Unfortunate news is just breaking out of Haiti; that’s because their President Jovenel Moise has just been assassinated. President Jovenel Moise was killed around 1 am this morning by a group of men.
According to an early report by Reuters, the suspects were believed to be Spanish speaking, but as of right now everything is still under investigation.
Haitian Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph went on record saying that nobody has identified the suspects as of yet; however, it is confirmed that some of the assailants were Spanish speaking. The official language of Haiti is Creole so it’s awfully strange that the suspects were speaking Spanish.
President Moise wasn’t the only one shot; his wife was shot too. Right now, the First Lady of Haiti is still alive and is fighting her injuries inside of a hospital.
Background of President Jovenel Moise
President Moise was 53 when he died in the early hours of the night and was serving as the 42nd President of Haiti. He won the 2016 election, but not without controversy.
His opponent’s supporters believed that President Moise announced an early victory while votes were still being counted. Moise’s early claims ended up being right, considering he won more than double the votes of any other candidate.
2019 Political Unrest That Called for His Resignation
Around 2018, mass protests erupted all across the nation of Haiti, due to the increase in fuel prices. The protest was led by opposition leader Jean-Charles Moise (no relation to the president) and also demanded that President Jovenel Moise step down immediately, demands which he ignored.
(1/3) This morning the world awoke to the shocking and tragic news of the assassination of Haiti’s President His Excellency Jovenel Moise. pic.twitter.com/bUmocerKyX
— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) July 7, 2021
The gas shortages stemmed from Venezuela forbidding oil shipments to Haiti, due to Haiti’s leaders misusing the loans to fund corruption. The prices of kerosene and other fossil fuels skyrocketed 50% which caused a major uproar in the streets.
Alleged Coup Attempt
At the beginning of February, it’s alleged that there was a coup attempt against President Jovenel Moise. According to his opposition, President Jovenel Moise’s term was supposed to end on February 7th, but he claimed his term didn’t end until 2022.
So, ultimately Jovenel’s assassination isn’t coming out of left field; instead, there has been a deep cry from a large majority of the people of Haiti to get him out of office for the last several years now.
BREAKING: President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti was assassinated at his home by a group of unidentified people overnight Wednesday according to the interim PM.
His wife was also shot & has been hospitalized. Updates to come #7news pic.twitter.com/JRGd8VGdI5
— Amaka Ubaka (@AmakaUbakaTV) July 7, 2021
President Jovenel previously held a lot of great things to say about President Trump and his administration. On the Joe Rogan podcast, rapper Kanye West, who was given an island by the president, said the President of Haiti told him he respected President Trump a lot.
The last time the White House addressed the ongoing political crisis in Haiti, though. is when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Haiti should not prolong their parliamentary elections any longer, but rather have them by the end of January 2021.
The Biden administration completely ignored the crisis and parliamentary elections never took place.
