The President of Haiti has been shot and killed (July 21, 2021)

  • Jovonel Moïse was killed by a group of assailants at his home early Wednesday morning.
  • The government did not identify the perpetrators, but said they were speaking Spanish.
  • The first lady was also injured by gunshot.

This is just breaking news so not too many details yet.

Where was his security detail?

Haiti has a troubled past. Wouldn’t there be troops guarding government buildings and residences?

According to ABC News, the interim Prime Minister “said the Caribbean country’s national police force and military had the situation under control.”

:thinking:

I’m surprised this isn’t in Politics. I’ll confess I don’t know much about the man or Haiti. Is this a “good thing” i.e. will this been seen in the long run as beneficial to Haiti, or just more murder?

Interesting definition of “under control”.

Amnesty International is calling for a full investigation of the shooting, and also, a full investigation of the human rights abuses which occurred during his term of office, which included several delayed elections.

It didn’t take long to find suspects. The suspects tokk 3 cops hostage. The foot soldiers have been apprehended, but how about the people who planned and assisted the assassination?

I just heard on the BBC, and earlier on Rachel Maddow, that few people speak Spanish in Haiti. This may be relevant for reasons we know nothing about, at least not yet.

In addition, his wife was medevaced to Miami for further treatment.

I just heard Garry Pierre Pierre describe the scene as gruesome. He said the suspects broke the arm and plucked the eyes from the president.

I saw some video of the apparent attack where the killers claimed to be DEA. I’m very concerned about the personnel at the Embassy. I understand they’ve been ordered to shelter in place.

I wouldn’t be shocked if they were working for someone inside Haiti. The 2 most recent presidential elections did not exactly go smoothly and the government there as whole is “unstable” at best.

The Haitian police have arrested two Haitian-Americans in the slaying.

I read somewhere that four mercenaries were killed as well.

I don’t claim to have any real understanding of what actually goes on in my native/home country (USA), and sure as hell wouldn’t claim to have even a cursory understanding of the geopolitics of a place like Haiti, but …

It’s hard for me to imagine that this story doesn’t play at least some part in all of this:

Follow the money, right ?

I wonder who paid them?

I had heard that he was tortured but couldn’t find any details beyond that. Egads.

It wasn’t clear at the time who was behind it, but now:

or if you have paywall issues:

https://archive.md/WJ9rn

Jeez, I saw this thread and thought “what, again?”