The United Nations Security Council plans to hold an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss Haiti in the wake of President Jovenel Moise’s assassination by mercenaries posing as DEA agents, the New York Times is reporting.
In a statement, members unanimously called for “all parties to remain calm, exercise restraint” and avoid “any act that could contribute to further instability.”
Ariel Henry, the newly-named prime minister who had yet to be installed, also insisted he is the rightful person to lead the country in the aftermath of Moise’s killing — not the interim Prime Minister, Claude Joseph. The country currently has no functioning Parliament, and it is uncertain when or even whether elections slated for the fall will take place.
The latest developments came on Day 2, which also brought more details about the grisly murder and an announcment of four suspected assailants being being fatally shot during the police investigation.
With rumors rife, some details of the attack started to come into focus.
Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, Bocchit Edmond, said at a news conference that the killing of the country’s president had been carried out “by well-trained professionals, killers, commandos.”
Carl Henry Destin, a Haitian judge, told the Nouvelliste newspaper that the assailants had posed as agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — both U.S. and Haitian officials said that they were not associated with the D.E.A. — when they burst into the president’s private home on the outskirts of the capital around 1 a.m.
He said that a maid and another member of the household staff had been tied up by the attackers as they made their way to the president’s bedroom.
The president was shot at least 12 times, he said.
“The offices and the president’s bedroom were ransacked,” Mr. Destin said. “We found him lying on his back, blue pants, white shirt stained with blood, mouth open, left eye blown out.”
He said Mr. Moise appeared to have been shot with both large-caliber guns and smaller 9-millimeter weapons.
The president’s wife, Martine Moïse, was injured in the assault and was rushed by air ambulance to the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, where Mr. Joseph said she was “out of danger” and in stable condition. Continue reading