#haiti president jovenel moise assassination

[nakeddeparture]

Sleeping with the Enemy: Martine Moise, the wife of former Haitian president Jovenel Moise, has been indicted in his July 2021 assassination.

https://youtu.be/HwOxP1B76SI

Fact is (in my mind), there’s no way she could have survived without being involved. Have your say. Naked!!

Like/share/comment/subscribe on YouTube (it costs you nothing). Press the notification bell 🔔. NEW WhatsApp #2527225512

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Al Jazeera is Qatari State Media]

A powerful Haitian gang leader has rejected attempts by foreign nations for an electoral road map and a path to peace as the country plunges deeper into violent chaos and armed groups control most of the capital following the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Regional leaders of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) held an emergency summit last week to discuss a framework for a political transition, which the United States had urged to be “expedited” as gangs wrought chaos in the capital, Port-au-Prince, amid repeatedly postponed elections.

“We’re not going to recognise the decisions that CARICOM takes,” Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, a former police officer whose gang rules vast swaths of Port-au-Prince, told Al Jazeera. Rights groups [including those funded by the NED] have accused his gang alliance of committing atrocities, including killings and rape.

“I’m going to say to the traditional politicians that are sitting down with CARICOM, since they went with their families abroad, we who stayed in Haiti have to take the decisions,” Cherizier said, flanked by gang members wearing face masks, adding that he rejected plans for a transitional council made up of the country’s political parties.

“It’s not just people with guns who’ve damaged the country but the politicians too,” he added.[...]

Haitian civil society leaders welcomed the resignation of Henry, an unelected leader who was named for the post in 2021 shortly before the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, as a long overdue step.[...]

While some political groups are putting their names forward for the council, seeing it as a way out of Haiti’s current power vacuum, Cherizier said he wants a revolution.

“Now our fight will enter another phase – to overthrow the whole system, the system that is five percent of people who control 95 percent of the country’s wealth,” he told Al Jazeera.

According to Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, Cherizier likes to compare himself to historical figures like South Africa’s Nelson Mandela or Cuba’s longtime President Fidel Castro.

“And he likes to say that he’s essentially a revolutionary … and he’s going to redistribute wealth,” Fatton told Al Jazeera this week.

While Cherizier has distributed some food and resources to people in areas under the control of his G9 gang, “that’s hardly a vision of the future or some sort of revolutionary [act]”, he added.

Once a transitional government is in place it could pave the way for a multinational police force on the ground in Haiti, funded by the US and Canada.[...]

Kenya’s President William Ruto said his country would lead such a force, which Cherizier rejected.

The UN has estimated that gangs currently control more than 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.

Reporting from the Dominican Republic, Al Jazeera’s John Holman said the two rival gangs – the G9 and G-PEP – have formed an alliance called Viva Ensemble to try and prevent foreign troops from entering Haiti.

16 Mar 24

[beardedmrbean]

Armed gangs have tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites.

An explosion of violence has taken place in the country, including a mass escape from the country’s prisons.

The Toussaint Louverture International Airport was closed when the attack occurred, with no planes operating and no passengers on site.

It is the biggest attack on the airport in Haiti’s history.

Last week, the airport was struck briefly by bullets amid ongoing gang attacks, but gangs did not enter the airport nor seize control of it.

The attack occurred just hours after authorities in Haiti ordered a night-time curfew following violence in which armed gang members overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.

A 72-hour state of emergency began on Sunday night. The government said it would try to track down the escaped inmates, including from a penitentiary were the vast majority were in pre-trial detention, with some accused of killings, kidnappings and other crimes.

“The police were ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders,” said a statement from finance minister Patrick Boivert, the acting prime minister.

Gangs already were estimated to control up to 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince. They are increasingly co-ordinating their actions and choosing once unthinkable targets such as the Central Bank.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry travelled abroad last week to try to salvage support for a United Nations-backed security force to help stabilise Haiti in its conflict with the increasingly powerful crime groups.

Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the UN. They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned.

The deadly weekend marked a new low in Haiti’s downwards spiral of violence. At least nine people had been killed since Thursday - four of them police officers - as gangs stepped up co-ordinated attacks on state institutions in Port-au-Prince, including the national football stadium.

But the attack on the National Penitentiary late Saturday shocked Haitians who are accustomed to living under the constant threat of violence.

Almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates escaped. Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay at the prison entrance on Sunday.

Among the few dozen people who chose to stay in prison are 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of working as mercenaries in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise.

“Please, please help us,” one of the men, Francisco Uribe, said in a message widely shared on social media. “They are massacring people indiscriminately inside the cells.”

Colombia’s foreign ministry has called on Haiti to provide “special protection” for the men.

A second Port-au-Prince prison containing around 1,400 inmates was also overrun.

Gunfire was reported in several neighbourhoods in the capital. Internet service for many residents was down as Haiti’s top mobile network said a cable connection was slashed during the rampage.

After gangs opened fire at Haiti’s international airport last week, the US embassy said it was halting all official travel to the country. On Sunday night, it urged all American citizens to depart as soon as possible.

The Biden administration, which has refused to commit troops to any multinational force for Haiti while offering money and logistical support, said it was monitoring the rapidly deteriorating security situation with grave concern.

The surge in attacks follows violent protests that turned deadlier in recent days as the prime minister went to Kenya seeking to move ahead on the proposed UN-backed security mission to be led by that East African country.

Jimmy Cherizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now runs a gang federation, has claimed responsibility for the surge in attacks. He said the goal is to capture Haiti’s police chief and government ministers and prevent Mr Henry’s return.

The prime minister, a neurosurgeon, has shrugged off calls for him to resign and did not comment when asked if he felt it was safe to come home.

Why is there violence in Haiti?

Some of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders say their goal is bringing down Henry.

The country has failed to hold parliamentary and general elections in recent years and there are no elected officials. Henry was sworn in as prime minister with the backing of the international community after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The latest round of attacks began in February after Henry pledged to hold long-awaited general elections by mid-2025.

A map of Port-au-Prince in Haiti

Henry’s whereabouts were not public Monday. When asked in Kenya if it was safe for him to return to Haiti, Henry shrugged.

Who is responsible for the violence?

Jimmy Chirizier, a former elite police officer known as “Barbecue” who is considered one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders, announced as gunmen began to attack infrastructure that he would try and capture the country’s police chief and government ministers.

Four police officers were killed when their stations came under siege.

Cherizier said last summer that he would fight any international armed force if they committed abuses, and he urged Haitians to mobilize against the government.

Other gang leaders also appear to be involved in recent attacks.

Johnson Andrï best known as “Izo” and leader of the 5 Seconds gang, appears in a video posted on TikTok wielding a heavy mallet in his right hand as he pretends to punch his face with his left hand.

Izo’s gang is considered an ally of G-Pep, archenemy of Barbecue’s gang federation, but alliances have been shifting in recent days.

A report released last month by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime found that “for the gangs, the development of alliances is a fluid phenomenon.”

It also noted how “only the most powerful gangs — such as Izo’s or Chïrizier’s — are usually able to operate or profiteer outside their fiefdoms.”

Barbecue is leader of a gang federation known as G9 Family and Allies, and he has previously launched powerful attacks that have crippled the country. In late 2022, he seized control of an area surrounding a key fuel terminal in the capital of Port-au-Prince for almost two months.

Why have the gangs become so powerful?

An estimated 200 gangs exist in Haiti, with 23 main ones believed to be operating in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince.

Up until recent years, they controlled some 60% of the capital, a number that has since grown to 80%, according to U.N. officials.

Smuggled firearms and ransom payments to kidnappers have allowed gangs to become more financially independent. That has increased their power as the state has weakened, and an underfunded and under-resourced police department has been unable to contain them.

“Present-day gangs enjoy a much higher degree of military capacity than those a decade ago,” according to the Global Initiative report. “This has largely been driven by the gangs’ ability to acquire high-caliber weapons.”

A 2023 U.N. report stated that recovered weapons destined for Haitian ports include “.50 caliber sniper rifles, .308 rifles, and even belt-fed machine guns.”

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

[ellequarius]

Good morning, how are you? This isn't a question about manifestation, etc. I also don't want to be rude. But you have the flag of 🇭🇹, and since I'm from another country (Argentina 🇦🇷), I'm curious to know how things are going. I mean, I saw some news about violence, and it worries me a bit. I just wanted to know your perspective or how you're dealing with that. If it makes you uncomfortable, don't answer, it's just curiosity :)

Hii omg thanks for asking this cause no one ever mentions Haiti 😭

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 there's been a lot of civil unrest. Gang violence is really bad in the city and the goverment is very corrupt, kidnappings happen all the time but luckily it's really only bad in the major city of port-au-prince. In very rural areas things are ok :) I would love to visit Haiti again but because of the gang violence near the airport I can't. I think someday i'll be able to though, im actually manifesting that things get better for Haiti in the void :)

[outofstaples]

“Ex-US government informant gets life over Haiti president's murder” by Malu Cursino, BBC

Joseph Vincent, plead guilty to taking part of the assassination of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise. Vincent is a former US Informant for US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he helped kill President Moise in his home in July 2021.

[ausetkmt]

Haiti's top gang leader threatens politicians as fires break out in capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 14 (Reuters) - A powerful gang leader in Haiti has issued a threatening message aimed at political leaders who would participate in a planned transition council, as fires broke out amid a fresh surge of violence in the Caribbean nation's capital.

Nearby countries bolstered their border security and withdrew staff from embassies while plans to send a long-awaited international security force remain uncertain.

After unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced on Monday he would step down once the council was in place, the capital, Port-au-Prince, was initially quieter, but violence appeared to be flaring up again as of late Wednesday, with a shootout in one neighborhood and an attack on the police academy early on Thursday.

A fire broke out at the main penitentiary, emptied of prisoners by armed men earlier this month. Thick black smoke earlier billowed out from the facility, but the fire appeared to be out by Thursday afternoon, when local media showed heavily armed police entering the partially blackened site filled with mounds of trash.

Reuters could not immediately establish if any people had remained in the jail or what sparked the blaze.

A police union said the national police chief Frantz Elbe's house had also been set on fire on Thursday. It did not say whether anyone had been hurt or give details on Elbe's whereabouts.

Haiti is struggling to resolve a long-running political and humanitarian crisis. Heavily armed gangs have taken over much of the capital, and rights groups have reported widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.

Henry, who was never elected, had been appointed prime minister by President Jovenel Moise in 2021, shortly before Moise was assassinated. Henry repeatedly postponed elections.

The comments from gang alliance head Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier were recorded on Wednesday and distributed via a rambling seven-minute audio message widely shared on Thursday morning on messaging platform WhatsApp.

"Don't you have any shame?" said Cherizier, directing his remarks at politicians who he said were looking to join the council. "You have taken the country where it is today. You have no idea what will happen," he added.

"I'll know if your kids are in Haiti, if your wives are in Haiti ... if your husbands are in Haiti," he said in an apparent threat to their families. "If you're gonna run the country all your family ought to be there."

In his remarks, Cherizier said the resignation of Henry was only "a first step in the battle" for the island nation of around 11 million.

Haiti's government again extended a nightly curfew through Sunday, in an order signed by acting Prime Minister Michel Boisvert. Henry has been stranded abroad since trying to return from a trip to Kenya to secure support for a security mission.

Regional bloc CARICOM has detailed the political parties and other social sectors set to make up the nine-member transition council that will take over from Henry. Negotiations over the council were brokered by Caribbean leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but formal appointments are yet to be made.

On Wednesday, the leader of a party declined an offer of a voting member of the council, backing instead an alternate three-member transition council that would empower former coup leader Guy Philippe, who was recently imprisoned in the United States and is seeking an amnesty for gang leaders.

EMBASSY REDUCTIONS

With Haiti's political future in limbo and the timing of the long-delayed Kenyan-led security mission unclear, the already sparse international presence in Haiti has been further receding.

Canada announced a reduction to its embassy staff that will leave only essential employees in the country, and said the embassy was temporarily closed to the public. That follows similar drawdowns by the United Nations and at the U.S. embassy.

The country's main cargo port said that despite military reinforcements, it would not receive vessels until further notice, as it assesses damages to containers and infrastructure.

Major passenger cruise line Royal Caribbean Group also suspended for a week its regular visits to Labadee, its private resort in northern Haiti.

Fearing a spread of instability in the region, Britain said it was bolstering security in the Turks and Caicos Islands, an overseas territory, as did the governor of the U.S. state of Florida. The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispanolia with Haiti, closed its shared border with Haiti last year and has regularly deported Haitians.

The U.S. southeast coast guard said, "At this time, irregular migration flows through the Caribbean remain low."

Dominican media reported that aviation authorities in a press conference rejected a U.N. statement claiming that an airbridge would be set up from the country to bring humanitarian aid to Haiti, maintaining the airspace would remain closed.

Aid group Mercy Corps said Port-au-Prince residents were being reduced to "forced nomads," seeking refuge from shootings in temporary shelters with family or strangers and battling constant uncertainty, food shortages, trauma, illness and overcrowding.

Marie Love Elucien, 25, who lost her home and shop due to gangs, told Mercy Corps that she was most afraid for her young daughter: "I'm worried she's going to have a fit and become paralyzed because every time she hears the shots she jumps and screams.

"She cries incessantly and no one can touch her; she becomes hysterical and uncontrollable," she said.

More than 360,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, according to U.N. estimates.

Gina Antoine, a 43-year-old pregnant mother of three, told Mercy Corps that she was exhausted from moving between neighborhoods and could not run anymore.

"We face inhumane situations daily, walking among corpses. Gangs can attack at any moment," she said. "I have nowhere else to go. I wish everything could return to normal."

[haitilegends]

#Film - Assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise Getting Doc From ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Filmmaker Raoul Peck

Alex Gibney is among the producers of the feature, which is currently in production.

BY BORYS KIT

MARCH 18, 2024 10:36AM

"Raoul Peck, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind 2016’s I Am Not Your Negro, is in production on his latest documentary, an investigation into the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise.

Tentatively titled The Hands That Held the Knives, Peck is not only directing but producing the film under his Velvet Films banner alongside Jigsaw Productions, with Imagine Documentaries, Anonymous Content, and Double Agent, who are also financing the project.

Peck’s take is being described as a “documentary thriller, in the tradition of Graham Greene or John Le Carré.” Per Monday’s announcement, Peck is going deep into the politics of Haiti, its relationship with the United States, and the corrupt business empires and criminal organizations that have now rendered the country a hellscape for its citizens.

The film will take audiences right up to the present moment, per the producers, “as ruthless gangs backed by oligarchs with well-paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. now control 80% of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.”....

(CONTINUE READING...

[head-post]

Dominican Republic to expel 10,000 Haitians a week

The Dominican Republic announced on Wednesday that it has begun mass deportations of Haitians living in the country illegally, expelling up to 10,000 of them per week.

Government spokesman Homero Figueroa told reporters that the government made the decision after noticing a “surplus” of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Figueroa said officials noticed the increase in Haitian migrants because the police mission in Haiti to combat gang violence had been ineffective. He said authorities have also agreed to increase surveillance and control at the border, but he gave no details.

Last year, the Dominican Republic deported more than 174,000 people it believed to be Haitians, and it has expelled at least 67,000 more in the first half of this year.

Activists have long criticised the administration of President Luis Abinader for persistent violations of the human rights of Haitians and people of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic. They accuse the Dominican authorities of implementing racist immigration policies based on discrimination against Haitians.

The October 2 statement came a week after Mr. Abinader addressed the UN General Assembly, reiterating “decisive action” if the UN mission in Haiti fails.

Situation in Haiti remains tense

The security and humanitarian situation in Haiti has deteriorated since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 and a devastating earthquake. In 2023, the UN Security Council approved the launch of an international mission led by nearly 400 police officers from Kenya to help Haiti fight gang violence.

Several police officers and soldiers from other countries such as Jamaica and Belize have participated in the mission. However, staffing and financial problems have limited the effectiveness of the mission.

On March 1 this year, an agreement was signed to send a Kenyan peacekeeping contingent to the country as part of a multinational mission to support the republic’s security forces, which began arriving in the country at the end of June. However, the security situation in Haiti continues to be difficult, with criminal gangs now controlling up to 80 per cent of the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Violence has left nearly 700,000 Haitians homeless in recent years, and thousands more have had to flee the country. It is estimated that there are more than 500,000 migrants from Haiti in the Dominican Republic, most of them undocumented.

Read more HERE

[gossibox]

Former Colombian military man Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios is the fifth of the defendants in Miami to plead guilty in the case of conspiracy to assassinate the president of Haiti Jovenel Moise, in 2021 ...Read more at GossiBOX.

[blogynewsz]

Unveiled: Haiti's Breakthrough in Capturing Key Suspect Behind President Jovenel Moise's Assassination Sends Shockwaves

Title: Former Haitian Officer Charged with Soliciting Colombian Hitmen to Assassinate President Jovenel Moise Introduction: In a grave development shocking the nation, former Haitian National Police officer, Joseph Felix Badio, is facing charges for allegedly orchestrating a sinister plot to hire Colombian hitmen with the intent to assassinate the late President Jovenel Moise. This chilling…

[wamuzimedia]

What's happening in Haiti, why are 1,000 Kenyan cops going there.

Haiti has been experiencing unrest for over two years now since the assassination of its President Jovenel Moise. Moise was on July 7, 2021, shot dead inside his home in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.According to the police, Moise was shot 12 times. BBC reported that the President had wounds on his forehead, and several on other parts of the body. The Caribbean country has since…

[businesspr]

Ex-Colombian Soldier Is Set to Plead Guilty in Killing of President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti

A former Colombian Army captain who is accused of playing a leading role in the 2021 killing will change his plea to guilty, a sign that he may testify against his co-defendants. source https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/world/americas/haiti-jovenel-moise-assassination-guilty-plea.html

[usnewsper-business]

Haitian president survives assassination attempt by Colombian mercenaries #assassination #colombian #haiti #mercenaries #moise #president

[beardedmrbean]

The toll comes as gang violence in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince this week left 30 residents dead and more than a dozen injured.

"Between January 1 and August 15 of this year, at least 2,439 people have been killed and a further 902 injured," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

In addition, she said, "951 people have been kidnapped" during the same period.

Read moreUN renews calls for Haiti intervention force, says conditions 'beyond appalling'

And as anger grows over the gang violence, she warned that a rise in popular justice movements and self-defence groups was spurring further violence.

"Since April 24 up to mid-August, more than 350 people have been lynched by local people and vigilante groups," she said, adding that of those, 310 were alleged gang members and one was a police officer.

The remainder were members of the public.

Houses in Port-au-Prince's Carrefour-Feuilles neighbourhood were set on fire in the attacks and two police officers also died, according to a provisional toll provided to AFP by the National Human Rights Defense Network.

The neighbourhood is a strategic area for the gangs, which control about 80 percent of Haiti's capital.

Violent crimes including kidnappings for ransom, carjackings, rapes and armed thefts are common. 

In recent days violence in the neighbourhood has caused some 5,000 residents to flee, authorities said.

"Reports from Haiti this week have underscored the extreme brutality of the violence being inflicted on the population and the impact that it is having on their human rights," Shamdasani said.

She said that her boss, UN rights chief Volker Turk, was calling for urgent action to be taken on an appeal for a non-UN multinational force to be sent in "to support the Haitian police in addressing the grave security situation and restoring the rule of law".

"The human rights of the Haitian people must be protected and their suffering alleviated," he said.

Haiti has been mired for years in intertwining economic, security and political crises. 

The assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 has dramatically worsened the situation, with gangs taking an increasingly strong hold.

[usnewsper-politics]

Haitian president survives assassination attempt by Colombian mercenaries #assassination #colombian #haiti #mercenaries #moise #president

[teravarna]

President, Jovenel Moise | Photoshop by Jean-René Rinvil, United States

This is a tribute to Haiti's president, Jovenel Moise who was assassinated on July 7th, 2021 at his private home. His top body is made of the Haitian people.

[Visit our website www.teravarna.com or email us at info@teravarna.com]