Panton: Assassination of Haiti’s president ‘shocking’
(CNS): The assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse during an armed attack at his home Wednesday morning is “shocking”, Premier Wayne Panton said in a statement expressing dismay at the news. Moïse was shot dead at the presidential residence in Port-au-Prince during the early morning hours and his wife was badly wounded by unidentified gunmen who have been described as professional mercenaries.
“It is with sadness that we learned this morning of the assassination of Mr Moïse and we continue to pray for the healing and recovery his wife, First Lady Martine Moïse, who was injured in the shooting,” Panton said. “The entire incident is not only tragic, but it is extremely shocking. There is no room for violence in any democracy.”
Haiti is chronically unstable, politically and economically, and faces widespread gang violence, kidnappings and food shortages. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph is currently in charge of the country and has declared a “state of siege”, but although he claims that the security situation is under control, the Dominican Republic has closed its border with Haiti.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti who have suffered so much already,” Panton said.
Leaders around the world have expressed their shock at the killing of President Moïse (53). US President Joe Biden said in a statement that he condemned “this heinous act” and that the United States stands “ready to assist as we continue to work for a safe and secure Haiti”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “shocked and saddened” by the assassination. “Our condolences are with his family and the people of Haiti. This is an abhorrent act and I call for calm at this time.”
CARICOM has requested all members to fly flags at half-mast for three days, beginning
today, and again on the day of Moïse’s funeral.
Moïse had been in power since February 2017 and his five-year term as president would have ended in 2022. However, his political opponents claim that his term in office should have ended on 7 February this year, five years after his predecessor, Michel Martelly, stepped down.
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Category: Caribbean, World News
Haiti is a basket case, always was, always will be. Blame themselves.
A regime that diverted millions of aid money into their own pockets and a President that failed to call elections. A description of Haiti in 2021 that could be used just about any time since the 1970s.
….slightly less shocking than the incompetence of the pact government
Do not know why Premier Panton is SHOCKED. Maybe he needs to get it more.. read a few years of the Political Agenda in Haiti.
Haiti’s history of violence and turmoil
Reuters
4 minute read
Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise and first lady Martine attend a ceremony at a memorial for the tenth anniversary of the January 12, 2010 earthquake, in Titanyen, Haiti, January 12, 2020. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares
PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 7 (Reuters) – Haiti became Latin America and the Caribbean’s first independent state of the colonial era and the first Black-led republic when it threw off French rule in the 19th century.
But it has suffered cycles of violence, invasion and repression for most of its subsequent history, including the dynastic Duvalier dictatorship.
President Jovenel Moise was shot dead by unidentified attackers overnight, stirring fears of another bout of turmoil.
Here are some key events in Haiti’s political history.
1492 – Spain colonises the island of Hispaniola after the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Two hundred years later Spain cedes the western half to France. Plantations worked by slaves of African origin produce sugar, rum and coffee that enrich France.
1801 – Former slave Toussaint Louverture leads a successful revolt and abolishes slavery.
1804 – Haiti becomes independent under former slave Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who is assassinated in 1806.
1915 – United States invades Haiti, withdrawing in 1943 but keeping financial control and political influence.
1937 – In the worst incident of long-standing rivalry with neighbouring Dominican Republic, thousands of Haitians in border area are massacred by Dominican troops on the orders of dictator Trujillo.
1957 – Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier takes power with military backing, ushering in a period which sees widespread human rights abuses.
1964 – Duvalier declares himself president-for-life. His dictatorship is marked by repression, enforced by the feared Tonton Macoutes secret police.
1971 – Duvalier dies and is succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude, or “Baby Doc”. Repression increases. In the following decades, thousands of Haitian “boat people” flee by sea to Florida, many dying on the way.
1986 – Popular revolt forces Baby Doc to flee Haiti to exile in France. Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy takes over.
1988 – General Prosper Avril takes over from Namphy in a coup.
1990 – Avril declares a state of siege amid protests but resigns ahead of elections under international pressure.
1990 – Former parish priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a leftist champion of the poor, wins Haiti’s first free election. He is ousted in a coup in 1991.
1994 – U.S. troops intervene to oust military regime and Aristide returns. U.N. peacekeepers deploy in 1995 and Aristide protege Rene Preval is elected president.
1999 – Aristide is elected president for a second term despite disputed results.
2004 – Political unrest forces Aristide to flee but the country descends into violence.
2006 – Preval wins election.
Thank you
All up in arms when trump called the country a SHIT HOLE.
Where Haiti is concerned, what our Government should really be concerned of is the possibility of Haitian boat people refugees coming our way as their society continues to collapse. TCI has been a favourite destination of Haitian refugees for years (obviously, being so close) but don’t rule out what desperation will cause people to do.
Also, It would not be a stretch to imagine Haitian refugees being smuggled via Jamaican overnight canoes into Cayman.
PACT, keep an eye on these kinds of effects of regional issues!!
8 51????
Not a chance of Haitians leaving. They have posted Chinese troops on their coasts. Any questions and trouble makers are shot dead. Haiti and China could care less about political correctness. Grow up. Haiti is a rich country now with oil reserves found off their shores. This is about power and money. Just watch. You connect the dots.
Meanwhile Caymanians being targetted in their own home by the very same folks we welcome to our shores.
Say it aint so? Look alive can you buy ANY of these new developments? Did you notife the 2 for 5 turn to 2 for 8? How about the fact that school fees for all ages have went up?
Prices rise and quality drops, atleast for us good ol’ Caymanians.
God left Haiti many years ago.
Forgot about it too!
Glad Wayne has time to comment on this and resilience. Shame he doesn’t have time to talk about the biggest single issue affecting us at the moment.
The Dump?
What does this illustrate ?
We haven’t heard anything about the escalation in crime in Grand Cayman. We need to know what the government plans are here to curb crime, before something like this happens here. Please, we need to stay safe also.
These things happen when the left is back in power globally.
get the chip off your shoulder
what, Usurping dictators getting shot?
OK…
Haiti was punished by America and France for abolishIng slavery. They were then forced to pay what in today’s terms was billions of dollars in reparations basically leaving the country bankrupt forever. Read the history, it’s all there. Perpetual poverty naturally followed leading to crime and corruption. Never had a chance. Sad.
The fact that 11 people dislike this post shows how people choose to ignore factual history when it doesn’t align with their beliefs. Ignorance knows no bounds.
‘Haiti was punished by America and France for abolishIng slavery’ is not a fact it is an opinion with no substance other than to create division.
They’ve had many decades to pick themselves up, but chose not too. The priority after the earthquake was to build a luxurious palace for the president despite the horrible things the general population was enduring. The country’s well known rapper was outed for using donated earthquake relief funds to fund his record label. It’s a culture of corruption and it will never change. The top keep stealing while everyone else suffers. Go ahead and keep blaming the white man if that makes you feel good.
It was GWB that destroyed it with the fuel embargo.
Not surprising coming from a country controlled by the Clintons.
Not surprising also that our premier is distracted by something that is none of his business rather than deal with the rising crime in his own country.
His office issued an appropriate statement, dimwit.
How about his office issuing an appropriate statement about the recent shootings and stabbing, then even us dimwit citizens would understand that.
Even if that was an attempt at being funny it was lame.
And Biden’s brother who got a US government contract to build homes there after the earthquake. Funny, the homes never got built.
Got a source for that?
I’d like to know more
Two books by Peter Schweitzer. Profiles in Corruption and Clinton Cash. Documents corruption of various families including Clintons, Biden, Harris, Pelosi etc. Fascinating chapter on Digicel’s involvement in Haiti as well.
Of course when you write a book critical of one party you are automatically deemed a hack. But he has written scathing articles on Democrats and Republicans. And backs up writings with reference to public documents.
5:32 – What a stupid comment…