Haiti's president assassinated in the midst of rising national insecurity

Haiti's President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in an attack tonight at his private residence in the Perelin neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince by gunmen. The attack also wounded the first lady, Martine Moise, according to a statement issued by the interim prime minister, Calude Joseph. 

The prime minister condemned this "odious, inhuman and barbaric" act and called on the population to "remain calm". "The security situation in the country is under the control of the national police and the armed forces," said the interim prime minister, who is confident that "democracy and the Republic will overcome" this escalation of tensions.

The attack took place at around 1 a.m. local time when a "group of unidentified foreigners", including "several who spoke Spanish", stormed the house, according to a statement reported by local media such as Juno7 and Gazette Haiti. 

The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has announced the closure of its border with Haiti following the assassination of Jovenel Moise and summoned the army. In a statement, the embassy in Santo Domingo confirmed the information and pointed out that the interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, is now the "competent authority" in the country. It stressed that the country "is under the control of legitimate authorities".

This week, Haiti's former president, Jovenel Moise, appointed Ariel Henry as the new prime minister, a former interior minister who, according to Europa Press, was charged, among other tasks, with "solving the flagrant problem of insecurity and supporting the Electoral Council in carrying out the general elections and the referendum". However, Moise's assassination pushes Haiti's serious security crisis to the limit, threatening to provoke a power vacuum. The assassination comes two months before the presidential and legislative elections scheduled for 26 September, elections in which Moise could not be a candidate.

Initially a referendum had been called to reform the constitution, but uncertainty led to an initial postponement to June and then to 26 September, coinciding with the first round of the legislative and presidential elections. 

The situation has worsened in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with political and security uncertainty worsening since Moise took over the government internally in April. Haiti has been going through a severe political crisis since mid-2018 and experienced its most serious moment on 7 February, when Moise denounced that the opposition, with the support of judges, was plotting a coup d'état. 

The protests and barricades, present daily in the streets of Port-au-Prince, and the growing activity of armed gangs have led to the almost total paralysis of economic activities for months and have aggravated the humanitarian aid needs of the most disadvantaged sectors. More than 150 people were killed and another 200 kidnapped between 1 and 30 June in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, a report by the Centre for Analysis and Research on Human Rights (CARDH) revealed. "The country is besieged by armed gangs that sow terror, killings, kidnappings, rapes (...) Port-au-Prince is under siege in the south, north and east.

Existential" issues have also surfaced in this crisis because, according to Ary Régis, a professor at Haiti's State University, citizens have become aware of the historical roots of their ills, including the debt of independence, the US occupation and the 30-year dictatorship of François Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude, who ruled from 1957 to 1986.

Haiti is also experiencing a deep security crisis, which has been exacerbated in particular since early June by turf battles between armed gangs vying for control of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighbourhoods. Since then, some 18,100 people have been forced from their homes by the upsurge in violence, 14,700 of them in the last month, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

The UN has also warned that the violence is complicating aid delivery and has left thousands of people with little or no assistance, even though it estimates that a total of 1.1 million people are in need of some form of relief for basic necessities or services.