Last week, President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti was assassinated. Following the assassination, Haiti’s police force has killed four people it suspects in the president’s killing and arrested more than a dozen, including two who Haitian officials say are Haitian-American. But the reasons why this attack was carried out are still relatively unknown.
In March of this year, polling showed that around 57 percent of people in Haiti disapproved of Moïse’s party, according to the Miami Herald. Moïse had drawn condemnation from global leaders for not holding Parliamentary elections at their scheduled time more than a year ago.
But despite the instability that characterized much of Moïse’s time in office, what comes next could be much worse for Haiti’s citizens. The country is currently under a form of political control similar to martial law. In the days since the assassination, two different leaders have claimed that they are now serving as Haiti’s prime minister. The current interim government has requested assistance from the US military, but thus far President Biden has resisted, choosing only to send a small team to assess the situation.
These current conditions are being closely watched by world leaders, including the Biden administration and the United Nations. But previous intervention by the U.S. and other global powers in Haiti has had disastrous consequences.
For more on all this, The Takeaway spoke to Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder and editor-in-chief of the Haitian Times, andFrançois Pierre-Louis, professor of political science at Queens College at the City University of New York, who specializes in Haitian politics.
Plus, The Takeaway hears from Haitians living in the U.S. on their feelings about what's happening in their homeland: Ricot Dupuy, co-founder of Brooklyn's Radio Soleil Haitian radio station; Marleine Bastien, executive director of the Family Action Network Movement (FANM); and Paul Christian Namphy, lead organizer at FANM.
