Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Following the news of Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s assassination in the early hours of July 7, a state of collective shock took over the country.
The streets of Port-au-Prince – normally buzzing with vendors, taxi traffic, and more than a month of fierce fighting between armed gangs that displaced thousands across the capital – fell silent.
The deadly attack – which also injured Martine Moise, the late president’s wife – has exacerbated instability in a country that was already grappling with deep political divisions, several defunct state institutions, and a level of violence that has produced more than a dozen massacres since 2018.
The presidency of Moise, who took office in 2017 after winning about 590,000 votes in the nation of 11 million, was quickly marked by stiff opposition following corruption allegations that he denied.
Moise had been governing by decree since January 2020 after parliamentary terms were left to expire, and faced mass protests demanding his resignation as opposition leaders, rights advocates and legal experts said his term expired in February.
