A year later, Haiti is still in the dark. The assassination of President Jovenel Moise, the only assassination in Latin America so far this century, has further cracked a country considered a failed state, also a victim of one of the great failures of the international community, only one rung down. below Afghanistan.
The accumulation of adversities grows day by day, like the one suffered by a hundred of its citizens who got on a raft to sail to the United States, the promised land where there is already a strong Haitian community. Instead, the tides dragged them to Cuba, from where they preferred to return, despite the offers of the Castro authorities.
A metaphor for misfortune, like the one suffered by Moise’s family and followers in their demands for justice. Until today there are five judges who have not advanced beyond what was achieved in the first days with the arrest of the Colombian mercenaries.
The last instructor of the cause, paradoxes of destiny, is called Voltaire, but has nothing to do with the French philosopher, according to his previous performances. The Police have communicated in the last hours the dismissal of more than 30 agents when from the first day it is known that the murderous commando entered the presidential residence without major obstacles. Moise had repeatedly denounced in recent weeks the plans to overthrow him, even assassinate him.
At the moment, the greatest hope for the family is the process that is being carried out in Miami against former senator Joel Joseph, extradited by Jamaica at the beginning of the year. Part of the same investigation are the other two defendants, the Colombian soldier Mario Palacios and the businessman Rodolphe Jaar. Turkey, on the other hand, has released this week another of the suspects, the Jordanian businessman Samir Handal, who rented the house to one of the organizers of the assassination.
“The former first lady has no intention, under any circumstances, of attending the commemorative activities in charge of the Haitian State, whose head of government is the subject of serious presumptions of assassination of the president,” Martine Moise’s communication office has made public. , Jovenel’s widow, who over the body of her husband, shot and tortured by two of the assailants, swore to him that she would continue her fight. Previously, the president had his wrists and ankles broken and his eyes gouged out: this was not about revenge, they were looking for information, the famous list of powerful men united to conspire against him and his dirty business, from drug trafficking to organized crime around the criminal gangs that murder, kidnap and extort money in the country that shares an island with the Dominican Republic.
Lying on the ground in a pool of blood, one of the gunmen put his military boot on her chest, shined a flashlight on her and told his partner, in Spanish, that she was dead. A year later, Ella Martine has not fully recovered the mobility of her injured arm, but that has not prevented her from becoming the political key of the Caribbean country, as the direct heir to Moise’s legacy.
Ariel Henry, de facto prime minister, has sine die delayed presidential elections that the international community and the country itself have been demanding since last year. In the internal polls that were handled, Martine was sweeping. The Moise circle, including former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, demands the creation of an international investigation commission and the setting up of a special court to alleviate the weaknesses of the Haitian judicial system. “This justice is a parody,” Joverlein Moise, eldest son of the assassinated president, has claimed from his exile in Canada. The widow plans to fly to Port-au-Prince in the next few hours from her refuge in the United States.
Without justice, without elections and devastated by the criminal war and by nature itself, which on so many occasions has shown its cruelty against the first country to declare its independence in Latin America. Violent gangs killed almost 900 people last year, including 53 policemen, and kidnapped another thousand, including 81 foreigners. This Wednesday eight people have died and five have been seriously injured in the south of Port-au-Prince, victims of a clash between gangs.
Last year’s earthquake deepened Haiti’s unending tragedy. 2,200 people died and 13,000 were injured, in a new wound after the great earthquake of 2010, which claimed the lives of more than 220,000 Haitians. Almost a hundred hospitals, roads, bridges, more than 130,000 homes and more than a thousand schools were damaged. Again.
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