In an attack, Haiti President Jovenel Moise was assassinated at his home today. His wife got too injured in this attack. Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas.
The killing comes days after Moise appointed Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who studied in France, as Haiti’s new prime minister. He tasked Henry with “forming a broad-based government” to “solve the glaring problem of insecurity” and to work towards “the holding of general elections and the referendum.”
The interim prime minister, Claude Joseph said-
The president was assassinated at his home by foreigners who spoke English and Spanish,
the assault took place around 1:00 am (0500 GMT) and left the president’s wife hospitalized.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reacted to the incident by saying –
we will be helpful in any way to the people of Haiti, to the government of Haiti,
Also, US President Joe Biden is likely to brief on the incident shortly.
Haiti’s presidential, legislative and local elections were due in 2018. But due to disputes which includes his own term end, the elections were not conducted. The date of his election became the main source of a political standoff. The confusion raised because of the term ending date.
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Moise maintained that his term of office will be until February 7, 2022, but others claimed it already ended on February 7, 2021. The main stem of this confusion lies in his election process itself. Moise was first elected in a vote but that was cancelled for fraud. Again he was re-elected a year later.
In recent months, Haiti is tackling with political crisis, kidnappings for ransoms. The present situation reflects the growing influence of armed gangs in the Caribbean nation. Apart from this, Haiti faces chronic poverty and recurrent natural disasters. Adding fuel to all these problems, the country fell further into crisis in 2020, as Moise is governing by decree because of no parliament. This has grown mistrust of him.