Sun | Jul 5, 2026
HAITI

Struggle worsened in year since slaying of president

Published:Friday | July 8, 2022 | 12:06 AM
Members of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s security detail walk past a photo of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise at the entrance of the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, July 7.
AP
Members of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s security detail walk past a photo of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise at the entrance of the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, July 7.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP):

A year has passed since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private home where an elite security team was supposed to protect him. Not only have the authorities failed to identify and arrest all those who masterminded and financed the killing, but Haiti has gone into a free fall as violence soars and the economy tumbles.

Many have fled Haiti in the past year, making potentially deadly voyages aboard rickety boats filled with hundreds of Haitians who have repeatedly turned up on the shores of nearby nations. They chose to face that risk rather than go hungry and fear for their lives, as do many people who have stayed behind.

“Every day is a fight. It’s a fight to stay alive. It’s a fight to eat. It’s a fight to survive,” said Hector Duval, a plumber who now drives a motorcycle taxi to make more money, since Haitians are afraid to board slow-moving buses and chance being killed by warring gangs.

Killings have soared, and thousands of families have been driven from their homes by gangs battling over territory ever since Moïse was shot to death last July 7 at his home near the capital, Port-au-Prince.

An overwhelmed government is struggling to crack down on the gangs and reduce a spike in kidnappings linked to them. At the same time, attempts to form a coalition government have faltered in recent weeks and efforts to hold general elections have stalled, leaving many wondering where Haiti is headed.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry has promised to create a new provisional council to organise general elections, but that hasn’t happened. There hasn’t been a Parliament because the government failed to organise elections in 2019, and Moïse dismissed most lawmakers in early 2020 and ruled by decree for more than a year before he was killed.

Meanwhile, hopes for trials of those arrested in the assassination have been derailed by the resignation of four judges appointed to oversee the investigation, with some saying they feared for their lives.