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On Thursday, a gang killed two journalists while covering the Laboule 12 neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Reporters covered the confrontation between armed groups in the area for their control. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last July, the situation of insecurity and violence continues to increase in the poorest country in the region.
Journalists Wilguens Louissaint and Amady John Wesley were killed by members of the Ti Makak gang, according to local sources. In the middle of the shooting, a third colleague had managed to escape, confirmed the AFP news agency.
Wesley worked for the station ‘Radio Écoute FM’, based in Montreal, Canada, and Louissaint was a local journalist. Based on the first investigations, the murder would have been in retaliation after the informants interviewed the leader of a rival gang to Ti Makak.
“We condemn with the utmost rigor this criminal and barbaric act,” said the general director of ‘Radio Écoute FM’, Francky Attis, in a statement in which he indicated that at least Wesley was burned alive after receiving several shots.
The killings took place in the Laboule 12 neighborhood, one of the richest areas in the country and of great importance to illegal Haitian groups. There, the informants reported the conflicts to gain control of the Laboule 12 route, which is the only one that allows reaching the southern part of the nation.
After the events, the Online Media Collective asked the government authorities to guarantee the safety of journalists and the universal right to information. With the same demand, ‘Radio Écoute FM’ also announced that the medium will suspend its activities temporarily out of respect for the deceased and as a way of mourning.
Journalist collectives in Haiti fear that this crime will remain unsolved. And it is not the first time that something similar has happened. In 2018, the photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur went to make a report from which he never returned in the Martissant neighborhood, totally under the power of the gangs. They haven’t found his body yet.
In June of last year, the informant Diego Charles was murdered along with 13 other people and those responsible have not yet been located. Something similar to what happened with the murder of Jean Dominique in 2000, which remains unsolved.
Wave of violence and constant insecurity in Haiti
In the last year, levels of violence and insecurity have skyrocketed in Haiti. Gangs have taken control of many parts of the country and the environment of insecurity is prevailing. Kidnappings have become a daily occurrence, for which thousands of citizens have come out to demonstrate repeatedly. A situation to which is added an economic and supply crisis in the poorest country on the American continent.
The Center for Analysis and Research on Human Rights in Haiti revealed that illegal armed groups control almost 60% of the country. For their part, the authorities have shown themselves unable to stop this situation without a large-scale operation since March 2021. The number of kidnappings on the island also reached 950 last year.
With a judicial system that has proven inefficient and insufficient, in his last speeches, Prime Minister Ariel Henry requested help from the international community to provide the Police and the Army with resources to combat these illegal groups. However, three years ago, the Caribbean nation left the United Nations Mission for Stability.
Complaints for lack of progress in the investigation of the assassination
In the midst of national chaos, one of the greatest exponents of instability and insecurity in the country was the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse at his residence in Port-au-Prince on July 7. Since then, different hypotheses have been considered about those responsible for his death, but the assassination has not yet been resolved.
Along these lines, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDH) denounced on Thursday the lack of progress in the investigation of the murder.
“Six months after the tragic murder of Jovenel Moïse there is no further investigation. No judicial investigation”, denounced in a public report the organization.
Following the arrest of a command of foreign hitmen in charge of the murder of the former president and several other implicated, the RNDH accuses the Haitian police authorities of not carrying out an “impartial investigation”. Those responsible for the case have refused to “extend the criminal investigation to the banking institutions that housed accounts that had agreed transactions to pay the murderers of Jovenel Moïse.”
At the moment, there is still no clue about the author or intellectual authors of the murder, nor is it known what their motivations were.
On Monday, authorities detained Mario Antonio Palacios, a former Colombian military man, in Panama. The suspect of the assassination and key witness was extradited to the United States, where he awaits a trial scheduled for next January 31.
Palacios faces charges of providing support and material to kill a foreign leader and also conspiring to kidnap and assassinate a foreign leader. During an interrogation, the suspect explained that he was hired for a kidnapping designed to “capture” Moïse at the Port-au-Prince airport. However, on July 6 they informed him of a new order: assassinate the president.
In Haiti, the assassination of the president had a devastating effect and worsened the situation of insecurity and uncertainty. After the episode, many citizens felt helpless by public institutions, which already enjoyed very little trust among the population.
With EFE, AP and local media
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