Moïse’s son warns of bleak political future

PORT-AU-PRINCE(CMC):

The son of the assassinated President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, is predicting that the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country will go through “another five years without a new democratically elected president”.

In an open letter to the Haitian people, published in the local media and coinciding with the five-year anniversary of his father being sworn into office as the head of state, Joverlein Moïse wrote that Haiti is facing “five years of deep political crisis without a glimmer of hope ...

“Five long years of us agonising for the pleasure of our past but still present oppressors. Another five-year term for those who make it their duty to kill our hope. It is shameful for any human being to see that these unscrupulous oppressors who have always camouflaged themselves as first aiders to put small bandages on a cancer are still and always there,” he wrote.

Moïse was assassinated at his private residence overlooking the capital on July 7 last year, and while no one has been formally charged with his death, several people, including former members of the Colombian army, are in custody linked to the assassination. The United States government have also charged two persons with participating in a plot to kidnap or kill President Moise.

In his letter, Moïse’s son writes that his father had been “democratically elected to the presidency” and that he remembered July 7, 2017 “the pride of being the witness of an act of love, a marriage between a man and his country.

“That day, Jovenel Moïse became president of the Republic of Haiti. Humble of heart, loving and smiling, he was aware of the responsibilities incumbent on him, but also of the power of his enemies. His words still resonate with me. ‘Son’, he said: ‘Why should I be afraid in my homeland when my goal is to respect the will of the people who chose me’?”

But the son noted that February 7, this year would have brought to an end “his presidential term” and that Haitians should have been witnessing “the democratic transition of power from one president of the Republic of Haiti to another”.

He wrote that in a just world, all those who “directly or indirectly participated in putting in place this plan, who either: killed, assassinated, disfigured, broken, humiliated, a president elected by universal suffrage, would be put in the dock and convicted of crimes against humanity.

“My dearest wish is to see this happening. Please allow me, and all the people who suffer from this overwhelming situation, to mourn with dignity.”

He said whoever had been responsible for the assassination “cannot continue to maintain this planetary injustice.

“Every president has a duty to lay a solid foundation for the development of his country. The president of Haiti was one of those leaders. The Haitian homeland has deserved its independence for 218 years now.

“The assassination of our president is a symptom of a disease that has affected us for far too long. For the nation that initiated the end of a lucrative slave system, poverty, corruption, insecurity, environmental degradation, the failing education system, the precarious structure of the health system, etc, are not a coincidence.”

He said Haiti has suffered 400 years of slavery and abuse and 218 years of political, social and economic oppression.