke Spanish or English.

Prime Minister Claude Joseph assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of police and the military and decreed a two-week state of siege following Moïse's killing, which stunned a nation grappling with some of the Western Hemisphere's highest poverty, violence and political instability.

Inflation and gang violence have spiralled upward as food and fuel grew scarcer in a country where 60% of Haitians earn less than $2 a day.

The increasingly dire situation comes as Haiti is still trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 following a history of dictatorship and political upheaval.

“There is this void now, and they are scared about what will happen to their loved ones,” said Marlene Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement, a group that helps people in Miami's Little Haiti community.

She said it was important for the administration of US President Joe Biden to take a much more active role in supporting attempts at national dialogue in Haiti with the aim of holding free, fair and credible elections.

Bastien said she also wants to see participation of the extensive Haitian Diaspora: “No more band-aids. The Haitian people have been crying and suffering for too long.”

According to Haiti's constitution, Moïse should be replaced by the president of Haiti's Supreme Court, but the chief justice died in recent days from COVID-19, leaving open the question of who might rightfully succeed to the office.

Joseph, meanwhile, was supposed to be replaced by Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who had been named prime minister by Moïse a day before the assassination.

Henry told The Associated Press in a brief interview that he is the prime minister, calling it an exceptional and confusing situation.

In another interview with Radio Zenith, he said he had no dispute with Joseph.

“I only disagree with the fact that people have taken hasty decisions ... when the moment demands a little more serenity and maturity,” he said.

Joseph told the AP that he supports an international investigation into the assassination and believes elections scheduled for later this year should be held, as he promised to work with Moïse's allies and opponents alike.

“Everything is under control,” he said.

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