On July 7, 2021 at dawn, Haiti learned with amazement that its president, Jovenel Moïse, had just been assassinated in his room by an armed commando.

A year later, investigations are stalled, sponsors and motives remain unknown and the political climate is deleterious.

That day, the assailants seem to have entered the president's residence with ease, without the elite units responsible for his protection countering them.

A few hours later, the Haitian police showed exceptional speed by arresting around twenty individuals, including 18 former Colombian soldiers.

This feat of arms has, for the time being, only been followed by very slow legal proceedings in Haiti and the United States, which dim hopes of truth.

The presidency has since been vacant, and no date is in sight for a ballot to name a successor.

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In Port-au-Prince, no less than five successive investigating judges have already been in charge of the case and none has yet formally charged the forty people imprisoned, including the Colombian citizens presumed to be members of the commando.

Sadly known for its slowness, Haitian justice is more adrift than ever in the capital: for the past month, the offices of the Port-au-Prince prosecutor's office have been occupied by one of the many gangs that control entire swaths of the territory. and multiply the heinous kidnappings in one of the poorest countries of the American continent.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry suspected

The possible involvement of the Prime Minister has further halted the investigation.

Appointed only two days before the assassination of the president, Ariel Henry is suspected of having had telephone conversations with one of the main suspects a few hours after the attack.

Invited by the prosecutor to explain himself, the head of government did not appear, describing the approach as "diversion".

He then dismissed the magistrate and appointed a new Minister of Justice.

This gray area prompted the president's widow, Martine Moïse, seriously injured during the attack, to curtly reject the invitation to the ceremonies of homage to her late husband, addressed by a "head of government (who) the object of serious presumptions of assassination on the President of the Republic".

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This murder only aggravated the already deep Haitian political crisis.

Parliament has not been functional for two years, Jovenel Moïse having not organized any elections since he came to power in 2017. And, deprived of a head of state, the country found itself with an equally failing judiciary, lack of judges appointed to the Court of Cassation.

Ariel Henry therefore effectively leads a country undermined by insecurity, finding himself unable to present an electoral calendar that would allow the administrations to function and the leaders to have legitimacy obtained through the ballot box.

Lacking confidence in the institutions of Port-au-Prince, many Haitians are turning their gaze to American justice, which has already charged three suspects in Miami.

“A whole section of this story will remain unknown”

The Haitian judicial police themselves established, in their investigation report, that the plot against the president had been fomented in Florida and the Colombian mercenaries recruited by a security company based in Miami.

In January, the first two suspects were charged in Florida: Mario Palacios, a Colombian national suspected of being one of five armed men who entered the room where the leader was killed, and Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian citizen. Chilean.

A third indictment was added in June, that of former Haitian senator John Joël Joseph, for complicity in murder.

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A fourth alleged member of the attack was arrested at Istanbul airport in November, but Turkish justice on Monday rejected Haiti's extradition request and ordered his release.

The hopes born of the progress of the legal proceedings in Miami were showered in April when an American judge decided to classify certain evidence and hearings under the seal of secrecy.

The action was taken because two former informants from the US drug enforcement agency DEA and a former FBI informant are among the suspects.

"We do not see with a good eye the fact that the United States gives itself this possibility of protecting certain information", notes a Haitian judicial source, wishing to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the case.

"A whole section of this story will remain unknown."

With AFP

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