Jovenel Moise - The African Mirror

Jul

2021

In Haiti, COVID pandemic rages amid political crisis

DAVID ALIRE GARCIA LAYING on her side in a sleeveless peach-coloured dress, an elderly patient groaned as she gasped for air in one of the Haitian capital's few medical units equipped to care for those hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The 81-year-old wore a clear plastic mask on her face attached to a metal tank providing 21 liters of oxygen per minute, the maximum reserved for the most serious COVID-19 cases at St. Luke's Hospital on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. "Each breath she takes, every respiratory movement, is very painful," said Dr Nathalie Colas, the hospital's medical director, on…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Protests break out at Haiti president’s funeral, guests run for cover

WORLD

DAVE GRAHAM and ANDRE PAULTRE THE funeral of assassinated Haitian president Jovenel Moise yesterday was disrupted by shots fired nearby and riot gas used on protesters, prompting a high-level U.S. delegation to abruptly leave and other dignitaries to duck into vehicles for safety. The state funeral in the northern city of Cap-Haitien was intended to foster national unity, but the disturbances reflected deep division over the June 7 atrocity, in which foreign gunmen walked apparently unchallenged into the presidential residence and shot Moise multiple times, also injuring his wife. Few answers have emerged about who planned the killing, or why.…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Former DEA informant arrested in Haiti assassination identified -sources

WORLD

MARK HOSENBALL TWO U.S. government sources have identified the former Drug Enforcement Administration informant accused of taking part in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise as Joseph Vincent, 55, of Florida. Vincent and a second Haitian-American Florida resident, James Solages, 35, have been arrested by Haitian officials and charged with taking part in last week's attack. The men told investigators they had been hired to serve as interpreters on a team dominated by 26 Colombians, another source said. A third Haitian-American, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was arrested on Sunday by Haitian authorities, who accused him of being a mastermind of…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Slain Haitian leader’s widow blames political enemies as power struggle intensifies

WORLD

ANDRE PAULTRE and SARAH MARSH THE widow of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise has accused shadowy enemies of organizing his assassination to stop democratic change, as a struggle for power intensified in the Caribbean country. Moise was gunned down before dawn at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities said was a unit of trained assassins comprised of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans. Doubts have grown, though, about that narrative, with families of at least two of the Colombians saying they had been hired as bodyguards. Martine Moise, who was wounded in the attack on the president's private residence…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Rival Haitian leaders battle for power after president’s assassination

WORLD

ANDRE PAULTRE and SARAH MARSH A power struggle is brewing in Haiti as the man appointed prime minister shortly before the assassination of Haiti's president this week said he - not the acting premier - should lead the Caribbean nation and was forming a government to that effect. Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who was named prime minister by President Jovenel Moise on Monday, two days before Moise was killed by a squad of gunmen in his home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, said he was now the highest authority in Haiti, not interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph. "After the president's assassination,…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. probing American ties to assassination of Haitian president

WORLD

BRAD BROOKS and MARK HOSENBALL U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are probing American connections to this week's assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, three sources said, the day after two Haitian-American men were arrested on charges of participating in it. Haitian police identified the two as James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55, saying that they were part of a heavily armed commando unit comprised mostly of 26 Colombians, who sources in the Colombian army said entered Haiti from the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Two law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation, said that…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Haitian assassins falsely claimed to be U.S. drug agents, envoy to U.S. says

WORLD

DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS and DOYINSOLA OLADIPO GUNMEN who assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise falsely identified themselves as agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Haitian ambassador to the United States has said, citing video footage the government has in its possession. "No way they were DEA agents," Bocchit Edmond told Reuters in an interview hours after Moise was shot dead and his wife was wounded by unidentified gunmen in their private residence overnight, stirring fears of a breakdown in order in the impoverished Caribbean nation, already reeling from rampant gang violence and facing a constitutional crisis. People walk past…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Haitian President shot dead at home overnight – PM

WORLD

A group of unidentified individuals attacked the private residence of Haitian President Jovenel Moise overnight and shot him dead, Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said in a statement early on Wednesday.