Daniel Lozano
Updated Tuesday, February 20, 2024-19:22
Dramatic turn around the main assassination of this century in the Americas. The judge investigating the assassination of Haitian President
Jovenel Moïse
has accused his widow,
Martine Moïse
, of
complicity and criminal association
in the case that continues to clarify what happened in July 2021, when
a command of Colombian mercenaries
attacked the president's residence. , he tortured him and
shot him 12 times
.
Martine was seriously injured during the attack, and she even revealed how the murderers left her for dead when she was covered in blood. "Her statements are so
riddled with contradictions
that they discredit her and leave much to be desired," said Judge Walther Voltaire. Already at the end of last year another judge had ordered the widow's arrest.
As soon as the assassination happened, Martine found a cure and
refuge in the United States
. Since then she has kept a low profile, always protected from the threats that loomed over her. Such a macabre accusation of hers once again places her at the epicenter of the national disorder.
"(When justice is demanded) the hearts of all murderers jump, especially those in power," Martine defended himself in his first statements.
Along with the president's widow, two of his trusted men
have been accused
, especially
Claude Joseph
,
prime minister at that time
and main political enemy of the current president, Ariel Henry, who flatly refuses to call elections, despite that the country no longer has any directly elected ruler.
Joseph faces the same charges as the widow of his former political boss. Among the fifty accused,
Leon Charles
, the
former Chief of Police
, today ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), also stands out. The latter is directly incriminated for murder and conspiracy.
The former prime minister, who has stirred up anti-government protests in recent months, contested power in 2021 against Henry at the head of the sector closest to Jovenel Moïse. Henry, Minister of the Interior at the time, had an advantage before the international community because the assassinated president had chosen him as prime minister hours before his assassination.
"Henry is trying to turn the justice system into an instrument of repression, reversing the accusation and applying it to those who were close to Jovenel," Claude Joseph defended himself.
"Without entering into a debate about the suitability of the judge and the certainty of his accusations, the issue is that the institutional fragility is so severe that even if the versions presented are true,
Haiti is not able to conduct a reliable process
. This circumstance goes to press for greater regional intervention, at a time of intense migration crisis of which Haitians are an important part," María Puerta Riera, a professor of American government in Florida, questioned for EL MUNDO.
In the
other trial
taking place in the
US,
there are already
several people sentenced to life imprisonment
, not included in the parallel trial in Haiti. The main defendant is the
Haitian-American
evangelical pastor
Christian Emmanuel Sanon
, considered the
intellectual author of the assassination
and the coup d'état that followed the crime. Driven by his political aspirations, he launched the conspiracy by hiring the Colombians. Former advisor Joseph Félix Badio collaborated closely with Sanon, according to the ruling.
Opposition Senator
John Joel Joseph
, also
sentenced to life
, was extradited from Haiti to stand trial in Florida. He is accused of materially supporting the conspirators in a plan "that got out of control."
The other convicts are the head of the Colombian mercenaries, the retired military man Germán Alejandro Rivera, and the Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jara. The same fate has befallen former DEA (US Drug Enforcement Agency) informant Joseph Vincent, who pretended to be a Washington official to gain support for the plot.
Moïse's assassination increased anarchy in the neighborhoods of the Caribbean country, taken by force by the savage gangs of local gangsters, who on Monday alone claimed ten lives in the assault on a minibus belonging to the "400 Mwozo" gang.
The
wars between gangs
have triggered the
humanitarian crisis
, which adds one catastrophe after another: after
the great earthquake of 2010
, which claimed 300,000 lives and a good part of the capital, more hunger, extreme poverty, cholera, the crisis financial and drought. The perfect earthquake.
The glorious independence of Haiti, the second on the continent to launch the first black republic, was just a mirage: Dessalines decided to become emperor to imitate Napoleon. Over the decades, even worse ones came, such as the saga of the Duvaliers, Papa Doc and Baby Doc.
The curse has haunted the Caribbean country ever since, turning it
into the failed state it is today
, "one of the most complex emergencies facing the Western Hemisphere," as summarized by the International Crisis Group.