#Haitian President Jovenel Moïse assassinated in his home

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home Wednesday by a group of assailants who also left his wife wounded, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph announced.

“The president was assassinated at his home by foreigners who spoke English and Spanish,” Joseph said in a statement.

The gunmen claimed to be agents with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Miami Herald reported.

But sources told the paper that the assailants, one of whom spoke in English with an American accent, were not with the American agency.

“These were mercenaries,” a high-ranking Haitian government official told the Herald.

Moïse, 53, was killed about 1 a.m. local time and First Lady Martine Moïse has been hospitalized after the shooting at their Port-au-Prince residence, Joseph said, adding that he is in charge of the Caribbean country.

Joseph condemned what he called the “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act” by the assailants, adding that the national police and other authorities have the situation under control.

Videos taken by people in the area of the president’s home in the neighborhood of Pelerin 5, above the hills in the capital, suggested that the assailants claimed to be DEA agents, the Herald reported.

“DEA operation! Everybody stand down! DEA operation! Everybody back up, stand down!” someone with an American accent is heard saying in English over a speaker, the news outlet reported.

Residents reported hearing high-powered rounds being fired and seeing black-clad men running through the neighborhoods, according to the Herald, which also cited reports of an exploding grenade and drones buzzing overhead.

The brazen attack happened a day after Moïse named a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, to prepare the nation for elections in the next two months for president, a new parliament and local government officials.

The killing comes amid deepening political and economic stability and a spike in gang violence in the poorest country in the Americas.

Moïse, who entered office in 2017, had been ruling by decree since January 2020 after legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed in the wake of disputes, including on when his own term ends, according to Agence France-Presse.

Opposition leaders have accused Moïse of seeking to increase his power, including approving a decree that limited the powers of a court that audits government contracts and another that created an intelligence agency controlled by the president.

Opposition leaders have demanded that he step down, arguing that his term legally ended in February.

Moïse and supporters maintained that his term began when he took office in early 2017, following a chaotic election that forced the appointment of a provisional leader to serve during a year-long gap.

He faced steep opposition from large segments of the population that deemed his mandate illegitimate — and he churned through seven prime ministers in four years.

Joseph was supposed to be replaced this week after only three months in the post.

In addition to presidential, legislative and local elections, Haiti was due to have a constitutional referendum in September after it was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supported by Moïse, the text of the constitutional reform has been overwhelmingly rejected by the opposition and many civil society groups.

The current constitution, which was written in 1987 after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, declares that “any popular consultation aimed at modifying the Constitution by referendum is formally prohibited.”

The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under the late president’s rule.

Its economic, political and social woes have deepened, with gang violence spiking heavily in Port-au-Prince, inflation spiraling and food and fuel becoming scarcer at times in a country where 60 percent of the population makes less than $2 a day.

These troubles come as Haiti still tries to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew that swept through in 2016.

In addition to the political crisis, kidnappings for ransom have spiked in recent months, further reflecting the growing influence of armed gangs in the country, which also faces chronic poverty and recurrent natural disasters.

With Post wires