Haitian President Jovnell Moss, 53, was shot dead by gunmen on Wednesday as he stormed his home in the vicinity of Port-au-Prince Belor, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph confirmed.
Joseph said Martin Moss, the first woman to receive medical treatment, was shot dead in the attack, which occurred at 1:00 a.m. (local time in Haiti).
Describing the president’s death as “a heinous, inhuman and barbaric act”, the caretaker Prime Minister confirmed that “the security of the country is under control” and that “all measures have been taken to ensure and protect the continuity of the state.” Nation “.
Joseph declared a state of siege and asked the people to remain silent.
The streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital of the poorest country on the American continent, were virtually empty, although some looting took place.
“Democracy and the Republic will win,” Joseph said.
The assassination comes two months before the next September 26 call for presidential and assembly elections, in which Moss could not be a candidate.
The president has been in power since 2017, and the country has not held elections in 2018 for more than two years, with opposition parties demanding his resignation in recent months.
Moss called for a referendum on the same day as the elections to approve a new constitution, which did not have the support of the opposition or the international community.
Dominican Republican leader Louis Abinader has condemned the attack, announcing the closure of the Haitian border and holding an emergency meeting with the country’s top command, according to various media reports.
France has condemned the “cowardly murder” of Moss, who has joined forces with Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia and Cuba.
The White House said it was a “horrible” and “tragic” act, and that President Joe Biden would be notified throughout the day, his spokeswoman Jen Socky told the MSNBC channel.
[Captan a migrantes haitianos y dominicanos llegando a una playa en Puerto Rico]
Haiti has been experiencing a strong political crisis since mid-2018, having experienced its worst moment on February 7, when Moss denounced plotting with the support of opposition judges.
At the same time, Haiti faces a deeper security crisis, particularly exacerbated by regional struggles between armed groups competing to control the poorer areas in Port-au-Prince since early June.
Haiti’s economic, political and social problems have recently been exacerbated by gang violence, inflation and food and fuel shortages in the capital. The country where 60% of the population earns less than two dollars a day. These problems have come as the country struggles to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
Moss was born on June 26, 1968, in Drew to the Northeast, Haiti. The son of a mechanic and farmer and tailor, he moved with his family to the country’s capital in 1974, where he attended high school. Hosted by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, at the Cultural Center of the Twentieth and Canadian Hottian Schools.
He studied academic science at the University of Quiscua, and in 1996 he moved to Port-de-Bikes, the capital of the Nordoste department, where he founded a company called Jomar Auto Parts, which soon dedicated a 10-hectare farm to banana cultivation.
After undertaking various business projects, on September 15, 2015, the ruling Haitian party Ted Kale (PhDK) launched its candidacy for the presidential election that year.
In the first round of the October 2015 presidential election, Moss was the highest-voting candidate with 32.76% of the vote, and with Jude Celestine in the second round of December, from the Alternative League of Progress and Liberation of Haiti (LAPEH), 25.29%. But there were complaints of massive fraud in his favor, which forced the adjournment of the election to reconsider the results.
After the results went invalid, he won the presidential election with 55.60% of the vote in the first round in November 2016, and ousted interim Joslerm Priward as head of state.
Moss has been married to former classmate Mary Martin Etienne Joseph since 1996.
EFE and Andhra.