Haiti’s murdered president rests in peace due to tensions Reuters

Authors: Dave Graham (New York Stock Exchange:) and Andre Poulter

Cap-Haiti, Haiti (Reuters)-At the beginning of his funeral on Friday, the pal caretaker in military uniform carried the body of the late Haitian President Giovinel Mois into a closed wooden coffin. He was assassinated at home two weeks ago, still shrouded in mystery.

The bearer placed the polished coffin on the podium decorated with flowers in the auditorium. When the Roman Catholic priest blessed the coffin, the four stood guard and the Haitian flag was unfolded.

Foreign dignitaries, including US President Joe Biden’s chief adviser to the western hemisphere, flew to Cap Haiti to pay tribute to Moise and joined the mourners who participated in a series of commemorations in Haiti this week.

Before dawn on July 7, Moise was shot to death at his home in Port-au-Prince, setting off a new political crisis in this Caribbean country that has been struggling with poverty, lawlessness and instability.

As workers were preparing for the funeral on Thursday, protests by Moise’s angry supporters shook the northern city of Cap Haiti, the home of the killed leader, for the second day in a row.

Protesters set fire to tires to block the road, while workers laid brick roads to Moiz’s Mausoleum on a few acres of dusty land surrounded by high walls.

This partially constructed tomb sits on land owned by the Mois family, where he lived when he was a child, in the shade of fruit trees, only a few steps from the tomb of Mois’s father who died last year Far away. The police entered the compound through a gate.

The assassinations remind people that although the Western Hemisphere became the first independent country in Latin America and the Caribbean at the beginning of the 19th century, the influence of foreign actors on the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere continues.

The attack was carried out by a group including 26 former Colombian soldiers, at least six of whom had previously received U.S. military training. Haitian Americans are also among the defendants.

The authorities said that the planners of the attack disguised the mercenaries as agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. This trick helped them enter Moise’s home, and his security personnel did not resist. At least one of the arrested men is a Haitian American who previously served as an informant for DEA.

The unrest has pushed Haiti higher on Biden’s foreign policy priorities, and the country’s special envoy was appointed on Thursday. Biden rejected the request of the interim leader of Haiti to send troops to protect the infrastructure.

The screen in the auditorium shows images of Moise and his meeting with world leaders including Pope Francis, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Helen La Lime, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti, was one of the guests.

As a former banana exporter, Moise failed to quell the surge of gang violence under his supervision, and he faced a wave of street protests triggered by corruption allegations and his economic management.

However, the demonstrators in Cap-Haitien vented their anger on many questions about the assassination, including who planned it and why.

Banners celebrating Moise hung buildings in the narrow streets of the old town of Cap-Haïtien, and declared in Creole: “They killed the corpse, but the dream will never die” and “Jovenel Moise-the defender of the poor” “.