Former Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph strongly believes that his successor in office, Ariel Henry, is hindering the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021, because he is “one of the main suspects.”
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Joseph spoke of Moïse’s assassination in an interview with EFE in Madrid, the first stop on a tour that will also take him through France and Canada, where he will expose the “extremely difficult situation” in his country and the intentions of his new party Committed to Development ( Committed to Development) to help in the Haitian crisis.
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Jovenel Moïse, president of Haiti from 2017 to 2021, was shot dead at his home by a command of 28 alleged foreign mercenaries, mostly Colombians, in an attack that also injured his wife, Martine Moïse, who survived the attack.
More than 40 people are detained for the assassination, while the investigation into the case is at a standstill more than a year after the crime.
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The alleged mastermind behind the murder is, according to local authorities, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a doctor who lived in Florida (USA) until his arrest four days after Moïse’s murder.
“With the current prime minister there is no investigation, he undermines it because he is one of the main suspects, he is doing everything he can to avoid it,” said Joseph, who was the country’s foreign minister and later prime minister with President Moise.
Joseph qualifies that after the assassination, when he assumed the presidency on an interim basis, it was when an investigation was carried out in which “it became known how many people participated in the conspiracy and the arrests” of several of the attackers.
“Since then, since he (Henry) took power until now, nothing has moved, because it is the biggest obstacle to the investigation,” he says.
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Killed for fighting ‘against a corrupt system’
Joseph explains his theory of the assassination and points out that the president was “fighting against a corrupt system” made up of “oligarchs who take millions every month for services they do not give.”
“There are oligarchs in different sectors, in finance, in electricity, energy, gas… all sectors are under their control, the president had decided to fight to cut some of those contracts and they decided to kill him,” ensures.
With the current prime minister there is no investigation, he undermines it because he is one of the main suspects, he is doing everything he can to avoid it.
Within that group of people, which he describes as “a tiny part of the country of less than 10% of the population that owns 85% of the wealth”, Joseph denounces that there are also “corrupt politicians”.
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The former Haitian prime minister affirms that Moïse knew they could kill him – “he said it over and over again” – and explains that he too felt fear after the assassination: “I thought he was going to be next”.
Now, a year after the attack, Joseph plans to continue the legacy of the murdered leader and “change the country” to “improve the lives of the majority.”
Complicated relations with the Dominican Republic
Immersed for years in a sociopolitical and economic crisis, the poorest country in Latin America saw its situation worsen even more after the assassination of Moïse.
Added to this is the battle waged by armed gangs in Port-au-Prince, the capital, and its surroundings, which has already caused the death of at least 300 people and the flight of some 3,000 from the capital area.
Joseph is prudent but clear when speaking of the role that the United Nations has played in his country to date: “I don’t see it, they have a mission in Haiti, but they are not doing much, that is all I can say.”
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On whether the corruption that marks the future of Haiti has reached international aid, he limits himself to saying that “the oligarchs” on the island “are very powerful” and “have ramifications throughout the world.”
Despite everything, Joseph requests international help to, among other things, “train and equip” the Haitian armed forces, which do not have the capacity to face the extreme violence suffered by the country.
EFE
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