Haiti: the hunt for the assassins of President Jovenel Moïse is accelerating in Port-au-Prince

Published on : 07/08/2021 – 21:03

The hunt for members of the commando team involved in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse accelerated Thursday, July 8, with the police conducting operations in Port-au-Prince, the capital of a country on the brink of chaos.

The Haitian police announced that they had killed four “mercenaries”, suspected members of the commando, and had arrested six others.

“Among the attackers, six are in the hands of the police and five cars have been recovered. Unfortunately, the population has burned three of them,” said Léon Charles, the head of the national police, during a press conference held. Thursday.

“We already have the physical authors in hand and we are looking for the intellectual authors,” continued the official.

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An American is one of six people arrested by Haitian police, Mathias Pierre, minister responsible for electoral matters, told AFP.

At the same time, Prime Minister Claude Joseph called for calm as incidents broke out in front of a police station in Pétion-Ville, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Residents cheered the police for making arrests and called for the lynching of suspected assailants.

Several “possible perpetrators” of the assassination of the president “have also found refuge in two buildings” in Port-au-Prince “and are surrounded by the police,” said the UN envoy in this report. country, Helen La Lime.

“Where were the police?”

Port-au-Prince airport was closed, as was the border with the Dominican Republic.

In the country, everyone remained on the lookout Thursday, trying to understand how such a fatal attack on the head of state could have happened. “Where were the well-equipped police officers who monitor the president night and day? Why did they not react?”, Denounced Julia, a 28-year-old lawyer.

The commando was made up of “professional” hired killers posing as officials of the American anti-drug agency, according to the Haitian ambassador to the United States.

The international community was immediately alarmed by this assassination, like US President Joe Biden and the Pope who denounced an “odious” act while the UN Security Council, meeting urgently behind closed doors Thursday , demanded that the perpetrators of the assassination “be quickly brought to justice”.

With AFP